Literary quotes

stickywicket
stickywicket Member Posts: 27,764
edited 1. Dec 2014, 03:59 in Community Chit-chat archive
“When sorrows come, they come not single spies. But in battalions!” Hamlet

I think that's a cracker, especially in a week when the boiler has packed in (twice), the phone is on the blink, we had to call the builder back to finish the job he'd supposedly finished a few weeks ago, my haemoglobin levels are dodgy and my grandson who lives in the Land of Sugar has had to have two fillings to his baby teeth.

I just love the use of the word 'battalions'. Shakespeare's genius is that he's always modern.

What are some of your favourite quotes and why?
If at first you don't succeed, then skydiving definitely isn't for you.
Steven Wright

Comments

  • LignumVitae
    LignumVitae Member Posts: 1,972
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
    It's not Shakespeare but I still like these

    Fear is a strange soil. Mainly it grows obedience like corn which grows in rows and makes weeding easy. But sometimes it grows the potatoes of defiance which flourish underground.

    The early bird gets the worm but the second mouse gets the cheese

    Both Terry Pratchett.

    Until I feared I would lose it, I never loved to read. One does not love breathing.

    Harper Lee (and how true is that for an arthritic?!)

    and last but not least Dr Seuss
    Why fit in when you were born to stand out?

    I wish I had known that at school, I might have cared even less about some people's narrow minds :lol:
    Hey little fighter, things will get brighter
  • LignumVitae
    LignumVitae Member Posts: 1,972
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
    One last one from Christopher Robin to my hero Winnie the Pooh...

    Always remember you are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem and smarter than you think.

    Told you it wasn't Shakespeare :D
    Hey little fighter, things will get brighter
  • stickywicket
    stickywicket Member Posts: 27,764
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
    A wide variety of literary tastes is good. :D I do like the first T Pratchett one.

    But I also like Winnie-the-Pooh :wink:
    “How lucky I am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard.”
    If at first you don't succeed, then skydiving definitely isn't for you.
    Steven Wright
  • dreamdaisy
    dreamdaisy Member Posts: 31,520
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
    This is not a light-hearted one but it gets me through the tougher times.

    The deeper sorrow carves into your being the more joy you can contain.

    (from The Prophet by Khalil Gibran)

    And from the Goons: Forward in all directions! DD
    Have you got the despatches? No, I always walk like this. Eddie Braben
  • villier
    villier Member Posts: 4,426
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
    Life is an opportunity, benefit from it.
    Life is beauty, admire it.
    Life is bliss, taste it.
    Life is a dream, realize it.
    Life is a challenge, meet it.
    Life is a duty, complete it.
    Life is a game, play it.
    Life is a promise, fulfill it.
    Life is sorrow, overcome it.
    Life is a song, sing it.
    Life is a struggle, accept it.
    Life is a tragedy, confront it.
    Life is an adventure, dare it.
    Life is luck, make it.
    Life is too precious, do not destroy it.
    Life is life, fight for it.
    Mother Teresa

    All so true xx
    Smile a while and while you smile
    smile another smile and soon there
    will be miles and miles of smiles
    just because you smiled I wish your
    day is full of Smiles
  • theresak
    theresak Member Posts: 1,998
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
    I always like one my dad used to say occasionally, though I might not be quoting it accurately, & it's Shakespeare too : ' How far the little candle throws its beam - so shines a good deed in a naughty world.'
  • rondetto
    rondetto Member Posts: 2,538
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
    Both these are from The wizard of Oz:

    A heart is not judged by how much you love; but by how much you are loved by others.

    Dorothy: How do you talk if you don't have a brain?
    Scarecrow: Well, some people without brains do an awful lot of talking don't they?
  • theresak
    theresak Member Posts: 1,998
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
    I also like this one from Gandhi - ' an eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind.'
  • mig
    mig Member Posts: 7,154
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
    One from Lincoln :Its better to keep silent and be thought of as a fool or speak and confirm it . Mig
  • Slosh
    Slosh Member Posts: 3,194
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
    Jam yesterday, jam tomorrow but never jam today

    Lewis Carroll
    He did not say you will not be storm tossed, you will not be sore distressed, you will not be work weary. He said you will not be overcome.
    Julian of Norwich
  • stickywicket
    stickywicket Member Posts: 27,764
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
    Oooh I like these. Please keep them coming. Here's another:

    ‘History is that certainty produced at the point where the imperfections of memory meet the inadequacies of documentation’ Julian Barnes
    If at first you don't succeed, then skydiving definitely isn't for you.
    Steven Wright
  • theresak
    theresak Member Posts: 1,998
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
    Man never made anything as resilient as the human spirit. ( Bernard Williams)
  • ichabod6
    ichabod6 Member Posts: 843
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
    When in doubt, brew up.
  • stickywicket
    stickywicket Member Posts: 27,764
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
    ichabod6 wrote:
    When in doubt, brew up.

    You didn't give your source, ichabod. Do I detect a certain Lancastrian wisdom there :wink:
    If at first you don't succeed, then skydiving definitely isn't for you.
    Steven Wright
  • ichabod6
    ichabod6 Member Posts: 843
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
    Hello sw,

    It's an oral quote from my Mum circa 1944.
    She was a weaver until she married and had her family,
    of which I was so lucky to be one.
    There are others.
  • theresak
    theresak Member Posts: 1,998
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
    If ever we had a catastrophe at home my gran always used to say, "Ah well, there`s worse losses at sea."
  • stickywicket
    stickywicket Member Posts: 27,764
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
    My first 'composer love' was Tchaikovsky. In a biography of him which I read aged about 13 was a quote from Heinrich Heine:

    'Where words leave off music begins.'
    If at first you don't succeed, then skydiving definitely isn't for you.
    Steven Wright
  • dreamdaisy
    dreamdaisy Member Posts: 31,520
    edited 30. Nov -1, 00:00
    One that always makes me smile is in Winnie the Pooh. Typing it from memory is a challenge but here goes: Owl is writing a card, and it says

    . . a hipy pappy bthdugh . . 'I'm just saying Happy Birthday,' said Owl, carelessly.

    It's the 'carelessly' which makes me laugh. I think Wol was dyslexic - I had a poster in my office of Winnie laboriously writing the following: My spelling is wobbly, it's good spelling but it wobbles and the letters get in the wrong place. DD


    a110.gif
    Have you got the despatches? No, I always walk like this. Eddie Braben

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