The Quote meme

Hell, everybody's doing it, so why not me.

The rules: "Go here and look through random quotes until you find 5 that you think reflect who you are or what you believe."

A fool's brain digests philosophy into folly, science into superstition, and art into pedantry. Hence University education.
George Bernard Shaw (1856 - 1950)
Shaw was a complete cynic, and hence admirable, apart from his love of Hitler.
The secret of being boring is to say everything.
Voltaire (1694 - 1778)

I include this because I tend to say everything. Oops. Sorry. You already knew that, didn't you?

The radical of one century is the conservative of the next. The radical invents the views. When he has worn them out the conservative adopts them.
Mark Twain (1835 - 1910), Notebook, 1935

Pretty well everything Twain said or wrote is true, useful, and funny. I can't think of another human being who said so much I agree with. And he visited Australia, too!

The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it.
Terry Pratchett

Unless, of course, it's Terry Pratchett. Small Gods is, despite itself, a great work of literature. It's OK, Terry, I promise not to tell anyone...

And no matter how many times I refreshed the quote site, it didn't come up with my absolute favourite:

It is not enough to succeed. Friends must be seen to have failed.
Truman Capote

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Roger Ebert has revealed the purpose behind the peculiar creationist Q&A he posted the other day.
These two little maxims seem connected so I would like to share them both: "Death is not the greatest loss in life. The greatest loss is what dies inside us while we live." -Norman Cousins (1915-1990)

The quotation attributed to Terry Pratchett has been around for quite a while. I recall seeing it quoted by SF writer John Brunner, back in the 1960s. Not sure where, but may have been in Stand on Zanzibar.

I've always had a soft spot for Small Gods myself; along with Lords and Ladies I tend to think that it's one of the best things Pratchett's written. And Good Omens, of course.

By Iorwerth Thomas (not verified) on 19 Aug 2006 #permalink

Stand on Zanzibar was one of my favourite Brunners. But it is not entirely impossible that Terry either (i) independently invented it, or (ii) is using one of Brunner's sayings. Terry is about as widely connected to broader culture as it is possible for a writer to be and still be able to write his own stuff.

Indeed, Terry is a fount of wisdom. The irony is that he has the power of a mythmaker in his own right. He tries to refrain... but it keeps leaking through anyway. ;-) I'd love to see what he could make of Salmon of Doubt. I only read Small Gods recently, but the thing is, most of the Discworld material is pretty brilliant!

I especially like The Last Hero. In this gloriously illustrated tale, a bunch of old friends fly to the Hub by way of the Moon to stop Cohen the Barbarian from destroying the world.... The pics are gloriously detailed and often hilariously funny. (There's one of the Librarian that I'd really love to see as a poster!)

By David Harmon (not verified) on 20 Aug 2006 #permalink