Yes,
I'm desperate, much like Richard III in Shakespeare's play of the same title. Misquoted from almost the day it was posted, often in ridicule, the actual quote is "A horse, a horse. My kingdom for a horse," says a dismounted hunchbacked villain-king Richard III in the midst of battle with the future King Henry VII. So here is this man trying valiantly to get back into the fray at any cost, even if it is his kingdom, which in reality it did cost him.I use this quote often at work, much to the puzzlement of my co-workers, who have on more than one occasion looked at me with a raised eyebrow and asked me what the heck I was talking about.
Another great quote I use to their befuddlement is, "It's always something." I couldn't find a short video on Youtube, but this is still worth watching, and of course Roseanne Roseannadanna (the late comic genius Gilda Radner) uses the "It's always something" line to perfection.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qd_syuD-N_k
Another marvelous quote is "Don't go around saying the world owes you a living. The world owes you nothing. It was here first."- Mark Twain. This was one my father sort of used, I think he paraphrased it all sorts of ways, but the message was always clear. Probably why his three children have never been unemployed in 30 years!
One of my favorite people to quote is Yogi Berra, (not to be confused with Yogi Bear, who is a great quote source,too.) Yogi said, "If you come to a fork in the road, take it." Okay, this can be funny, as in an eating utensil in the road. But I think Yogi was actually quite profound with this one. When life gives you a choice, you have to make one, or you end up stranded. Another Yogi-ism, "If you don't know where you are going, you might wind up someplace else." We all know how I have an aversion to the word, G-O-A-L. But on the great road of life, you'd better have travel plans, or you might not get where you want!Okay...Your turn...what is your favorite quote or quotes? What makes them so great to you? Be prepared, I'll probably dig up a few more to pepper in the comments, too!
85 comments:
mine !
Congratulations Mariska! Have you great plans for the GR?
Suz - I love Roseanne Roseannadanna. "It's always something" fits so many situations.
This weekend, a friend and I were at a workshop hassling each other other the chocolates scattered about when we both looked at each other and said - "Yeah ... That's the ticket!" Who said that? Wasn't it another from Saturday Night Live?
I keep two quotes on my refrigerator. One from Albert Einstein "Imagination is Everything." The other comes from Helen Keller "Life is either a daring adventure or nothing."
Yup - they're up there next to the magnet that says,
"Skinny cooks can't be trusted."
Ooh, missed it by THAT much!
Actually, that's a Maxwell Smart quote that gets used in my parents' house quite a bit. Another one: AND...loving it.
Love the quotes, Suz. I'll pop in again to see what everyone comes up with!
To quote a bandita: I'm just sayin'...
I LOVE quotes! What a fun post, Suz!
Shakespeare quotes are my favorites, and I'm always shocked when people know the quote but have no idea it is from Shakespeare. :-P My fave is from Twelfth Night: "Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatnees thrust up 'em." It always gets a laugh.
AC
whose personal favorite saying is, "People in h*ll want ice water, too. Doesn't mean they're gonna get it."
Sorry, it's late... that should be "...some have greatness thrust UPON 'em."
AC
off the catch some sleep
Hi Suz!
"Love isn't blind. It's just highly selective about what it wants to see." Graham Norton/Agony Uncle columnist for the Telegraph UK
"The Americans have fuel to fly chocolate cake across the Atlantic. They have no concept of failure." --- The words of a German officer from the WWII film "The Battle of the Bulge"
...Yeah, that's the ticket...Donna, that was Jon Lovitz doing his pathological liar skit on SNL. Hilarious!
Congrats on the GR, Mariska!
Hi Suzanne,
I love Yogi and his quotes. One of my favorites from him is "Baseball is ninety percent mental and the other half is physical." I also love Ralph Waldo Emerson's "Nobody can bring you peace but yourself."
Congrats Mariska he is really loving visiting you lately have fun with him
Great quotes Suz
I always read the quotes on my desk top calender at work and there are some excellent ones but my memory is really bad and I never remember them or who said them LOL.
One my Mum always said was "treat people how you would liked to be treated yourself" and I really try to stick by that one and another one when things are going bad "every cloud has a silver lining" and "there are always people worse off than yourself"
I have now idea who origanlly said them I am sure someone will know.
This is going to be a great blog with all the sayings.
have Fun
Helen
I have one but I don't know who it is from. My all time favorite.
If it ain't broke, don't fix it!
Great post Suz - love the quotes. I'm terrible at remembering them. I like anything that encourages people to follow their dreams and reach for the stars.
My favourite quotes giggle is the contradiction of two favourite quotes:
If at first you don't succeed, try, try and try again (some Scotsman *g*)
There is no try, only do (Master Yoda)
I also like the one by Thomas Edison in response to it taking 100 attempts to get the lightbulb right - he said something along the lines of I didn't fail 99 times, I just found 99 ways that didn't work.
I also like anything that talks about not giving up - because the only way to succeed is to keep on trying. In our game, that's key!
I only have one quote in my office - sent to me by a very dear friend - and it says "One shoe can change your life" Cinderella!
Jen - I LOVE Graham Norton - he's so funny. His observational comedy and one liner jabs are just brilliant - if a little close to the knuckle at times.
AC - I love your typo - gave me a good chuckle!
I love quotes too, but this one is my favorite.
"All the girls I ever danced with thought they couldn't do it, but of course they could. So they always cried. All except Ginger. No no, Ginger never cried." - Fred Astaire
It's not really short and pithy, but it's something I always tell myself when I just need to keep going. Ginger Rodgers made dancing with Fred Astaire look delightful and easy, but clearly it wasn't always! I just tell myself "Ginger never cried." Which I'm sure if I ever said out loud, I'd get a lot of strange looks :-)
I also love "Wildflowers don't care where they grow" from the old song from Dolly Parton. I've moved my whole life so that one is also a personal motto.
Good morning, and congratulations, Mariska on caputring the GR! What will you have him helping you with today?
Hey, Donna!
That was John Lovitz and yes it was from a Saturday Night Live sketch. I think my husband used that line for years! And I love the skinny cooks quote. I mean geesh, how many times do you see cooks on the cooking competition shows get nailed on seasoning, because they never tasted the food as it cooked?
Hey Christine! Your parents must've been as addicted to Get Smart as much as my husband. He's quoted that show for so long to one of my kids, that she bought him the first two seasons on DVD for Christmas.
LOL< AC...
Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatnees thrust up 'em....There are a few people in the world who need, "greatness thrust UP em!"
Hey Pink!
"The Americans have fuel to fly chocolate cake across the Atlantic. They have no concept of failure." --- The words of a German officer from the WWII film "The Battle of the Bulge"...I love this part of that movie. The British Actor Robert Shaw played the German Tank commander I believe who said this, didn't he?
Hey Jane!
You've got to love Yogi...he's just so damn quotable. (I adore the AFLAC commercial with him in it.)
One of his best was, "It ain't over, til it's over."
OH Jane,
I also love Ralph Waldo Emerson's "Nobody can bring you peace but yourself."...reminds me of something my aunt used to tell my sister when she'd whine about being bored. She'd tell her, "You need to go grow your own garden." To which Sami would say, "I don't want to garden, I want to do something fun!" :)
Hey Helen! Your mom sounds like a very wise person. Those are the kind of things that may not be credited to one person, but are definitely rules to live by, huh?
Hey Diana!
That is one of those quotes I use at work, usually about the time there is a policy or computer program change! hehehe
One of my favorite quotes, and I have no idea who said it, is:
"When the going gets tough, the tough go shopping."
Hey Anna S!
There is no try, only do (Master Yoda)...this is such a great quote, especially done with the Yoda voice!
And I love the Thomas Edison story and quote. Sometimes life is all about our perspectives, isn't it?
Hey Jill,
There's a famous line about Ginger Rodgers that I love:
"Ginger did everything Fred did, only backwards and in a dress."
Now that shows determination and female strength, doesn't it?
Okay, a couple of quotes for y'all to identify the speaker:
"A woman is an occasional pleasure but a cigar is always a smoke."
"If I'd observed all the rules, I'd never have got anywhere."
"I long to accomplish a great and noble task, but it is my chief duty to accomplish small tasks as if they were great and noble."
"Live is a great big canvas. Throw all the paint on it you can."
Good Luck!
Several of my favorites:
“The best and most beautiful things in this world cannot be seen or even heard, but must be felt with the heart.” – Helen Keller
"It is not in the stars to hold our destiny, but in ourselves." William Shakespear
“Life is not measured by the number of breaths you take, but by the number of moments that take your breath away.” – Author Unknown
"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those that mind don’t matter and those that matter don’t mind. " Dr. Seuss
"Very little is needed to make a happy life; it is all within yourself, in your way of thinking." Marcus Aurelius Antoninus
“Hold fast to dreams, for if dreams die, life is like a broken-winged bird that cannot fly.” –Langston Hughes
"Being defeated is often a temporary condition. Giving up is what makes it permanent." Marilyn vos Savant, writer
Someone's always teasing me about my penchant for quotes. The ones I actually use in conversation the most are from my mother. Some favorites are, "If you're waiting for fair, you'll grow moss" and "It's surprising how a smile changes things."
I just posted a favorite from Anne Lamott on another blog: "Perfectionism is the voice of the oppressor."
Another favorite is from Madeleine L'Engle: "Stories make us more alive, more human, more courageous, more loving."
Wow, Laurie, those are come powerful quotes! I especially like the Langston Hughes one.
Hey Janga!
Another favorite is from Madeleine L'Engle: "Stories make us more alive, more human, more courageous, more loving."...
I love quotes about stories, books, reading or writing. Can I borrow this one?
Mariska, congrats on the rooster!
Suz, another Yogi Berra quote is "It ain't over 'til it's over," which is so vague as to apply to almost any situation. As in, the quest to sell a book ain't over 'til the author quits trying.
We're very fond of Murphy's Law: Whatever can go wrong will go wrong and at the worst possible time (corollary: and in the worst possible way).
I also like the quote A. C. Crispin, one of the founders of Writer Beware, drums into her writing students. She attributes it to someone else--maybe SF writer Theodore Sturgeon: "Money flows to the writer."
Love the quotes, Suz.
The only one that came to mind today was:
"In this world nothing is certain but death and taxes."
While not one of my favorites, it's rather appropriate since I'm working on my taxes. I'm not sure which I would prefer right now. I getting everything to together and actually seeing how much money I didn't make this year.
Quotation day! I love quotations!!
I'm a fan of Twain too. *LOL*
But who prays for Satan? Who in eighteen centuries, has had the common humanity to pray for the one sinner that needed it most?
And also Shakespeare's:
I do love nothing in the world so well as you: is not that strange?
And many, many others. *LOL*
Men are like fine wine. They all start out like grapes, and it's our job to stomp on them and keep them in the dark until they mature into something you'd like to have dinner with. --not sure who said that, but she was brilliant.
Unique post today, Suz!
One of my favorite Shakespeare quotes is "I do love nothing in the world so well as you" from All's Well That Ends Well. I keep reminding my husband of that quote, which I had calligraphied and framed one anniversary.
Oops, senior moment alert!
The play was Much Ado About Nothing!
Fun post, Suzanne! Here are some quotes I like:
1. There is more treasure in books than in all the pirate’s loot on Treasure Island.
-Walt Disney
2. People are like stained glass windows. Some are bright and pretty on the outside; others show their beauty with the light that shines from within.
-Anon.
3. The strength of our nation and the solutions to our problems begin in the home.
-George Washington
4. Chocolate IS on the food pyramid. Milk chocolate is a dairy product, right? -Anon.
5. Children are our future and the blessings for today. -John Denver
I love :
A great life does not fit into a small dream - Author (to me!) Unknown
and:
I know the secret of failure to be trying to please everybody - Bill Cosby
Suz,I love quotes. One of the best presents I've been given is a quote of the day calendar.
I like this one by Sir Winston Churchill:
An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last.
Hey Nancy!
I love that Yogi quote is "I'm a lucky guy and I'm happy to be with the Yankees. And I want to thank everyone for making this night necessary." This one always makes me chuckle!
And the Crispin/Sturgeon quote is a motto I'd be more than happy to live by!
Hey Christie!
I feel your pain, more than you could know right now. And isn't that a Shakespearean quote, too?
Suz - I've heard that Fred & Ginger quote as "She did everything Fred did, but backwards and in high heels" - which I love! (naturally)
Laurie - I love that quote about breaths and moments that make you breathless - fabulous. Also love that one about being defeated and not giving up.
Ooh that cigar quote reminded me - I love the Groucho Marx and Mae West quotes. They always make me smile. And Yogi is brilliant. And Churchill is always good for a good line too.
Suz, the quote I saw mentioned Ben Franklin.
Hey Ms. Hellion,
Men are like fine wine. They all start out like grapes, and it's our job to stomp on them and keep them in the dark until they mature into something you'd like to have dinner with. --not sure who said that, but she was brilliant....I've heard this before and for some reason I want to attribute it to Sophia Loren, but I could be very wrong!
Hey Jo!
You and Ms. Hellion love the same quote from Shakespear...great minds and all that!
*and you're forgiven for the play oops...I would've believed the first one!*
Hey Karen!
The cigar quote is from Groucho Marx, although Clinton does come to mind, doesn't he?
The other three you got right, Marilyn, Helen Keller and Danny Kaye.
No real prize, but hey, you can have the GR the next time I post first! He's a little scared of Rocky-the-wonder-dog
Hey Deb!
Those are all great quotes! I especially like,Chocolate IS on the food pyramid. Milk chocolate is a dairy product, right? -Anon.
My favorite saying (from me) is "Chocolate or homicide, you choose." Said quite frequently at my house.
Hey Sylvia!
Those are both great quotes.
One of my favorite Cosby quotes is, "I brought you into this world and I can take you out!" Alas, I did say this more than once to my kids.
Hey Kim!!
ARe you settled in at home this week?(I am always so envious of your travels around the world!)
That Churchill quote brings out powerful images, doesn't it?
Anna...
"Love thy neighbor - and if he happens to be tall, debonair and devastating, it will be that much easier." Is a fabulous Mae West quote!
Okay, here's a few more...
"Success isn't permanent and failure isn't fatal."-Mike Dytka
"Every block of stone has a statue inside it and it is the task of the sculptor to discover it."- Michelangelo
"A woman is like a tea bag - you can't tell how strong she is until you put her in hot water."- Eleanor Roosevelt
Oh Karyn, I love that Alfred Lord Tennyson quote, the others as well!
Was it Groucho who said, "If it walks like a duck, talks like a duck, it must be a duck?"
Hey, Mariska, he must have been missing you. I wonder if he behaved for Laurie!
Suz, what a great post. I love quotes. I actually collect them! One of my favorites is "There's no such thing as a free lunch" - Twain again, or so I've always believed. "You can't eat scenery" - Twain. Oh, dear, I'm coming out as a bit of a Twain junkie. Better find another source. "The heart has its reasons which the reason cannot know" - Pascal. Could go on and on, but will stop there! Want to see what everyone else came up with.
Christine, "Good thinking, 99," seems to have entered my vocab. And unless you know Get Smart, that can sound rather bizarre.
"Missed it by THAT much." Hmm, that's a Bandita regular, you're right.
Jill, love Ginger and Fred quotes. I love the one about "Ginger did everything Fred did except backwards and in high heels." That's kind of empowering for a woman! And there's the wonderful one about she gave him sex and he gave her class. Actually I'm not sure if this is word for word, but the MGM executive who saw Fred's screen test said, "Balding, can't act, can't sing, can dance a little." Love that!
Suz, did you know the garden quote was from Candide by Voltaire? The last line is something like "Everybody must cultivate his own garden."
Suz, sounds like we've been looking at the same F&G quotes!
Suz, love all the question quotes. And I have no idea who said them!
Hey Anna C!
You must be in the Lair's writing cave if it took you all day to pop up with a quote! :) You are always a source of good quotes for me! You and my friend, Addison Fox.
Laurie, love your quotes. That Langston Hughes one is beautiful.
Janga, laughed at the moss one! How cool is that?
Helly, love your quotes, especially the wine one!
Deb, yours are great! Love the Disney one.
Actually one of my favorite quotes was one I built a workshop around a couple of years ago and then it popped up on a coffee mug I got at the RWOz conference. I still think it's brilliant:
"Don't tell me the moon was shining. Show me the glint of light on broken glass." Anton Chekhov.
There's a whole book worth of writing lessons in that!
Okay, this one has always cracked me up and it's from Eleanor Roosevelt: "I once had a rose named after me and I was very flattered. But I was not pleased to read the description in the catalogue: no good in a bed, but fine up against a wall."
She did have a keen sense of humor!
Silvia, love the great life quote!
Suz, I've been a good girl in the cave so I took yesterday afternoon off to celebrate a very nice review in the Australian Women's Weekly and to watch a couple of movies.
Back at the salt mines today - um, that's a quote from ME!!!!
Loving the quotes!
Anna,
I love that Chekolv quote. Nothing says "Show, don't tell" more clearly to writers.
What a great blog. Suz! I'm terrible at remembering quote, but I see them and read them so much now for writing inspiration, I'm starting to retain a bit.
One of my fav Groucho ones not yet mentioned is "Outside of a dog, a book is man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read."
And here's one from Groucho that seems timely after the big speech last night. "All people are born alike - except Republicans and Democrats."
LOL!
Anna - I have that glinting moonlight one on my bulletin board. Much prettier way to say "show don't tell."
BTW - Who said that first?!
Ha! We must have been typing that at the same time. LOL!
I am a Minister of the Word in our
parish and am currently preparing
to do a scripture reading on Sunday. My reading is from the first Letter from Saint Paul to the Corinthians. A small part of that reading is in my mind and in my heart. It is "If I have all faith so as to move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing." Love is all and everything to me!
Pat Cochran
Terri, I received a tote bag with the dog quote on it from a library talk I did. Love it. Sadly I love it so much, the bag fell to pieces last week. Sigh.
Anna C. said: "Don't tell me the moon was shining. Show me the glint of light on broken glass." Anton Chekhov.
There's a whole book worth of writing lessons in that!
Terri said: Much prettier way to say "show don't tell."
Exactly! Showing or painting pictures with words....This is the lesson I've been teaching in language today using the picture book SNOWFLAKE BENTLEY. Instead of writing, "It was a dark night," J.B. Martin wrote, "Farmers cut the dark with lantern light."
This is a good sentence one of my girls came up with: Ribbons of orange and pink streaked through the sky at sunset. Ooh, yeah!
Pat, I love that quote from Corinthians. It's hugely popular at weddings over here.
Actually I remember talking to wonderful Anne Gracie about that Chekhov quote and saying how much I love it. And she said - and I think this is really interesting - the reason it's so evocative is that "the moon is shining" is a statement of fact. The broken glass bit is a STORY! Something has happened and something more is about to follow! Isn't that clever? I think she's right.
Hey Teri!
Wasn't Groucho a great source of witty one-liners? The man was a comic genius!
Hey Pat!
That is a great scripture. One that man can truly live by. I think that is a keeper for any romance writer.
Ribbons of orange and pink streaked through the sky at sunset. Ooh, yeah!...
ah Deb...a writer in the making!
And she said - and I think this is really interesting - the reason it's so evocative is that "the moon is shining" is a statement of fact. The broken glass bit is a STORY!...
Anna, I think Annie had it so right. Isn't it amazing how few words can do and teach so much?
Jill, I loved the "Ginger never cried" quote! I wonder if Fred Astaire overawed all these women? That's one of the hardest things to overcome isn't it--the fear of not being able to do it. So when I'm stuck with writing I'm going to mutter: "Ginger never cried." *G*
My lovely agent sent me a card that said "Shoot for the Moon. At the very least, you'll land among stars." Love that one, too.
Hey Christine...maybe we'll always be mumbling, "Ginger never cried."
Christine, got to love an agent who inspires like that, don't you?
Great topic, Suz! Here are two of my favorites:
"Life is a great big canvas, and you should throw all the paint you can on it." --Danny Kaye
Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming 'WOW!! What a Ride!'"
Author Unknown
Deb, your sunset quote set me off looking for an Evelyn Waugh quote that always makes me laugh:
"I do not think I shall ever forget the sight of Etna at sunset; the mountain almost invisible in a blur of pastel grey, glowing on the top and then repeating its shape, as though reflected, in a wisp of grey smoke with the whole horizon behind radiant with pink light, fading gently into a grey pastel sky. Nothing I have seen in Art or Nature was quite so revolting."
Hey Tracy G!!!
I believe YOU are the person who introduced me to the Danny Kaye quote. And I thank YOU.
And with two weeks before Super Bowl, I'd like to add this timely quote.
"Thanksgiving dinners take eighteen hours to prepare. They are consumed in twelve minutes. Half-times take twelve minutes. This is not coincidence." ~Erma Bombeck
And a quote from my niece to my sister:
"Mom, God does not make mistakes we just did not read the directions ."
Hey Suz! Great post, CP!
Right now, I'm really into funny quotes by Miss Piggy and Ellen Degeneres! Here's one from Ellen I put on Facebook:
“I'm on the patch right now. Where it releases small dosages of approval until I no longer crave it, and then I'm gonna rip it off.” --Ellen Degeneres
Hey Jo! You mean yesterday with the Bandits didn't wear you out?
Here's my favorite Miss Piggy quote, "Only time can heal your broken heart just as only time can heal his arms and legs"
hehehe that is SOooooooooo me!
some of my favorite quotes :
- Do or Do Not there's no TRy , yoda-
- Worry is like paying a debt for money that you'll never borrow : )
Hey Mariska! You're at the beginning and ending of the day!
Hmm... my quote - a great go to is "Selfishness must always be forgiven you know, for there's no hope of a cure!" Embeth Davitz says it as Mary Crawford in the [new] Mansfield Park.
:) Great topic, Suz! I've never heard of Roseanne Roseannadanna :X But I'm so glad I watched that clip!
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