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Post by Geoff on Feb 17, 2009 10:51:35 GMT
You all know the man and the situation involved in my hands-down favourite quote: "I am going out for a walk. I may be some time." I'm sorry, weewilly, but some of us don't know.
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Post by Pete on Feb 17, 2009 11:04:09 GMT
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Post by Geoff on Feb 17, 2009 20:50:35 GMT
Of course, now that I'm reminded.
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Post by WeeWilly on Feb 20, 2009 5:31:44 GMT
... and, of course, the quote only has power conveyed to it by context.
Another quote with power of context is Wilde's putative last comment on on the decor of the room in which he lay dying: "Either that wallpaper or I have to go."
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Post by amanda on Apr 28, 2012 11:02:14 GMT
Total abstinence is so excellent a thing that it cannot be carried to too great an extent. In my passion for it I even carry it so far as to totally abstain from total abstinence itself. Mark Twain
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Post by Tone on Apr 28, 2012 20:38:16 GMT
Grow old along with me, The worst is yet to be. The last of life, for which the pain was made.
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Post by Twoddle on Apr 28, 2012 21:55:31 GMT
Grow old along with me, The worst is yet to be. The last of life, for which the pain was made. Why the deliberate misquote, Tone? If we're being depressing, here's Herrick: Gather ye rosebuds while ye may, Old time is still a-flying: And this same flower that smiles to-day To-morrow will be dying.
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Post by Tone on Apr 29, 2012 10:47:03 GMT
>Why the deliberate misquote, Tone? <
It's not a misquote as such -- it's called reality!
Tone
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Post by Twoddle on May 1, 2012 19:01:09 GMT
>Why the deliberate misquote, Tone? <It's not a misquote as such -- it's called reality! Tone Here are a few more cheery ones: Life is just a bowl of cherry stones. Life's a bitch; then you die. The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. Life is just a sh*t sandwich: the more bread you've got, the less sh*t you have to eat. Life is like a roll of toilet paper: it gets faster and faster towards the end. Death is nature's way of telling you to slow down. Life is a sexually transmitted disease which invariably proves fatal.
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Post by Pete on May 1, 2012 19:44:55 GMT
Life is like a hair in a toilet bowl; you're bound to get p***ed off sooner or later.
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Post by mayday on Aug 23, 2012 6:54:35 GMT
[/quote] "You can avoid reality, but you cannot avoid the consequences of avoiding reality." [/quote] - Ayn Rand (1905-1982)
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Post by Twoddle on Mar 22, 2016 23:48:30 GMT
It's a few years since anything was posted on this thread but, unless I've missed it, the following oft-quoted truism is absent: "We trained hard ... but it seemed that every time we were beginning to form up into teams we would be reorganized. I was to learn later in life that we tend to meet any new situation by reorganizing; and a wonderful method it can be for creating the illusion of progress while producing confusion, inefficiency, and demoralization."
It's usually attributed to the Roman, Gaius Petronius Arbiter (AD c27 - 66) but I've just discovered that it was actually penned much later, by Charles Ogden Jnr, the American journalist and author, and is a shortened version of his original. In an article in Harper's Magazine in 1957 Ogden wrote: "We trained hard, but it seemed that every time we were beginning to form up into teams we would be reorganized. Presumably the plans for our employment were being changed. I was to learn later in life that, perhaps because we are so good at organizing, we tend as a nation to meet any new situation by reorganizing; and a wonderful method it can be for creating the illusion of progress while producing confusion, inefficiency and demoralization."
It just goes to prove that quidquid latine dictum sit altum videtur. A couple of other quotations I picked up while discovering the above are: "Change creates the illusion of progress", which I suppose is a summary of Ogden's message, and "Arguing with an auditor is like mud wrestling with a pig; after a while you find the pig likes it".
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Post by Verbivore on Mar 23, 2016 12:07:14 GMT
And on that theme (though not a quotation) is: committees are a great way of appearing to make progress while achieving nothing.
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Post by Verbivore on Apr 18, 2021 22:55:29 GMT
It's been five years since this thread was alive. Here's a recent find that I like: Dear racist: Your car is Japanese. Your beer is German. Your wine is Spanish. Your democracy is Greek. Your coffee is Colombian. Your tea is Chinese. Your watch is Swiss. Your fashion is French. Your shirt is Indian. Your shoes are Thai. Your radio is Korean. Your vodka is Russian. And then you complain that your neighbour is an immigrant? – from here (and a zillion other sites)
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Post by Twoddle on Apr 19, 2021 10:16:21 GMT
It's been five years since this thread was alive. Here's a recent find that I like: Dear racist: Your car is Japanese. Your beer is German. Your wine is Spanish. Your democracy is Greek. Your coffee is Colombian. Your tea is Chinese. Your watch is Swiss. Your fashion is French. Your shirt is Indian. Your shoes are Thai. Your radio is Korean. Your vodka is Russian. And then you complain that your neighbour is an immigrant? – from here (and a zillion other sites) Still firmly embedded in my brain is a TV street-interview with a woman who said, "I don't like that foreign food. Give me good old British stuff, like spaghetti bolognese".
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