Tuesday, July 28, 2009

Feel Free to Quote Me


If you know me well, you know that I love a good quote. My Google home page has two separate widgets on there - one for daily cheeky quotes, the other for daily literary quotes. Dig that. Just a sec, let me pop over there and see what they say....


Literary Quote:
"I would say that music is the easiest means in which to express, but since words are my talent, I must try to express clumsily in words what the pure music would have done better."
- William Faulker (American Writer)

Cheeky Quote:
"Dad, is it all right to take things from people you don't like?" - Lisa Simpson
Not bad...sometimes they're really good, sometimes, not so much.

Since I'm all about reader participation, I thought I would give you guys and gals an opportunity to share your some of your favorites here. They don't have to be the "be all end all" favorites, because if you're like me (there are some effective medications available), picking a favorite quote is like picking a favorite book. There's just too many good ones to choose from.

Okay, I'll start with a couple from my kids:

Here's my son's first memorized scripture verse (Age 3): "Follow me, and I will make you fishers. Amen"

And here's one from my daughter last night (Age 8): "I don't really care for queso, but I'll take some of that melted cheese you got there." (I don't know where she gets that from.)

Favorite passage of scripture: "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." - 2 Corinthians 12:9a

And here's a few other I like just because I like them:

"Always be a first-rate version of yourself, instead of a second-rate version of somebody else."
- Judy Garland

"If you have anything really valuable to contribute to the world, it will come through the expression of your own personality, that single spark of divinity that sets off and makes you different from every other living creature."
- Bruce Barton

"If you want to be miserable, think about yourself, about what you want, what you like, what respect people ought to pay you and what people think of you."
-Charles Kingsley

"There is a logic of color, and it is with this alone, and not the logic of the brain, that the painter should conform."
-Paul Cezanne

And just for fun, one more:

"If you want to be a holy man, you have to be committed. When you make a decision you cannot waver in any way. You'd never see Gandhi during a hunger strike sneaking into the kitchen in the middle of the night. "Gandhi, what are you doing down there?" "I, um, I thought I heard a prowler and was going to hit him over the head with this giant bowl of potato salad."
-Jim Carrey

Okay...your turn. Talk to me...

But before you do, be sure to catch Part Two of Billy Coffey's interview with Lynn Rush today about the call that every writer dreams about.

22 comments:

Peter P said...

I love this post.

You can quote me on that!

Anonymous said...

They aren't 'katdish' originals but they are great! Thanks for sharing.

Anonymous said...

"I am only one, but I am one. I cannot do everything, but I can do something. What i can do, I ought to do. What i ought to do, by the grace of God, I will do."

===============
[on why computer programmers make lousy communicators]

"Explain a function to a human... and then give them an example, and draw them a picture, and give two counter examples, and draw another picture, plus provide an interpretive dance on the topic of functions -- and maybe, just maybe, if you've danced very nicely, they will begin to see 'what you're trying to say.'

'What I'm trying to say?' I'm saying it damn clear! I'm saying it directly, concisely and with perfectly constructed phrases! I'm not trying to say anything! I'm succeeding, you're just not listening, you freaking imbecile!"

===============

"A day without sunshine is like...you know...night"

JJ (Lady Di) said...

I have quite a few, most of them from EB White. :)

"Lutefisk -- it's what you eat when all the HAGGIS is gone!" -Alton Brown

“Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants. Move around. Enjoy yourself.” - Michael Pallan

Prejudice is a great time saver. You can form opinions without having to get the facts.
E. B. White

Genius is more often found in a cracked pot than in a whole one.
E. B. White

"Humor can be dissected as a frog can, but the thing dies in the process and the innards are discouraging to any but the pure scientific mind."
— E.B. White

Be obscure clearly.
E. B. White

Writing is an act of faith, not a trick of grammar.
E. B. White

Old age is a special problem for me because I've never been able to shed the mental image I have of myself - a lad of about 19.
E. B. White

A good farmer is nothing more nor less than a handy man with a sense of humus.
E. B. White

I would feel more optimistic about a bright future for man if he spent less time proving that he can outwit Nature and more time tasting her sweetness and respecting her seniority.
E. B. White

I don't know which is more discouraging, literature or chickens.
E. B. White

I get up every morning determined to both change the world and to have one hell of a good time. Sometimes, this makes planning the day difficult.
~ E.B. White

It sometimes takes days, even weeks, before a dog's nerves tire. In the case of terriers it can run into months.
E.B. White

Lots of people have a rug
Very few have a Pug.
E.B. White

"I am pessimistic about the human race because it is too ingenious for its own good. Our approach to nature is to beat it into submission. We would stand a better chance of survival if we accommodated ourselves to this planet and viewed it appreciatively instead of skeptically and dictatorially."
— E.B. White

"One of the most time-consuming things is to have an enemy."
— E.B. White (Essays of E.B. White)

"I have yet to see a piece of writing, political or non-political, that does not have a slant. All writing slants the way a writer leans, and no man is born perpendicular, although many men are born upright."
— E.B. White (Essays of E. B. White)


"One solution ... for the house of the future is to have a place called a ‘dirty room.’ This would be equipped with appliances for all cleaning problems, and into it would be dumped everything dirty. But in most American homes the way to have a dirty room is to have a small boy; that’s the way we worked it for a number of happy years."
— E.B. White

"Writing is both mask and unveiling."
— E.B. White

"Too many things on my mind, said Wilbur.
Well, said the goose, that's not my trouble. I have nothing at all on my mind, but I've too many things under my behind."
— E.B. White

"If the world were merely seductive, that would be easy. If it were merely challenging, that would be no problem. But I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day."
— E.B. White

"I'll take a dozen doughnut holes, a chocolate covered and a raspberry filled. What do y'all want?" -my sister ordering breakfast while her then boyfriend (now husband) and I figured she was ordering for us too. She then ate 2 holes and was full.

Annie K said...

Are you kidding me? It's 5am. I'll come back and throw down a quote after a few cups of coffee.

Candy said...

"Ask not what disease this patient has; but who is the patient that has this disease." Sir Wm Osler

"Never argue with an idiot - those watching may have a tough time distinguishing who's who." Ann Landers

"Nobody makes a greater mistake then he who does nothing because he could only do a little."
Edmund Burke

"Do not free a camel of the burden of his hump; you may be freeing him from being a camel." G.K. Chesterton

"I have four things to learn in life: to think clearly without hurry or confusion; to love everybody sincerely; to act in everything with the highest motives; to trust in God unhesitatingly."
Albert Schweitzer

I have an 80 page document with my other favorites, but I'll spare you.

Oh wait, one last one -
"Because Katdish said so." ~Katdish

Helen said...

"The reason they call them lessons is because they lessen from day to day."
Lewis Carrol

"Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God[a]; trust also in me."
John 14:1

"Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— 1children born not of natural descent,[c] nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God."
John 1:12-13

“A dead thing can go with the stream, but only a living thing can go against it.”
G.K. Chesterton

"The King is a big man, but he still can't eat his cookies with a shovel."
My daddy translating some Hungarian saying he learned as a boy.

When asked what he is rebelling against in the movie "The Wild One"
"What've you got?"
Marlon Brando

Annie K said...

I used up my quote at Billy's today. And it was fairly awesome. Ok, not really. The awesome part that is.

My favorite is Jeremiah 29:11-14 (because I've been in this place so many times..)

For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

12 Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you.

13 You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.

14 I will be found by you," declares the LORD, "and will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you," declares the LORD, "and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile."

Sherri Murphy said...

Two of my favorites from my sidebar:

"Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow. It empties today of its strength." - Corrie Ten Boom


AND ANOTHER....

"Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened."
-Dr. Seuss

And from my son Josh (when he was only 3 or 4 years old) while looking up at his Grandma when she had just said she was an old woman....

"You don't LOOK old Grandma...just your FACE does!"

Janet Oberholtzer said...

“How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.” - Annie Dillard

"Never be afraid to sit awhile and think." - Lorraine Hansbury

"The reward for conformity is that everyone likes you but yourself." – Rita Mae Brown

"Just 'cause you can't walk on water doesn't mean you can't cross the river." – Dink Weber

Jim H said...

Because I have a really short attention span, my favorite quote of the moment is this one from Billy Coffey "macho manliness trumps stupidity every day of the week and twice on Thursday."t

Billy Coffey said...

Quotes! I love me some quotes. Can't pick a favorite, but here's a few right off the top of my head:

"The most important things are the hardest to say, because words diminish them." - Stephen King

"Opportunity dances with those who are ready on the dance floor."
- H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

"Dream as if you'll live forever. Live as if you'll die tomorrow."
- James Dean

"Mystery creates wonder and wonder is the basis of man's desire to understand."
- Neil Armstrong

"The task ahead is never as great as the power behind us."
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

"God put our eyes in front of us so we can see where we're going, not where we've been."
- Billy Coffey (yeah, I know. Arrogant, huh? But I'm busy and this is my daily act of shameless self-promotion)

And Jim, I'm sending you money.

Jeff Selph said...

1. "You're an idiot." (that's more my favorite thing to say than a quote, but I'm not saying it to you directly. don't worry.)

2. "The Selph men are a good bunch, but we're a lusty lot." My dad explaining himself, me, and my brothers to my new wife.

Lanette said...

I love quotes, but most of mine are on my computer at school. So here are a few not so famous ones I like. Unfortunately I don't know who said either one. Pretty sure the second came from someone's blog so if it was someone on here, let me know ;)

“If you know the love of God,and have experienced the forgiveness of the Spirit, and you have been embraced by the Father, then, please, NOTIFY YOUR FACE!”


"Please don’t miss the real God just because some people who use his name are idiots"

katdish said...

DANG!

These are some seriously good quotes!

JJ- I've got to get some other stuff by E.B. White besides Charlotte's Web! Who knew?

Jeanne Damoff said...

"Watch Me break this board with my head." ~ Jesus

Okay, the real Jesus didn't say that. But my daughter once altered a drawing in the children's bulletin at church. In the original, Jesus stood with outstretched arms, beckoning the little children to come. Grace sketched a hefty plank in His hands and added the quote.

This was only one of many times I got in trouble for busting out laughing after glancing down at her bulletin. (But I don't pretend not to know where she gets it.)

bman said...

"Keep moving forward" - The Robinsons (movie)

This always speaks to me. It's simple, but it's what I need to hear most of the time.

jasonS said...

Here's one of my favorite verses. Psalm 73:26, "My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever."

I'm trying to come up with a quote but it's like a logjam in my brain at the moment. Maybe I'll come back later... :)

Sarah Salter said...

I keep a legal pad on my desk to jot down good quotes... Here's a couple of the more recent ones that I like.

"When the will of God crosses the will of man, somebody has to die." (Addison Leitch as quoted by Elisabeth Elliot)

"We are designed to follow God together. It's impossible to follow Him alone." (Nate Larkin, evangelist, via Twitter)

And then a couple of my very faves...

"Faith doesn't mean I have all the answers. It means I know the One who IS the answer." (the late Tommy Tyson, evangelist)

"The bad thing about a living sacrifice is that it keeps crawling down off the altar." (John Hobbs, evangelist)

"Unusual things happen to Christians because the Christian life was not designed to be boring." (Robert Whitlow, author)

Now, what was that Billy Coffey quote again? I need to jot it down on my legal pad... :-)

Katie Ganshert said...

What a fun blog! I love quotes. I have a list of them in the side pannel of my blog.

Some of my favorite funny quotes come from The Office:

"I'm not superstitious. But I am a little stitious." -Michael Scott

Some more serious ones:

"We choose to go to the moon in this decade. We choose to go to the moon and do other things, not because they are easy but because they are hard." -John F. Kennedy

Writing is easy. All you do is stare at a blank sheet of paper until drops of blood form on your forehead." -Gene Fowler

"What you do speaks so loud that I cannot hear what you say." -Ralph Waldo Emmerson

And favorite Bible Verse:

Be still and know that I am God.

Stacey said...

My great-grandma used to say,

"Don't tell people everything that you know, because then they'll know all that THEY know and all that YOU know, and they'll know more than you."

I always thought that was pretty sound advice. For a woman who had no formal education, she was so wise.

Also, if I knew who it was, I'd like to high-five the person who said this, "There are no stupid questions, but there are a lot of inquisitive idiots."

Jennifer @ JenniferDukesLee.com said...

I like Jeanne's ... Nice.

I'll play along:

1 -- "I often meet people who are waiting to follow God until they have all their questions answered. They will be waiting for a long time, because if we knew everything, we'd be ... God. So the invitation to jump is an invitation to follow Jesus with all of our doubts and questions right there with us." -- Rob Bell

2 -- "Ix-nay on the Upid-stay." -- Zazu