Thought this might be fun. Since we've got so many posts that are flying off topic, I thought maybe it'd be good to start a thread discussing something near and dear to writing -- the perfect phrase that just says it all. Not that we need that all the time (writing would be just a bunch of aphorisms and platitudes if that were the case), but sometimes a quick phrase does what a dozen pages could not.
I'll give you the one I ran across today. Victor Hugo in Les Miserables is trying to convey the concept that a certain woman is not very maternal. His line:
"She is a mother because she is a mammal."
Got any you particularly like?
Posted by Survivor (Member # 213) on :
The Exemplary man is not a functionary.
He seeks Harmony, not sameness.
Posted by Survivor (Member # 213) on :
In an insane world, it was the only sane choice.
Posted by W.P. Morgenstien (Member # 231) on :
Sometimes there just aren't enough rocks.
(Okay, okay so it's not from a book, but someone had to write it first!)
Posted by Nomda Plume (Member # 255) on :
Ursula LeGuin is always striking me with her beautiful apt and poetic phrases.
In The Left Hand of Darkness after they skint and threw out the pesthry carcasses she described how the scavenger animals would come eat the remains and then "lick clean the bloody snow".
I liked her line in The Lathe of Heaven that the reason nobody had bothered to tear down an old interstate highway abutment was because it was "so big, so ugly, and so useless as to be to the American eye invisible"
Later when George and Heather begin to make love she explained that, "Love doesn't just lie there, like a stone; it has to be made, like bread."
Posted by W.P. Morgenstien (Member # 231) on :
Like bread? Yuk. I wonder what her opinions are, really, about sex. I have no desire to be punched down and made into rolls!! Posted by Survivor (Member # 213) on :
Oh, come now. You've never heard of a roll in the hay?
I know a good quote,
quote: Your contention that the Constitution is in some sense law must rest upon some obscure philosophic principle with which I am unfamiliar.
Hmm, maybe the second paragraph of Article six, "This Constitution, and the laws of the United States which shall be made in the pursuance thereof, and all treaties made, or which shall be made, under the authority of the United States, shall be the supreme law of the land,; and the judges in every State shall be bound thereby, anything in the Constitution or laws of any state to the contrary notwithstanding."
Posted by W.P. Morgenstien (Member # 231) on :
You're from the city, aren't you? Ever tried a roll in the hay? That's darn poky stuff! And rolling in it is not as fun as they say it is!
Another favorite quote:
"And the goblins - they had not really been there at all? They were only the phantoms of cowardice and unbelief? One healthy human impulse would dispel them? Men like the Wilcoxes, or President Roosevelt, would say yes. Beethoven know better."
Howard's End, E.M. Forster
Posted by Survivor (Member # 213) on :
Actually, I have rolled in hay. Just not 'in the hay. It's some kind of silly metaphor for passionate and ill considered... well, anyway, I agree about hay itself. Loved it as a kid, but quickly realized that hives, wheezing, and sneezing fits were somehow associated with hay.
Posted by Survivor (Member # 213) on :
Okay, I can't think of anything else to say about rolling in the hay, so I'm taking this back to the topic of good lines.
quote: A person in a fit of rage can be restored to good humor and a person in the heat of passion can be restored to good cheer, but a state that has perished cannot be revived and the dead cannot be brought back to life.
You would think that I would learn to spell, wouldn't you?
[This message has been edited by Survivor (edited September 30, 1999).]
Posted by Survivor (Member # 213) on :
Anyone catch that last bit?
Posted by jackonus (Member # 132) on :
It seemed rather would-en.
Posted by Survivor (Member # 213) on :
Da would dum dum da would dum dum da would dum dum.
Posted by Jefficus (Member # 272) on :
Getting back on topic...
I recall reading a rather well turned phrase in a short story last winter. We are given a quick character sketch of a minor character on an expedition with this observation: He was bound to expose the team to the kinds of danger only morons can summon.
Posted by Survivor (Member # 213) on :
"...War and individual ruin are synonymous terms.... If they want peace, they and their relatives must stop war."
Sherman, on the forced evacuation of Atlanta.
Posted by Nomda Plume (Member # 255) on :
Ssssssssssssssss!
Posted by Survivor (Member # 213) on :
quote:The Civil War ended, and Sherman's strategy of indirect attack had gained the victory... the march though Georgia and the Carolinas destroyed the South's will to continue the war.... But...If the purpose of war is to bring about a more perfect peace, then Sherman failed miserably. The memory of the damage that he and his men did was passed from parent to child...for a century after the Civil War...an enduring folk memory of wanton havoc that embittered the Southern people...
Bevin Alexander, How Great Generals Win
Posted by Nomda Plume (Member # 255) on :
Damn straight! The thought of him makes me want to put a mini ball right through some yankee's eye.
(And me such a kind harmless thing!)
Posted by W.P. Morgenstien (Member # 231) on :
Should we take this to mean you're from the South?
Posted by ducky (Member # 279) on :
Come on you guys, you gave this subject up too soon. There must be more great lines out there. It's been so long since I actually had time to read a whole book that I can't think of any myself. That's driving me crazy.
Posted by Survivor (Member # 213) on :
The power to cause pain is the only power that matters, the power to kill and destroy, because if you can't kill then you are always subject to those who can, and nothing and no one will ever save you.
Posted by Survivor (Member # 213) on :
"What's the butcher's bill?"
"Thirty-eight killed, sir. Seventy-five wounded. Four missing."
Posted by Survivor (Member # 213) on :
Even the bravest man, alone, is only an armed lunatic.
Posted by Survivor (Member # 213) on :
Two men enter, one man leaves.
Posted by Survivor (Member # 213) on :
"It's just a stupid rabbit, you silly old fool!"
"It's not just any rabbit! That's the most vicious, foul tempered rabbit you've ever laid eyes on. It's got teeth like... and it can jump about... well, look at the bones!"
Posted by W.P. Morgenstien (Member # 231) on :
Well! I don't feel so bad about posting a line from a movie anymore! But really, Survivor - the killer rabbit?!
And personally, I prefer:
"This you know- the years travel fast, and time after time I done the tell. But this ain't one body's tell, its the tell of us all. And you gotta listen it, and 'member, 'cause what you hears today, you gotta tell the newborn tomorra'. I's lookin' behind us now - into history back..."
Posted by Survivor (Member # 213) on :
"Not expect. Never expect anything! Only hope. Hoping best for you."
Posted by Survivor (Member # 213) on :
She decided that she could easily become foolishly fond of every part of him.
Posted by Survivor (Member # 213) on :
Throw me the Idol, I'll throw you the whip.
Posted by Survivor (Member # 213) on :
"For the love of God, Montressor!"
"Yes, for the love of God!"
Posted by jackonus (Member # 132) on :
I wouldn't come right out and call him an @sshole, but I hear he brushes his teeth with Preparation H.
Posted by Nomda Plume (Member # 255) on :
But pain... seems to me an insufficient reason not to embrace life. Being dead is quite painless.
Posted by Nomda Plume (Member # 255) on :
You should have fallen in love with a happy man if you wanted happiness. But no, you had to fall for the breathtaking beauty of pain...
Posted by Nomda Plume (Member # 255) on :
The moral is to the physical as is three to one. -Napoleon
I'd put it as five to one for this particular war.
Posted by ducky (Member # 279) on :
So, tell me if this has the potential to be a good line.
Anyone watching her would have been reminded of a well contented cat with a full stomach and a warm sunny window ledge.
Posted by Survivor (Member # 213) on :
Hmmm. Or a well fed calf with a patch of clover.
Posted by W.P. Morgenstien (Member # 231) on :
Dammit, Jim! I'm a doctor not a bricklayer!
Posted by ducky (Member # 279) on :
You ARE the BRUTE SQUAD!!!
Posted by Survivor (Member # 213) on :
I'm not a witch, I'm your wife. But after what you just said I'm not even sure I wanna be that anymore.
Posted by Survivor (Member # 213) on :
That's all, folks!
Posted by Nomda Plume (Member # 255) on :
Ommmmmmm
[This message has been edited by Nomda Plume (edited November 03, 1999).]
Posted by ducky (Member # 279) on :
Jackonus, I'm afraid you created a perfect platform for launching us into flight. I'm not sure this group is capable of staying strictly on course.
Posted by Survivor (Member # 213) on :
The whole point of a group is to go off course. It's like having four wheel drive.
Posted by Nomda Plume (Member # 255) on :
Ah, another perfect metaphor! Bravo!
Posted by Kirti (Member # 164) on :
I think I will insult everyone here by being perfectly serious. Which is very brave of me; I'm usually very careful to only offend people I know.
My favorite lines -- from a Spanish poet, Octavio Paz, these last few lines of his poem "Fable"
A tree grew in the palm of your hand And that tree laughed sang prophesied Its divinations filled the air with wings There were simple miracles called birds Everything was for everyone Everyone was for everything There was only one huge word with no back to it, A word like a sun One day it broke into tiny pieces They were the words of the language we now speak Pieces that will never come together Broken mirrors where the world sees itself shattered
[This message has been edited by Kirti (edited November 05, 1999).]
Posted by ducky (Member # 279) on :
a four-wheel-drive huh? How about wings. You see more when you're aloft. How about a four-wheel-drive with wings. We do go places don't we Posted by Nomda Plume (Member # 255) on :
Oh Kirti, what a wonderful poem! Who tranlated it? I've never read translated poetry I liked that wasn't translated by someone who was a great poet themselves.
Posted by Survivor (Member # 213) on :
I hate to even bring this up, but has anyone here ever read the "Soliloquy of the Spanish Cloister"? It's too long to put it in as a 'good line', but I really like it.
Posted by Nomda Plume (Member # 255) on :
Yes, by Browning. One of the best. Also wonderful is My Last Duchess.
[This message has been edited by Nomda Plume (edited November 07, 1999).]
Posted by ducky (Member # 279) on :
I've read them both and I must say of the two I prefer "My Last Duchess". However I would rather read "By The Fireside".
A turn, and we stand in the heart of things; The woods are round us, heaped and dim; From slab to slab how it slips and springs, The thread of water single and slim, Through the ravage some torrent brings!
(Though I must say that I prefer Wordsworth.)
Posted by Survivor (Member # 213) on :
But I have promises to keep, and miles to go before I sleep...
Posted by Survivor (Member # 213) on :
Oh his name was Chou Lung-Tzu He had ten thousand men He marched them up To the top of a hill, And none came down again.
Posted by ducky (Member # 279) on :
the little hedgerow birds, That peck along the road, regard him not. He travels on, and in his face, his step, His gait, is one expression: every limb, His look and bending figure, all bespeak A man who does not move with pain, but moves With thought.
Posted by ducky (Member # 279) on :
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.
[This message has been edited by ducky (edited November 08, 1999).]
Posted by W.P. Morgenstien (Member # 231) on :
Survivor, is it my imagination or does your poem greatly resemble "the Grand old Duke of York"?
To continue:
And when you're up, you're up And when you're down, you're down And when you're only halfway up you're neither up nor down!
Posted by Nomda Plume (Member # 255) on :
Mais, c'est la richesse de la vie!
Posted by Survivor (Member # 213) on :
Or of death.
General Chou surveyed the field And saw a countless foe Surrounded and cut off from aid, He had no place to go.
Posted by ducky (Member # 279) on :
Survivor- who wrote that?
Posted by Survivor (Member # 213) on :
All the men he gathered round And raised his voice to say, We've paid in blood for this good ground And this is where we'll stay
Oh, we've paid in blood for this good ground, And this is where we'll stay!
Posted by Nomda Plume (Member # 255) on :
Humility means that one should not be anxious to have the satisfaction of being honored by others.
Nonviolence means not to put others into distress.
Tolerance means that one should be practiced to bear insult and dishonor from others.
Simplicity means that without diplomacy one should be so straightforward that he can disclose the real truth even to an enemy.
[This message has been edited by Nomda Plume (edited November 12, 1999).]
Posted by Survivor (Member # 213) on :
The righteous destroy the wicked by the word of truth.
Posted by piman (Member # 142) on :
There are many more wonderful quotes. Why give up so soon?
"...What clever people have not yet learned, some quite ordinary people have not yet entirely forgotten."
CM Kornbluth - The Mindworm
"The world is a comedy to those who think, a tragedy to those who feel."
Horace Walpole 1742 in a letter to Horace Mann.
"Remember, even monkeys fall out of trees."
Korean Proverb
"Laughter is the valve on the pressure cooker of life. You either laugh at stuff or you end up with your brains or your beans on the ceiling."
Wavy Gravy
Admittedly they don't all fit under the original definition, but all great nonetheless.
The PIMAN
Posted by piman (Member # 142) on :
There are many more wonderful quotes. Why give up so soon?
"...What clever people have not yet learned, some quite ordinary people have not yet entirely forgotten."
CM Kornbluth - The Mindworm
"The world is a comedy to those who think, a tragedy to those who feel."
Horace Walpole 1742 in a letter to Horace Mann.
"Remember, even monkeys fall out of trees."
Korean Proverb
"Laughter is the valve on the pressure cooker of life. You either laugh at stuff or you end up with your brains or your beans on the ceiling."
Wavy Gravy
Admittedly they don't all fit under the original definition, but all great nonetheless.
The PIMAN
Posted by piman (Member # 142) on :
Did I just repeat myself? Did I just repeat myself?
Posted by piman (Member # 142) on :
"At noon [they] dined with their relatives and friends, and at night they supped with their ancestors in the next world!"
The Decameron of Giovanni Boccaccio, trans. Richard Aldington (1930)
Describing the Black Death (well, duh!;D)
The PI Man
Posted by jackonus (Member # 132) on :
I wasn't going to add any more to this post, but then we got talking about 4 wheel drive vehicles and I always thought that a really clever advertisement tag line would be:
"The number of the beast is 4-by-4!!!"
Imagine that uttered by one of those deep-voiced manly announcers as the huge-tired vehicle goes pounding over the top of some muddy hill, knocking down saplings and spewing flames from the pipes.
Posted by Nomda Plume (Member # 255) on :
The more sophistocated the technology, the more vulnerable it is to primitive attack.
Dr. Who
Posted by Survivor (Member # 213) on :
My sister once had a credit card with 666 in the number. I just thought it an interesting little tidbit.
My the pens of diplomats never again sign away what has been purchased with the blood of valient men.(paraphrased)
Posted by Survivor (Member # 213) on :
I told him that I would let him live if he told the truth, so he told the truth, and I killed him. It was very gratifying.
If I were the Emperor and one of my subjects acted like him, I would have him executed, and then set his head in the place of honor at a banquet.
Posted by Survivor (Member # 213) on :
And when there was no crawdads to be found, we ate sand.
Posted by Survivor (Member # 213) on :
If you can't fix it, then there's no point in covering it up.
No.
Look.
Why?
Posted by Nomda Plume (Member # 255) on :
I wasn't punishing her for crying, I was crying for her. I was transferring her pain to myself so that she could be comforted.
Posted by Nomda Plume (Member # 255) on :
To thee that from thy mansion Through time and place to roam Doth send abroad thy children And then doth call them home
That men and tribes and nations And all thy hand hath made May shelter them from sunshine In thy eternal shade
We now to peace and darkness And earth and thee restore Thy creature that thou madest And wilt cast forth no more.
Posted by piman (Member # 142) on :
Life is life's greatest gift. Guard the life of another creature as you would your own because it is your own. On life's scale of values, the smallest is no less precious to the creature who owns it than the largest ... Lloyd Biggle Jr. (1923- ) The World Menders?
Posted by Survivor (Member # 213) on :
I am not ordering you to fight. I am ordering you to die.
Posted by ducky (Member # 279) on :
Ask not for whom the bell tolls. It tolls for you.
Posted by piman (Member # 142) on :
He is a good man - a good man in a bad tim, as all good men have been in all past times. Rabbi Gershon Murder in Grub Street Bruce Alexander
Posted by piman (Member # 142) on :
Hope.
Hope is the thing with feathers That perches in the soul, And sings the tune without the words, And never stops at all,
And sweetest in the gale is heard; And sore must be the storm That could abash the little bird That kept so many warm.
I've heard it in the chillest land, And on the strangest sea; Yet, never, in extremity, It asked a crumb of me.
--Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)
Posted by Amira (Member # 4) on :
"I cannot come to terms with our mortality. I simply cannot. It is all one vast obscurity, one vast hopelessness." Jacob Keter, 'The Book of Lights' by Chaim Potok.
"Where there are no people, you be a person" 'The Book of Lights' - Chaim Potok.
"Our thoughts are ours, their ends none of our own" Player King, 'Hamlet' - Shakespeare.
"They give birth astride of a grave, the light gleams an instant, then it's night once more." Pozzo, 'Waiting for Godot' - Samuel Beckett.
Posted by Survivor (Member # 213) on :
Hmm, I'm not going to give a quote here, because the first one that came to mind would have been sacrilegious to use for the somewhat mundane purpose of suggesting that we should start a new Good Lines topic rather than permit this to go to a third page.
Posted by Survivor (Member # 213) on :
Man, now I really want to know what quote I was thinking of when I wrote that Posted by DragynGide (Member # 1448) on :
I may not remember this correctly.
pity this busy monster, manunkind not. progress is a comfortable disease-- your victim (death and life safely beyond) marvels at the bigness of his littleness. lenses extend unwish through curving where-when until unwish returns on its unself. a world of made is not a world of born-- pity poor flesh, poor stars and stones but never this fine specimen of hypermagical ultraomnipotence. we scientists know a hopeless case if-- hey, there's a hell of a good world next door; let's go
- e.e. cummings
Posted by Kolona (Member # 1438) on :
"What is written without effort is generally read without pleasure." Ben Johnson
"Criticism and dissent are the indispensible antidote to major delusions." Alan Barth
Posted by Survivor (Member # 213) on :
quote:"You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil. You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them."
Lt. Gen. James Mattis, career infantry officer
Posted by TaShaJaRo (Member # 2354) on :
One of my favorite lines is actually an opening line in Barbara Hambly's The Silicon Mage, sequel to The Silent Tower.
"Thw worst thing about knowing Gary was dead, was seeing him every day at work."
Posted by Corpsegrinder (Member # 2251) on :
My two favorite words are irelevant.
Posted by ChrisOwens (Member # 1955) on :
One of my favorite lines is from the short story, "Come Back To The Killing Ground, Alice, My Love".
The monklike protaganist shoots an arrow blindfolded at a passing bird. He manages to only extract a single feather from the bird but doens't kill it or disturb it's flight. Another character asks him if he meant to hit the bird or the feather.
He says: To eat the bird is not to digest its flight.
[This message has been edited by ChrisOwens (edited February 14, 2005).]
Posted by HuntGod (Member # 2259) on :
"How can you kill women and children?", asked Private Joker.
"It's easy, you just don't lead em so much!", answered the gunner.
or
"Anyone who thinks you can't judge a book by it's cover, has obviously never worked in retail!"
Posted by hoptoad (Member # 2145) on :
'His face was as round and bland as a boarding-house pudding.'
[This message has been edited by hoptoad (edited February 14, 2005).]
Posted by Corpsegrinder (Member # 2251) on :
He was as happy as a dead hog in the sun.
Posted by Jimbob squarepants (Member # 2342) on :
Arguments are to be avoided; they are always vulgar and often convincing.
Posted by Jimbob squarepants (Member # 2342) on :
He hoped and prayed that there wasn't an afterlife. Then he realized there was a contradiction involved here and merely hoped that there wasn't an afterlife
Posted by Survivor (Member # 213) on :
I told him that if he told me the truth I would let him live, so he told the truth, and I killed him. It was very satisfying.
Posted by MichelleAnn (Member # 2375) on :
I believe there are monsters born in the world to human parents. Some you can see, misshapen and horrible, with huge heads or tiny bodies; some are born with no arms, no legs, some with three arms, some with tails or mouths in odd places. They are accidents and no one's fault, as used to be thought. Once they were considered the visible punishment for concealed sins.
And just as there are physical monsters, can there not be mental or psychic monsters born? The face and body may be perfect, but if a twisted gene or a malformed egg can produce physical monsters, may not the same process produce a malformed soul? Steinbeck
'ChelleAnn
[This message has been edited by MichelleAnn (edited February 15, 2005).]
Posted by goatboy (Member # 2062) on :
Is he in heaven? Is he in Hell? That demmed elusive Pimpernel. -Orczy
Posted by Pyre Dynasty (Member # 1947) on :
It takes a village to raise an idiot -Vincent Raymond
Posted by pooka (Member # 1738) on :
Oh, the humanity! -Hindenburg explosion commentator
Posted by hoptoad (Member # 2145) on :
Sound loves to revel in a summer night. — Edgar Allan Poe Posted by hoptoad (Member # 2145) on :
Now I can add savant to your title.
[This message has been edited by hoptoad (edited May 26, 2006).]
Posted by hoptoad (Member # 2145) on :
If this is paradise, I wish I had a lawn mower.
Posted by wyrd1 (Member # 3366) on :
Favorite oral line:
"You must become like the rubber chicken."
-sifu Taiji-Fool (a deep voiced hippie-looking old guy with arthritis who can still kick my ____).
It's much better than Bruce Lee's "Be water my friend".
Favorite written line:
"... and a third[student] had died of natural causes for a dagger in the heart quite naturally ends one's life." - R.A. Salvatore 'Homeland'
Posted by ken_hawk (Member # 2647) on :
" I am a Count, not a saint."-( from The Count of Monte Cristo)
From my favorite poet, Walt Whitman and his poem entitled Song of Myself: " You shall no longer take things at second or third hand, nor look through the eyes of the dead, nor feed on the spectres in books, You shall not look through my eyes either, nor take things from me, You shall listen to all sides and filter them from your self."
From the same poem : "I bequeath myself to the dirt to grow from the grass I love, If you want me again look for me under your boot-soles.
You will hardly know who I am or what I mean, But I shall be good health to you nevertheless, And filter and fibre your blood.
Failing to fetch me at first keep encouraged, Missing me one place search another, I stop somewhere waiting for you."
[This message has been edited by ken_hawk (edited May 27, 2006).]
Posted by pooka (Member # 1738) on :
*cough* Two line limit *cough*
Posted by Pyre Dynasty (Member # 1947) on :
Victor jumped into his car and drove swiftly into a brick wall.
Posted by wyrd1 (Member # 3366) on :
Sorry, two line limit? *puzzled look*
"In a fit of jealous rage, you wrote a love letter?" - 'Who Framed Roger Rabbit'
Posted by rickfisher (Member # 1214) on :
Build a man a fire and you keep him warm for a night; set a man on fire and you keep him warm for the rest of his life.
Posted by trousercuit (Member # 3235) on :
Jennifer stood there, quietly ovulating.
--Adam Cadre
Posted by pooka (Member # 1738) on :
Yeah, because loud ovulation is... uh, nevermind.
2 line limit is a good guideline for not getting this website we enjoy into hot water for copyright infringement.
The highest form of praise is actually theft.
Posted by trousercuit (Member # 3235) on :
Hey! You stole my line!
Well, kind of. It was actually, "Copyright infringement is the sincerest form of flattery."
Posted by ken_hawk (Member # 2647) on :
Sorry, I wasn't aware of any 2 line rule. I thought that since I gave credit to the writer and didn't claim the work to be my own that it wouldn't be considered copyright infringement. I took one line off though.
Posted by colorbird (Member # 3425) on :
"Why are you doing this?"
"Because I can."
Posted by Pyre Dynasty (Member # 1947) on :
Plagiarism is using another's content and claiming it as your own. Copywrite infringment is using their content without permission. Fair use allows for quoting.
"Why?" Mindy to the highrise riveter, as Buttons suffers some sort of indignity.
Posted by hoptoad (Member # 2145) on :
you may mean copyright Posted by Pyre Dynasty (Member # 1947) on :
I'm sorry I never apologize for typos.
Posted by Survivor (Member # 213) on :
(no fifth laugh because the irony isn't perfect)
Posted by hoptoad (Member # 2145) on :
Posted by Kolona (Member # 1438) on :
"If these are your positions, where are your fortifications?" a skeptical Tell asked. "Our bloody shirts are our fortifications," Shaltiel quietly replied. Impressed, Tell told his rival, "Very well, I will accept your word as an officer and a gentleman." --O Jerusalem, Collins & LaPierre
"...you go left two blocks, and there's another Detention Station, so go through the all-night shoe store to the alley, and...Or, no. It'll be blocked. This is Mrs. Krasni's day to move her pianos...." --"The Face on the Barroom Floor," Arnason & Berman
Oral line: "Just don't tell the elf." --LOTR
Posted by thexmedic (Member # 2844) on :
I always liked
quote:A little more than kin, a little less than kind
On an unrelated note, I'd been a copywriter for about 6 months before my dad asked me what my job had to do with copyrights.
Posted by Survivor (Member # 213) on :
Posted by teddyrux (Member # 1595) on :
I can't resist.
TANSTAAFL
Posted by Survivor (Member # 213) on :
quote:Fortunately, in Call of Duty 2, one of your "allied" soldiers has been given the name of the lead designer on the game. When you need to vent your rage, you can always shoot him.
Now that's the kind of thing gamers really need
Posted by pooka (Member # 1738) on :
"See this look on my face? It's 'terror'."
Posted by Survivor (Member # 213) on :
You know, I tried to figure out which of them is saying that (so I could see whether he really had a look of terror), and I could never figure it out.
Did you already post "This is it, baby. Hold me."?
Posted by Pyre Dynasty (Member # 1947) on :
quote:My submission is in 16 point wingdings, written entirely in second person with multiple colors to indicate my mood as I wrote the story. Keely
Posted by pooka (Member # 1738) on :
I still don't know what TANSTAAFL is supposed to mean. Just saying. This isn't a good line or anything.
Posted by Corky (Member # 2714) on :
TANSTAAFL
"There ain't no such thing as a free lunch."
I think it's from Heinlein, but he may have stolen it from someone else.
Posted by Survivor (Member # 213) on :
I have to say, while Heinlein is a great writer, he's also a miserable ingrate.
Posted by Survivor (Member # 213) on :
quote:It is tempting to believe that social evils arise from the activities of evil men and if only good men (like ourselves, naturally) were in power, all would be well. That view requires only emotion and self-praise--easy to come by and satisfying as well
Posted by pooka (Member # 1738) on :
Hmmm. Is "A" really an acronym for "a"?
There is a great scene in Anna Karenina involving a man trying to determine whether a young lady will accept his proposal via a game of "secretary" or communicating in acronyms.
Oh, and here's a line:
quote: You shovel like no man I've ever met. But that does not make you a superhero.
[This message has been edited by pooka (edited June 05, 2006).]
Posted by Pyre Dynasty (Member # 1947) on :
"When you can balance a tack hammer on your head then you can hammer attacks with balance." (OSLT)
Posted by hoptoad (Member # 2145) on :
"What's a buccaneer?" "It's the things on the side of your buccan head".
Wait, is this the punchline thread?
Posted by trousercuit (Member # 3235) on :
As long as it's movie quotes:
quote:Mr. Furious: Okay, am I the only one who finds these sayings just a little bit formulaic? "If you want to push something down, you have to pull it up. If you want to go left, you have to go right." It's...
The Sphinx: Your temper is very quick, my friend. But until you learn to master your rage...
Mr. Furious: ...your rage will become your master? That's what you were going to say. Right? Right?
Posted by trousercuit (Member # 3235) on :
quote:Gwen DeMarco: They're not ALL "historical documents." Surely, you don't think Gilligan's Island is a... [All the Thermians moan in despair] Mathesar: Those poor people.
Posted by Robert Nowall (Member # 2764) on :
"A" is "a"? Sounds vaguely Randian...
Posted by pooka (Member # 1738) on :
quote:"Genghis Khan had this marker, but Joe Smith in the Genghis Khan army also had this Y chromosome."
Okay, maybe that is sort of arcane humor. It was in an article on Yahoo about this DNA genealogy business. It is revealed more than halfway through the article that they have no evidence of GK's actual DNA, just that there was an individual in Central Asia with 17 million descendants today and they feel GK is a likely candidate. But obviously, he got his genes from someone else and it's probable a lot of other guys did as well.
Posted by Nietge (Member # 3474) on :
Hmm, along the general topic of memorable lines from fiction...let's try on for size, if you will, Yoda's Pick-Up Line #254:
"Mm! So good your shirt looks...on my bedroom floor even better would look!"
Okay, perhaps that might not get a sizable number of appreciable votes. Scratch that.
"If you can't win...then there are alternatives to fighting."
Or perhaps...
"You might think it's a bit of a long walk to the chemist's, but that's just peanuts to space."
--VJS
[This message has been edited by Nietge (edited June 07, 2006).]
Posted by Rhyner (Member # 3480) on :
One line that makes me blissfully happy is from Douglas Adams's unfinished work The Salmon of Doubt, in which he describes a building as "old and dilapidated and remained standing more out of habit than from any inherent structural integrity."
