Favourite quotes

[Verena]

Have we done this yet?

Last night at bed time, the ever loving and caring Mr Z asked me if I was ok. Having reassured him that I'm fine, that "it's not you, it's me", and explained that I'm just at the mercy of some unhelpful hormones swishing about, I came out with this, which afterwards we thought was a bit of a gem:

"It's just that the whole world is badly designed; poorly executed; and generally out to get me; and to make me fat"

Anyone else have any good quotes?

[Boab]

Crash programs fail because they are based on theory that, with nine women pregnant, you can get a baby in a month. -- Wernher von Braun

[ScotRoutes]

See my sig.

Perfectly relevant for today's bikepacker.

[Verena]

See my sig.

Perfectly relevant for today's bikepacker.

Of course, silly me, everyone has their favourite quotes in their signature

[The Cumbrian]

This post has reminded me to add mine.

[Bearbonesnorm]

"f*ck me, this f*cking f*cker's f*cking f*cked" ... heard shouted from beneath a van one day.

[ScotRoutes]

See my sig.

Perfectly relevant for today's bikepacker.

Of course, silly me, everyone has their favourite quotes in their signature

You can also have

"You can't eat the scenery Mac!"

[ton]

i used to work with a old fella who was always saying ' it is nice to be nice'.
and as a younger bloke it used to annoy the f*^$ out of me.

but the older i get, i realise that it actually is ' nice to be nice'.

[whitestone]

Two from my programming days:

Programming today is a race between software engineers striving to build bigger and better idiot-proof programs, and the Universe trying to produce bigger and better idiots. So far, the Universe is winning.

Always code as if the guy who ends up maintaining your code will be a violent psychopath who knows where you live

One that my gran used to say regularly:

There's a little good in the worst of us and a little bad in the best of us so it doesn't behove any of us to talk about the rest of us.

[techno]

" It pays to keep an open mind, but not so open your brains fall out."

Carl Sagan

[Dave Barter]

"f*ck me, this f*cking f*cker's f*cking f*cked" ... heard shouted from beneath a van one day.

This reminded me of my mates brother who tells a story of climbing on the Troll Wall. A climber on the pitch next to him abseiled off the end of his rope having forgotten to tie it off. Apparently he simply exclaimed “F**ck it” then fell to his death.

[frogatthefarriers]

Richard Nixon - “if you lead ‘em by the balls, their heart and minds will surely follow”

[Rob S]

"The graveyards are full of people who were in the right"

My dad, after a stint in the Air Force and a lifetime of flying. Always makes me think twice before committing to anything.

[belugabob]

"Somebody, somewhere, is breeding idiots - and giving them my address..."

[MuddyPete]

"It's nice to be important; but it's more important to be nice" (Railway ticket bloke at Manchester Piccadilly) .

"Better to be 10 minutes late in this life, than 20 years too early in the next" (my dad; who's still here, dispensing wisdom) .

[Ray Young]

"I don't drink water. Fish piss in it". WC Fields.

[metalheart]

I have lots of favourite quotes:

Mistakes are always forgivable if one has the courage to admit them ~ Bruce Lee

If you don’t want to slip up tomorrow speak the truth today ~ (also) Bruce Lee

C’est un jour comme les autres

I’m not here to entertain you, I’m here to make you uncomfortable ~ Luis Buñuel

Por favor Dios, conviérteme en piedra

Tu ausencia llena mi vida ~ Pedro Almodóvar’s Julieta

Do you reject evil and refuse to mastered by it?

Long life is not at all Gods gift for me, it’s a punishment ~ Koku Istambulova

Comparison is the thief of joy ~ T Roosevelt

Sorry won’t unbreak the cup

All the birds are singing that you’re gonna die ~ from the internet’

It’s a sair fecht fir half a loafie ~ my old mum

I’m a cheery old bugger me...

Damn, forgot the most important one : Metal heart, you're not worth a thing ~ Cat Power

[RIP]

"Life itself is a quotation"

JL Borges

[jameso]

"There is considerable overlap between the intelligence of the smartest bears and the dumbest tourists."

Great quote from a park ranger about the design of bear-proof rubbish bins. Sums up so much in design. Be clever but don't be a smart arse. Some of the bike industry suffering from smartarseism judging by what gets put on bikes these days.

Matt Lee might have written the most that influenced me in the riding area of life, just in forum posts 2011-2012. Taking distance racing back to experiential motivation rather than racing alone.
"Mother nature puts on quite the show for those who are watching".
So true. Being able to see the natural world and the sky is constantly fascinating and incredible.

+1 for anything Carl Sagan said or wrote. The latter half of Cosmos was a massive eye-opener for me, like it shifted my sense of scale. I just started on another book of his based on a lecture he gave partly on how faith and science co-exist, or why science could even inspire faith. I don't fully relate to faith and I don't grasp the science so I'm in awe of how he's able to see the two at that level, together and not as conflicts. A mind at the scale of the topics he covers.
Then there's all the quotes or lines by Lao Tzu and others who seemed to be treading the same line between a faith and a scientific (astrophysics?) understanding of the world 2500 years ago.

"We are made of star stuff, we are the way for the universe to know itself" Carl Sagan
I mean.. fk... I can lie in a bivi bag under a clear night sky, think of that line and it's somewhere between awe and a mental error message. I feel grateful that his level of thinking was shared in a way that meant we could begin grasp the magnitude without needing to understand the working out behind it.

"..but it doesn't matter, because this is just a ride."
- Bill Hicks.

[thenorthwind]

"Insanity is the only sane reaction to an insane society" is one that always sticks in my head. Thomas Szasz (sp?) I think.

[TheBrownDog]

"I don't drink water. Fish piss in it". WC Fields.

One of my favourites. If memory serves he was asked if he would like water with his scotch. And I'm pretty sure it was "I don't drink water. Fish f**k in it."

[TheBrownDog]

And I have just realised that the quote in my sig is WRONG ... It's a part of the quote from Lawrence Oates as he sacrificed himself in the Scott expedition to the South Pole. The full quote is of course: "I'm just going outside and may be some time." I must sort it out.

[AndreR]

The traveler sees what he sees, the tourist sees what he has come to see - G K Chesterton

[fatbikephil]

Mines a variation on Andre's signature
"If at first you don't succeed, it doesn't matter and don't feel compelled to try again unless you really want to"
Trying to get away from all of this competitive, win at all costs, nonsense that has plagued society throughout history and left a lot of broken people in its wake.

[JohnClimber]

Enjoy not endure

Over 50? Never pass up a chance of a wee when you see a toilet sign

I may be dumb, but I'm not carbon stem dumb