What's your favorite quote?

[LittleSparks]

LittleSparks, here's another Ogden Nash poem:

In His wisdom
God made the fly.
And then forgot
To tell us why.

He's got to be one of my favorite poets of all time. It's a challenge to think of another poet who so lightheartedly asks tough questions.

"One thing that literature would be greatly the better for
Would be a more restricted employment by the authors of simile and
metaphor.
Authors of all races, be they Greeks, Romans, Teutons or Celts,
Can't seem just to say that anything is the thing it is but have to
go out of their way to say that it is like something else."

 

[Lord_Michael]

I agree, LittleSparks, although Nash can be quite serious when he wishes to be.

But let's not forget e.e. cummings, whose wordplay and unconventional way of seeing and recording can be extraordinarily delightful. For example:

Buffalo Bill 's
defunct
who used to
ride a watersmooth-silver
stallion
and break onetwothreefourfive pigeonsjustlikethat


Jesus
he was a handsome man
and what i want to know is
how do you like your blueeyed boy
Mister Death

 

[LittleSparks]

Ooh good one!

 

[Lord_Michael]

LittleSparks, sometimes Nash can ask some serious questions, albeit in a humorous vein. On the other hand, often he's just silly. Submitted for your approval:

THE MULE
In the world of mules
There are no rules.

or........

THE LION
Oh, weep for Mr. and Mrs. Bryan!
He was eaten by a lion;
Following which, the lion's lioness
Up and swallowed Bryan's Bryaness.

or, a bit more seriously........

THE MIDDLE
When I remember bygone days
I think how evening follows morn;
So many I loved were not yet dead,
So many I love were not yet born.

and finally, for now.........

MY DADDY
I have a funny daddy
Who goes in and out with me,
And everything that baby does
My daddy's sure to see,
And everything that baby says
My daddy's sure to tell.
You must have read my daddy's verse.
I hope he fries in hell.

 

[blulilacgrl]

Lately the one that has been getting me through the shitstorm of life is:

"Either pray or worry, but don't do both."

Seems simplistic but it has definitely helped.

 

[Lord_Michael]

"There are good days and there are bad days, and this is one of them."

--Lawrence Welk

 

[Curious_in_Cali]

“There is no real ending. It’s just the place where you stop the story.”
~ Frank Herbert

 

[sheablue]

If we're talking poetry, I was reminded of this one recently. One of my favorites:

This Is Just To Say

by William Carlos Williams

I have eaten
the plums
that were in
the icebox

and which
you were probably
saving
for breakfast

Forgive me
they were delicious
so sweet
and so cold

 

[Lord_Michael]

"Last week, I stated this woman was the ugliest woman I had ever seen. I have since been visited by her sister, and now wish to withdraw that statement."

--Mark Twain

 

[Scentofawoman]

 

[Salenku]

It's not very serious, but I love this from Tom waits:

"I'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy"

 

[knot_sweet]

Courtesy of Neil Gaiman; Doctor Who, Series 6, Episode 4, "The Doctor's Wife" -

"Biting's excellent. It's like kissing. Only there's a winner"

 

[sheablue]

Courtesy of Neil Gaiman; Doctor Who, Series 6, Episode 4, "The Doctor's Wife" -

"Biting's excellent. It's like kissing. Only there's a winner"

Oh my! I love Neil Gaiman, and I love that quote!

 

[sheablue]

“I do not want to be the leader. I refuse to be the leader. I want to live darkly and richly in my femaleness. I want a man lying over me, always over me. His will, his pleasure, his desire, his life, his work, his sexuality the touchstone, the command, my pivot. I don’t mind working, holding my ground intellectually, artistically; but as a woman, oh, God, as a woman I want to be dominated. I don’t mind being told to stand on my own feet, not to cling, be all that I am capable of doing, but I am going to be pursued, fucked, possessed by the will of a male at his time, his bidding.”


― Anaïs Nin

 

[Lord_Michael]

"Sex is one of the nine reasons for incarnation. The other eight are unimportant."

-- George Burns

 

[Lord_Michael]

"I distrust those people who know so well what God wants them to do, because I notice it always coincides with their own desires."

-- Susan B. Anthony

 

[Niam1985]

Courtesy of Neil Gaiman; Doctor Who, Series 6, Episode 4, "The Doctor's Wife" -

"Biting's excellent. It's like kissing. Only there's a winner"

yeah, that one is a personal favorite.

 

[Lord_Michael]

"Punctuality was not Susan's strength. She always intended to be on time, but she seemed to have some kind of chronometric dyslexia, which thwarted her intent, nearly always."

--Robert B. Parker, Hugger Mugger

"Chronometric dyslexia"! What a terrific phrase!

 

[Scentofawoman]

Why don't you pretend you're explaining to someone educated on the penal system.

Better yet, don't pretend

 

[InsatiableDsire]

Favorite for today

"inside each one of us argyle-sock schoolteachers, there's an Amsterdam hooker wearing a gold thong and suspenders. Inside her is a wool-suited librarian reshelving books of 18th-century poetry. And inside her is an 18-year-old Iowa cheerleader on some sinful mission in her Trans Am. And at the heart is Eve, barefoot in an orchard."

 

[Lord_Michael]

"The difference between pornography and erotica is lighting."

-- Gloria Leonard

 

[midwestyankee]

"Instant gratification takes too long." Carrie Fisher

 

[Lord_Michael]

"An intellectual snob is someone who can listen to the William Tell Overture and not think of The Lone Ranger."

--Dan Rather

 

[Lord_Michael]

"Friends may come and go, but enemies accumulate."

--Dr. Thomas Jones, Jr.

 

[asfucwit]

you can take a whore to culture but you can not make her think