theNoosphere.com

I like to collect famous quotations that have made an impact in history. The first one is from a famous philosopher;

“What is good? To crush your enemies. To see them driven before you. And to hear the lamentations of their women.”

Conan the Barbarian

So why is this quotation so important or famous? Because in reality, Conan stole this quote from someone else without attribution. And that person was no less than a Mongolian named Chingis Khan, who later became famous for his barbeque. He had said;

“The greatest pleasure is to vanquish your enemies and chase them before you, to rob of them of their wealth and see those dear to them bathed in tears, to ride their horses and clasp to your bosom their wives and daughters.”

(Signed) Chingis Khan, God in heaven, the Khakan, the power of God on Earth. The seal of the Emperor of Mankind (Approx 1220 AD)

Chingis was so pissed at Conan that in 1241 AD he sent the Mongol armies under his sons Batu, Subedei, and Mangku to invade Europe and defeated the armies of Hungary at Liegnitz in eastern Hungary. At least 60,000 Hungarians were slaughtered. The Mongols drove virtually unopposed into Austria, Bavaria, northern Italy, the Balkans, and Poland, slaughtering many along the way in their search for Conan.

However buffed he was, Conan was a wimp, and fled by swimming across the Atlantic and settling in what is now Hollywood. To hide his identity from Chingis, who had settled in Chinatown, he did some time traveling and became known as the Terminator. Eventually he was elected governor of the state of California.

So if Conan hadn’t stolen Chingis’ saying, someone else would be governor of California. 'Nuff said.

What’s your favorite quote?

An oldie but a goodie:

"We shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender."

Winston Churchill

One of my favorite Churchillisms;

The further backward you look, the further forward you can see.

A couple of favorites...

Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.

Benjamin Franklin

I think this is the most extraordinary collection of talent, of human knowledge, that has ever been gathered at the White House - with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined alone.

John Kennedy

Et tu, Brute.

Gaius Julius Caesar (paraphrasing by Bill)

Neophyte; I like the JFK quote too, but it sounds much better when you put it in context. The Prez said that at a formal dinner at the White House for a bunch of Nobel Prize winners and exalted academicians. JFK left a long and pregnant pause between the first and second phrases (where you have the "dash") and received a heartfelt round of applause after delivering the punch line.

Yeah, I considered adding that data and in hindsight I should have. I was going for the "clean" look with the post but it was a mistake.

Good call putting it in there, sir.

"Never try and teach a pig to sing.

It annoys the pig, and its a waste of your time."

- reportedly said by Mark Twain (although it may be pre-date him)

This is actually a favorite subject of mine....there are just too many to put down. I could easily go to a page of Will Rogers' quotes and camp out for a while.

The other day, though, I saw a funny quote from an unexpected source (pertaining to the game of football):

"It's a contact sport....sometimes you're the bug; sometimes you're the windshield."

--Conrad Dobler

Oh, and as for Will Rogers, here're a few good ones:

"Half our life is spent trying to find something to do with the time we have rushed through life trying to save."

"I don't make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts."

"Diplomats are just as essential to starting a war as soldiers are for finishing it... You take diplomacy out of war, and the thing would fall flat in a week."

"Instead of giving money to found colleges to promote learning, why don't they pass a constitutional amendment prohibiting anybody from learning anything? If it works as good as the Prohibition one did, why, in five years we would have the smartest race of people on earth."

Boone; This is one of my favorite Twain quotes:

Twain, who was not at all religious, was approached by a devout Christian and asked whether he (Twain) was afraid of what would happen to him after his death, since he was not a believer in the afterlife. Twain responded:

I do not fear death. I had been dead for billions and billions of years before I was born, and had not suffered the slightest inconvenience from it.

Today's crazy dreams are tomorrow's practical realities" Robert Sterling quoting Admiral Nelson in "Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea" 1961

and

“A day without sunshine is like, you know, night.” Steve Martin

....one more

All of us have in our veins the exact same percentage of salt in our blood that exists in the ocean, and, therefore, we have salt in our blood, in our sweat, in our tears. We are tied to the ocean. And when we go back to the sea -- whether it is to sail or to watch it -- we are going back from whence we came.
John F. Kennedy, Speech given at Newport at the dinner before the America's Cup Races, September 1962

This may explain the problems we have had with Vietnam and Iraq;

The nation that makes a great distinction between its scholars and its warriors will have its thinking done by cowards and its fighting done by fools.

By a Spartan king, quoted by Thucydides

If our leaders, scholars, and self-professed intelligentia had actually served in the military and in combat, we might have had a better understanding of the capabilities and limitations of the military and the use of force.

"Let me tell you something you already know. The world ain't all sunshine and rainbows. It's a very mean and nasty place and I don't care how tough you are it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain't about how hard ya get hit. It's about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward." ~ Rocky Balboa

I have never been able to source this one. I've been told it's Twain, but I haven't found it there. But it does explain why we are sometimes surprised when the cop all of a sudden has us spread-eagled against the side of his car;


The trouble with trouble is that it usually begins with fun.

Unknown author

We've heard that a million monkeys at a million keyboards could produce the complete works of Shakespeare; now, thanks to the Internet, we know that is not true.

~ Robery Wilensky, Professor Emeritus at UC Berkely, at a 1996 news conference