Favorite Quotes

[Skyblade]

"Life is like a piano. The white keys representing happiness and the black keys representing sadness. But as life goes on, you realize that the black keys make music, too."

- I don't know. Someone very inspirational, that's for sure

PS. I have to say it again - this is a great thread.

[Banya]

I really like that.  And I agree, this is a great thread.

"She was becoming herself and daily casting aside that fictitious self which we assume like a garment with which to appear before the world."
—Kate Chopin, The Awakening

"If there was no God it would be necessary to invent him" - Voltaire.

Hmm I like this too.

[Skyblade]

"Life is like a coin. You can spend it any way you choose, but you can only spend it once."
~ Lillian Dickson

"Always turn a negative situation into a positive situation."
~ Michael Jordon

"Life isn't about waiting for the storm to pass. It's about learning to dance in the rain."
~ Vivian Greene

[Jetthebinturong]

This is long but I'm not spoilering it because it's the best introduction to a book I can think of except maybe The Dragons of Winter's prologue

"The temperature of the room dropped fast. Ice formed on the curtains and crusted thickly around the lights in the ceiling. The glowing filaments in each bulb shrank and dimmed, while the candles that sprang from every available surface like a colony of toadstools had their wicks snuffed out. The darkened room filled with a yellow, choking cloud of brimstone, in which indistinct black shadows writhed and roiled. From far away came the sound of many voices screaming. A pressure was suddenly applied to the door that led to the landing. It bulged inwards, the timbers groaning. Footsteps from invisible feet came pattering across the floorboards and invisible mouths whispered wicked things from behind the bed and under the desk.
The sulphur cloud contracted into a thick column of smoke that vomited forth thin tendrils; they licked the air like tongues before withdrawing. The column hung above the middle of a pentacle, bubbling ever upwards against the ceiling like the cloud of an erupting volcano. There was a barely perceptible pause. Then two yellow staring eyes materialized in the heart of the smoke.
Hey, it was his first time. I wanted to scare him.
And I did too. The dark-haired boy stood in a pentacle of his own, smaller, filled with different runes, a metre away from the main one. He was pale as a corpse, shaking like a dead leaf in a high wind. His teeth rattled in his shivering jaw. Beads of sweat dripped from his brow, turning to ice as they fell through the air. They tinkled with the sound of hailstones on the floor.
All well and good, but so what? I mean, he looked about twelve years old. Wide-eyed, hollow-cheeked. There's not that much satisfaction to be had from scaring the pants off a scrawny kid.
So I floated and waited, hoping he wouldn't take too long to get round to the dismissing spell. To keep myself occupied I made blue flames lick up around the inner edges of the pentacle, as if they were seeking a way to get out and nab him. All hokum, of course. I'd already checked and the seal was drawn well enough. No spelling mistakes anywhere, unfortunately.
At last it looked as if the urchin was plucking up the courage to speak. I guessed this by a stammering about his lips that didn't seem to be induced by pure fear alone. I let the blue fire die away to be replaced by a foul smell.
The kid spoke. Very squeakily.
'I charge you. . .to. . .to. . .' Get on with it! '. . .t-t-tell me your n-name.'
That's usually how they start, the young ones. Meaningless waffle. He knew and I knew that he knew my name already; otherwise how could he have summoned me in the first place? You need the right words, the right actions and most of all the right name. I mean, it's not like hailing a cab - you don't get just anybody when you call.
I chose a rich, deep, dark chocolatey sort of voice, the kind that resounds from everywhere and nowhere and makes the hairs stand up on the back of inexperienced necks.
'BARTIMAEUS.'
I saw the kid give a strangled kind of gulp when he heard the word. Good - he wasn't entirely stupid then: he knew who and what I was. He knew my reputation.
After taking a moment to swallow some accumulated phlegm he spoke again. 'I-I charge you again to answer. Are you that B-Bartimaeus who in olden times was summoned by the magicians to repair the walls of Prague?'
What a time-waster this kid was. Who else could it be? I upped the volume a bit on this one. The ice on the light bulbs cracked like caramelized sugar. Behind the dirty curtains the window glass shimmered and hummed. The kid rocked back on his heels.
'I am Bartimaeus! I am Sahkr al-Jinni, N'gorso the Mighty and the Serpent of the Silver Plumes! I have rebuilt the walls of Uruk, Karnak and Prague. I have spoken with Solomon. I have run with the buffalo fathers of the plains. I have watched over Old Zimbabwe till the stones fell and the jackals fed on its people. I am Bartimaeus! I recognize no master. So I charge you in your turn, boy. Who are you to summon me?'
- The Amulet of Samarkand, Jonathan Stroud

[Luftwaffles]

"No se puede apuñalar por la espalda a quien va de frente" (it basically means that you can't backstab a honest person, no matter how hard you try... it does have a deeper meaning in Spanish, though).

[Wot, wot!]

  A creative play on words to make something so true...

"When the power of love is greater than the love of power, we will have peace."
~bumper sticker

[Banya]

My manager today at work when I was the only person scheduled: "What's up Banya*, my party peep?"

*It sounds better with my real name, but Banya will have to do.  I just find this hilarious. 

[Luftwaffles]

"It is better to reign in Heck that serve in Heaven" - Paradise Lost, John Milton. For some reason, I find this quote to be extremely inspiring.

[Skyblade]

More Internet quotes:

"Don't do something permanently stupid because you're temporarily upset."

"Because if you stop and look around this life is pretty amazing."

[Luftwaffles]

"They laugh at me because I'm different. I laugh at them because they're all the same" - Kurt Cobain.

[FastFang]

If you think you are too small to make a difference, try sleeping with a mosquito

-Dalai Lama

[Jetthebinturong]

My body may be a temple but i am the god to whom it is devoted
Do not presume to tell me how i may decorate my altar
-Someone on Tumblr

[Skyblade]

Quote from W. H. Auden's "The More Loving One":
How should we like it were stars to burn
With a passion for us we could not return?
If equal affection cannot be,
Let the more loving one be me.

If you really examine this, you'll find that this is a very brave and selfless thing to say (at least, according to the way I analyze it ). I would post the whole poem, but it has some curse words. If you're curious about it and think you're mature enough, try looking it up...

If you think you are too small to make a difference, try sleeping with a mosquito

-Dalai Lama

Oooh, nice!

[Luftwaffles]

I read this on a signature last night:

"To the world you are maybe one person, but to one person you might be the world".

Awesome

[Banya]

"Vulgarity is no substitute for wit."

"Principles are like prayers: noble, of course, but awkward at a party."

- Dowager Countess, Downton Abbey