Pretentious quotations being the surest road to tedium [1]

[chickenfeet]

Gacked from a_d_medievalist

Go here and look through random quotes until you find 5 that you think reflect who you are or what you believe. Alternatively find your own five steenking quotes.

We must make an idol of our fear, and call it God.
--Ingmar Bergman, Sceenplay for The Seventh Seal

For really I think that the poorest he that is in England hath a life to live, as the greatest he; and therefore truly, sir, I think it's clear, that every man that is to live under a government ought first by his own consent to put himself under that government.
--Colonel Rainborough, Putney 1647

Mathematics, rightly viewed, possesses not only truth, but supreme beauty - a beauty cold and austere, like that of sculpture.
--Bertrand Russell, Philosophical Essays

Ignorance is an evil weed, which dictators may cultivate among their dupes, but which no democracy can afford among its citizens.
--William Beveridge, Full Employment in a Free Society

The philosophers have only interpreted the world in various ways; the point is to change it.
--Karl Marx Theses on Feuerbach

fn1: HW and FG Fowler, The King's English

Comments

[a-d-medievalist.livejournal.com]

I saw none so good as those!

[shezan.livejournal.com]

Cold and austere, huh? I always knew Bertrand Russell was vastly overrated.



But I like Colonel Rainborough

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

Cold and austere, huh? I always knew Bertrand Russell was vastly overrated.

I'm not sure he knew much about sculpture but as a philosopher of mathematics I rate him highly.

But I like Colonel Rainborough

I'd never have thought of you as a Leveller.

[shezan.livejournal.com]

Heh. It's the Libertarian in me. (At any rate, the quote you chose is absolutely wonderful, especially if you reflect that it's said at the beginning of the rule of Louis XIV - the modernity!)

And of course BR, as far as I can tell, knew about math. I'd like to say that no doubt Noam Chomsky knows about linguistics, but that's a bit harsh on poor BR...