George R.R. Martin (A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, #1))
“
Basia coquum," Simon said. "Or whatever their motto is."
"It's 'Descensus Averno facilis est.' 'The descent into hell is easy," said Alec. "You just said "Kiss the cook."
"Dammit," said Simon. "I knew Jace was screwing with me.
”
”
Cassandra Clare (City of Lost Souls (The Mortal Instruments, #5))
“
Be a little kinder than you have to.
”
”
E. Lockhart (We Were Liars)
“
Life before Death.
Strength before Weakness.
Journey before Destination.
”
”
Brandon Sanderson (The Way of Kings (The Stormlight Archive, #1))
“
Everything in moderation, including moderation.
”
”
Oscar Wilde
“
Always do what you're afraid to do.
”
”
E. Lockhart (We Were Liars)
“
That is the motto women should constantly repeat over and over again. Good for her! Not for me.
”
”
Amy Poehler (Yes Please)
“
Welcome to Perdido beach, where our motto is: Radiation, what radiation?
”
”
Michael Grant (Gone (Gone, #1))
“
Run first,' Shane said. 'Mourn later.'
It was the perfect motto for Morganville.
”
”
Rachel Caine (Glass Houses (The Morganville Vampires, #1))
“
Motto"
In the dark times
Will there also be singing?
Yes, there will also be singing.
About the dark times.
”
”
Bertolt Brecht
“
A good motto to live by: 'Always try not to get killed.
”
”
George Carlin
“
All hope abandon, ye who enter here.
”
”
Dante Alighieri (The Divine Comedy)
“
Draco Dormiens Nunquam Titillandus
[never tickle a sleeping dragon]
”
”
J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (Harry Potter, #1))
“
My name is Celaena Sardothien," she whispered, "and I will not be afraid.
”
”
Sarah J. Maas (The Assassin's Blade (Throne of Glass, #0.1-0.5))
“
So I say, “Live and let live.” That’s my motto. “Live and let live.” And anyone who can’t go along with that, take him outside and shoot the motherfucker. It’s a simple philosophy, but it’s always worked in our family.
”
”
George Carlin
“
Cogito ergo sum. (I think, therefore I am.)
”
”
René Descartes
“
I stay cool, and dig all jive,
That's the way I stay alive.
My motto,
as I live and learn,
is
Dig and be dug
In return.
”
”
Langston Hughes
“
When you're small enough to have to look up at everyone around you, there's no such thing as a dirty fight. That's a new motto for me. I think I'll keep it.
”
”
Susan Ee (Angelfall (Penryn & the End of Days, #1))
“
Dance like it hurts. Love like you need money. Work when people are watching. -- Dogbert's Motto
”
”
Scott Adams
“
Divide and rule, a sound motto. Unite and lead, a better one.
”
”
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
“
What’s the Nephilim motto again?”
“ ‘We are dust and shadows,’ ” said Ty, not looking up from his book.
“Some of us are very handsome dust,” Jace added
”
”
Cassandra Clare (Lord of Shadows (The Dark Artifices, #2))
“
Fighting for peace, is like f***ing for chastity
”
”
Stephen King (Hearts in Atlantis)
“
Always do what you're afraid to do.
...
I will prove myself strong when they think I am sick.
I will prove myself brave when they think I am weak.
”
”
E. Lockhart (We Were Liars)
“
Clearly,' said Luke, 'something's going on that I don't know about.'
Simon looked over at him. 'Sometimes I think that's the motto of my life.
”
”
Cassandra Clare (City of Fallen Angels (The Mortal Instruments, #4))
“
Love one person at a time, that’s the motto I’ll try to get my clones to live by.
”
”
Jarod Kintz (This Book is Not for Sale)
“
First in , Last out.
Motto of the bridgeburners
”
”
Steven Erikson (Memories of Ice (Malazan Book of the Fallen, #3))
“
Enlightenment is man's release from his self-incurred tutelage. Tutelage is man's inability to make use of his understanding without direction from another. Self-incurred is this tutelage when its cause lies not in lack of reason but in lack of resolution and courage to use it without direction from another. Sapere aude! 'Have courage to use your own reason!'- that is the motto of enlightenment.
”
”
Immanuel Kant (An Answer to the Question: What Is Enlightenment?)
“
For the future, the motto is, "No days unalert.
”
”
Robert Greene (The 48 Laws of Power)
“
Let me put it this way, my father believed in a righteous God. Deus volt, that was his motto- 'because God wills it.' It was the Crusaders' motto, and they went into battle and were slaughtered just like my father. And when I saw him lying dead in a pool of his own blood, I knew then that I hadn't stopped believing in God. I'd just stopped believing God cared. There might be a God, Clary, and there might not, but I don't think it matters. Either way we're on our own.
”
”
Cassandra Clare (City of Bones (The Mortal Instruments, #1))
“
I desire to live in peace and to continue the life I have begun under the motto 'to live well you must live unseen
”
”
René Descartes (The Principles Of Philosophy)
“
It's my motto for life. 'Walk slowly; drink lots of water.
”
”
Haruki Murakami (After Dark)
“
Shapeshifter parenting motto—if your kid slits somebody's throat, always have a backup plan to make the body disappear.
”
”
Ilona Andrews (Magic Slays (Kate Daniels, #5))
“
If you want one thing too much it’s likely to be a disappointment. The healthy way is to learn to like the everyday things, like soft beds and buttermilk—and feisty gentlemen.
”
”
Larry McMurtry (Lonesome Dove (Lonesome Dove, #1))
“
I have come to realize making yourself happy is most important. Never be ashamed of how you feel. You have the right feel any emotion you want, and do what makes you happy. That's my life motto"<3
”
”
Demi Lovato
“
Hide yourself in God, so when a man wants to find you he will have to go there first.
”
”
Shannon L. Alder
“
All for one and one for all.
”
”
Alexandre Dumas (The Three Musketeers (The D'Artagnan Romances, #1))
“
VI VERI VENIVERSUM VIVUS VICI.
By the Power of Truth, I, while living, have Conquered the Universe.
”
”
Alan Moore (V for Vendetta #2)
“
Don’t wait to be hunted to hide, that was always my motto.
”
”
Samuel Beckett (Molloy)
“
All men have fears, but the brave put down their fears and go forward, sometimes to death, but always to victory” was the motto of the King’s Guard in ancient Greece.
”
”
Dale Carnegie (How to Win Friends and Influence People)
“
His answer to every problem, every setback was “I will work harder!” —which he had adopted as his personal motto.
”
”
George Orwell (Animal Farm)
“
Xedrix-"No, our motto is 'everything tastes better with hot sauce.
”
”
Sherrilyn Kenyon (Bad Moon Rising (Dark-Hunter, #18; Were-Hunter, #4; Hellchaser, #2))
“
Well, Anastasia, my new motto is, 'If you can't beat'em, join'em
”
”
E.L. James (Fifty Shades Darker (Fifty Shades, #2))
“
follow your heart! (sppotedleafs motto)
”
”
Erin Hunter (Into the Wild (Warriors, #1))
“
A Lannister always pays his debts.
”
”
George R.R. Martin (A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, #1))
“
She gazed up at him. "Just don't forget our new motto, Leo. 'We can always murder them later, but we can't bring them back.'"
"My wise and clever Bride.
”
”
Kresley Cole (Lothaire (Immortals After Dark, #11))
“
Lex malla, lex nulla,” said Julian with a regretful wave of his hand. It was the Blackthorn family motto: A bad law is no law.
“I wonder what other family mottoes are,” Emma mused. “Do you know any?”
“The Lightwood family motto is ‘We mean well.’ ”
“Very funny.”
Julian looked over at her. “No, really, it actually is.”
“Seriously? So what’s the Herondale family motto? ‘Chiseled but angsty’?”
He shrugged. ‘If you don’t know what your last name is, it’s probably Herondale’?”
Emma burst out laughing. “What about Carstairs?” she asked, tapping Cortana. “ ‘We have a sword’? ‘Blunt instruments are for losers’?”
“Morgenstern,” offered Julian. “ ‘When in doubt, start a war’?
”
”
Cassandra Clare (Lord of Shadows (The Dark Artifices, #2))
“
I no longer drink nearly as much as I used to but, still, my motto is Sine coffea nihil sum. Without coffee, I'm nothing.
”
”
Sarah Vowell
“
America used to live by the motto "Father Knows Best." Now we're lucky if "Father Knows He Has Children." We've become a nation of sperm donors and baby daddies.
”
”
Stephen Colbert (I Am America (And So Can You!))
“
A motto I've adopted is, if at first you don't succeed, hide all evidence that you ever tried.
”
”
Billy Collins
“
Don't confuse me with those who cling to hope. I enjoy describing how things are, I have no interest in how they 'ought to be.' And I certainly have no interest in fixing them. I sincerely believe that if you think there's a solution, you're part of the problem. My motto: Fuck Hope!
”
”
George Carlin (Brain Droppings)
“
Humanity, you never had it from the beginning." That was my motto.
”
”
Charles Bukowski (Women)
“
We've got a motto here-you're tougher than you think you are, and you can do more than you think you can.
”
”
Christopher McDougall (Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen)
“
Think of the patience God has had for you and let it resonate to others. If you want a more patient world, let patience be your motto
”
”
Steve Maraboli (Unapologetically You: Reflections on Life and the Human Experience)
“
Be prepared,' that's my motto." He smiled smugly at me. "That, and 'Sleep whenever possible.' Oh, and 'If you don't notice it's gone, what's the harm in me taking it?
”
”
Kiersten White (Supernaturally (Paranormalcy, #2))
“
The old adage "If you can't beat them, join them", to me is just a way of saying that you're weak. My motto is : "If you can't beat them, then you aren't fighting dirty enough.
”
”
Quinn Loftis (Elfin (The Elfin, #1))
“
Leave an extrovert alone for two minutes and he will reach for his cell phone. In contrast, after an hour or two of being socially “on,” we introverts need to turn off and recharge. My own formula is roughly two hours alone for every hour of socializing. This isn’t antisocial. It isn’t a sign of depression. It does not call for medication. For introverts, to be alone with our thoughts is as restorative as sleeping, as nourishing as eating. Our motto: “I’m okay, you’re okay—in small doses.
”
”
Jonathan Rauch
“
Be a little kinder than you have to.
Never eat anything bigger than your ass
Do not accept an evil you can change
Always do what your afraid to do
”
”
E. Lockhart (We Were Liars)
“
Forward momentum. That's my new motto. No regrets. And no going back.
”
”
Gayle Forman (Just One Day (Just One Day, #1))
“
I'm gonna party, see how intoxicated I can get and how many rules I can flaunt. That's my motto.
”
”
H.G. Bissinger (Friday Night Lights)
“
And now gentlemen, all for one, one for all - that is our motto, is it not?
”
”
Alexandre Dumas (The Three Musketeers (The D'Artagnan Romances, #1))
“
Have the courage to use your own reason- That is the motto of enlightenment.
"Foundations of the Metaphysics of
Morals" (1785)
”
”
Immanuel Kant
“
My personal motto is: WWWWD?: What Would Wonder Woman Do?
”
”
Libba Bray (Beauty Queens)
“
There's no solution to life, there's going to be problems no matter what.
”
”
Chris Colfer
“
Pack a pillow and blanket and see as much of the world as you can.You will not regret it.
”
”
Jhumpa Lahiri (The Namesake)
“
To begin with, let us take the following motto...Literature is Love. Now we can continue.
”
”
Vladimir Nabokov (Despair)
“
Esse quam videri," Celia says. "To be, rather than to seem.
”
”
Erin Morgenstern (The Night Circus)
“
Never get involved. That's my motto. I hurt no one. And no one can hurt me.
”
”
Adeline Yen Mah (Chinese Cinderella: The True Story of an Unwanted Daughter)
“
I do not understand how you humans can walk in shoes that are that tall.”
“Its my motto,” said Isabelle, with a sultry smile. “Nothing less than seven inches.
”
”
Cassandra Clare (City of Ashes (The Mortal Instruments, #2))
“
The gull sees farthest who flies highest
”
”
Richard Bach (Jonathan Livingston Seagull)
“
Nil desperandum, -- Never Despair. That is a motto for you and me. All are not dead; and where there is a spark of patriotic fire, we will rekindle it.
”
”
Samuel Adams
“
I heartily accept the motto, "That government is best which governs least"; and I should like to see it acted up to more rapidly and systematically. Carried out, it finally amounts to this, which also I believe — "That government is best which governs not at all"; and when men are prepared for it, that will be the kind of government which they will have. Government is at best but an expedient; but most governments are usually, and all governments are sometimes, inexpedient.
”
”
Henry David Thoreau
“
Say no to death pies. Another good motto.
”
”
Brandon Mull (A World Without Heroes (Beyonders, #1))
“
I knew that I shouldn’t have, but I did it all the same; and there you have my epitaph, or one of them, because my grave is going to require a monument inscribed on all four sides with rueful mottoes, in small characters, set close together.
”
”
Michael Chabon (Wonder Boys)
“
Too many words,” said Gideon confidentially. “How about these: One flesh, one end, bitch.
”
”
Tamsyn Muir (Gideon the Ninth (The Locked Tomb, #1))
“
The motto of West African cooking is that if the food doesn't set fire to the tablecloth the cook is being stingy with the pepper.
”
”
Ben Aaronovitch (Midnight Riot (Rivers of London #1))
“
Choice not chance determines your destiny
[my family motto...credited to Aristotle]
”
”
Aristotle
“
Animators Inc., where our motto was Where the Living Raise the Dead for a Killing.
”
”
Laurell K. Hamilton (Skin Trade (Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter, #17))
“
Commerce with all nations, alliance with none, should be our motto.
”
”
Thomas Jefferson
“
Go to faeries for gossip about vampires, to werewolves for gossip about faeries, and do not gossip about werewolves, because they try to bite your face off: that was Magnus's motto.
”
”
Cassandra Clare (Saving Raphael Santiago (The Bane Chronicles, #6))
“
Divide and conquer. That's my new family motto
”
”
Colleen Hoover (Slammed (Slammed, #1))
“
The aim of science is to seek the simplest explanations of complex facts. We are apt to fall into the error of thinking that the facts are simple because simplicity is the goal of our quest. The guiding motto in the life of every natural philosopher should be, 'Seek simplicity and distrust it.
”
”
Alfred North Whitehead (The Concept of Nature: The Tarner Lectures Delivered in Trinity College, 11/1919)
“
A motto of the human race: Let me do as I like, and give me approval as well.
”
”
Idries Shah (Reflections)
“
When I write I am trying to express my way of being in the world. This is primarily a process of elimination: once you have removed all the dead language, the second-hand dogma, the truths that are not your own but other people's, the mottos, the slogans, the out-and-out lies of your nation, the myths of your historical moment - once you have removed all that warps experience into a shape you do not recognise and do not believe in - what you are left with is something approximating the truth of your own conception.
”
”
Zadie Smith
“
Have the courage to use your own reason- That is the motto of enlightenment.
”
”
Immanuel Kant (Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals)
“
The school even had a Latin motto: Pergo et Perago, which sounded like the story of two Italian cannibals but which actually meant “I try and I achieve.
”
”
Anthony Horowitz (Crocodile Tears (Alex Rider, #8))
“
I blame my dad for my sweet tooth. His motto was 'Life is short; eat dessert first.' How can I argue with that?
”
”
Wendy Mass (Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life)
“
Master those books you have. Read them thoroughly. Bathe in them until they saturate you. Read and reread them…digest them. Let them go into your very self. Peruse a good book several times and make notes and analyses of it. A student will find that his mental constitution is more affected by one book thoroughly mastered than by twenty books he has merely skimmed. Little learning and much pride comes from hasty reading. Some men are disabled from thinking by their putting meditation away for the sake of much reading. In reading let your motto be ‘much not many.
”
”
Charles Haddon Spurgeon (Lectures to My Students)
“
Strange department, this. Their motto was: "The comprehension of Infinity requires infinite time." I did not argue with that, but then they derived an unexpected conclusion from it: Therefore work or not, it´s all the same."
In the interests of not increasing the entropy of the universe, they did not work.
”
”
Arkady Strugatsky (Понедельник начинается в субботу)
“
This faith transforms the whirlwind of despair into a warm and reviving breeze of hope. The words of a motto which a generation ago were commonly found on the wall in the homes of devout persons need to be etched on our hearts:
Fear knocked at the door.
Faith answered.
There was no one there.
”
”
Martin Luther King Jr. (Strength to Love)
“
Live every day like it's our last day on Earth together," she said, beginning their new motto as she jumped out the window.
"For forever if we can get away with it," Lucas finished, joyfully following her.
”
”
Josephine Angelini (Goddess (Starcrossed, #3))
“
The Motto of Champions: If you are hurt, you can suck it up and press on. If injured, you can rebound and return bigger and better...and continue to inspire!
”
”
T.F. Hodge (From Within I Rise: Spiritual Triumph over Death and Conscious Encounters with "The Divine Presence")
“
For some reason, I wanted to tell him the truth. “Whether it hurts is kind of irrelevant.” “That’s a pretty good life motto,” he said.
”
”
John Green (Turtles All the Way Down)
“
Don't worry about the bitches. That could be a good motto, because you come across people like that throughout your life.
”
”
Jennifer Lawrence
“
Asteros's Motto: "Most experience comes from bad judgement.
”
”
Sherrilyn Kenyon (Acheron (Dark-Hunter, #14))
“
Never be ashamed of what you feel. You have the right to feel any emotion that you want, and to do what makes you happy. That's my life motto.
”
”
Demi Lovato
“
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall take flack from both sides."- Unofficial UN Motto
”
”
Robert Lynn Asprin (Sweet Myth-Tery of Life (Myth Adventures, #10))
“
I believe in the person I want to become.
I believe in the freedom of the open road.
And my motto is the same as ever:
"I believe in the kindness of strangers. And when I'm at war with myself I ride, I just ride."
Who are you?
Are you in touch with all of your darkest fantasies?
Have you created a life for yourself where you can experience them?
I have. I am fucking crazy.
But I am free.
”
”
Lana Del Rey
“
Hegel seems to me to be always wanting to say that things which look different are really the same. Whereas my interest is in showing that things which look the same are really different. I was thinking of using as a motto for my book a quotation from King Lear: 'I’ll teach you differences'.
...
'You’d be surprised' wouldn’t be a bad motto either.
”
”
Ludwig Wittgenstein
“
Anarchism has but one infallible, unchangeable motto, "Freedom." Freedom to discover any truth, freedom to develop, to live naturally and fully." — Lucy Parsons
”
”
Lucy Parsons (Lucy Parsons: Freedom, Equality & Solidarity - Writings & Speeches, 1878-1937)
“
Sober or blotto, this is your motto: keep muddling through.
”
”
P.G. Wodehouse (A Damsel in Distress)
“
My motto is: Always get even. When somebody screws you, screw them back in spades.
”
”
Donald J. Trump (Think Big: Make It Happen in Business and Life)
“
Life is life, and it is infinitely better than the alternative, or so we presume, for nobody returns to dispute it. Such is my motto.
”
”
Neil Gaiman (Trigger Warning: Short Fictions and Disturbances)
“
He pushed that thoughts away. He didn't like painful memories. Keep moving -- that was his motto. Don't dwell in things. Don't stay in one place too long. It was the only way to stay ahead of the sadness.
”
”
Rick Riordan (The Lost Hero (The Heroes of Olympus, #1))
“
What's the Nephilim motto again?"
"'We are dust and shadows,'" said Ty, not looking up from his book.
"Some of us are very handsome dust," Jace added, as the door flew open and Clary stuck her head in.
"Come to the library," she announced. "The tentacle is starting to dissolve."
"You drive me wild with your sexy talk," said Jace, pulling on his gear jacket.
"Adults," said Kit, with some disgust, and stalked out of the room. To Emma's amusement, Ty and Livvy were instantly on their feet, following him.
”
”
Cassandra Clare (Lord of Shadows (The Dark Artifices, #2))
“
Be faithful, be vigilant, be untiring in your efforts to break every yoke, and let the oppressed go free. Come what may - cost what it may - inscribe on the banner which you unfurl to the breeze, as your religious and political motto - "NO COMPROMISE WITH SLAVERY! NO UNION WITH SLAVEHOLDERS
”
”
William Lloyd Garrison (Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass)
“
Gilbert took from his desk a little pink candy heart with a gold motto on it, “You are sweet,” and slipped it under the curve of Anne’s arm. Whereupon Anne arose, took the pink heart gingerly between the tips of her fingers, dropped it on the floor, ground it to powder beneath her heel, and resumed her position without deigning to bestow a glance on Gilbert.
”
”
L.M. Montgomery (Anne of Green Gables (Anne of Green Gables, #1))
“
The New York Times’ long-standing motto, “All the News That’s Fit to Print” should be changed to reflect today’s reality: “Manufacturing News to Fit an Ideology.
”
”
Thomas Sowell (Dismantling America: and other controversial essays)
“
Not to give up under any circumstances should be the motto of our life: we shall try again and again, and we are bound to succeed. There will be obstacles, but we have to defy them. So do not give up, do not give up! Continue, continue! The goal is ahead of you. If you do not give up, you are bound to reach your destined goal.
”
”
Sri Chinmoy (The Jewels of Happiness: Inspiration and Wisdom to Guide Your Life-Journey)
“
Never touch a mummified body part if you don't know where it's been. That's my motto.” [- Lockwood]
“Holds true with unmummified ones too,” George said. “That's the motto I live by.
”
”
Jonathan Stroud (The Creeping Shadow (Lockwood & Co., #4))
“
Since childhood, I’d believed it was important to speak out against bullies while also not stooping to their level. And to be clear, we were now up against a bully, a man who among other things demeaned minorities and expressed contempt for prisoners of war, challenging the dignity of our country with practically his every utterance. I wanted Americans to understand that words matter—that the hateful language they heard coming from their TVs did not reflect the true spirit of our country and that we could vote against it. It was dignity I wanted to make an appeal for—the idea that as a nation we might hold on to the core thing that had sustained my family, going back generations. Dignity had always gotten us through. It was a choice, and not always the easy one, but the people I respected most in life made it again and again, every single day. There was a motto Barack and I tried to live by, and I offered it that night from the stage: When they go low, we go high.
”
”
Michelle Obama (Becoming)
“
My formula for human greatness is amor fati: that one wants nothing to be different, not in the future, not in the past, not for all eternity. Not only to endure what is necessary, still less to conceal it — all idealism is falseness in the face of necessity — , but to love it...
”
”
Friedrich Nietzsche
“
It's my motto," said Isabelle, with a sultry smile. 'Nothing less than seven inches.'
Meliorn gazed at her stonily.
'I'm talking about my heels,' she said. " It's a pun. You know? A play on-"
"Come," the faerie knight said. "The Queen will be growing impatient." He headed down the corridor without giving Isabelle a second glance.
"I forgot," Isabelle muttered as the rest of them caught up to her. " Faeries have no sense of humor."
"Oh, I wouldn't say that," said Jace. "There's a pixie night club called Hot Wings. Not," he added," that I have ever been there.
”
”
Cassandra Clare (City of Ashes (The Mortal Instruments, #2))
“
Eight hours work, eight hours sleep, and eight hours recreation - Brigham Young
”
”
Susa Young Gates (The Life Story Of Brigham Young)
“
The motto of all the mongoose family is, "Run and find out," and Rikki-tikki was a true mongoose.
”
”
Rudyard Kipling (Rikki-Tikki-Tavi)
“
In this particular lifestyle the motto is “Be happy now because tomorrow you are dying,” but the dying begins almost at once, and the happiness is a memory.
”
”
Philip K. Dick (A Scanner Darkly)
“
Totus mundus agit histrionem. (All the World's a Stage.)"
[Motto of William Shakespeare's Globe Theatre (f. 1599) and its acting company, The King's Men; taken from the first play to be performed on the new stage.]
”
”
William Shakespeare (As You Like It)
“
Not to give up under any circumstances should be the motto of our life: I shall try again and again, and I am bound to succeed. There will be obstacles, but I have to defy the obstacles.
”
”
Sri Chinmoy
“
Old family motto: "The best revenge is revenge.
”
”
Anne McCaffrey (Acorna: The Unicorn Girl (Acorna, #1))
“
You can stick to your immovable zero-tolerance rules, but I'm going to stick to the motto "There's hope until the last second'!
”
”
Mary Lindsey (Shattered Souls (Souls, #1))
“
Let your motto then always be 'Excelsior', for by living up to it there is no such word as fail.
”
”
P.T. Barnum (The Art of Money Getting)
“
Mes esame nelaimingi vieni, ir mes nelaimingi bendruomenėje; vedę ir nevedę; mes lyg ežiai, besiburią šilimai, mums nepatogu, kai mes sugrūsti, ir mes dar nelaimingesni išsiskyrę; optimizmas yra karti pajuoka iš žmogaus sielvarto; gyvenimas - blogis, nes gyvenimas - karas; kuo tobulesnis organizmas, tuo tobulesnis kentėjimas; istorijos motto: eadem sed aliter*.
* Tas pats, bet kitaip (lot.)
”
”
Antanas Škėma (Balta drobulė)
“
To deal with something unhealthy, a person needs to be as healthy as possible. That’s my motto. In other words, an unhealthy soul requires a healthy body.
”
”
Haruki Murakami (What I Talk About When I Talk About Running)
“
Why? is the boy's motto, why does, why is, why not? Food, weather, time, fires, sea and season, clothes and cars and people; it's all grist to the mill of why.
”
”
Keri Hulme (The Bone People)
“
-It's illegal.
-Are you quoting the motto of the Meat Market, or trying to tell me that you somehow don't have precisely what I need?
”
”
Sarah J. Maas (House of Earth and Blood (Crescent City, #1))
“
Drake. He liked dangerous pies."
"Why did he join you?"
"Who would eat pie that could take over your life? Why risk it?"
"Focus. Why did he join you?"
"Say no to death pies. Another good motto. I'm getting a headache." p. 432
”
”
Brandon Mull (A World Without Heroes (Beyonders, #1))
“
Don't never participate in no bad scenes, he reminded himself; that was his motto in life.
”
”
Philip K. Dick (A Scanner Darkly)
“
You’re a demon. I thought your motto was ‘spoils to the victor.' (Aimee)
No, our motto is ‘everything tastes better with hot sauce.' (Xedrix)
”
”
Sherrilyn Kenyon (Bad Moon Rising (Dark-Hunter, #18; Were-Hunter, #4; Hellchaser, #2))
“
I’m not a shitty person, which really is the point of life in my eyes: “Don’t be a dick and do good things.” That’s my other motto. It has the word dick in it.
”
”
Karen Kilgariff (Stay Sexy & Don't Get Murdered: The Definitive How-To Guide)
“
My life motto: My brakes are broke, but luckily my gas pedal works just fine.
”
”
Jarod Kintz (This Book Has No Title)
“
My motto for fashion: If you can’t afford to make an elegant statement, make a ridiculous one.
”
”
Stacey Jay (Romeo Redeemed (Juliet Immortal, #2))
“
We explain when someone is cruel or acts like a bully, you do not stoop to their level. Our motto is when they go low, you go high.
”
”
Michelle Obama (Michelle Obama: Our First Lady)
“
The club motto was changed in 1972 from “We shall conquer” to “Let’s all just keep our fingers crossed and hope for the best.” Falmouth
”
”
J.K. Rowling (Quidditch Through the Ages)
“
The funny thing is, I was never much of a fighter. Better a live coward than a dead hero, that was my motto.
”
”
Ozzy Osbourne (I Am Ozzy)
“
Good riddance to bad rubbish.
”
”
Rodman Philbrick (Freak the Mighty (Freak The Mighty, #1))
“
I was in the winter of my life- and the men I met along the road were my only summer. At night I fell sleep with vision of myself dancing and laughing and crying with them. Three year down the line of being on an endless world tour and memories of them were the only things that sustained me, and my only real happy times. I was a singer, not very popular one, who once has dreams of becoming a beautiful poet- but upon an unfortunate series of events saw those dreams dashed and divided like million stars in the night sky that I wished on over and over again- sparkling and broken. But I really didn’t mind because I knew that it takes getting everything you ever wanted and then losing it to know what true freedom is.
When the people I used to know found out what I had been doing, how I had been living- they asked me why. But there’s no use in talking to people who have a home, they have no idea what its like to seek safety in other people, for home to be wherever you lied you head.
I was always an unusual girl, my mother told me that I had a chameleon soul. No moral compass pointing me due north, no fixed personality. Just an inner indecisiviness that was as wide as wavering as the ocean. And if I said that I didn’t plan for it to turn out this way I’d be lying- because I was born to be the other woman. I belonged to no one- who belonged to everyone, who had nothing- who wanted everything with a fire for every experience and an obssesion for freedom that terrified me to the point that I couldn’t even talk about- and pushed me to a nomadic point of madness that both dazzled and dizzied me.
Every night I used to pray that I’d find my people- and finally I did- on the open road. We have nothing to lose, nothing to gain, nothing we desired anymore- except to make our lives into a work of art.
LIVE FAST. DIE YOUNG. BE WILD. AND HAVE FUN.
I believe in the country America used to be. I belive in the person I want to become, I believe in the freedom of the open road. And my motto is the same as ever- *I believe in the kindness of strangers. And when I’m at war with myself- I Ride. I Just Ride.*
Who are you? Are you in touch with all your darkest fantasies?
Have you created a life for yourself where you’re free to experience them?
I Have.
I Am Fucking Crazy. But I Am Free.
”
”
Lana Del Rey
“
Our whole family thrives under pressure. It's like our family motto or something.
Apart from my brother Peter, of course. He had a nervous break down. But the rest of us.
”
”
Sophie Kinsella (The Undomestic Goddess)
“
It just happened, Lo. I can’t take it back, and I honestly wouldn’t.”
I think that should be Ryke’s motto. It just happened. Or better yet, throw in his favorite word. It just fucking happened.
”
”
Krista Ritchie (Addicted for Now (Addicted, #3))
“
How do you expect to keep our seeing each other a secret? You've been all over the news here for years. People will recognize you wherever you go."
"I won't be recognized, but you will. You're America's corporate sex symbol; you're the one whose motto is "If it moves, take it to bed."
Matt and Meredith
”
”
Judith McNaught (Paradise (Second Opportunities, #1))
“
At the end of the street was a large glass box with a female mannequin inside it, dressed as a gypsy fortune teller.
“Now,” said Wednesday, “at the start of any quest or enterprise it behooves us to consult the Norns.”
He dropped a coin into the slot. With jagged, mechanical motions, the gypsy lifted her arm and lowered it once more. A slip of paper chunked out of the slot.
Wednesday took it, read it, grunted, folded it up and put it in his pocket.
“Aren’t you going to show it to me? I’ll show you mine,” said Shadow.
“A man’s fortune is his own affair,” said Wednesday, stiffly. “I would not ask to see yours.”
Shadow put his own coin into the slot. He took his slip of paper. He read it.
EVERY ENDING IS A NEW BEGINNING.
YOUR LUCKY NUMBER IS NONE.
YOUR LUCKY COLOUR IS DEAD.
Motto:
LIKE FATHER, LIKE SON.
Shadow made a face. He folded the fortune up and put it inside his pocket.
”
”
Neil Gaiman (American Gods)
“
I don’t have any mottoes. If I did I would forever be contradicting them.
”
”
Lisa Kleypas (Scandal in Spring (Wallflowers, #4))
“
Adopt the motto—"It doesn't matter who's right, but what's right.
”
”
Maxwell Maltz (Psycho-Cybernetics: Updated and Expanded)
“
No rest for the wicked, no peace for the good.
”
”
James S.A. Corey (Abaddon's Gate (Expanse, #3))
“
It is the hardest thing in the world to frighten a mongoose, because he is eaten up from nose to tail with curiosity. The motto of all the mongoose family is "Run and find out," and Rikki-tikki was a true mongoose.
”
”
Rudyard Kipling (The Jungle Book)
“
My personal motto has always been if you've already dug yourself a hole too deep to climb out of, you may as well keep digging.
”
”
Katie Henry (Heretics Anonymous)
“
EVERY ENDING IS A NEW BEGINNING.
YOUR LUCKY NUMBER IS NONE.
YOUR LUCKY COLOUR IS DEAD.
Motto:
LIKE FATHER, LIKE SON.
”
”
Neil Gaiman
“
Thou, nature, art my goddess; to thy laws my services are bound...
{His second motto, from King Lear by Shakespeare}
”
”
Carl Friedrich Gauß
“
The modern individual is committed to being successful, not to being a person. He belongs rightly to the 'action generation' whose motto is 'do more but feel less.
”
”
Alexander Lowen (Narcissism: Denial of the True Self)
“
He pointed at Brother Jeremiah, who had come to a halt in front of a statue just slightly taller than he was, its base overgrown with moss. The statue was of an angel. The marble of the statue was so smooth it was almost translucent. The face of the angel was fierce and beautiful and sad. In long white hands the angel held a cup, its rim studded with marble jewels. Something about the statue tickled Clary’s memory with an uneasy familiarity. There was a date inscribed on the base, 1234, and words inscribed around it: NEPHILIM: FACILIS DESCENSUS AVERNI.
“Is that meant to be the Mortal Cup?” she asked.
Jace nodded. “And that’s the motto of the Nephilim—the Shadowhunters—there on the base.”
“What does it mean?”
Jace’s grin was a white flash in the darkness. “It means ‘Shadowhunters: Looking Better in Black Than the Widows of our Enemies Since 1234.’”
“Jace—”
It means, said Jeremiah, The descent into Hell is easy.
”
”
Cassandra Clare (City of Bones (The Mortal Instruments, #1))
“
When we go on about the big things, the political situation, global warming, world poverty, it all looks really terrible, with nothing getting better, nothing to look forward to. But when I think small, closer in-you know, a girl I've just met, or this song we'regoing to do with Chas, or snowboarding next month, then it looks great. So this is going to be my motto - think small.
”
”
Ian McEwan (Saturday)
“
And don't get hurt,' [Dexter] added. 'There's no one to help you up there. And don't go stirring up a lot of trouble for us. This case isn't ripe yet. Until it is, our policy with Mr Big is 'live and let live'.'
Bond looked quizzically at Captain Dexter
In my job,' he said, 'when I come up against a man like this one, I have another motto. It's 'live and let die'.
”
”
Ian Fleming (Live and Let Die (James Bond, #2))
“
Be sweet and carry a sharp knife, was her motto.
”
”
Barbara Kingsolver (Flight Behavior)
“
Because you know my motto: do no harm, but take no shit.
”
”
Laura Steven (The Exact Opposite of Okay (Izzy O'Neill, #1))
“
Divide et impera must be the motto of every nation that either hates or fears us.
”
”
Alexander Hamilton (The Federalist Papers)
“
If modernity has a motto, it is ‘shit happens’. On
”
”
Yuval Noah Harari (Homo Deus: A History of Tomorrow)
“
Drug misuse is not a disease, it is a decision, like the decision to step out in front of a moving car. You would call that not a disease but an error in judgment. When a bunch of people begin to do it, it is a social error, a life-style. In this particular lifestyle the motto is “Be happy now because tomorrow you are dying,” but the dying begins almost at once, and the happiness is a memory.
”
”
Philip K. Dick (A Scanner Darkly)
“
So what if there’s the motto?! Do you have to follow it just because it’s a motto? Look at the rules of the GusuLan Sect—there are over three thousand. If people followed every single one of them, would they even be alive at this point?
”
”
墨香铜臭 (魔道祖师 [Mó Dào Zǔ Shī])
“
Chotto, Kenichiro! Dozo, motto panukeiku.
”
”
Thomas Pynchon (Inherent Vice)
“
Making a big fat deal out of anything is absurd. It makes much more sense to go after life with a sense of, “Why not?” instead of a furrowed brow. One of the best things I ever did was make my motto “I just wanna see what I can get away with.” It takes all the pressure off, puts the punk rock attitude in, and reminds me that life is but a game.
”
”
Jen Sincero (You Are a Badass®: How to Stop Doubting Your Greatness and Start Living an Awesome Life)
“
Every night I used to pray that I'd find my people, and finally I did on the open road.
We had nothing to lose, nothing to gain, nothing we desired anymore, except to make our lives into a work of art.
Live fast. Die young. Be wild. And have fun.
I believe in the country America used to be.
I believe in the person I want to become.
I believe in the freedom of the open road.
And my motto is the same as ever:
"I believe in the kindness of strangers. And when I'm at war with myself I ride, I just ride."
Who are you?
Are you in touch with all of your darkest fantasies?
Have you created a life for yourself where you can experience them?
I have. I am fucking crazy.
But I am free.
”
”
Lana Del Rey
“
Another one of my favorite posters at Facebook declares in big red letters, “Done is better than perfect.” I have tried to embrace this motto and let go of unattainable standards. Aiming for perfection causes frustration at best and paralysis at worst.
”
”
Sheryl Sandberg (Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead)
“
Don't write off a book (or person, or movie) just because it had a pink, sparkly cover.
”
”
Abby McDonald (Getting Over Garrett Delaney)
“
We can do more than what we think." It's a belief system that I have adopted and it has become my motto. There is more than meets the eye and unless you are willing to experience new things, you'll never realize your full potential.
”
”
Wim Hof (Becoming the Iceman)
“
He shakes his head sadly at me.'These are the rules we live by. We are soldiers, Penryn. Legendary warriors willing to make legendary sacrifices. We do not ask. We do not choose.' He says that like a motto, a pledge he'd said a thousand times.
”
”
Susan Ee (End of Days (Penryn & the End of Days, #3))
“
Every noble house had its words. Family mottoes, touchstones, prayers of sorts, they boasted of honor and glory, promised loyalty and truth, swore faith and courage. All but the Starks. Winter is coming, said the Stark words.
”
”
George R.R. Martin (A Game of Thrones (A Song of Ice and Fire, #1))
“
Live Free or Die; Death is Not the Worst of Evils.
”
”
John Stark
“
I care not if I live but a day and a night, so long as my deeds live after me.
”
”
James Joyce
“
Miles was…the thing is, he was afflicted with a severe birth injury. He grew up pretty much crippled, so he poured all his frustrated energy into his intellect. Since the Vorkosigan family motto might as well be, Anything worth achieving is worth overachieving, the effect was pretty frightening. And it worked for him, so he did it some more.
”
”
Lois McMaster Bujold (Captain Vorpatril's Alliance (Vorkosigan Saga, #15))
“
Ruin your fucking self before they do. Otherwise they'll screw you because you're a nobody. They'll keep you alive but you'll have to crawl and say "thank-you" for every bone they throw. You might as well stay drunk or shoot junk and be a crazy fucker. If the rich guys want to play with you, make them get their hands dirty. Send them away gagging, or sobbing if they're soft-hearted. You'll be left alone if you're frightening, and dead you're free!
”
”
Jenny Holzer
“
Share and Enjoy' is the company motto of the hugely successful Sirius Cybernetics Corporation Complaints Division, which now covers the major land masses of three medium-sized planets and is the only part of the Corporation to have shown a consistent profit in recent years.
The motto stands-- or rather stood-- in three mile high illuminated letters near the Complaints Department spaceport on Eadrax. Unfortunately its weight was such that shortly after it was erected, the ground beneath the letters caved in and they dropped for nearly half their length through the offices of many talented young Complaints executives-- now deceased.
The protruding upper halves of the letters now appear, in the local language, to read "Go stick your head in a pig," and are no longer illuminated, except at times of special celebration.
”
”
Douglas Adams (The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide: Five Complete Novels and One Story (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, #1-5))
“
Your favourite virtue ... Simplicity
Your favourite virtue in man ... Strength
Your favourite virtue in woman ... Weakness
Your chief characteristic ... Singleness of purpose
Your idea of happiness ... To fight
Your idea of misery ... Submission
The vice you excuse most ... Gullibility
The vice you detest most ... Servility
Your aversion ... Martin Tupper
Favourite occupation ... Book-worming
Favourite poet ... Shakespeare, Aeschylus, Goethe
Favourite prose-writer ... Diderot
Favourite hero ... Spartacus, Kepler
Favourite heroine ... Gretchen [Heroine of Goethe's Faust]
Favourite flower ... Daphne
Favourite colour ... Red
Favourite name ... Laura, Jenny
Favourite dish ... Fish
Favourite maxim ... Nihil humani a me alienum puto [Nothing human is alien to me]
Favourite motto ... De omnibus dubitandum [Everything must be doubted].
”
”
Karl Marx
“
Loyaute me lie - Loyalty Binds Me
”
”
Philippa Gregory (The Kingmaker's Daughter (The Plantagenet and Tudor Novels, #4; Cousins War, #4))
“
There’s something fishy about Google’s motto, “Don’t Be Evil.” I’m not saying it’s controversial but it makes you think, “Why bring that up? Why have you suddenly put the subject of being evil on the agenda?” It’s suspicious in the same way as Ukip constantly pointing out how racist they’re not –
”
”
David Mitchell (Thinking About It Only Makes It Worse: And Other Lessons from Modern Life)
“
Mission motto, sir," said Carrot cheerfully. "Morituri Nolumus Mori. Rincewind suggested it."
"I imagine he did," said Lord Vetinari, observing the wizard coldly. "And would you care to give us a colloquial translation, Mr Rincewind?"
"Er..." Rincewind hesitated, but there really was no escape. "Er... roughly speaking, it means, 'We who are about to die don't want to', sir.
”
”
Terry Pratchett (The Last Hero (Discworld, #27; Rincewind, #7))
“
The reason we are so controlled is not that we don't have the power to decide our own destiny, it is that we give that power away every minute of our lives. When something happens that we don't like, we look for someone else to blame. When there is a problem in the world, we say "What are they going to do about it". At which point they, who have secretly created the problem in the first place, respond to this demand by introducing a 'solution' - more centralisation of power and erosion of freedom. If you want to give more powers to the police, security agencies and military, and you want the public to demand you do it, then ensure there is more crime, violence and terrorism, and then it's a cinch to achieve your aims. Once the people are in fear of being burgled, mugged or bombed, they will demand that you take their freedom away to protect them from what they have been manipulated to fear. The Oklahoma bombing is a classic of this kind, as I detail in ..And The Truth Shall Set You Free. I call this technique problem-reaction-solution.
Create the problem, encourage the reaction "something must be done", and then offer the solution. It is summed up by the Freemason motto 'Ordo Ab Chao' -order out of chaos. Create the chaos and then offer the way to restore order. Your order. The masses are herded and directed by many and varios forms of emotional and mental control. It is the only way it coud be done.
”
”
David Icke
“
ô mon corps, fait toujours de moi un homme qui s'interroge.
”
”
Frantz Fanon (Black Skin, White Masks)
“
Oh my God Becky! Look at her butt! Tunechi
”
”
Lil Wayne
“
O! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war's desolation!
Blest with victory and peace, may the heav'n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation.
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: 'In God is our trust.'
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave!
”
”
Francis Scott Key
“
Pax amor et lepos in iocando. Latin for Peace, love and sense of fun.
”
”
Julie Andrews Edwards (The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles)
“
For it was Saturday night, the best and bingiest glad-time of the week, one of the fifty-two holidays in the slow-turning Big Wheel of the year, a violent preamble to a prostrate Sabbath. Piled up passions were exploded on Saturday night, and the effect of a week's monotonous graft in the factory was swilled out of your system in a burst of goodwill. You followed the motto of 'be drunk and be happy,' kept your crafty arms around female waists, and felt the beer going beneficially down into the elastic capacity of your guts.
”
”
Alan Sillitoe (Saturday Night and Sunday Morning)
“
Every day, the New York Times carries a motto in a box on its front page. "All the News That's Fit to Print," it says. It's been saying it for decades, day in and day out. I imagine most readers of the canonical sheet have long ceased to notice this bannered and flaunted symbol of its mental furniture. I myself check every day to make sure that the bright, smug, pompous, idiotic claim is still there. Then I check to make sure that it still irritates me. If I can still exclaim, under my breath, why do they insult me and what do they take me for and what the hell is it supposed to mean unless it's as obviously complacent and conceited and censorious as it seems to be, then at least I know I still have a pulse. You may wish to choose a more rigorous mental workout but I credit this daily infusion of annoyance with extending my lifespan.
”
”
Christopher Hitchens (Letters to a Young Contrarian)
“
Everything flows and nothing stays.
”
”
Heraclitus
“
The motto I have penned on my knuckles is that this is the best world we have--because it's the only world we have. It's the simplest math ever. However many terrible, rankling, peeve-inducing things may occur, there are always libraries. And rain-falling-on-sea. And the moon. And love. There is always something to look back on, with satisfaction, or forward to, with joy. There is always a moment where you boggle at the world--at yourself--at the whole, unlikely, precarious business of being alive--and then start laughing
”
”
Caitlin Moran (Moranthology)
“
Surely, comrades, you do not want Jones back?"
Once again this argument was unanswerable. Certainly the animals did not want Jones back; if the holding of debates on Sunday mornings was liable to bring him back, then the debates must stop. Boxer, who had now had time to think things over, voiced the general feeling by saying: "If Comrade Napoleon says it, it must be right." And from then on he adopted the maxim, "Napoleon is always right," in addition to his private motto of "I will work harder.
”
”
George Orwell (Animal Farm)
“
Enlightenment is man's emergence from his self-imposed nonage. Nonage is the inability to use one's own understanding without another's guidance. This nonage is self-imposed if its cause lies not in lack of understanding but in indecision and lack of courage to use one's own mind without another's guidance. Dare to know! (Sapere aude.) "Have the courage to use your own understanding," is therefore the motto of the enlightenment.
”
”
Immanuel Kant
“
Never regret something that once made you smile" Kai-The GazettE
"My motto is “Impossible Is Nothing.” It’s like “If you set your mind to it, you can do anything.” Gazette was something where impossible was nothing." Ruki-the GazettE
"Something unexpected always happens. Maybe you'll die tomorrow. So I try to live each second to the fullest. "Reita-The GazettE
"Yeah, just do it. Even though you did not achieve what you dreamt of, you won't lose anything. You'll be gaining something great by just doing it. Having your dreams come true comes second. Take the first move, work for your dream." Aoi-The GazettE
"When life gives you a hundred reasons to cry, show life that you've a thousand reasons to smile." Uruha- The GazettE, my favorite qoute
”
”
The Gazette
“
From dopamine’s point of view, having things is uninteresting. It’s only getting things that matters. If you live under a bridge, dopamine makes you want a tent. If you live in a tent, dopamine makes you want a house. If you live in the most expensive mansion in the world, dopamine makes you want a castle on the moon. Dopamine has no standard for good, and seeks no finish line. The dopamine circuits in the brain can be stimulated only by the possibility of whatever is shiny and new, never mind how perfect things are at the moment. The dopamine motto is “More.
”
”
Daniel Z. Lieberman (The Molecule of More: How a Single Chemical in Your Brain Drives Love, Sex, and Creativity―and Will Determine the Fate of the Human Race)
“
I once expected to spend seven years walking around the world on foot. I walked from Mexico to Panama where the road ended before an almost uninhabited swamp called the Choco Colombiano. Even today there is no road. Perhaps it is time for me to resume my wanderings where I left off as a tropical tramp in the slums of Panama. Perhaps like Ambrose Bierce who disappeared in the desert of Sonora I may also disappear. But after being in all mankind it is hard to come to terms with oblivion - not to see hundreds of millions of Chinese with college diplomas come aboard the locomotive of history - not to know if someone has solved the riddle of the universe that baffled Einstein in his futile efforts to make space, time, gravitation and electromagnetism fall into place in a unified field theory - never to experience democracy replacing plutocracy in the military-industrial complex that rules America - never to witness the day foreseen by Tennyson 'when the war-drums no longer and the battle-flags are furled, in the parliament of man, the federation of the world.'
I may disappear leaving behind me no worldly possessions - just a few old socks and love letters, and my windows overlooking Notre-Dame for all of you to enjoy, and my little rag and bone shop of the heart whose motto is 'Be not inhospitable to strangers lest they be angels in disguise.' I may disappear leaving no forwarding address, but for all you know I may still be walking among you on my vagabond journey around the world."
[Shakespeare & Company, archived statement]
”
”
George Whitman
“
Those, then, who want to find themselves at the starting point of a truly free philosophy, have to depart even from God. Here the motto is: whoever wants to preserve it will lose it, and whoever abandons it will find it. Only those have reached the ground in themselves and have become aware of the depths of life, who have at one time abandoned everything and have themselves been abandoned by everything, for whom everything has been lost, and who have found themselves alone, face-to-face with the infinite: a decisive step which Plato compared with death. That which Dante saw written on the door of the inferno must be written in a different sense also at the entrance to philosophy: ‘Abandon all hope, ye who enter here.’ Those who look for true philosophy must be bereft of all hope, all desire, all longing. They must not wish anything, not know anything, must feel completely bare and impoverished, must give everything away in order to gain everything. It is a grim step to take, it is grim to have to depart from the final shore.
”
”
Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling
“
You could charm the pants off absolutely anyone," I told him quietly.
He smirked. "I take it that means you like the idea?"
"I love the idea. I love everything you've said. But I know Ellie's excited about this, so we're going to give our friends what they want."
"Adam mentioned strippers," Braden warned me, his eyes twinkling.
"If Adam books a stripper for you, I'll force Ellie to book a stripper for me.
Chuckling, Braden relaxed back in his chair. "Let’s agree to no strippers."
I raised my glass of water and waited for Braden to do the same. "To no strippers."
"To no strippers," he repeated.
"And let’s just make this a motto for our marriage.
”
”
Samantha Young (Castle Hill (On Dublin Street, #3.5))
“
Although I am a political liberal, I believe that conservatives have a better understanding of moral development (although not of moral psychology in general—they are too committed to the myth of pure evil). Conservatives want schools to teach lessons that will create a positive and uniquely American identity, including a heavy dose of American history and civics, using English as the only national language. Liberals are justifiably wary of jingoism, nationalism, and the focus on books by “dead white males,” but I think everyone who cares about education should remember that the American motto of e pluribus, unum (from many, one) has two parts. The celebration of pluribus should be balanced by policies that strengthen the unum.
”
”
Jonathan Haidt (The Happiness Hypothesis: Finding Modern Truth in Ancient Wisdom)
“
Traveling across the United States, it's easy to see why Americans are often thought of as stupid. At the San Diego Zoo, right near the primate habitats, there's a display featuring half a dozen life-size gorillas made out of bronze. Posted nearby is a sign reading CAUTION: GORILLA STATUES MAY BE HOT. Everywhere you turn, the obvious is being stated. CANNON MAY BE LOUD. MOVING SIDEWALK ABOUT TO END. To people who don't run around suing one another, such signs suggest a crippling lack of intelligence. Place bronze statues beneath the southern California sun, and of course they're going to get hot. Cannons are supposed to be loud, that's their claim to fame, and - like it or not - the moving sidewalk is bound to end sooner or later. It's hard trying to explain a country whose motto has become You can't claim I didn't warn you. What can you say about the family who is suing the railroad after their drunk son was killed walking on the tracks?
This pretty much sums up my trip to Texas.
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David Sedaris
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It doesn't say much. Only "Howard Roark, Architect". But it's like those mottoes men carved over the entrance of a castle and died for. It's a challenge in the face of something so vast and so dark, that all the pain on earth - and do you know how much suffering there is on earth? - all the pain comes from that thing y...ou are going to face. I don't know what it is, I don't know why it should be unleashed against you. I know only that it will be. And I know that if you carry these words through to the end, it will be a victory, Howard, not just for you, but for something that should win, that moves the world - and never wins acknowledgment. It will vindicate so many who have fallen before you, who have suffered as you will suffer. May God bless you - or whoever it is that is alone to see the best, the highest possible to human hearts. You're on your way to hell, Howard.
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Ayn Rand (The Fountainhead)
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I'm a Skeptic. And I'm a Journalist. I look up things in the library—a lot! I believe in the motto of Missouri, the 'Show-me, don't just blow me' state. I need evidence. I need demonstrations. I need show-and-tell. Even though I pray to God every once in a while, especially when I'm in trouble—which for most guys my age is every 28 days—I still think deeply about the issues and don't automatically jump to a religious or mystical answer to questions. I am, by nature, doubtful about the existence of God, and even whether He is a He or a Her. I don't believe in New Age stuff. For me, 'Past Life Regression' means not calling a girl after she gives me her phone number. Sure I own a lucky rabbit's foot, a lucky penny, a lucky 4-leaf clover and a lucky horeshoe [sic], and a pair of lucky underwear and several pairs of lucky socks that I only wash every seven days. But under it all I am a died–in-the-wool skeptic.
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Earl Lee (Raptured: The Final Daze of the Late, Great Planet Earth)
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This has been a novel about some people who were punished entirely too much for what they did. They wanted to have a good time, but they were like children playing in the street; they could see one after another of them being killed--run over, maimed, destroyed--but they continued to play anyhow. We really all were very happy for a while, sitting around not toiling but just bullshitting and playing, but it was for such a terrible brief time, and then the punishment was beyond belief: even when we could see it, we could not believe it. For example, while I was writing this I learned that the person on whom the character Jerry Fabin is based killed himself. My friend on whom I based the character Ernie Luckman died before I began the novel. For a while I myself was one of these children playing in the street; I was, like the rest of them, trying to play instead of being grown up, and I was punished. I am on the list below, which is a list of those to whom this novel is dedicated, and what became of each.
Drug misuse is not a disease, it is a decision, like the decision to step out in front of a moving car. You would call that not a disease but an error in judgment. When a bunch of people begin to do it, it is a social error,a life-style. In this particular life-style the motto is "Be happy now because tomorrow you are dying," but the dying begins almost at once, and the happiness is a memory. It is, then, only a speeding up, an intensifying, of the ordinary human existence. It is not different from your life-style, it is only faster. It all takes place in days or weeks or months instead of years. "Take the cash and let the credit go," as Villon said in 1460. But that is a mistake if the cash is a penny and the credit a whole lifetime.
There is no moral in this novel; it is not bourgeois; it does not say they were wrong to play when they should have toiled;it just tells what the consequences were. In Greek drama they were beginning, as a society, to discover science, which means causal law. Here in this novel there is Nemesis: not fate, because any one of us could have chosen to stop playing in the street, but, as I narrate from the deepest part of my life and heart, a dreadful Nemesis for those who kept on playing. I myself,I am not a character in this novel; I am the novel. So, though, was our entire nation at this time. This novel is about more people than I knew personally. Some we all read about in the newspapers. It was, this sitting around with our buddies and bullshitting while making tape recordings, the bad decision of the decade, the sixties, both in and out of the establishment. And nature cracked down on us. We were forced to stop by things dreadful.
If there was any "sin," it was that these people wanted to keep on having a good time forever, and were punished for that, but, as I say, I feel that, if so, the punishment was far too great, and I prefer to think of it only in a Greek or morally neutral way, as mere science, as deterministic impartial cause-and-effect. I loved them all. Here is the list, to whom I dedicate my love:
To Gaylene deceased
To Ray deceased
To Francy permanent psychosis
To Kathy permanent brain damage
To Jim deceased
To Val massive permanent brain damage
To Nancy permanent psychosis
To Joanne permanent brain damage
To Maren deceased
To Nick deceased
To Terry deceased
To Dennis deceased
To Phil permanent pancreatic damage
To Sue permanent vascular damage
To Jerri permanent psychosis and vascular damage
. . . and so forth.
In Memoriam.
These were comrades whom I had; there are no better. They remain in my mind, and the enemy will never be forgiven. The "enemy" was their mistake in playing. Let them all play again, in some other way, and let them be happy.
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Philip K. Dick (A Scanner Darkly)
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What is a fanatic? One who believes passionately and acts desperately upon what he believes. I was always believing in something and so getting into trouble. The more my hands were slapped the more firmly I believed. I believed- and the rest of the world did not! If it were only a question of enduring punishment one could go on believing till the end; but the way of the world is more insidious than that. Instead of being punished you are undermined, hollowed out, the ground taken from under your feet. It isn't even treachery, what I have in mind. Treachery is understandable and combatable. No, it is something worse, something less than treachery. It's a negativism that causes you to overreach yourself. you are perpetually spending your energy in the act of balancing yourself. You are seized with a sort of spiritual vertigo, you totter on the brink, your hair stands on end, you can't believe that beneath your feet lies an immeasurable abyss. It comes about through excess of enthusiasm, through a passionate desire to embrace people, to show them your love. The more you reach out toward the world the more the world retreats. Nobody wants real love, real hatred. Nobody wants you to put your hand in his sacred entrails- that's only for the priest in the hour of sacrifice. While you live, while the blood's still warm, you are to pretend that there is no such thing as blood and no such thing as a skeleton beneath the covering of flesh. "Keep off the grass!" That's the motto by which people live.
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Henry Miller (Tropic of Capricorn (Tropic, #2))
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We are all beautiful instruments of God. He created many notes in music so that we would not be stuck playing the same song. Be music always. Keep changing the keys, tones, pitch, and volume of each of the songs you create along your journey and play on. Nobody will ever reach ultimate perfection in this lifetime, but trying to achieve it is a full-time job. Start now and don't stop. Make your book of life a musical. Never abandon obligations, but have fun leaving behind a colorful legacy. Never allow anybody to be the composer of your own destiny. Take control of your life, and never allow limitations implanted by society, tell you how your music is supposed to sound — or how your book is supposed to be written.
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Suzy Kassem (Rise Up and Salute the Sun: The Writings of Suzy Kassem)
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He doesn’t like Emma and Rachel making plans together. Not because he thinks they’re being devious, but because he doesn’t like feeling left out. Not to mention that when Emma is making plans without him, they’re usually reckless. The only reason she’d keep a secret from him is if she was doing something he didn’t approve of, or didn’t want him to interfere with. After all, her motto is “Better to ask for forgiveness than permission.”
Galen despises that motto.
“I cleared out the sporting goods store this morning,” Rachel says. “I took what was on the shelf and made them cough up their stock in the back.”
Galen tenses up. Emma laughs. “Don’t be jealous, Highness. Rachel still loves you more than she loves me.”
“Aww! You guys are fighting over me?” Rachel says, pinching Galen’s cheek. “That’s so adorable.”
“I’m not jealous,” he says, trying not to sound pouty. “I just don’t know why we would need life jackets.”
“We don’t,” Emma says, wriggling around on his lap so she can face him. Secretly, he’s delighted. “But humans do. And if my job is keeping the humans safe, then I should be prepared, right?”
But Galen is too distracted by the close proximity of her mouth to be bothered with the words coming out of it. She must recognize it, because she leans forward as if giving him a chance to make good on his craving. It’s all the invitation he needs.
He captures her mouth with his. Life jackets, islands, and airports are forgotten. The only thing that exists is her lips on his, her body pressed into his. Suddenly the creaky office chair is transformed into their own little world.
“Uh, I’m just going to get more wine,” Rachel says. He didn’t mean to make her uncomfortable enough to leave. Not good. The last thing we need is privacy and free rein to do as we please. He tries to end it, to pull away, but Emma won’t have it. And it’s difficult for him not to indulge her.
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Anna Banks (Of Triton (The Syrena Legacy, #2))
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The most realistic distinction between the investor and the speculator is found in their attitude toward stock-market movements. The speculator’s primary interest lies in anticipating and profiting from market fluctuations. The investor’s primary interest lies in acquiring and holding suitable securities at suitable prices. Market movements are important to him in a practical sense, because they alternately create low price levels at which he would be wise to buy and high price levels at which he certainly should refrain from buying and probably would be wise to sell. It is far from certain that the typical investor should regularly hold off buying until low market levels appear, because this may involve a long wait, very likely the loss of income, and the possible missing of investment opportunities. On the whole it may be better for the investor to do his stock buying whenever he has money to put in stocks, except when the general market level is much higher than can be justified by well-established standards of value. If he wants to be shrewd he can look for the ever-present bargain opportunities in individual securities. Aside from forecasting the movements of the general market, much effort and ability are directed on Wall Street toward selecting stocks or industrial groups that in matter of price will “do better” than the rest over a fairly short period in the future. Logical as this endeavor may seem, we do not believe it is suited to the needs or temperament of the true investor—particularly since he would be competing with a large number of stock-market traders and first-class financial analysts who are trying to do the same thing. As in all other activities that emphasize price movements first and underlying values second, the work of many intelligent minds constantly engaged in this field tends to be self-neutralizing and self-defeating over the years. The investor with a portfolio of sound stocks should expect their prices to fluctuate and should neither be concerned by sizable declines nor become excited by sizable advances. He should always remember that market quotations are there for his convenience, either to be taken advantage of or to be ignored. He should never buy a stock because it has gone up or sell one because it has gone down. He would not be far wrong if this motto read more simply: “Never buy a stock immediately after a substantial rise or sell one immediately after a substantial drop.” An
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Benjamin Graham (The Intelligent Investor)