What is your favorite quote of all time?

"It is possible to commit no mistakes and still lose. That is not a weakness. That is life."
Picard
- I do think of this quote as being something awesome that Picard said, but something also bugs me when I think of it that way... I'm attributing a great line, and advice I follow a lot through life to a fictional character, instead of to the man that actually said it.
  David Kemper wrote that episode of TNG, and while he may have heard it elsewhere or paraphrased it from a common saying in some distant land or who knows, at least we can attribute it to him as best we can :-)
  
  Thanks for correcting the attribution

Here are a few nice ones, I can't really pick:
“Capitalism is the extraordinary belief that the nastiest of men for the nastiest of motives will somehow work together for the benefit of all.” - John Maynard Keynes
(You can also apply this one to proprietary software vs. Free software (don't say open source in my presence))
“The tyrants are only great because we are on our knees.” - Étienne de La Boétie
“Those who do not move, do not notice their chains.” - Rosa Luxemburg
- don't say [those words] in my presence
  Will I regret asking why?
  
  Free software tells you "do whatever you want, you're free" but open source completely misses the point: it means you can read the code, but not necessarily recompile, modify and redistribute. Plus the term was invented for the confusion that would come from it. For example, a lot of AI models like LLM's claim they are "open-source", which basically means nothing: it's far easier to say that than to claim it's a free model, because that would imply freedoms to modify, reuse, redistribute the training data, weight etc. (no AI model allows that for now, and there will probably never be one that does).
  
  Not OP, but I personally heavily dislike the confusion surrounding those terms - that is IMHO entirely self-inflicted. "Open-source" referring to FOSS as a whole, and what open-source sounds like actually being called "source available", is needlessly confusing.
- In a similar vein "the greatest weapon in the hand of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed" .. Steve Biko

"There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self."
Ernest Hemingway (though I'll admit, I first heard it in Kingsman)
- You're not fronting having read all Hemingway, you're sharing a quote with everyone. It's fine if you heard it in Kingsman, just as it would have been fine if you had heard it in some other work of fiction that quotes Hemingway.
  I like this one, it really says don't measure yourself against others

We do not inherit the world from our ansestors, we borrow it from our children. -Antoine de Saint Exupéry
- This is my favorite.
  
  My second favorite from him: what makes the desert beautiful is that somewhere it hides a well.

"I'd love to agree with you, but then we'd both be wrong."

“When I was young, I admired clever people. Now that I am old, I admire kind people.”
“The brutally honest care more about the brutality than the honesty.”
“Reasonable people can disagree reasonably.”
I can’t live up to those ideals but it would be cruel to myself and others to stop trying to.
- That first one really resonates with me.

“For every complex problem, there is a solution that is simple, direct, easy to understand and wrong.“

- Paraphrased H.L Mencken
“To study religion is merely to know the mind of man, but if one truely wanted to know the mind of God, you must study physics.”

- Iain Banks
“I believe that children are our future. Unless we stop them now.”

- Homer Simpson

“With or without religion, good people can behave well and bad people can do evil; but for good people to do evil - that takes religion.” ― Steven Weinberg

As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy. Whatever differs from this, to the extent of the difference, is not democracy.
Abraham Lincoln
The major problem—one of the major problems, for there are several—one of the many major problems with governing people is that of whom you get to do it; or rather of who manages to get people to let them do it to them. To summarize: it is a well-known fact that those people who must want to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it. To summarize the summary: anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job.
Douglas Adams

I don't want to believe, I want to know - Carl Sagan

"Not everything's a lesson Ryan. Sometimes you just fail."
Dwight Schrute :D

Never argue with an idiot. They will drag you down to their level and beat you with experience. - Mark Twain

The major problem—one of the major problems, for there are several—one of the many major problems with governing people is that of whom you get to do it; or rather of who manages to get people to let them do it to them. To summarize: it is a well-known fact that those people who must want to rule people are, ipso facto, those least suited to do it. To summarize the summary: anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President should on no account be allowed to do the job.
Douglas Adams, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, #2)
- Continued - To summarize the summary of the summary: people are a problem.
- The perfect comment doesn't exi....

It is possible to commit no mistakes and still lose. That is not a weakness. That is life. -Jean-Luc Picard - Star Trek - The Next Generation

"I ship is safest in harbour, but that's not what ships are for."
"When people turn to you when shit goes wrong. That's when you're a man."
- Or a sysadmin
  
  In my case, they point at me when shit goes wrong.

As someone who loves space:
"Two possibilities exist: either we are alone in the universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying." - Arthur C. Clarke
- Perhaps my favourite, although it doesn't touch on the human experience, it is food for imagination

Good people do good things and bad people do evil things but for good people to do evil things, that takes religion.

Grief, I’ve learned, is really just love. It’s all the love you want to give, but cannot. All that unspent love gathers up in the corners of your eyes, the lump in your throat, and in that hollow part of your chest. Grief is just love with no place to go. -Jamie Anderson
- Got a little dusty in here.

“Be excellent to each other”

"Government is not reason, it is not eloquence,—it is force! Like fire, it is a dangerous servant, and a fearful master; never for a moment should it be left to irresponsible action.”
-George Washington (allegidly) The true author is debatable, but the quote is accurate, none the less.
- Internet and social media has made general public a part of this "fire" drowning out the voice of the wise and the learned with the cacophony of angry noise.

"Oh no, not again." -Bowl of Petunias

Your Honor, years ago I recognized my kinship with all living beings, and I made up my mind that I was not one bit better than the meanest on earth. I said then, and I say now, that while there is a lower class, I am in it, and while there is a criminal element I am of it, and while there is a soul in prison, I am not free.
E.V. Debs

'Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past."
-George Orwell
- He who controls the spice, controls the universe.
  -Baron Harkonnen

"The needs of the many, outweigh the needs of the few."
Not growing up with TOS, I always thought this quote was super old, like Greek philosopher stuff. Nope. It was friggin Spock! I gotta believe that the sentiment had to have existed long before Star Trek though. If it wasn't, then... That sucks.
- It was friggin Spock!
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utilitarianism

"Never forget what you are. The rest of the world will not. Wear it like armor, and it can never be used to hurt you."
Tyron Lannister
- I won't forget what I am, because I have no clue what I am.

- Silent bob is written with almost all the best and quotable lines.
  The rest of the quotable lines are Jay.
  
  'i am the CLIT commander!"

What the fuck did you just fucking say about me, you little bitch? I'll have you know I graduated top of my class in the Navy Seals, and I've been involved in numerous secret raids on Al-Quaeda, and I have over 300 confirmed kills. I am trained in gorilla warfare and I'm the top sniper in the entire US armed forces. You are nothing to me but just another target. I will wipe you the fuck out with precision the likes of which has never been seen before on this Earth, mark my fucking words. You think you can get away with saying that shit to me over the Internet? Think again, fucker. As we speak I am contacting my secret network of spies across the USA and your IP is being traced right now so you better prepare for the storm, maggot. The storm that wipes out the pathetic little thing you call your life. You're fucking dead, kid. I can be anywhere, anytime, and I can kill you in over seven hundred ways, and that's just with my bare hands. Not only am I extensively trained in unarmed combat, but I have access to the entire arsenal of the United States Marine Corps and I will use it to its full extent to wipe your miserable ass off the face of the continent, you little shit. If only you could have known what unholy retribution your little "clever" comment was about to bring down upon you, maybe you would have held your fucking tongue. But you couldn't, you didn't, and now you're paying the price, you goddamn idiot. I will shit fury all over you and you will drown in it. You're fucking dead, kiddo.
Unknown soldier
- Soldier who like the sound of his own voice
  
  Dude doesn't know proper radio protocol then.

“Resentment is like drinking poison and then hoping it will kill your enemies.”
Nelson Mandela
I struggle with this one a lot, I definitely have a lot of resentment built up as I've grown up. But holding all in just makes my life worse, it only hurts me. It is mental prison of sorts. I think there's another Mandela quote that states exactly that as well.
- It took me a long time to realize that I'm not forgiving the people I forgive because they deserve it. I'm forgiving them because I need the problem to be over.
- I think of that quote often as well but now I'm seeing it differently than before.
  I interpreted it as advice to merely let resentment go but it could just as easily instead be to orient those feelings of resentment towards actually resolving what led to them in the first place.
  Not just reflection but practice besides.

“I’m Batman.”
Some context, Batman says this frequently when explaining why a man dressed up as a Bat is there to a confused onlooker.
- "Some days you just can't get rid of a bomb."
  also Batman (in the 1966 film Batman)
- Thanks, that clears it up
- Username checks out

I didn't learn until I was in college about all the other cultures, and I should have learned that in the first grade. A first grader should understand that his or her culture isn't a rational invention; that there are thousands of other cultures and they all work pretty well; that all cultures function on faith rather than truth; that there are lots of alternatives to our own society. Cultural relativity is defensible and attractive. It's also a source of hope. It means we don't have to continue this way if we don't like it.
Kurt Vonnegut

“Fairy tales do not tell children the dragons exist. Children already know that dragons exist. Fairy tales tell children the dragons can be killed.”
-G.K. Chesterton

"Gentlemen, I don’t know whether we are going to make history tomorrow, but at any rate we shall change geography"
General Sir Charles Harrington
Just before one of the largest non-nuclear explosions was detonated.
- Not as positive, but definitely one of the quotes that gave me chills (and made more popular due to recent movie, I hope this is in the movie):
  Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds
  Robert Oppenheimer, 1965 (quoting the Hindu scripture, the Bhagavad-Gita: Vishnu)
- .. and not Ripple Rock in '69. Huh.

your future hasn't been written yet. No one's has. Your future is whatever you make it, so make it a good one.
From Back to the Future.

“You build bridges your entire life and no one calls you a bridge builder, however you suck one dick and all of a sudden you’re a cock sucker.”
Someone

"Comfort was the answer to all life's problems. It didn't solve them, but it made them more distant for a bit as they quietly worsened."
Welcome to nightvale
- Fuck I can hear the intro music
  
  I haven't heard it for a very long time. I should get back to it for the nostalgia.

The world needs fewer cynics and more skeptics.

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
Arthur C. Clarke

I had a favorite quote growing up. I'm not sure if it's still my favorite today but it was
Peace cannot be kept by force; it can only be achieved by understanding. – Albert Einstein
If I had to choose a quote today it would probably be the one that goes something like "What you do in life is ultimately insignificant but you should do it anyways"
- What the 2nd quote means to me is that that isn't really a great plan or some special meaning to life. We just exist without any specific purpose. But you shouldn't let this fact bring you down.
  Personally, I choose to believe that my existence is an improbability, much like winning the lottery. And this I want to enjoy my time alive as much as I can.
  The quote also has a 2nd meaning to me which is that nothing we do really matters so I should just relax be more easy going.
  I think I like the second quote more today because I think people today are too on edge all the time. I think a lot of people need to just chill. There's so many things wrong with the world but so many things are outside of our control. Sometimes it's good to just take a step back and relax.

"I used to be an adventurer like you. Then I took an arrow in the knee...",
Unknown Soldier - Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim.

It's easier to ask for forgiveness than it is to ask for permission.

There are tons of quotes I like. Below are some of my favorites.
The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to such a pass that he cannot distinguish the truth within him, or around him, and so loses all respect for himself and for others. And having no respect he ceases to love, and in order to occupy and distract himself without love he gives way to passions and coarse pleasures, and sinks to bestiality in his vices, all from continual lying to other men and to himself. - The Brothers Karamazov (book) by Fyodor Dostoyevsky
I don't want to live someone else's idea of how to live. Don't ask me to do that. I don't want to find out one day that I'm at the end of someone else's life. - Out of Africa (movie) by Sydney Pollack
Someone once told me the definition of hell; on your last day on earth, the person you could have become will meet the person you became. - Anonymous
- I like the last one. Interesting to think about.

Please don't ask me to explain it because I don't know, but the writer/musician John Darneille of the Mountain Goats once wrote "God is present in the sweeping gestures, but the devil is in the details". I just really like it even though I'm stuck on its meaning.
- God as broad: Your Mom makes you a sandwich.
  Devil as details: The meat in the sandwich is a dead animal. Your mom bought it from an evil mega corp. She paid for it with wages from her soul crushing job. No one makes her a sandwich.
  
  Oh nice explanation.

"If you're not falling, you're not learning". No idea who said it but it was about skateboarding at the time. It works for everything though.
"You gotta learn to live between the lines". From Big Deal by the Dead Milkmen.

As soon as you're born, you start dying, so you might as well have a good time. - John McCrea
- CAKE<3

"If soulmates exist, they're not found, they're made"

There are only two things that are infinite. The universe and the stupidity of man. I’m not sure about the universe, though.
Albert Einstein

Beware of he who would deny you access to information, for in his heart he dreams himself your master.
- Since when can you do Spoiler's on Lemmy?
  
  I dunno, but the format of it is frustrating to use and the button doesn't seem to exist on mobile.
  
  ::: spoiler spoiler text here :::
  3 lines to do and I have to say spoiler twice.. I'd rather it just copy discord and use double pipe ||text||

Money can't buy happiness; but at least you can live miserably in comfort
- Money makes you free of most worry though
  
  As someone close to someone with a lot of money, I can say it introduces a new set of worries that I hope I never have. That might also be an issue of greed though.
  The problem, from my experience, is not that a person has a lot of money. It's whether a person makes that money a part of their identity. Someone who detaches their own personal value from the value of their assets is more willing to contribute the excess back to society, for example, and will be able to experience the comforts associated with wealth without the stress of spending it on those comforts.
  Sadly, far too many people do associate personal value with wealth, and I feel like this has led to a lot of the inequality that exists today.

"And I urge you to please notice when you are happy, and exclaim or murmur or think at some point, ‘If this isn't nice, I don't know what is.’"
~ Kurt Vonnegut

Ever tried? Ever failed? No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better.
-Samuel Beckett

"The maoist uprising against the landlords was the largest and most comprehensive proletarian revolution in history, and led to almost totally-equal redistribution of land among the peasantry."

Good is not the enemy of perfect.
- But the perfect is the enemy of the good.

"No matter where you go, there you are"
– Dr. Buckaroo Banzai

You fucked up. You trusted us.
From Animal House

No matter how dark the night, morning always comes. And our journey begins anew. - Lulu FFX
It's from the video game Final Fantasy X, but it's still such an amazing qoute
- Just because it's from a game doesn't invalidate it, just like if it came from a book it doesn't invalidate it