BS: Obscure quotations

04 Oct 15 - 08:04 PM (#3741824)
Subject: BS: Obscure quotations
From: gnu

Just saw Ralph Nader in a movie about Saturday Night Live (US TV comedy show) say "Political satire is more difficult than poetry."

I found that profound.

BTW, Nader is one of my all time heroes.

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04 Oct 15 - 08:11 PM (#3741826)
Subject: RE: BS: Obscure quotations
From: McGrath of Harlow

For one thing it keeps on being overtaken by reality. For example Donald Trump.

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04 Oct 15 - 10:21 PM (#3741836)
Subject: RE: BS: Obscure quotations
From: GUEST,Gestes

Come and take it  

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05 Oct 15 - 03:36 AM (#3741844)
Subject: RE: BS: Obscure quotations
From: Steve Shaw

"When the seagulls follow the trawler, it is because they think sardines will be thrown into the sea." --Eric Cantona, footballer and philosopher.

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05 Oct 15 - 06:17 AM (#3741855)
Subject: RE: BS: Obscure quotations
From: Jim Carroll

Probably the most politically astute quote came from the Italian author, Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, when he has his main character in his novel, 'The Leopard', say, on observing the Garibaldi Revolution; "Things are going to have to change if they are going to remain the same".
Jim Carroll

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05 Oct 15 - 08:03 AM (#3741867)
Subject: RE: BS: Obscure quotations
From: Mr Red

"Political satire is more difficult than poetry."

hmm "Point of Order", Mr Speaker, "Point of Order", could I point to Trump, Berlusconi & Farrage for starters.

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05 Oct 15 - 09:26 AM (#3741880)
Subject: RE: BS: Obscure quotations
From: Ed T

""What difference does it make to the dead, the orphans and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism or in the holy name of liberty or democracy?""
― Mahatma Gandhi

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05 Oct 15 - 09:28 AM (#3741881)
Subject: RE: BS: Obscure quotations
From: Ed T

""Too bad that all the people who know how to run the country are busy driving taxicabs and cutting hair."" 
― George Burns

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05 Oct 15 - 09:36 AM (#3741883)
Subject: RE: BS: Obscure quotations
From: Ed T

""We learn from history that we do not learn from history""

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel

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05 Oct 15 - 09:43 AM (#3741888)
Subject: RE: BS: Obscure quotations
From: G-Force

You can be in my dream if I can be in yours.

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05 Oct 15 - 01:32 PM (#3741924)
Subject: RE: BS: Obscure quotations
From: Bert

Things that don't alter, remain as they are.

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05 Oct 15 - 03:00 PM (#3741949)
Subject: RE: BS: Obscure quotations
From: GUEST,Sol

"Sex at my age is like shooting pool with a piece of rope." - George Burns

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05 Oct 15 - 10:51 PM (#3741999)
Subject: RE: BS: Obscure quotations
From: GUEST

"We do not know what we do not know."
-I've see this variously attributed to Wittgenstein, Confucius and Donald Rumsfeld. Oddly profound.

"If you get to thinkin' you're a person of some influence, try ordering somebody else's dog around."
-Will Rogers

"I care not for a man's religion whose dog is not the better for it."
-Abraham Lincoln

"If pro is the opposite of con, what is the opposite of progress?"
-Mark Twain

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06 Oct 15 - 02:42 AM (#3742006)
Subject: RE: BS: Obscure quotations
From: GUEST,HiLo

" The trouble with normal is it always gets worse"! Bruce Cockburn

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06 Oct 15 - 04:25 AM (#3742015)
Subject: RE: BS: Obscure quotations
From: Mr Red

"We are the people our parents warned us about" - Augustus John, painter

My favourite from who knows who
"History repeats itself, it has to, nobody is listening"
GBS said something wordier but essentially the same message.

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06 Oct 15 - 09:51 AM (#3742061)
Subject: RE: BS: Obscure quotations
From: Nigel Parsons

"Don't put your trust in revolutions. They always come around again. That's why they're called revolutions. People die, and nothing changes."
Sam Vimes, Night Watch (Pratchett)

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07 Oct 15 - 05:44 AM (#3742198)
Subject: RE: BS: Obscure quotations
From: Steve Shaw

The older I get the better I used to be at things.

(posted by Gobby O'Gobbo 3 hours ago on TheSession discussion forum - with apologies to Gobby if he sees this!)

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07 Oct 15 - 11:08 AM (#3742269)
Subject: RE: BS: Obscure quotations
From: GUEST,Althea Butler

"If only there was a coon of the year award"

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07 Oct 15 - 11:36 AM (#3742273)
Subject: RE: BS: Obscure quotations
From: frogprince

Please tell me that the quote at 11:08 has a meaning other than what would seem obvious to many Americans.

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07 Oct 15 - 11:52 AM (#3742277)
Subject: RE: BS: Obscure quotations
From: Mr Red

said among the women of Bletchley Park during WW2. There were many more men than women and regarding the chances of finding a suitor:

"The odds are good, but the goods are odd".

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07 Oct 15 - 11:56 AM (#3742278)
Subject: RE: BS: Obscure quotations
From: Bill D

I don't discern any other meaning... and I don't know any Althea Butler. It sure feels wrong to me!

------------------------

re: revolutions

"I advocate a semi-revolution.
The trouble with a total revolution
(Ask any reputable Rosicrucian)
Is that it brings the same class up on top.
Executives of skillful execution
Will therefore plan to go halfway and stop.
Yes, revolutions are the only salves,
But they're the one thing that should be done by halves."

Robert Frost

an answer, by Oscar Williams

"I advocate a total revolution.
The trouble with semi-revolution,
It's likely to be slow as evolution.
Who wants to spend the ages in collusion
With Compromise, Complacence and Confusion?
As for the same class coming up on top,
That's whole cloth from the propaganda shop;
The old saw says there's loads of room on top,
That's where the poor should really plan to stop.
And speaking of those people called the "haves",
Who own the whole cow and must have the calves
(And plant the wounds so they can sell the salves)
They wont be stopped by doing things by halves.
I say that for a permanent solution
There's nothing like a total revolution.

P.S. And may I add by way of a conclusion,
I wouldn't dream to ask a Rosicrucian."

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07 Oct 15 - 03:12 PM (#3742331)
Subject: RE: BS: Obscure quotations
From: JHW

I said "For richer, for poorer; in sickness and in health".
I never said anything about home all day every day.

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07 Oct 15 - 04:25 PM (#3742340)
Subject: RE: BS: Obscure quotations
From: Ed T

"I want to be a professional boxer. But I won't wear gloves, because I like the way cardboard feels." 
― Jarod Kintz, If you bring the booze and food, I'll bring the thirst and hunger

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08 Oct 15 - 09:54 AM (#3742431)
Subject: RE: BS: Obscure quotations
From: GUEST

"I want to know more and more about less and less, until I know everything about nothing." --??

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08 Oct 15 - 10:32 AM (#3742441)
Subject: RE: BS: Obscure quotations
From: Bill D

I know many things about several modes of 'nothing'.

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08 Oct 15 - 11:03 AM (#3742455)
Subject: RE: BS: Obscure quotations
From: Rapparee

Get your facts first, and then you can distort them as much as you please.
- Mark Twain, quoted by Rudyard Kipling in "From Sea to Shining Sea"

Irreverence is the champion of liberty. -- Mark Twain, 1888.

Rifles, muskets, long-bows and hand-grenades are inherently democratic weapons. A complex weapon makes the strong stronger, while a simple weapon -- so long as there is no answer to it -- gives claws to the weak.                --George Orwell, 1945

Among the many misdeeds of the British rule in India, history will look upon the Act depriving a whole nation of arms as the blackest. If we want the Arms Act [of 1878] to be repealed, if we want to learn the use of arms, here is a golden opportunity. If the middle classes render voluntary help to Government in the hour of its trial, distrust will disappear, and the ban on possessing arms will be withdrawn.                --Mohandas Gandhi

A rifle this hand will never fire.
                         --Mohandas Gandhi, given a rifle during his service in the Ambulance Corps in WWI.

Those who deny freedom to others, deserve it not for themselves; and, under a just God, can not long retain it. --A. Lincoln, 6 Apr 1859

Once you learn to read you will be forever free. --Fredrick Douglass

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08 Oct 15 - 04:23 PM (#3742517)
Subject: RE: BS: Obscure quotations
From: Mrrzy

"You can be in my dream if I can be in yours" - I said that.

Said Dylan.

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08 Oct 15 - 07:52 PM (#3742548)
Subject: RE: BS: Obscure quotations
From: GUEST,randy

God this place is boring. What ever happened to fhe spirited discussions that used to happen here? This whole place is obscure.

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08 Oct 15 - 08:26 PM (#3742555)
Subject: RE: BS: Obscure quotations
From: Joe_F

When Italy declared war on Britain in WW2, Churchill remarked "It's only fair. We had to put up with them last time."

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08 Oct 15 - 08:51 PM (#3742560)
Subject: RE: BS: Obscure quotations
From: kendall

Humor is the opiate of the melancholy. (Mine)
The older I get, the better I was. (Art Thieme)
If I was any better, I'd be twins. (Mine)

When challenged to use the word "Horticulture" in a sentence, Dorothy Parker said, "You can lead a whore to culture, but, you can't make her think."

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08 Oct 15 - 11:09 PM (#3742576)
Subject: RE: BS: Obscure quotations
From: Rapparee

Dorothy Parker also said, "One martini, I'm under the weather. Two and I'm under the table. Three and I'm under the host."

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09 Oct 15 - 01:08 AM (#3742579)
Subject: RE: BS: Obscure quotations
From: GUEST

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09 Oct 15 - 02:50 AM (#3742586)
Subject: RE: BS: Obscure quotations
From: Ed T

"The false assumption is that almost all people, almost all of the time, make choices that are in their best interest or at the very least are better than the choices that would be made by someone else." 
― Richard H. Thaler, Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness

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09 Oct 15 - 03:19 AM (#3742590)
Subject: RE: BS: Obscure quotations
From: Ed T

"People take different roads seeking fulfillment and happiness. Just because they're not on your road doesn't mean they've gotten lost" 
― H. Jackson Brown Jr.

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09 Oct 15 - 03:26 AM (#3742593)
Subject: RE: BS: Obscure quotations
From: Ed T

"Don't say you don't have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Pasteur, Michaelangelo, Mother Teresa, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, and Albert Einstein." 
― H. Jackson Brown Jr.

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09 Oct 15 - 10:19 AM (#3742659)
Subject: RE: BS: Obscure quotations
From: Uncle_DaveO

Guest of 1:08 A.M., who was it who said that?

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09 Oct 15 - 10:24 AM (#3742662)
Subject: RE: BS: Obscure quotations
From: GUEST

Unk ODO:
An obscure quote from GW Bush. Odd it was not easily recognized.

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09 Oct 15 - 11:37 AM (#3742677)
Subject: RE: BS: Obscure quotations
From: John on the Sunset Coast

Re: quotation at 11:08 on Oct 7

That comment (and more) was directed at Dr. Ben Carson, by Professor Anthea Butler of UPenn. Apparently she doesn't like that Republican candidate Carson (a black man for those of you who don't follow USA politics) does not toe the Black victimhood trope.

Whether the guest who posted that racist crap is actually Butler is not known.

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09 Oct 15 - 01:30 PM (#3742711)
Subject: RE: BS: Obscure quotations
From: Gutcher

"Let me finish my answer Jeremy then you can patronise me"      

Alex. Salmonds, very effective, put down of Jeremy Paxman

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09 Oct 15 - 08:31 PM (#3742759)
Subject: RE: BS: Obscure quotations
From: GUEST

"For people who like that sort of thing, that's the sort of thing they like."
William F. Buckley Jr.

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09 Oct 15 - 09:27 PM (#3742767)
Subject: RE: BS: Obscure quotations
From: Rapparee

The fewer the facts, the stronger the opinion. --Arnold H. Glasgow

For NASA, space is still a high priority. --Dan Quayle

The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, is not 'Eureka!' but 'That's funny...' --Isaac Asimov

One cannot conceive anything so strange and so implausible that it has not already been said by one philosopher or another. –-René Descartes

I don't know why we are here, but I'm pretty sure it is not in order to enjoy ourselves. –-Ludwig Wittgenstein

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10 Oct 15 - 12:48 AM (#3742775)
Subject: RE: BS: Obscure quotations
From: mrdux

"The sense of well-being continued. Black desolation underlay it, as he knew perfectly well; but the two could exist in the same being."

                        – Patrick O'Brian, The Hundred Days (1998)

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10 Oct 15 - 04:02 AM (#3742781)
Subject: RE: BS: Obscure quotations
From: MGM·Lion

William F Buckley Junr, few posts back ('...people who like that sort of thing...') was, to put it politely, requoting (or, less politely, plagiarisising) Abe Lincoln, who appears from Oxford Dict of Quotations to have originated this formulation -- subsequently reused [usually, as here, without acknowledgment] by the likes of Buckley, Muriel Spark as a "Miss Jean Brodie-ism", &c &c.

≈M≈

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10 Oct 15 - 04:46 AM (#3742787)
Subject: RE: BS: Obscure quotations
From: Ed T

My understanding is there is some doubt put forward as to whether Abe Lincoln was the original source of the quote, (attributed here to W.F. Buckley jr.), a quote which has been modified through time, and reused by others. The basis of some doubt us that the quote is clearly not of Lincolns style. Another source of such doubt is Ralph Keyes' book, The Quote Verifier that provides an earlier source:

""In late 1863 a spoofy newspaper advertisement for [Artemus] Ward included this testimonial: "I have never heard any of your lectures, but from what I can learn I should say that for people who like the kind of lectures you deliver, they are just the kind of lectures such people like""

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10 Oct 15 - 07:28 AM (#3742805)
Subject: RE: BS: Obscure quotations
From: MGM·Lion

That may indeed be an original source to be preferred to the Lincoln one, which ODQ attributes as

Judgement on a book. G.W.E. Russell, Collections and Recollections ch30.

But whether Lincoln quoted Artemus Ward's supposed referee or vice versa (Lincoln & Ward overlapped as contemporaries), or whether both drew on yet another, unidentified, earlier source, my point was that the formulation far antedated both Muriel Spark and W F Buckley jnr.

≈M≈

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10 Oct 15 - 07:32 AM (#3742806)
Subject: RE: BS: Obscure quotations
From: Ed T

Of course-but does the replacement of one inaccurate source by another, or questionable one achieve much?

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10 Oct 15 - 08:26 AM (#3742811)
Subject: RE: BS: Obscure quotations
From: GUEST

Birth control is not contraception indiscriminately and thoughtlessly practiced. It means the release and cultivation of the better racial elements in our society, and the gradual suppression, elimination and eventual extirpation of defective stocks— those human weeds which threaten the blooming of the finest flowers of American civilization.

Margaret Sanger Planned Parenthood Founder

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10 Oct 15 - 09:40 AM (#3742814)
Subject: RE: BS: Obscure quotations
From: MGM·Lion

Can't quite apprehend the non-point you seem to be making, Ed T. What is 'achieved' is a provisional terminus a quo. I have named a couple of earlier sources than those cited, but have nowhere claimed to have 'established' anything. So what's your problem, precisely?

The gravamen is surely that the attribution of a quote above, 9 Oct 0838pm, is demonstrably not the original source. Do you think it should have been allowed to stand because the absolute ur-original source cannot be conclusively demonstrated? If that is your point, I think little of your standards. If it isn't, then what the hell is, pray?

≈M≈

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10 Oct 15 - 09:58 AM (#3742816)
Subject: RE: BS: Obscure quotations
From: Rapparee

Biological laws tell us that certain divergent people will not mix or blend. --Calvin Coolidge

The multiplication of the feeble-minded is a very terrible danger to the race. --Winston Churchill

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10 Oct 15 - 10:18 AM (#3742821)
Subject: RE: BS: Obscure quotations
From: Steve Shaw

"It lighted every peak, crevasse and ridge of the nearby mountain range with a clarity and beauty that cannot be described but must be seen to be imagined. It was that beauty the great poets dream about but describe most poorly and inadequately."

--Brigadier General Thomas F. Farrell, eulogising over the Trinity atom bomb test at Alamogordo, a few weeks before the citizens of two Japanese cities were annihilated by similar explosions.

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10 Oct 15 - 02:04 PM (#3742853)
Subject: RE: BS: Obscure quotations
From: Ed T

It seems quite odd, IMO, that you claim I have "a problem", MGM-Lion? I claim no such affliction related to this quote.

Yes, it is indeed helpful (to some) to correctly identify a error in a quote source. However, replacing it with another potential source error seems, IMO, to add little value. Not recognizing such a plight is puzzling to me? However, I recognize it may not be so from your perspective?

If you have new information on the quote source, it would be worthy to share. If not, I see little purpose in continuing in a pointless direction.

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10 Oct 15 - 03:31 PM (#3742869)
Subject: RE: BS: Obscure quotations
From: Ed T

I fear you have now completely lost me."


That clearly makes two of us. What seems reasinablevto on, may just seem idx to another. A good reason to part courses on this one, versus engage in pointless BS argument/counter arguments.

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10 Oct 15 - 03:35 PM (#3742870)
Subject: RE: BS: Obscure quotations
From: Ed T

Oops, sent prematurely: What seems reasinable to one, may just seem odd to another.

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10 Oct 15 - 03:37 PM (#3742871)
Subject: RE: BS: Obscure quotations
From: Ed T

Damn: reasonable, of course.

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10 Oct 15 - 07:18 PM (#3742911)
Subject: RE: BS: Obscure quotations
From: Mrrzy

"Strike a light or light a lantern! Something I have hold of has no head."

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10 Oct 15 - 08:40 PM (#3742931)
Subject: RE: BS: Obscure quotations
From: Ed T

""Careful, Mr. Spiro, guns are dangerous. Especially the end with the hole.""
― Eoin Colfer, The Eternity Code

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11 Oct 15 - 10:19 AM (#3743047)
Subject: RE: BS: Obscure quotations
From: Uncle_DaveO

As to the attribution and counter-attribution and counter-counter-attribution of the "that's the kind" quote, it just goes to show that that thought, however phrased, has long become part of the culture
through the folk process.

Dave Oesterreich

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11 Oct 15 - 10:30 AM (#3743053)
Subject: RE: BS: Obscure quotations
From: Ed T

""If you put the "rich" in ostrich, I'll put in the "ost.""
― Jarod Kintz, 

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11 Oct 15 - 11:57 AM (#3743078)
Subject: RE: BS: Obscure quotations
From: Ed T

""Speeding is no advantage round a vicious circle"
Marty Rubin

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11 Oct 15 - 12:04 PM (#3743080)
Subject: RE: BS: Obscure quotations
From: Ed T

""Ideas stand in the corner and laughs while we fight over them"
Marty Rubin

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11 Oct 15 - 12:13 PM (#3743084)
Subject: RE: BS: Obscure quotations
From: Ed T

""Life is simple. You just have to stop trying to figure it out.""
― Marty Rubin

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17 Oct 15 - 09:54 AM (#3744647)
Subject: RE: BS: Obscure quotations
From: Uncle_DaveO

"What would men be without women?

"Very scarce, sir . . . very scarce."
    --Mark Twain

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17 Oct 15 - 06:14 PM (#3744775)
Subject: RE: BS: Obscure quotations
From: Uncle_DaveO

Although volume upon volume is written to prove slavery a very good thing, we never hear of the man who wishes to take the good of it, by being a slave himself.
        --Abraham Lincoln

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18 Oct 15 - 04:35 PM (#3744980)
Subject: RE: BS: Obscure quotations
From: Ed T

""But remember what I said about forgetting what I said?""
― Pseudonymous Bosch, The Name of This Book Is Secret

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23 Oct 15 - 03:19 PM (#3746204)
Subject: RE: BS: Obscure quotations
From: Uncle_DaveO

Whenever cannibals are on the brink of starvation, Heaven, in its infinite mercy, sends them a nice plump missionary.
        --Oscar Wilde

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23 Oct 15 - 05:09 PM (#3746223)
Subject: RE: BS: Obscure quotations
From: GUEST

"I have outlived my pecker." - Willie Nelson

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24 Oct 15 - 09:29 AM (#3746344)
Subject: RE: BS: Obscure quotations
From: Uncle_DaveO

Reasonable people adapt themselves to the world. Unreasonable people
attempt to adapt the world to themselves. All progress, therefore, depends on unreasonable people.
        --George Bernard Shaw

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24 Oct 15 - 12:39 PM (#3746375)
Subject: RE: BS: Obscure quotations
From: Bill D

"The intelligence of that creature known as a crowd is the square root of the number of people in it."

Terry Pratchett

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24 Oct 15 - 12:50 PM (#3746378)
Subject: RE: BS: Obscure quotations
From: Bill D

"The secret to effective online research isn't locating someone with the answer, but filtering out the masses of people who think they have the answer."

Paul Lutus

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24 Oct 15 - 12:54 PM (#3746381)
Subject: RE: BS: Obscure quotations
From: Bill D

"When people call at midnight and threaten you with death, you realize you're making a difference."

Paul Lutus

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24 Oct 15 - 04:57 PM (#3746415)
Subject: RE: BS: Obscure quotations
From: Uncle_DaveO

If you think education is expensive, try ignorance.
           --Derek Bok

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24 Oct 15 - 05:28 PM (#3746421)
Subject: RE: BS: Obscure quotations
From: GUEST,Guest

"Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts."

(Sign hanging in Albert Einstein's Princeton U. office.)

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25 Oct 15 - 05:03 AM (#3746486)
Subject: RE: BS: Obscure quotations
From: Mr Red

"The secret to effective online research isn't locating someone with the answer, but filtering out the masses of people who think they have the answer."
is also:
what Rumsfeld called "Unknown knowns" etc
When I say "Knowledge knows what it knows, intelligence knows when it doesn't"
& One clever 'Catter summarized with "the arrogance of ignorance"

sometime less is more, and more effective.

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25 Oct 15 - 06:38 AM (#3746494)
Subject: RE: BS: Obscure quotations
From: Steve Shaw

Becoming impotent is like being unchained from a lunatic -- George Melly

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26 Oct 15 - 09:56 AM (#3746672)
Subject: RE: BS: Obscure quotations
From: Uncle_DaveO

A majority of the dwellers of Hell will be women who curse too much and
are ungrateful to their spouses.
        --Muhammad Imran, Ideal Women in Islam

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26 Oct 15 - 12:44 PM (#3746697)
Subject: RE: BS: Obscure quotations
From: Ed T

""Remember, you may have to grow old, but you don't have to mature.""
Red Green

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26 Oct 15 - 12:55 PM (#3746700)
Subject: RE: BS: Obscure quotations
From: Ed T

""Some men look at a problem like this and try to find a solution. I prefer to figure out whose fault it is and let them take care of it."" Red Green

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27 Oct 15 - 07:34 AM (#3746847)
Subject: RE: BS: Obscure quotations
From: Mr Red

"Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail."
    Ralph Waldo Emerson

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27 Oct 15 - 08:24 AM (#3746857)
Subject: RE: BS: Obscure quotations
From: Ed T

"Be careful about reading health books. Some fine day you'll die of a misprint." 
― Markus Herz

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27 Oct 15 - 01:22 PM (#3746920)
Subject: RE: BS: Obscure quotations
From: MGM·Lion

Why has nobody yet quoted the very apposite remark of Dorothy L Sayers' Lord Peter Wimsey?:--
"Always a quotation for everything. It saves original thinking."

≈M≈

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27 Oct 15 - 05:00 PM (#3746955)
Subject: RE: BS: Obscure quotations
From: Ed T

""Nothing of me is original. I am the combined effort of everyone I've ever known.""
― Chuck Palahniuk, Invisible Monsters

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28 Oct 15 - 06:03 AM (#3747024)
Subject: RE: BS: Obscure quotations
From: MGM·Lion

"You think you won't but you will." Truculent barrister in Shaw's 'You Never Can Tell -- repeated, and varied as e.g "You think it isn't but it is" &c. Useful for deployment in Mudcat threads...!

≈M≈

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28 Oct 15 - 08:15 AM (#3747044)
Subject: RE: BS: Obscure quotations
From: GUEST,Sol

Talking to the famous footballer Kenny Dalglish, a radio interviewer said "I suppose you'll take a lot of secrets to your grave, Kenny"
Dalglish replied, "You'll never know".

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28 Oct 15 - 08:26 AM (#3747046)
Subject: RE: BS: Obscure quotations
From: Ed T

"History is not usually what has happened. History is what some people have thought to be significant." 
― Idries Shah, Reflections

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28 Oct 15 - 08:29 AM (#3747047)
Subject: RE: BS: Obscure quotations
From: Ed T

"Sometimes a pessimist is only an optimist with extra information." 
― Idries Shah, Reflections

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29 Oct 15 - 12:30 AM (#3747244)
Subject: RE: BS: Obscure quotations
From: PHJim

"I'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy"

- credited to (and probably said by) Dorothy Parker, W.C.Fields, Steve Allen, Fred Allen, Tom Waits and several other folks.

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29 Oct 15 - 12:31 AM (#3747245)
Subject: RE: BS: Obscure quotations
From: PHJim

But I believe Steve Allen said, "I'd rather have a full bottle in front of me than a full frontal lobotomy."

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29 Oct 15 - 03:08 AM (#3747253)
Subject: RE: BS: Obscure quotations
From: GUEST

Be true to your teeth and they won't be false to you.-- Soupy Sales

Half of being smart is knowing what you are dumb about.-- Solomon Short

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29 Oct 15 - 07:41 AM (#3747284)
Subject: RE: BS: Obscure quotations
From: Ed T

"Most misunderstandings in the world could be avoided if people would simply take the time to ask, "What else could this mean?" 
― Shannon L. Alder

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29 Oct 15 - 07:48 AM (#3747285)
Subject: RE: BS: Obscure quotations
From: Ed T

"There are two circumstances that lead to arrogance: one is when you're wrong and you can't face it; the other is when you're right and nobody else can face it." 
― Criss Jami, Diotima, Battery, Electric Personality

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29 Oct 15 - 06:08 PM (#3747379)
Subject: RE: BS: Obscure quotations
From: Bill D

"Don't look back...somthin' may be gainin' on you."
          Satchel Paige

"Don't do too good of a job, folks will begin to expect it"
                Talkin' John, an old carpenter

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29 Oct 15 - 08:44 PM (#3747417)
Subject: RE: BS: Obscure quotations
From: Steve Shaw

"Well, it's probably better to have him inside the tent pissing out, than outside the tent pissing in."--LBJ on J. Edgar Hoover

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29 Oct 15 - 11:17 PM (#3747425)
Subject: RE: BS: Obscure quotations
From: GUEST,salve

Success in almost any field depends more on energy and drive than it does on intelligence. This explains why we have so many stupid leaders.-- Sloan Wilson

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30 Oct 15 - 05:17 AM (#3747445)
Subject: RE: BS: Obscure quotations
From: MGM·Lion

Bill D's above above about not looking back reminds me of that wonderful stanza from Coleridge's The Ancient Mariner [one of the most quoted and quotable of poems} --

Like one, that on a lonesome road
Doth walk in fear and dread,
And having once turned round walks on,
And turns no more his head;
Because he knows, a frightful fiend
Doth close behind him tread.

Brrrrr!

≈M≈

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30 Oct 15 - 07:56 AM (#3747471)
Subject: RE: BS: Obscure quotations
From: Mr Red

call me a pedant BUT:

The Ancient Mariner [one of the most quoted and quotable of poems} --
is it not "the Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner"?

And just for the sake of more pedantry
"Water, water everywhere and all the boards did shrink.
Water, water everywhere, nor any drop to drink"

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30 Oct 15 - 09:41 AM (#3747483)
Subject: RE: BS: Obscure quotations
From: MGM·Lion

It is actually "The Rime of the Ancyent Marinere" according to Wikipedia.

But, then, we don't often refer in full to "The Tragedie of Macbeth King of Scotland" either, do we?

≈M≈

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30 Oct 15 - 10:00 AM (#3747491)
Subject: RE: BS: Obscure quotations
From: Mr Red

OK, OK it is an eye rhyme!

Technology is anything invented after you are born. Alan Kay
Technology is anything that doesn't work yet. Danny Hillis

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30 Oct 15 - 10:13 AM (#3747493)
Subject: RE: BS: Obscure quotations
From: Mr Red

Bruce Schneier on "the Security Mirage" on TED.com
If its in the news don't worry about it, News is something almost never happens.

THE RIME OF THE ANCYENT MARINERE, IN SEVEN PARTS from
Lyrical Ballads
[London: J. & A. Arch, 1798]

I have lered (or is it learnt?) something today! And something else!

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30 Oct 15 - 10:17 AM (#3747494)
Subject: RE: BS: Obscure quotations
From: GUEST

"" In one case out of a hundred a point is excessively discussed because it is obscure; in the ninety-nine remaining it is obscure because it is excessively discussed.""
Edgar Allan Poe

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30 Oct 15 - 10:21 AM (#3747496)
Subject: RE: BS: Obscure quotations
From: GUEST

"" It's better for the whole world to know you, even as a sex star, than never to be known at all.""
Marilyn Monroe

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30 Oct 15 - 10:23 AM (#3747498)
Subject: RE: BS: Obscure quotations
From: GUEST

"" This poem has been called obscure. I refuse to believe that it is obscurer than pity, violence, or suffering. But being a poem, not a lifetime, it is more compressed.""
Dylan Thomas

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30 Oct 15 - 08:24 PM (#3747587)
Subject: RE: BS: Obscure quotations
From: GUEST

"Law is a thing which is insensible, and inexorable, more beneficial and more profitious to the weak than to the strong; it admits of no mitigation nor pardon, once you have overstepped its limits."―Livy

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31 Oct 15 - 08:15 PM (#3747807)
Subject: RE: BS: Obscure quotations
From: GUEST,Git Parker

Not many really obscure - so -

'Always get over a stile'

Richard Jefferies c. 1870?

Always worked for me in the broader sense.

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23 Dec 15 - 03:05 PM (#3760534)
Subject: RE: BS: Obscure quotations
From: Mr Red

Foreplay pretty much starts at the end of the previous orgasm. (in a TED talk given by Esther Perel The secret to desire in a long-term relationship ) You have to listen to the whole thing to get the full impact!

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23 Dec 15 - 03:46 PM (#3760538)
Subject: RE: BS: Obscure quotations
From: Ed T

"We prematurely write off people as failures. We are too much in awe of those who succeed and far too dismissive of those who fail."

Malcolm Gladwell

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23 Dec 15 - 08:08 PM (#3760588)
Subject: RE: BS: Obscure quotations
From: kendall

It doesn't matter, and, it doesn't matter that it doesn't matter.

Sometimes it is well to remember that, with one minor exception, the universe is made up of others.

When I was young, I thought about sex all the time. Now, the only time I think about sex is when I'm awake.

I'm not the man I used to think I was.

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22 Feb 16 - 06:43 PM (#3774385)
Subject: RE: BS: Obscure quotations
From: Uncle_DaveO

"I drank to drown my troubles. But the
damn things learned to swim!"
                         --Freda Kahlo

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22 Feb 16 - 10:06 PM (#3774426)
Subject: RE: BS: Obscure quotations
From: GUEST,Guest from Sanity

"In a family argument, if it turns out you are right -- apologize at once!"

"An elephant is a mouse built to government specifications."

"Money is a powerful aphrodisiac. But flowers work almost as well."

"Be wary of strong drink. It can make you shoot at tax collectors and miss."

"Don't sweat the petty things and don't pet the sweaty things"

"Atheism is a non-prophet organization"

"A lot of the people who keep a gun at home for safety are the same ones who refuse to wear a seat belt"

"I went to a bookstore and asked the saleswoman, "Where's the self-help section?" She said if she told me, it would defeat the purpose"

"I do this real moron thing, it's called thinking, and I'm not a very good American because I like to form my own opinions."

"I couldn't commit suicide if my life depended on it"

"If a pig loses its voice, is it disgruntled?"

"The next time they give you all that civic bullshit about voting, keep in mind that Hitler was elected in a full, free democratic election"

"The reason I talk to myself is that I'm the only one whose answers I accept".

"Have you ever noticed? Anybody going slower than you is an idiot, and anyone going faster than you is a maniac"

"Inside every cynical person, there is a disappointed idealist"

"Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that."

"The only good thing ever to come out of religion was the music"

"Death is caused by swallowing small amounts of saliva over a long period of time."

"Most people work just hard enough not to get fired and get paid just enough money not to quit"

""I am" is reportedly the shortest sentence in the English language. Could it be that "I do" is the longest sentence?"

"People who say they don't care what people think are usually desperate to have people think they don't care what people think"

"By and large, language is a tool for concealing the truth"

"In labor news, longshoremen walked off the piers today; rescue operations are continuing"

"When you step on the brakes your life is in your foot's hands"

"The word bipartisan means some larger-than-usual deception is being carried out"

OK..enough...

GfS

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23 Feb 16 - 12:28 AM (#3774431)
Subject: RE: BS: Obscure quotations
From: MGM·Lion

Second line of GFS above reminds mew inevitably that a camel is a horse designed by a committee.

≈M≈

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23 Feb 16 - 12:29 AM (#3774432)
Subject: RE: BS: Obscure quotations
From: MGM·Lion

...reminds ME, buggerit!

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23 Feb 16 - 12:46 AM (#3774435)
Subject: RE: BS: Obscure quotations
From: GUEST,Guest from Sanity

Glad you read 'em...hope you got off on some of them.

GfS

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23 Feb 16 - 02:57 AM (#3774443)
Subject: RE: BS: Obscure quotations
From: GUEST,Musket

I always get off on your posts Goofus. One day I must get around to reading them.

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23 Feb 16 - 03:31 AM (#3774449)
Subject: RE: BS: Obscure quotations
From: Jim Carroll

A few of my personal favourites.
My mother had a few that stuck with me through life
Her response to bluff, bullshit and equivocation; "You're all wind and pee - like the barber's cat".
When I first tried my hand at singing I was told, "If you were singing for shit, you wouldn't get the smell of it", late adapted to, "not bad, for a beginner".
She described someone of small stature as; "He has to stand on tuppence to look over thruppence.
A local dancing master around here was asked how a now internationally famous veteran box player who as going to him to learn music was progressing - "Ah, he's doin' his best, poor feller".
Dubliners have a couple of nice ones for people who have done them a good turn: "Your blood's worth bottlin'" or "You're handier than a small pot"
Liverpool bar staff had a string of sayings to deal with customers who couldn't hold their drink - I heard one barman ask a man who had spilled his beer all down his shirt-front, "Do you intend to drink that or wear it?"
The Radio Ballads team spent a time recording miners in Wales and in the N.E. telling stories for 'The Big Hewer' - they were told of a Trades Union leader who had sold out his men during a strike.
He addressed a pit-head meeting with the opening line; "I suppose you think I've sold you out to the bosses?"
A voice shouted out from the body of the hall, "No - they buy gold, not shit".
During a late-night conversation we had with Joe Heaney in a tatty caff in Euston, not long before he died, he complained about growing old, "It takes me all night to do what I used to do all night".
Jim Carroll

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23 Feb 16 - 03:41 AM (#3774453)
Subject: RE: BS: Obscure quotations
From: GUEST,№22

Everyone born is on the field of life's game, but not everyone does wear the jersey of vision! Some people are fair players and others are injury causers; you joke with the later and they hit you down in pain and blood stains! Israelmore Ayivor

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23 Feb 16 - 03:45 AM (#3774456)
Subject: RE: BS: Obscure quotations
From: Mr Red

Second line of GFS above reminds mew inevitably that a camel is a horse designed by a committee. it is also said that:

a camel is a race horse designed by a committee.

But then the Autralians breed racing camels. Go figure!

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23 Feb 16 - 06:22 AM (#3774488)
Subject: RE: BS: Obscure quotations
From: banjoman

From my music teacher over 65 years ago
"Musically speaking this pupil is dead from the neck up"
He wrote this on a report sent to my parents. I have kept it as a reminder of why I took up the banjo all those years ago.

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23 Feb 16 - 07:15 AM (#3774500)
Subject: RE: BS: Obscure quotations
From: gillymor

Morality is doing what is right regardless of what you are told.
Religion is doing what you are told regardless of what is right.

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23 Feb 16 - 10:18 AM (#3774534)
Subject: RE: BS: Obscure quotations
From: kendall

I don't care what they do, as long as they don't do it in the street and frighten the horses. (Lady Campbell)

I sometimes post this sort of thing at the top of my FB page.

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24 Feb 16 - 04:07 AM (#3774661)
Subject: RE: BS: Obscure quotations
From: BobL

Never let your principles keep you from doing what is right (or something to that effect) - Isaac Asimov.

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24 Feb 16 - 09:11 AM (#3774713)
Subject: RE: BS: Obscure quotations
From: Uncle_DaveO

Big Red, there are two basic breeds of camels:
1 Bactrian, with two humps.   This is a beast of burden.
2 Dromedary, with one hump.   This is a running camel.
The "drome" in that word means "run" or "running"
For a very long time, there has been a lot of camel
racing in the Middle East, using Dromedaries.

Dave Oesterreich

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25 Feb 16 - 05:08 AM (#3774906)
Subject: RE: BS: Obscure quotations
From: GUEST

Fun Fact: if a biker asks you for a 'hump' give him a cigarette (preferably Camel straight)

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25 Feb 16 - 06:13 AM (#3774912)
Subject: RE: BS: Obscure quotations
From: Steve Shaw

"He couldn't stop a pig in an entry" - my gran about a bloke with bandy legs. Unfortunately, Mrs Steve is beginning to think she could use it against me...

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25 Feb 16 - 01:18 PM (#3774984)
Subject: RE: BS: Obscure quotations
From: Mrrzy

"la science progresse d'erreur en erreur" - if you can find who said that, I'd be happy. I learned it from a physics teacher in a French high school in Abidjan.

It translates roughly as Science advances from mistake to mistake.

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25 Feb 16 - 01:40 PM (#3774991)
Subject: RE: BS: Obscure quotations
From: GUEST,Musket

Some of the old buggers I worked with when an apprentice;

"Like a wooden dog with a tin prick."

"One of the finest men ever to piss through a tin trumpet"

"As much use as a one legged bloke at an arse kicking contest."

The BBC comedy writer Johnny Speight put a wonderful line for Alf Garnett "If you want to achieve true democracy, you've got to be prepared to shoot a few people."

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25 Feb 16 - 02:24 PM (#3775000)
Subject: RE: BS: Obscure quotations
From: Steve Shaw

Bloke on Radcliffe Parks Dept. (going back nearly fifty years now), referring to the somewhat unworldly and rather effeminate parks superintendent, "he thinks his dick's fer pissin' out of."

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