Cool Quotes

Okay, so sue me. I keep coming across quotes that are just plain cool, and I just have to share them. After a certain amount of soul searching I've decided to leave out the movie Real Genius, which does happen to be chock full of great quotes, but too many people already have those on their pages, and I want to try and avoid making too many duplications. Here, in no particular order, are quotes from books, movies, television, radio, etc.

On the narrow corridor that would carry the armored drive, there were five major bridges to take. They had to be seized intact by airborne assault. It was the fifth, crucial bridge over the lower Rhine at a place called Arnhem, sixty-four miles behind the German lines, that worried Lieutenant General Frederick Browning, Deputy Commander, First Allied Airborne Army. Pointing to the Arnhem bridge on the map he asked, "How long will it take the armor to reach us?" Field Marshal Montgomery replied briskly, "Two days." Still looking at the map, Browning said, "We can hold it for four." Then he added, "But, sir, I think we might be going a bridge too far."
-Major General Roy E. Urquhart, Arnhem
"I don't belong here." Carl was shaking his head no, not in negation but in pained disbelief, and Trent said softly, "Let me go."
And Carl Castanaveras, for a brief, time-wrenching moment, saw the future twisting itself about his son, and heard his voice say with the hollow echo of prophecy, "I think you are right. You do not belong here. I think you will never belong anywhere."
-Daniel Keys Moran, Emerald Eyes
Moving faster than any human being, as fast as an Elite cyborg could, Mohammed Vance barely had time to notice the smooth, floor-to-ceiling barrier at the bottom of the ramp leading to Level Five.
Very suddenly he understood the reason behind the alarms going off: Trent had set off a breach alarm, thus sealing off Level Five from the upper levels. Vance had just a moment to admire the elegance of the solution and then he struck the barrier at over fifty kilometers an hour.
-Daniel Keys Moran, The Long Run
"You mean you distrust all passion. 'All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds awake to find it was vanity; but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dream with open eyes, to make it possible.'" Denice smiled, said quietly, "You are a woman of dusty dreams, 'Selle Lovely."
-Denice Castanaveras, The Last Dancer
Daniel Keys Moran
"We are an insignificant life-form in a small solar system at the edge of an unimportant galaxy. A bubble of order and reason floating in the midst of a vast Chaos. A tiny aberration that has been allowed to continue only because those powerful enough to destroy us have had other and greater concerns.
"This is the thing," said Belinda Singer, "That Camber Tremodian told me, on that day in 1999: that there is no order to the universe, and no reason, and no cause. We are alone and outnumbered--"
Her eyes met his. In the first light of morning, in an imaginary world sixty-nine years before his birth and instants before her death, Belinda Singer said to Trent the Uncatchable "--and the universe is a far more dangerous place than anyone has ever told you."
-Daniel Keys Moran, The Last Dancer
"Music to drown by... Now I know I'm in first class."
-Tommy Ryan, Titanic
"Losers whine about doing their best. Winners go home and fuck the prom queen."
-John Mason (Sean Connery), The Rock
For those who fought for it, freedom has a flavor the sheltered never know.
-Posted on the bulletin board at Khe Sanh, Republic of South Vietnam
And what of the man clad in black and silver with a silver rose upon him? He would like to think that he has learned something of trust, that he has washed his eyes in some clear spring, that he has polished an ideal or two. Nevermind. He may still be only a smart-mouthed meddler, skilled mainly in the minor art of survival, blind as ever the dungeons knew him to the finer shades of irony. Never mind, let it go, let it be. I may never be pleased with him.
-Corwin, Prince of Amber, The Courts of Chaos
Roger Zelazny
"Beware the man with one gun. He can probably use it."
-Jeff Cooper
"No bastard ever won a war by dying for his country. He wins wars by making the other poor dumb bastard die for his country."
-General George S. Patton (George C. Scott), Patton
"Now we are all sons of bitches."
-Kenneth Bainbridge, Director of the Trinity Project, to J. Robert Oppenheimer, seconds after the successful test of the first atomic bomb, July 16th, 1945
On May 8th, 1864, during the opening stages of the battle of Spotsylvania, Union Maj Gen John Sedgwick decided he would rally his troops who were hiding behind a low stone wall. Standing tall, he said "Buck up, men! They couldn't hit an elephant at this dist..." In that instant, a Confederate rifle bullet struck him under his left eye, killing him instantly.
I ain't in it for the power
And I ain't in it for my health
I ain't in it for the glory of anything at all
And I sure ain't in it for the wealth
-Everything Louder Than Everything Else
Jim Steinman, recorded by Meat Loaf
"In the news this morning, General Colin Powell announced that he would not seek the Republican nomination for President of the United States. In the news this afternoon, President Bill Clinton stopped packing."
-David Letterman, "The Late Show with David Letterman"
If anyone knows the date of the show when Dave said this, please let me know.
"You still don't know what you're dealing with, do you? Perfect organism. Its structural perfection is matched only by its hostility."
"You admire it."
"I admire its purity. A survivor, unclouded by conscience, remorse, or delusions of morality."
-Ash (Ian Holm), Alien
"Actually the boy is quite astute, I am trying to kill him. So far unsuccessfully... He's quite wily, like his old man."
-Dr. Evil (Mike Myers), Austin Powers: International Man Of Mystery
Never explain. Your friends do not need it and your enemies will never believe you anyway.
-Elbert Hubbard
"All right," said Susan. "I'm not stupid. You're saying humans need...fantasies to make life bearable."
REALLY? AS IF IT WAS SOME KIND OF PINK PILL? NO. HUMANS NEED FANTASY TO BE HUMAN. TO BE THE PLACE WHERE FALLING ANGEL MEETS RISING APE.
"Toothfairies? Hogfathers? Little--"
YES. AS PRACTICE. YOU HAVE TO START OUT LEARNING TO BELIEVE THE LITTLE LIES.
"So we can believe the big ones?"
YES. JUSTICE. MERCY. DUTY. THAT SORT OF THING.
"They're not the same at all!"
YOU THINK SO? THEN TAKE THE UNIVERSE AND GRIND IT DOWN TO THE FINEST POWDER AND SIEVE IT THROUGH THE FINEST SIEVE AND THEN SHOW ME ONE ATOM OF JUSTICE, ONE MOLECULE OF MERCY. AND YET-- Death waved a hand. AND YET YOU ACT AS IF THERE IS SOME IDEAL ORDER IN THE WORLD, AS IF THERE IS SOME...SOME RIGHTNESS IN THE UNIVERSE BY WHICH IT MAY BE JUDGED.
"Yes, but people have got to believe that, or what's the point--"
MY POINT EXACTLY.
-Terry Pratchett, Hogfather
"He's pissing into the wind. How brilliant can he be?"
-Russell Franklin (Samuel L. Jackson), Deep Blue Sea
Love is friendship that catches fire.
-Ann Landers
"And when a man sticks a gun in your face, you got two choices. You can die, or you can kill the motherfucker."
-Wade Garrett (Sam Elliot), Road House
"The dumber people think you are, the more surprised they're going to be when you kill them."
-William Clayton
Possibly apocryphal. But I like it.

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