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The
Running Quote Board
What follows is a random
collection of quotes from novels, poetry, popular music, and other haphazard
sources. By intention, there is neither organization nor rhyme nor
reason. Enjoy. A bird in the hand is better than a punch in the face. Brian Barlow We expect too much of God and too little of ourselves. Dana Vachon Mergers & Acquisitions To ask that God's love should be content with us as we are is to ask that God should cease to be God: because He is what He is, His love must, in the nature of things, be impeded and repelled by certain stains in our present character, and because He already loves us He must labor to make us lovable. CS Lewis The Problem of Pain You can have no greater sign of confirmed pride than when you think you are humble enough. William Law Serious Call to a Devout & Holy Life Anyone who believes that exponential growth can go on
forever in a finite world is either a madman or an economist. Kenneth
Boulding When you become detached mentally from yourself and
concentrate on helping people with their difficulties you will be able to
cope with your own more effectively.
Norman
Vincent Peale A question that sometimes drives me hazy: am I or the
others crazy? Albert Einstein Whatever power runs the earth sometimes beats a man down for no good reason whatsoever other then whim or black jest. Charles Frazier Thirteen Moons If you can't get drunk when your entire world comes crashing down at your feet, why did God make alcohol to begin with? Charles Frazier Thirteen Moons A recovery of the old sense of sin is essential to Christianity. Christ takes it for granted that men are bad. Until we really feel this assumption of His to be true, though we are part of the world he came to save, we are not part of the audience to whom His words are addressed. CS Lewis The Problem of Pain Virtue is one. Plato ...it is required You do awake your faith. Then all stand still; Or those that think it is unlawful business I am about, let them depart Shakespeare Winter's Tale: Paulina The inability to predict outliers implies the inability to predict the course of history, given the share of these events in the dynamics of events. The Black Swan Nassim Nicholas Taleb Small opportunities are often the beginning of great enterprises. Demosthenes I never meant to say that the Conservatives are generally stupid. I meant to say that stupid people are generally Conservative. John Stuart Mill A liberal is someone who feels a great debt to his fellow man, which debt he proposes to pay off with your money. G Gordon Liddy No man's life, liberty, or property is safe while the legislature is in session. Mark Twain The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of the blessings. The inherent blessing of socialism is the equal sharing of misery. Winston Churchill Counter to what everyone believes, not theorizing is an act – theorizing can correspond to the absence of willed activity, the "default" option. The Black Swan Nassim Nicholas Taleb Luck favors the prepared Louis Pasteur You had me at hello. Dorothy Boyd (Renee Zellweger) Jerry Maguire Prove that you are worthy of being successful by making yourself significant. Kareem Abdul Jabaar UCLA Commencement Address 2007 If we could decide who we love, it would be much simpler, but much less magical. Mr. Twig (Trey Parker) South Park With no guile and no game, there is no girl. Hitch (Will Smith) Hitch Begin each day as if it were on purpose Mary Anne Radmacher I have little doubt that God has different plans... bigger plans. You've just spent too much time running away to realize what you may be running toward. Brother Campbell Lost (ÒCatch-22Ó) Logic is most enlightening – and surely most fun – when it challenges us to see the world in a whole new way. Steven Landsburg More
Sex is Safer Sex: The Unconventional Wisdom of Economics Out beyond ideas of right-doing and wrong-doing there is a field. I'll meet you there. Rumi He who lives in harmony with himself lives in harmony with the universe. Marcus Aurelius Most of us spend our lives as if we have another one in the bank. Ben Irwin For peace of mind, we need to resign as general manager of the universe. Larry Eisenberg Oh, those most calm, measureless mountain days in whose light everything seems equally divine, opening a thoughts windows to show us God. John Muir The world is not fair, and sometimes you get the short end, that's all you get. And if you don't do something personally to fix it, that's all you're ever going to get. Gary Gaines (Billy Bob Thornton) Friday
Night Lights Suppose we have only dreamed, or made up, all those things - trees and grass and sun and moon and stars and Aslan himself. Suppose we have. Then all I can say is that, in that case, the made-up things seem a good deal more important than the real ones. Suppose this black pit of a kingdom is the only world. Well, it strikes me as a pretty poor one. And that's a funny thing, when you come to think of it. We're just babies making up a game, if you're right. But four babies playing a game can make a play-world which licks your real world hollow. That's why I'm going to stand by the play-world. I'm on Aslan's side even if there isn't any Aslan to lead it. I'm going to live as like a Narnian as I can even if there isn't any Narnia.... [W]e're leaving your court at once and setting out in the dark to spend our lives looking for Overland. CS Lewis The
Silver Chair The vertical environment, the relentlessly steep cracks, the smooth rock, all have a way of seeming perfectly natural after an extended stay in Yosemite. Climbing becomes an alternative existence to the day-to-day worries below. On the walls, life's concerns drop away like darting cliff swallows. The focus sharpens on the basics of getting by. Yvon Choinard Patagonia
Catalog, Spring 2007 The mountains are the means, the man is the end. The idea is to improve the man, not reach the top of the mountains. Climbing only makes sense if you consider the man. Walter Bonatti On
the Heights Life is a hypocrite if I can't live The way it moves me! Christopher Fry Most of our life changing moments are realized as such later. John Eldredge Wild
at Heart When someone you love dies, it is like when your house burns down; it isn't for years that you realize the full extent of your loss. Mark Twain The universe is so vast and so ageless that the life of one man can only be justified by the measure of his sacrifice. Vivian Rosewarne, RAF from
An Airman's Letter to His Mother Life is not a problem to be solved, it is an adventure to be lived. John Eldredge Wild
at Heart Don't ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive, and go do that, because what the world needs is people who have come alive. Gil Bailie I have studied many times The marble which was chiseled for me – A boat with a furled sail at rest in a harbor. In truth it pictures not my destination But my life. For love was offered me, and I shrank from its disillusionment; Sorrow knocked at my door, but I was afraid. Ambition called to me, but I dreaded the chances. Yet all the while I hungered for the meaning in my life And now I know that we must sail And catch the winds of destiny Wherever they drive the boat. To put meaning in one's life may end in madness, But life without meaning is the torture Of restlessness and vague desire – It is a boat longing for the sea and yet afraid. Edgar Lee Masters George
Gray A man is basically as faithful as his options. Chris Rock Inventions reached their limit long ago, and I see no hope for further development. Sextus Julius Frontinus, 100AD Being a woman is a terribly difficult task, since it consists principally of being with men. Joseph Conrad When confronted with an economic problem, first translate the problem into mathematics, then solve the problem, then translate back into English and burn the mathematics. Alfred Marshall When pain is to be borne, a little courage helps more than much knowledge, a little human sympathy more than much courage, and the least tincture of the love of God more than all. CS Lewis The
Problem of Pain The Son of God suffered unto the death, not that men might not suffer, but that their sufferings might be like his. George MacDonald Unspoken
Sermons, First Series IsnÕt it better to live in ignorance of everything – asphalt and macadam, vehicles, telephones, television – to live in bliss without knowing it? Fosco Maraini Why ponder thus the future to foresee, and jade thy brain to vain perplexity? Cast off thy care, leave AllahÕs plans to him – he formed them all without consulting thee. Omar Khayyam The
Rubaiyat Greatness is always built on this foundation: the ability to appear, speak and act, as the most common man. Shams-ud-din Muhammed Hafiz Let sorrowful longing dwell in your heart. Never give up, never lose hope. Allah says, ÒThe broken ones are my beloved.Ó Crush your heart. Be broken. Shaikh Abu Saeed Abil Kheir aka Nobody, son of Nobody In the immensity of these ranges, at the limit of existence where men may visit but cannot dwell, life has a new importance... but Mountains are not chivalrous; one forgets their violence. Indifferently they lash those who venture among them with snow, rock, wind, cold. George Schaller Stones
of Silence Let nothing perturb you, nothing frighten you. All things pass. God does not change. Patience achieves everything. Mother Teresa In times of war, you often hear leaders – Christian, Jewish, and Muslim – saying, ÒGod is on our side.Ó But that isnÕt true. In war, God is on the side of refugees, widows, and orphans. Greg Mortenson Three
Cups of Tea When your heart speaks, take good notes. Judith Campbell Do not burn yourselves out. Be as I am: a reluctant enthusiast, a part-time crusader, a half-hearted fanatic. Save the other half of yourselves and your lives for pleasure and adventure. It is not enough to fight for the west; it is even more important to enjoy it. While you can. While it's still there. So get out there with your friends, ramble out yonder and explore the forest, encounter the Grizzlies, climb the mountains, bag the peaks, run the rivers, breathe deep of that yet sweet and lucid air, sit quietly for a while and contemplate the precious stillness, that lovely mysterious awesome space. Enjoy yourselves, keep your brain in your head and your head firmly attached to your body, the body active and alive, and I promise you this much: I promise you this one sweet victory over our enemies, over those desk-bound people with hearts in a safe deposit box and their eyes hypnotized by desk calculators. I promise you this: you will outlive the bastards. Edward Abbey It's probably true that hard work never killed anyone, but why take the chance? Ronald Reagan Seven deadly social sins: Wealth Without Work Pleasure Without Conscience Knowledge Without Character Commerce (Business) Without Morality (Ethics) Science Without Humanity Religion Without Sacrifice Politics Without Principle Mahatma Ghandi We lie loudest when we lie to ourselves. Eric Hoffer Remember your dreams and fight for them. You must know what you want from life. There is just one thing that makes your dream become impossible: the fear of failure. Never forget your Personal Legend. Never forget your dreams. Your silent heart will guide you. Be silent now. It is the possibility of a dream that makes life interesting. You can choose between being a victim of destiny or an adventurer who is fighting for something important. Paolo Cohelo The Alchemist To love and admire anything outside yourself is to take one step away from utter spiritual ruin; though we shall not be well so long as we love and admire anything more than we love and admire God. CS Lewis Mere Christianity Just remember, that the things you put into your head are there forever... You forget what you want to remember and you remember what you want to forget. Cormac McCarthy The Road I like to have a martini. Two at the very most. After three I'm under the table. After four I'm under the host. Dorothy Parker When you can measure what you are speaking about, and express it in numbers, you know something about it; but when you cannot measure it, when you cannot express it in numbers, your knowledge is of a meager and unsatisfactory kind: it may be the beginning of knowledge, but you have scarcely, in your thoughts, advanced to the state of science Lord Kelvin A person cannot do right in one department whilst attempting to do wrong in another department. Life is one indivisible whole. Mahatma Ghandi
It is a light thing for those who take their stand outside the place where evil is to give advice to one who feels the evil. Aeschylus Prometheus Bound The mother of excess is not joy but joylessness. Friedrich Nietzsche Morality is more properly felt than judged of; though this feeling or sentiment is commonly so soft and gentle that we are apt to confound it with an idea. David Hume My philosophy, in essence, is the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute. Ayn Rand Work for something because it is good, not just because it stands a chance to succeed. Vaclav Havel The heights by great men reached and kept Were not attained by sudden flight, But they, while their companions slept, Were toiling upward in the night. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow I am somehow less interested in the weight and convolutions of Einstein's brain than in the near certainty that people of equal talent have lived and died in cotton fields and sweatshops. Stephen Jay Gould A society that puts equality ahead of freedom will end up with neither equality nor freedom. Milton Friedman Nothing is so permanent as a temporary government program. Milton Friedman You've got to win to get love. Everyone knows that. That's just life. Ricky Bobby Talladega Nights By being outside of nature, God is also outside of space and time. Hence, at the moment of the creation of the universe, God could also have activated evolution, with full knowledge of how it would turn out... The idea that he could both foresee the future and also give us spirit and free will to carry out our own desires becomes entirely acceptable. Francis Collins Time Magazine 11.13.06 The indirect effects of prayer upon the conduct of our lives is so obvious and striking that they have been mistakenly treated at times as the only point of prayer. Dallas Willard Prayer is the central avenue God uses to transform us. Richard Foster It's a foolish thing to think That you can kill the hurt with a drink, But it's the only thing I can think of now. Trent Tomlinson The Bottle Prayer is to religion what original research is to science. Patrick Forsythe A lie can travel all over the world while the truth is putting its shoes on. Mark Twain All of us search for love, but some of us, after we've found it, wish we hadn't. Desparate Housewives I could grasp the holds but not the problem. Pat Ament When you truly want something, all the universe conspires in helping you to achieve it. King Melchizedek The Alchemist The act of living one's own destiny includes a series of stages that are far beyond our understanding, whose objective is always to take us back to the path of our Personal Legend – or to make us learn the lessons necessary to fulfill our own destiny... There are things that are brought into our lives to lead us back to the path of our Personal Legend. Other things arise so we can apply all that we have learned. And, finally, some things come along to teach us. Paulo Coelho from the forward to The Fifth Mountain I felt like I had to commit to nothing, to keep my options open. And that's suicide, by tiny increments. John Cusak from High Fidelity You'll never get over it. But you'll get used to it. Sandy Cohen The OC So, when I start to climb I am so concentrated that there is nothing else existing. In this concentration, everything seems quite logical. The danger is gone. But the concentration is absolute. Reinhold Messner National Geographic 11.06 Reputation is an idle and most false imposition; oft got without merit and lost without deserving. William Shakespeare Othello the Moor of Venice (Iago, II.iii) Why spend money on what is not bread, and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare. Isaiah 55:2 I did not ask for the life that I was given, but it was given nonetheless. And with it I did my best. Mr Eko LOST If you want to teach people a new way of thinking, don't bother to teach them. Instead, give them a tool, the use of which will lead to a new way of thinking. Buckminster Fuller American inventor, author and visionary Death smiles at us all. All we can do is smile back. Marcus Aurelius Gladiator I could not become anything, neither bad nor good, neither a scoundrel nor an honest man, neither a hero nor an insect. And now I am eking out my days in my corner, taunting myself with the bitter and entirely useless consolation that an intelligent man cannot seriously become anything; that only a fool can become something. Fyodor Dostoevsky Notes from the Underground A man has only one escape from his old self: to see a different self in the mirror of some woman's eyes. Clare Boothe Luce The Women Among our structurally closest analogues – the primates – the male does not feed the female. Heavy with young, making her way laboriously along, she fends for herself. He may fight to protect her or to possess her, but he does not nurture her. Margaret Mead Male and Female The strong live off the weak and the clever live off the strong. Boyd Rice You have to recognize when your imagination is cooking up excuses, and force yourself to go on. You also have to acknowledge a truly dangerous situation and get the hell out of there, but the bottom line is mutual respect, commitment, and friendship. Jim Donini Climbing magazine #170 There's plain few problems that can't be solved with a little sweat and hard work. Clint Eastwood Pale Rider Anyway, since we seem to be out of witnesses I thought I'd drink a little. Tom Cruise A Few Good Men The outdoors is neosporin for the soul. Random dirtbag climber I never found a companion that was so companionable as solitude. Henery David Thoreau The farther one goes The less one knows Tao Te Ching How did I get into this and this and how do I get out of it again, how does it end? Soren Kierkegaard Fear is like fire. It can cook for you. It can heat your house. Or it can burn you down. Cus D'Amato Man knows so little about his fellows. In his eyes all men or women act upon what he believes would motivate him if he were mad enough to do what that other man is thinking. Willaim Faulkner Light in August People don't come preassembled, but are glued together by life. Joseph LeDoux Choking is about thinking too much. Panic is about thinking too little. Malcolm Gladwell The rigid person is a disciple of death; The soft, supple and delicate are lovers of life. Tao Te Ching Does anything happen to me? I take what comes... Marcus Aurelius On the occasion of every accident that befalls you, remember to turn to yourself and inquire what power you have for turning it to use. Epictetus Luck favors the prepared mind Louis Pasteur Whether a deity is actually listening or not, there is value in formally announcing your needs desires, worries, sins, and goals in a focused, prayerful attitude. Only when you are aware can you take action. Peter Leschak Don't worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done. If you do this, you will experience God's peace, which is far more wonderful than the human mind can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus. St. Paul Letter to the Philippians Myriad conversations and debates flash through my mind, as if a group of men are chattering within my skull. Some of them joke, finding comic relief in the camera's busy taking pictures that no one will ever see. Others stoke a furnace of fear... I must be careful. I fight blind panic: I do not want the power from my pumping adrenaline to lead to confused and counter-productive activity. I fight the urge to fall into catatonic hysteria: I do not want to sit frozen in fear until the end comes. Focus, I tell myself. Focus and get moving. Steven Callahan Adrift The best survivors spend almost no time, especially in emergencies, getting upset about what has been lost, or feeling distressed about things going badly... For this reason they don't usually take themselves too seriously and are therefore hard to threaten. Al Siebert The Survivor Personality I won't be in a position to say what you're asking me to say about you until I found out that you died well. You see, someone with vast wealth is no better off than someone who lives from day to day, unless good fortune attends him and sees to it that, when he dies, he dies well and with all his advantages intact... It is necessary to consider the end of anything, however, and to see how it will turn out, because the god often offers prosperity to men, but then destroys them utterly and completely. Solon From Herodotus' Histories The perfect adventure shouldn't be that much more hazardous in a real sense than ordinary life, for that invisible rope that holds us here can always break. We can live a life of bored caution and die of cancer. Better to take the adventure, minimize the risks, get the information, and then go forward in the knowledge that we've done everything we can... To live life is to risk it. And when you feel the rush of air and catch the stink of hot breath in your face, you enter the secret order of those who have seen their own death close up. It makes us live that much more intensely. So intense is it for some that it seals their fate; once they've tasted it, they just can't stop. And in their cases, perhaps we have to accept that the light that burns brightest burns half as long. Laurence Gonzales Deep Survival Logic doesn't work well for such nonlinear systems as chess and life. Laurence Gonzales Deep Survival I still feel that variable gears are only for people over forty-five. Isn't it better to triumph by the strength of your muscles than by the artifice of a derailleur? We are getting soft...As for me, give me a fixed gear! Henri Desgrange L'ƒquipe article of 1902 All the ill that is in us comes from fear, and all the good from love. Eleanor Farjeon Some of the best things in life are mistakes. Uma Thurman Paycheck Love all, trust a few, do wrong to none. Shakespeare All's Well That Ends Well Be bold and mighty forces will come to your aid. Goethe America is built on a tilt, and everything loose slides to California. Mark Twain Life is ten percent what happens to you and ninety percent how you respond to it. Lou Holtz I know what I have to do now. I have to keep breathing. Because tomorrow the sun will rise, and who knows what the tide will bring. Tom Hanks From Castaway If there is a divine being who made everything, including us, what would our experiences with this being look like? The moment God is figured out with nice neat lines and definitions, we are no longer dealing with God. We are dealing with somebody made up. And if we made him up, then we are in control. And so in passage after passage, we find God reminding people that He is beyond and bigger and more. Rob Bell Velvet Elvis Four wheels moves the body, two wheels moves the soul. Anonymous fixed gear enthusiast Try to learn to breathe deeply, really to taste food when you eat, and when you sleep really to sleep. Try as much as possible to be wholly alive with all your might, and when you laugh, laugh like hell. And when you get angry, get good and angry. Try to be alive. You will be dead soon enough. William Saroyan Success is that happy feeling you get between the time you do something and the time you tell a woman what you did. Scott Adams Dilbert A good plan violently executed today is far and away better than a perfect plan tomorrow. General George Patten Anything that is measured and watched, improves. Bob Parsons If your quarry goes to ground, leave no ground to go to. from
Serenity Having followed dreams To decidedly questionable success, Had I known life's answers Weren't in the dreams' fulfillment, Would I have chosen a different path? Gared Jones Human sexuality makes farcical our most serious intentions John Irving The
World According to Garp The best moments in our lives are not the passive, reflective times – although these can also be enjoyable, if we have worked hard to attain them. The best moments usually occur when a person's body or mind is stretched to its limits in a voluntary effort to accomplish something difficult and worthwhile. Optimal experience is something we make happen. Such experiences are not necessarily pleasant at the time they occur, yet these can have been the best moments in life. Mihaly Csiksentmihalyi The art of losing isn't hard to master; so many things seem filled with the intent to be lost that their loss is no disaster. Lose something every day. Accept the fluster of lost door keys, the hour badly spent. The art of losing isn't hard to master. Then practice losing farther, losing faster: places, and names, and where it was you meant to travel. None of these will bring disaster. I lost my mother's watch. And look! my last, or next-to-last, of three loved houses went. The art of losing isn't hard to master. I lost two cities, lovely ones. And, vaster, some realms I owned, two rivers, a continent. I miss them, but it wasn't a disaster. ---Even losing you (the joking voice, a gesture I love) I shan't have lied. It's evident the art of losing's not too hard to master though it may look like (Write it!) like disaster. "One Art" Elizabeth Bishop What does it take to change the essence of a man? Time. Steven Segal On Deadly Ground Youth is a circumstance you can't do anything about. The trick is to grow up without getting old. Frank Lloyd Wright Ain't you glad we ainÕt all California girls? Gretchen Wilson Success is the worst teacher Bill Gates i carry your heart with me(i carry it in my heart)i am never without it(anywhere i go you go,my dear;and whatever is done by only me is your doing,my darling) i fear no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true) and it's you are whatever a moon has always meant and whatever a sun will always sing is you here is the deepest secret nobody knows (here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows higher than soul can hope or mind can hide) and this is the wonder that's keeping the stars apart i carry your heart(i carry it in my heart) "i carry your heart with me" ee cummings Once you familiarize yourself with the chains of bondage you prepare your own limbs to wear them Abraham Lincoln Life is the art of drawing sufficient conclusions from insufficient premises. Samuel Butler Far and away the best explanation for why Christianity began after Jesus's violent death is that he really was bodily alive again three days later, in a transformed body. N.T. Wright Simply
Christian Gratitude is always a sign of grace. N.T. Wright Simply
Christian I have come to understand that life is composed of a series of coincidences. How we react to these – how we exercise what some refer to as free will – is everything; the choices we make within the boundaries of the twists of fate determine who we are. John Perkins Confessions
of an Economic Hit Man Defeat is always momentary. Jack Black King
Kong The harder I practice the luckier I get. Gary Player A man should never be ashamed to own he has been in the wrong, which is but saying, in other words, that he is wiser today than he was yesterday. Alexander Pope When you think about it, virtually every failure in our Christian lives can be traced back to failure here: We forget who God is; or we forget who we are. Sinclair Ferguson Any list about important things that doesn't concentrate on food and sex is obviously compromised and full of lies. Joel Stein about the Time Magazine 100 It's not getting to the top that counts, it's the way you do it. Geoffrey Winthrop Young Most of the change we think we see in life is due to truths being in and out of favor. Robert Frost A man is never more a man than when he is striving for what is beyond his grasp. James Ramsay Ullman It was not at all clear to me who was conqueror and who was conquered: I do recall that El Cap was in much better condition than I was. Warren Harding after the 1st ascent of the Nose, El Cap Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving. Albert Einstien I will not say do not weep, for not all tears are an evil. JRR Tolkein Galdalf, to the hobbits, in The Lord of the Rings A thing may be morally neutral and yet the desire for that thing may be dangerous. CS Lewis Random dude: Everyone belongs somewhere. Marissa: Maybe not everyone. Maybe some people just get lost. The
OC The test of a good mind is the ability to hold two contradictory thoughts simultaneously. Anonymous The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. Henry David Thoreau In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock. Thomas Jefferson He should have a long spoon that sups with the Devil. 14th Century Proverb He learned the arts of riding, fencing, gunnery And how to sca |