Here are my five favourite quotes. There will be snowballs in hell before I run out of things to say, but sometimes, someone else has put it better.
1. Quote from Terry Pratchett “Witches Abroad”.
If you don’t like Terry Pratchett, I’ll be honest, I don’t like you. The man is a total, unabashed, ridiculously funny genius and this is my favourite part from my favourite book of his. As melancholy as it is, I think “stars don’t care what you wish” is the most perfect phrase.
“Haven’t you got any romance in your soul?” said Magrat, plaintively
“No” said Granny “I aint. And stars don’t care what you wish, and magic don’t make things better, and no-one doesn’t get burned who sticks their hand in fire.”
2. Quote from Danny Boyle’s “Frankenstein”
As I say in my “Then a writer you shall be” post, I really don’t care for the novel this was adapted from (by Mary Shelley) at all, but this quote is fabulous. It’s kind of a double quote really as the Creature is quoting “Paradise Lost” by John Milton. You can see Johnny Lee Miller and Benedict Cumberbatch saying this here http://youtu.be/0FEakgJj-uA.
“Is this the region, the soil, the climb?” said then the lost archangel. “Is this the seat that we must change for heaven, this mournful gloom for that celestial light?”
“That’s Paradise Lost. You’ve read Paradise Lost?”
“I liked it.”
“Why? You saw….you saw yourself as Adam?”
“I should be Adam. God was proud of Adam. Yet Satan is the one I sympathise with, for I was cast out like Satan, though I did no wrong. And when I see others, I tend then to feel the bile rise in my throat. And it tastes like Satan’s bile.”
3. Quote from Martin Luther King Jr
I think it probably goes without saying what a beautiful, perfect and moving speech this was. Of course, the “I Have a Dream” speech is an incredibly heartfelt speech, which I also love. Dr King gave the speech this quote is from on 3 April 1963, the day before he was assassinated. Dr King was of course a pivotal person in the Civil Rights movement, who maintained his philosophy of peaceful protest in the face of endless persecution.
“We’ve got some difficult days ahead…but I’ve looked over, and I’ve seen the promised land. I may not get there with you, but I want you to know that tonight we as a people will get to the promised land.”
4. Quote from Winston Churchill
Churchill delivered the speech this quote is from on 20th August 1940, in response to the ongoing efforts of the RAF in the Battle of Britain. How beautiful that a tribute so moving could be packed into just a few words.
“Never in the field of human conflict, was so much, owed by so many, to so few.”
5. Quote from Sir Clement Freud
Clement Freud said this on the radio show “Just a Minute”. He very sadly passed away in 2009, but he will long be remembered for his wit and humour.
“If you resolve to give up smoking, drinking and loving, you don’t actually live longer, it just seems longer.”
