Words that stir the blood

[Knusper]

And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remembered-
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he today that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition;
And gentlemen in England now-a-bed
Shall think themselves accurs'd they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap while any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.

Damn! Ninja'd. That's annoying, since my name is Crispin and all

Another good one from the same play:

Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more;
Or close the wall up with our English dead!
In peace, there ?s nothing so becomes a man,
As modest stillness and humility:
But when the blast of war blows in our ears,
Then imitate the action of the tiger;
Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood.

Oh, and Merry Christmas, guys!

 

[Hairetos]

[HEADING=3]"My experiences with science led me to God. They challenge science to prove the existence of God. But must we really light a candle to see the sun?"[/HEADING]

Who said that might surprise you.

Who?

Snip

"Nothing is as perfect as what could have been."
~Me

I'm not gonna lie, that's scarily true and very relatable to perfectionists. Bravo, sir, now make yourself a t-shirt.

 

[ultrachicken]

"when in doubt, blow something up" michael something-or-another... now am i the only one who thinks this quote is godly? (don't answer that)

Michael Bay?

ZING!

OT: The speeches you can give during the suicide mission of Mass Effect 2 always get me pumped.

 

[suicide samurai]

[HEADING=3]"My experiences with science led me to God. They challenge science to prove the existence of God. But must we really light a candle to see the sun?"[/HEADING]

Who said that might surprise you.

Who?

Snip

"Nothing is as perfect as what could have been."
~Me

I'm not gonna lie, that's scarily true and very relatable to perfectionists. Bravo, sir, now make yourself a t-shirt.

First, I think you're looking at it wrong. Those who dwell on the past often see what could have been as being better than what is--dreams not lived, one could say.

Second, I already had it in a published book, so a t-shirt would be a step back.

 

[Naheal]

"Those who refuse to change will die with the times. Adaptation is something that is required simply to survive."

-Me, on evolution.

"True wisdom comes to each of us when we realize how little we understand about life, ourselves, and the world around us."

Socrates

"It is a greater victory to make your enemy see things your way than it is to defeat them."

-Sun Tzu

The next few come from the same guy.

"Entrepreneurs are simply those who understand that there is little difference between obstacle and opportunity and are able to turn both to their advantage. "

"Hatred is gained as much by good works as by evil. "

"I'm not interested in preserving the status quo; I want to overthrow it."

"If an injury has to be done to a man it should be so severe that his vengeance need not be feared. "

"It is much more secure to be feared than to be loved."

"It is double pleasure to deceive the deceiver."

"It is not titles that honor men, but men that honor titles."

"Men are so simple and so much inclined to obey immediate needs that a deceiver will never lack victims for his deceptions. "

"Men should be either treated generously or destroyed, because they take revenge for slight injuries - for heavy ones they cannot. "

"Men shrink less from offending one who inspires love than one who inspires fear. "

"Never was anything great achieved without danger. "

"No enterprise is more likely to succeed than one concealed from the enemy until it is ripe for execution. "

"Politics have no relation to morals. "

"Severities should be dealt out all at once, so that their suddenness may give less offense; benefits ought to be handed ought drop by drop, so that they may be relished the more. "

"The distinction between children and adults, while probably useful for some purposes, is at bottom a specious one, I feel. There are only individual egos, crazy for love."

"The first method for estimating the intelligence of a ruler is to look at the men he has around him."

"The one who adapts his policy to the times prospers, and likewise that the one whose policy clashes with the demands of the times does not."

"There are three kinds of intelligence: one kind understands things for itself, the other appreciates what others can understand, the third understands neither for itself nor through others. This first kind is excellent, the second good, and the third kind useless."

"War is just when it is necessary; arms are permissible when there is no hope except in arms."

"When you disarm the people, you commence to offend them and show that you distrust them either through cowardice or lack of confidence, and both of these opinions generate hatred."

Niccolo Machiavelli

 

[thevillageidiot13]

Straight out of my Facebook page:

"Is there life *before* death?"

"To live now, as we think human beings should live, in defiance of the worst of everything around us, is a marvelous victory."

"Normal is what everyone else is and you are not."

"Keep each other, have a good time together, and don't forget about each other."

"When the gift was 'opened,' evil and despair entered into this World. Mistrust and disease spread over the wide Earth. After Pandora was emptied of her curse, only Hope was left inside. Unreasonable, groundless Hope that makes the curse of life into a blessing."

There is a place where the sidewalk ends
And before the street begins,
And there the grass grows soft and white,
And there the sun burns crimson bright,
And there the moon-bird rests from his flight
To cool in the peppermint wind.
Let us leave this place where the smoke blows black
And the dark street winds and bends.
Past the pits where the asphalt flowers grow
We shall walk with a walk that is measured and slow,
And watch where the chalk-white arrows go
To the place where the sidewalk ends.
Yes we'll walk with a walk that is measured and slow,
And we'll go where the chalk-white arrows go,
For the children, they mark, and the children, they know
The place where the sidewalk ends.

"You took a chance. You did something great. You were *wrong,* but it was still great. You should feel *great* that it was great. You should feel like *crap* that it was wrong. That's the difference between him and me: He thinks, 'You do your job, and what will be will be.' I think that what I do -- and what you do -- *matters.* He sleeps better at night. He shouldn't."

"I need you to understand something. I wrote this for you. I wrote this for you and only you. Everyone else who reads it, doesn't get it. They may think they get it, but they don't. This is the sign you've been looking for. You were meant to read these words."

From this day to the ending of the World;
But we in it shall be remembered --
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers.

"Well, that's nonsense. You've got to jump off cliffs all the time and build your wings on the way down."

"He used to be an artist, but love was like that elusive color you spent hours mixing paint for but never quite created. And the more you mixed, the more muddled things got until all the colors blurred to brown, and there went your paint."

 

[Hatchet90]

The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner

From my mother's sleep
I fell into the state
And I hunched in its belly till my wet fur froze
Eight miles from Earth
Loosed from its Dream of life
I woke to black flak and the nightmare fighters
When I died, they washed me out of the turret with a hose

-Randell Jarrell.

Never has a poem moved me so, and yes I wrote that from memory

 

[MrNickster]

Day after day, day after day
We struck nor breath nor motion
As Idle as a painted ship
Upon a painted ocean

Water, water, everywhere
And all the boards did shrink,
Water, water, everywhere,
Nor any drop to drink.

I don't know why, but everytime I hear those two stanzas, shivers go down my spine. To make it even better, Iron Maiden, one of my favourite bands, made a 13 minute epic song about the poem those lines are from-Rime of the Ancient Mariner.

Hearing Bruce Dickinson sing those lines is just so epic.

 

[tehbeard]

Spoiler: An old Earth saying, a phrase of great power and wisdom and consolation to the soul in time of need.

Allons-y, Alonso!

 

[Private Custard]

Patience, n.

A minor form of despair, disguised as a virtue.

Ambrose Bierce

 

[Naheal]

I have another to add to this.

"What you leave behind is not what is engraved in stone monuments, but what is woven into the lives of others.?

- Pericles

 

[The Human Torch]

Good morning. In less than an hour, aircraft from here will join others from around the world. And you will be launching the largest aerial battle in this history of mankind.

Mankind -- that word should have new meaning for all of us today.

We can't be consumed by our petty differences anymore.

We will be united in our common interests.

Perhaps its fate that today is the 4th of July, and you will once again be fighting for our freedom, not from tyranny, oppression, or persecution -- but from annihilation.

We're fighting for our right to live, to exist.

And should we win the day, the 4th of July will no longer be known as an American holiday, but as the day when the world declared in one voice:

"We will not go quietly into the night!

We will not vanish without a fight!

We're going to live on!

We're going to survive!"

Today, we celebrate our Independence Day!

 

[Naheal]

Good morning. In less than an hour, aircraft from here will join others from around the world. And you will be launching the largest aerial battle in this history of mankind.

Mankind -- that word should have new meaning for all of us today.

We can't be consumed by our petty differences anymore.

We will be united in our common interests.

Perhaps its fate that today is the 4th of July, and you will once again be fighting for our freedom, not from tyranny, oppression, or persecution -- but from annihilation.

We're fighting for our right to live, to exist.

And should we win the day, the 4th of July will no longer be known as an American holiday, but as the day when the world declared in one voice:

"We will not go quietly into the night!

We will not vanish without a fight!

We're going to live on!

We're going to survive!"

Today, we celebrate our Independence Day!

Best part of that movie.

 

[Shock and Awe]

WOW shock and awe

I guess thats where the ending to dead poets came from the first 3 lines just set the mood, victory and loss beautfully encpsulated. Was it in mass effect somewhere as well? need to check

who wrote that?

Walt Whitman

 

[ReservoirAngel]

"They went with songs to the battle, they were young.
Straight of limb, true of eyes, steady and aglow.
They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted,
They fell with their faces to the foe.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning,
We will remember them."

This just moves me, every time I read it or hear it. One of the first times I remember crying from something that didn't even involve me was hearing this read at some massive graveyard for soldiers I went to on a school trip.

"He's like fire, and ice, and rage. He's like the night, and the storm at the heart of the sun. He's ancient and forever. He burns at the centre of time and he can see the turn of the Universe. And...he's wonderful."

Admittedly this is from Doctor Who, but it still just gets to me. That episode is just amazing, and it even quotes 'For the Fallen' too at the end, which never fails to give me chills and tears in my eyes.

 

[Anarchemitis]

[HEADING=3]"My experiences with science led me to God. They challenge science to prove the existence of God. But must we really light a candle to see the sun?"[/HEADING]

Who said that might surprise you.

Who?

Kinda sounds like something out of Angels and Demons.

Werner Von Braun, the man who designed the V2 Flying Bomb, as well as the Saturn V heavy launch vehicle.

 

[TheReactorSings]

'In this noon of thought, the rebel thus disclaims divinity in order to share in the struggles and destiny of all men."

I'd write more, but I don't have a copy of the book handy, and when I searched for the quotation on Google the only result I got was from my own blog.

 

[DayDark]

"Never compromise, never wink at injustice. Never quit trying to make this a better forum city for everyone" - Hieronymus Lex

 

[Wadders]

Spoiler: For the Fallen

With proud thanksgiving, a mother for her children,
England mourns for her dead across the sea.
Flesh of her flesh they were, spirit of her spirit,
Fallen in the cause of the free.

Solemn the drums thrill; Death august and royal
Sings sorrow up into immortal spheres,
There is music in the midst of desolation
And a glory that shines upon our tears.

They went with songs to the battle, they were young,
Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow.
They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted;
They fell with their faces to the foe.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:
Age shall not weary them, nor the years contemn.
At the going down of the sun and in the morning
We will remember them.

Spoiler: What a speech :)

We go to liberate not to conquer. We will not fly our flags in their country. We are entering Iraq to free a people and the only flag which will be flown in that ancient land is their own. Show respect for them.

There are some who are alive at this moment who will not be alive shortly. Those who do not wish to go on that journey, we will not send. As for the others I expect you to rock their world. Wipe them out if that is what they choose. But if you are ferocious in battle remember to be magnanimous in victory.

Iraq is steeped in history. It is the site of the Garden of Eden, of the Great Flood and the birthplace of Abraham. Tread lightly there. You will see things that no man could pay to see and you will have to go a long way to find a more decent, generous and upright people than the Iraqis. You will be embarrassed by their hospitality even though they have nothing. Don't treat them as refugees for they are in their own country. Their children will be poor, in years to come they will know that the light of liberation in their lives was brought by you.

If there are casualties of war then remember that when they woke up and got dressed in the morning they did not plan to die this day. Allow them dignity in death. Bury them properly and mark their graves.

It is my foremost intention to bring every single one of you out alive but there may be people among us who will not see the end of this campaign. We will put them in their sleeping bags and send them back. There will be no time for sorrow.

The enemy should be in no doubt that we are his nemesis and that we are bringing about his rightful destruction. There are many regional commanders who have stains on their souls and they are stoking the fires of hell for Saddam. He and his forces will be destroyed by this coalition for what they have done. As they die they will know their deeds have brought them to this place. Show them no pity.

It is a big step to take another human life. It is not to be done lightly. I know of men who have taken life needlessly in other conflicts, I can assure you they live with the Mark of Cain upon them. If someone surrenders to you then remember they have that right in international law and ensure that one day they go home to their family.

The ones who wish to fight, well, we aim to please.

If you harm the regiment or its history by over-enthusiasm in killing or in cowardice, know it is your family who will suffer. You will be shunned unless your conduct is of the highest for your deeds will follow you down through history. We will bring shame on neither our uniform or our nation.

[Regarding the use by Saddam of chemical or biological weapons] It is not a question of if, it's a question of when. We know he has already devolved the decision to lower commanders, and that means he has already taken the decision himself. If we survive the first strike we will survive the attack.

As for ourselves, let's bring everyone home and leave Iraq a better place for us having been there.

Our business now is north

 

[Irony's Acolyte]

Well I've always liked this speech:

Spoiler: Mengsk's Inauguration Speech

Fellow Terrans I come to you in the wake of recent events to issues a call to reason. Let no human deny the perils of our time. While we battle one another, divided by the petty strife of our common history, the tides of a greater conflict is turning against us; threatening to destroy all that we have accomplished. It is times for us as nations and as individuals to set aside our long standing feuds and unite.
The ides of an unwinnable war are upon us and we must seek refuge upon higher ground lest we be swept away by the flood.
The Confederacy is no more. Whatever semblance of unity and protection it once provided is a phantom, a memory. With our enemies left unchecked, who will you turn to for protection?
The devastation wrought by the alien invaders is self-evident. We have seen our homes and colonies destroyed by the calculated blows of the Protoss. We have seen first-hand our friends and loved ones consumed by the nightmarish Zerg. Unprecedented and unimaginable though they may be, these are the signs of our time.
The time has come my fellow Terrans to rally to a new banner. In unity lies strength. Already many of the dissonant factions have joined us. Out of the many, we shall forge an indivisible hole, compiculating only to a single throne. And from that throne ... I, shall watch over you.
From this day forward let no human make war upon any other human.
Let no Terran agency conspire against this new beginning.
And let no man consort with alien powers.
And to all the enemies of Humanity: Seek not to bar our way, for we shall win through - no matter the cost.

Sure the dudes a tyrant, but damn was that an awesome speech.