Ask HN: What is the best quote you ever heard?

16 points by ThomPete ↗ HN

27 comments

[ 2.9 ms ] story [ 67.7 ms ] thread
"Never accept a no from someone who doesn't have the power to say yes"

— Eleanor Roosevelt

Sounds a bit rapey.
Sounds rapey only if you are ignoring the fact that people have a right to consent or not consent to sexual things that happen to them.
Nope, it’s rapey, and you are forgetting the fact that a person can only give consent when sober. If someone is drunk then they don’t have the power to say yes. According to that quote anyone who asks for sex from the intoxicated person should just do it. That is rape. Lawyered!
I think you're taking it too literally, you can manipulate lots of quotes to turn them into something they weren't intended to be.

Pretty sure the quoted person wasn't promoting the rape of intoxicated people.

I think the intent was not wasting your time on being rejected by people who aren't even in a position to give you what you are asking for because they don't ever have the authority or power to grant it. That makes more sense than viewing it as an excuse to prey on people that are temporarily in a disadvantaged condition.

You can turn everything into something it's not intended to be if you want to. This is a quote by a woman who was the First Lady.

Intent matters legally to.

That sounds a bit like Churchill's "Never negotiate with the monkey when the organ-grinder is in the room."
"The fundamental cause of the trouble is that in the modern world the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt." -- Bertrand Russell
"If you don't ask for anything, don't be surprised when you get nothing"

-- A former manager on the subject of my negotiating skills.

PLEASE ACCEPT MY RESIGNATION. I DON'T WANT TO BELONG TO ANY CLUB THAT WILL ACCEPT ME AS A MEMBER.” ― Groucho Marx, Groucho and Me
"In Theory, Theory and Practice are the same. In Practice they're not." Charlie Munger
A similar one I heard: in theory, it will work in practice. In practice, it’s the other way around.
"Impossible is not a fact. It's an opinion." M. Ali
On the stock market: "Markets are people." B. Baruch
"It is sad to say that all the people who know how to run a country are busy driving cabs or cutting hair." Peter Ustinov
To see a miracle, be the miracle.

- Morgan Freeman (as God) in his deep baritone to Jim Carey (as Bruce) in Bruce almighty

Edit: formatting

“Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth”

-- Mike Tyson

This only really applies in situations where you have half a second to make a decision.

I prefer Eisenhower's "Plans are useless, but planning is indispensable."

"The first step to solving any problem is to remain calm"

I forget where I heard this. But it's helped me a lot.

The reasonable man adapts himself to the world: the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man. ― George Bernard Shaw
Fearing the obstacles , worst people don't start . Mediocre people rest(or stop) when they face obstacles. Best people don't stop even if they are getting defeated by obstacles.

People may scold or praise, Wealth may come or go, Death may be now or Years after, Great Person will not deviate from right path(or goal) .

These both were quoted by Bhartṛhari in his book Nitiśatakam (written in c. 5th century CE).

Don't rant that you don't have , not considering everything you have. There is always a path to happiness.

This one is quoted by writer D.V. Gundappa written in his book "Mankutimmana Kagga" (which is also a book of wisdom published in 1943) .

"The greatest enemy of a good plan, is the dream of a perfect plan" -- Carl Von Clausewitz, 1780-1831 Prussian general and military theorist
If you like computing-focused quotations, Jon Bentley's Programming Pearls has the chapter "Bumper-Sticker Computer Science".
So many.

Top of mind: without data and given the choice between your opinion and mine, I’ll take mine; show me the data.

On worrying: if you can do something about it, do so and don’t worry. If you can’t, don’t, and don’t worry.

World outlook: Happiness is a choice.