this post was submitted on 02 Mar 2025
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Even better if you can provide your own understanding of its meaning.

Mine would be :

"Nothing kills a man as much as being forced to represent a country" (and err considering the context, I must stress it has nothing to do with the current US shitshow), by a WW1 soldier, illustrator and writer named Jacques Vaché.

For me it just means being forced into representing a group (national, of course, but maybe also social, racial, sexual, professional, any kind of group) or defining one's identity only by reference to a group is to be avoided at all costs.

Note : Its not the same, imho, as engaging in a collective struggle or defense against a common oppression.

How about you?

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[–] sproid@lemmy.ml 31 points 3 days ago (1 children)

"Feelings are like children, you can't let them drive, but you can't put them in the trunk."

But I feel that one has a ¨spiritual parent¨:

"Educate a child so you don't have to reprimand an adult."

and a ¨spiritual sibling¨:

"If your only tool is a Hammer then every problem looks like a Nail."

[–] Grandwolf319@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 days ago

This one’s my favourite

[–] vipaal@aussie.zone 10 points 2 days ago (1 children)

The pleasure of being understood is underrated

  • Simon Baker portraying Patrick Jane in The Mentalist
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[–] LovableSidekick@lemmy.world 3 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

The worst decisions make the best stories. - *Unknown *

[–] LovableSidekick@lemmy.world 3 points 2 days ago

You can't leave the party if you can't find the door. Randall Jacobs, aka Uncle Bunky

obituary, worth reading

[–] yogthos@lemmy.ml 9 points 2 days ago

We have liberated Europe from fascism, but they will never forgive us for it

  • Marshal Georgy Zhukov
[–] nutsack@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 2 days ago

"republicans are pussies" - me. thanks

[–] CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 2 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Sadly, pretty much all struggles against a common oppressor take on heavy identity characteristics and have the accompanying problems. It's the main reason they don't work immediately.

Anyway, probably "What I cannot build, I don't understand", by Richard Feynman (although the exact wording varies by source). If I write a book that's probably going to take up the first page.

[–] DeadNinja@lemmy.world 39 points 3 days ago (8 children)

"Hurt people hurt people"

Ever since I heard this, I became relatively more compassionate towards people, even if they piss me off.

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[–] BonesOfTheMoon@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago

"Everything you want in life has teeth", by the writer Jonathan Carroll. I believe it means that everything you pursue will hurt you in some way.

Life's tough for everyone

-Grandpa

[–] penguin202124@sh.itjust.works 19 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past.

George Orwell, 1984

[–] PantanoPete@lemmy.zip 19 points 3 days ago (1 children)

"It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt" - Often wrongly attributed to Mark Twain or Abraham Lincoln but the earliest record is Maurice Switzer

[–] ApollosArrow@lemmy.world 10 points 2 days ago

Mine is similar, but said by Plato. ”Wise men speak because they have something to say; Fools because they have to say something”

[–] needthosepylons@lemmy.world 11 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Oh and there's also this one ftom H2G2 :

Slartibartfast: Perhaps I'm old and tired, but I think that the chances of finding out what's actually going on are so absurdly remote that the only thing to do is to say, "Hang the sense of it," and keep yourself busy. I'd much rather be happy than right any day. Arthur Dent: And are you? Slartibartfast: Ah, no. [laughs, snorts] Slartibartfast: Well, that's where it all falls down, of course

[–] prex@aussie.zone 3 points 2 days ago

Douglas Adams was a gift to humanity.
"See first, think later, then test. But always see first" is a good one.

[–] otacon239@lemmy.world 38 points 4 days ago (1 children)

The opposite of love is not hate, but apathy.

Truly hating something takes passion, energy and time out of your day. It also taught me that for masters of personal interest, if you truly need to end a relationship with someone, you simply stop responding. It’s far more effective than loudly proclaiming what you feel they do wrong. That will take far more away from you than if you cut ties.

[–] chronotron@lemmy.world 1 points 2 days ago

the opposite of 2 is not 0

[–] geneva_convenience@lemmy.ml 22 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

The woods would be very silent if no birds sang except those who sang best

[–] Diddlydee@feddit.uk 20 points 3 days ago

Comparison is the thief of joy. I think a lot of people could do with that one.

[–] RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world 18 points 3 days ago (3 children)

“No matter where you go, there you are.”

Made absolutely no sense to me when I was younger. Now, I get that it means changing one’s location or situation in an effort to avoid something doesn’t work. You’re still you, you’re there, and the problem still exists. Obviously some situations can be improved by leaving them, so the statement isn’t completely correct, but there’s plenty of truth to it.

“You can never go home again” also used to bug me, because of course you can physically return to the places you grew up. But if you’ve been away a good while the place you grew up in might have changed, the people will have changed, and you will also have changed. Home will be where you have made a new life. Your old home will be like trying to put on a shoe you haven’t worn in a few years. Yeah, it fits, but it doesn’t feel right. It’s not comfortable like it used to feel. Home isn’t there anymore. I kinda envy some people that I know who never left my hometown. They have the same friends, been hanging out for years, still get together for family stuff…but at the same time I’ve experienced a shitload more than they have. My original home doesn’t exist for me anymore.

[–] Delphia@lemmy.world 4 points 2 days ago

"You can never go home again... but you can shop there."

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[–] wuphysics87@lemmy.ml 6 points 2 days ago

Perhaps today is a good day to die. Prepare for ramming speed!

[–] MrSilkworm@lemmy.ml 27 points 3 days ago

The less you know about your history, the easier it is to imagine you'd always be on the right side of it.

[–] ikidd@lemmy.world 6 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Hitchens on the death of Jerry Falwell: "If they gave his corpse an enema, they could bury him in a matchbox."

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[–] Nikki@lemmy.blahaj.zone 5 points 2 days ago (1 children)

"be someones angel"

quote from this little video that really stuck with me, as silly as it might sound

https://youtu.be/Ib2bt28in1c

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[–] SinningStromgald@lemmy.world 27 points 3 days ago (1 children)

"Sometimes the smallest things take up the most room in your heart." - Winnie-the-Pooh

I didn't read Winnie-the-Pooh till I was an adult and when I read this it felt like reading a universal truth everyone should know. It nearly brought me to tears.

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[–] RacerX@lemm.ee 18 points 3 days ago (3 children)

Don't let the fear of the time it will take to accomplish something stand in the way of your doing it. The time will pass anyway; we might just as well put that passing time to the best possible use.

Earl Nightingale

Someone shared the phrase "The time will pass anyway" with me back when I was working on getting healthier. It was a constant reminder that there was no "best" day to start my journey and that anytime I was set back, I could pick things back up right away.

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[–] Berttheduck@lemmy.ml 19 points 3 days ago

Be excellent to each other and party on dudes.

Genuinely how I try to live my life, be kind and helpful to others and enjoy myself doing it.

[–] temporal_spider@lemm.ee 8 points 3 days ago (1 children)

"Like they should have stopped Hitler at Munich, they should never let him get away with that, they was just asking for bad trouble." Peter Clemenza, The Godfather

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[–] anarcho_vroom@lemmy.dbzer0.com 27 points 4 days ago (1 children)

"It'll never be the same"
In context, meaning that things can never go back to the way they were... Ever.

For me it's like a grounding statement. Whenever I start thinking about some past time and just want things to go back to how they were, I remember this. My mind shifts to the future and I forget that nostalgic feeling because I remember that it can never be.

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[–] supersquirrel@sopuli.xyz 12 points 3 days ago

"History is a nightmare from which I am trying to awake" - Stephen Daedalus in Ulysses by James Joyce.

[–] makingStuffForFun@lemmy.ml 24 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (5 children)

That'll do Donkey.. That'll do.

Edit. I mean it. That calming way shrek says it. The idea that enough has been done, and that everything is OK. That I'm ok. It's a lovely, and powerful moment in the film that translates to so many day to day situations.

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[–] currycourier@lemmy.world 5 points 2 days ago

"Someone once said that love is the best medicine. He was wrong, though; its crack." Source Unknown

[–] tab@sh.itjust.works 19 points 3 days ago

"(S)cience tends to progress through younger people, and old ideas tend to die with the originators of those ideas. through this cynical view, science progresses one coffin at a time."

the Sting of the wild p142, J.O. Schmidt

[–] CyberMonkey404@lemmy.ml 18 points 3 days ago (1 children)

"Who's 'we', paleface?"

It's from a silly joke, so it's not meant to be taken seriously. But I remember it every time some politician or Internet dweller or anything in between uses "we" to describe a position, an opinion, etc. Who's 'we'? Do you dream to speak for others, for me? In my stead?

[–] needthosepylons@lemmy.world 4 points 2 days ago

Love this one. Used to teach students in political science about the horrible thing that "political ventiloquism" is.

[–] bennieandthez@lemmygrad.ml 12 points 3 days ago (2 children)

It is said that cameras don't lie, but we must remember that liars use cameras. - Michael Parenti

This is a statement on the bias of all media, i like to use the same quote regarding statistics too.

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