h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I have been reading a lot of quotations in the threads - saying all sorts of things. When our words fail us - often someone else has said it better already. I have seen quotes on the site from Abe Lincoln, Ghandi, and many many others, and I will start off with a piece of fridge-magnet philosophy which I bought on Sunday.



"Serenity is not freedom from the storm but peace within the storm"

I guess that's my fault. I've always been fond of taglines. Most of the ones that I've collected have to do with war. Since the subject seems to be in the air, I pulled out my old file to cut and paste from.

These are my two favorites:
War is capitalism with the gloves off. - Tom Stoppard

My dear McClellan:
If you don't want to use the Army I should like to borrow it for a while. - Abraham Lincoln

I'm also quite fond of the Ghandi quote:
On western civilization: 'It would be a good idea.' - Mahatma Ghandi

And I'll only trouble you with this one last traditonal story from my infantry days:
No s**t, there I was, knee deep in expended law tubes. Hadn't shot a thing all day. It was three against three thousand, and they were the toughest three we ever faced...

Two Bit Trigger Pumping Moron
I promise, no more than one quote per psot from here on out.

I'm curious about one quote from the movie The Hunt for Red October. In the scene where Sean Connery is about to kill the poitical officer, the officer reads a passage froma book. As I recall, the passage goes something like this:

I have become death, the destroyer of worlds.

Does anyone know where I might find the compelete quote? Sean Connery's cahracter said it was a translation of an ancient Hindu text, quoted by the American who invented the atomic bomb. He was later accused of being a communist.

Aside from the lovely triple irony, I really liked the quote.

"The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. Instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it. Through violence you may murder the liar, but you cannot murder the lie, nor establish the truth. Through violence you murder the hater, but you do not murder hate. In fact, violence merely increases hate.... Returning violence for violence multiples violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that." - Martin Luther King Jr.

I think that the "Deshtroyer of Worldsh" quote is from the Bhagavadgita. (A Sanskrit document which contains advice from Sri Krishna on how to achieve world peace and prosperity).

Good to see you Two Bit, and nice to get some hawkish ones.

Most of mine are from the doves, but I will include one by either Churchill or Clauswitz - I am not sure which:

War is politics by other means

Thanks, I was able to find the source. I liked it better in the movie though. Maybe I should try to find where Oppenheimer quoted it.

Here's my quote for this post:
This will remain the land of the free only so long as it is the home of the brave. - Elmer Davis

An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind - Ghandi

I hate to post a long one but it seems more relevent now that ever so i only post the last verses:


Let no one build walls to divide us
Walls of hatred or walls of stone
Come greet the dawn and stand beside us
We'll live together or we die alone
In a world poisoned by exploitation
Those whove taken, now they must give
And end the vanity of nations
We've but one earth on which to live

And so begins the final drama
In the streets and in the fields
We stand unbowed before thier armour
We defy their guns and shields
When we fight provoked by their aggression
Let's be inspired by life and love
For though they offer us consessions
Change will not come from above.

--- The Internationale

Fighting for peace is like f***ing for chastity

"" Dang it! It's empty. I used them all up in the other forums.

Two Bit Trigger Pumping Moron
Put witty comment here.

After all, all he did was string together a lot of old, well-known quotations. -- H. L. Mencken, on Shakespeare

"Our worst fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. ... " Nelson Mandela

(Sling 'em back in here Two Bit...)

Ben

Sometime they'll give a war and nobody will come.

Carl Sandburg

All we are saying, is 'Give Peace a Chance'

John Lennon

War does not determine who is right - only who is left.

Bertrand Russell

Or this, from Martin Amis.

"Our best destiny, as planetary cohabitants, is the development of what has been called "species consciousness" - something over and above nationalisms, blocs, religions, ethnicities. During this week of incredulous misery, I have been trying to apply such a consciousness, and such a sensibility. Thinking of the victims, the perpetrators, and the near future, I felt species grief, then species shame, then species fear."

"In any war, the first casualty is truth"

(I can't remember where it comes from)

Only the dead have seen the end of war
Plato

It's better to jaw jaw than to war war.
Churchill