Category: Quotes (Page 5 of 7)

“I’ve been drinking gallons of water. I had three glasses yesterday.”
–Angie Cain October 13, 2004

“My ancient Greek is better than my ancient Latin.”
–Maria Mitousis, September 30, 2000 (roomate of Sue Kwan in Kingston)

“I was disconnected there for a while.”
–Clancy Clancy, Teleglobe Canada

“Life is a sexually transmitted disease with a 100% mortality rate”
— Lara Farah, 1993

“Crede quod habes, et habes”
(Believe you have it, and you have it. )
–Latin proverb

A goal without action is just a dream.

“You can’t shake hands with a clenched fist.” – Indira Ghandi

“Leap and the net will appear.” – Zen saying

Question with boldness even the existence of a god;
because if there be one he must approve of the
homage of reason more than that of blindfolded fear.

–Thomas Jefferson, Aug. 10, 1787

Thank you. I’m honored to be with you today for your commencement
from one of the finest universities in the world. Truth be told, I
never graduated from college and this is the closest I’ve ever gotten
to a college graduation.

Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That’s it. No
big deal. Just three stories. The first story is about connecting the
dots.

I dropped out of Reed College after the first six months but then
stayed around as a drop-in for another eighteen months or so before I
really quit. So why did I drop out? It started before I was born. My
biological mother was a young, unwed graduate student, and she
decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I
should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for
me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife, except that when
I popped out, they decided at the last minute that they really wanted
a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the
middle of the night asking, “We’ve got an unexpected baby boy. Do you
want him?” They said, “Of course.” My biological mother found out
later that my mother had never graduated from college and that my
father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the
final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my
parents promised that I would go to college.

This was the start in my life. And seventeen years later, I did go to
college, but I naïvely chose a college that was almost as expensive
as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents’ savings were being
spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn’t see the
value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life, and no
idea of how college was going to help me figure it out, and here I
was, spending all the money my parents had saved their entire life.
So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It
was pretty scary at the time, but looking back, it was one of the
best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out, I could stop
taking the required classes that didn’t interest me and begin
dropping in on the ones that looked far more interesting.

It wasn’t all romantic. I didn’t have a dorm room, so I slept on the
floor in friends’ rooms. I returned Coke bottles for the five-cent
deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the seven miles across
town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare
Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by
following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later
on. Let me give you one example.

Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy
instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every
label on every drawer was beautifully hand-calligraphed. Because I
had dropped out and didn’t have to take the normal classes, I decided
to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about
serif and sans-serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space
between different letter combinations, about what makes great
typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle
in a way that science can’t capture, and I found it fascinating.

None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life.
But ten years later when we were designing the first Macintosh
computer, it all came back to me, and we designed it all into the
Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had
never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have
never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts, and
since Windows just copied the Mac, it’s likely that no personal
computer would have them.

If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on that
calligraphy class and personals computers might not have the
wonderful typography that they do.

Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when
I was in college, but it was very, very clear looking backwards 10
years later. Again, you can’t connect the dots looking forward. You
can only connect them looking backwards, so you have to trust that
the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in
something–your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever–because
believing that the dots will connect down the road will give you the
confidence to follow your heart, even when it leads you off the well-
worn path, and that will make all the difference.

My second story is about love and loss. I was lucky. I found what I
loved to do early in life. Woz and I started Apple in my parents’
garage when I was twenty. We worked hard and in ten years, Apple had
grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company
with over 4,000 employees. We’d just released our finest creation,
the Macintosh, a year earlier, and I’d just turned thirty, and then I
got fired. How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as
Apple grew, we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run
the company with me, and for the first year or so, things went well.
But then our visions of the future began to diverge, and eventually
we had a falling out. When we did, our board of directors sided with
him, and so at thirty, I was out, and very publicly out. What had
been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was
devastating. I really didn’t know what to do for a few months. I felt
that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down, that I
had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with David
Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so
badly. I was a very public failure and I even thought about running
away from the Valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me. I
still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed
that one bit. I’d been rejected but I was still in love. And so I
decided to start over.

I didn’t see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple
was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness
of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner
again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the
most creative periods in my life. During the next five years I
started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar and fell in
love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to
create the world’s first computer-animated feature film, “Toy Story,”
and is now the most successful animation studio in the world.

In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT and I returned to
Apple and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of
Apple’s current renaissance, and Lorene and I have a wonderful family
together.

I’m pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn’t been
fired from Apple. It was awful-tasting medicine but I guess the
patient needed it. Sometimes life’s going to hit you in the head with
a brick. Don’t lose faith. I’m convinced that the only thing that
kept me going was that I loved what I did. You’ve got to find what
you love, and that is as true for work as it is for your lovers. Your
work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to
be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work, and the
only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t
found it yet, keep looking, and don’t settle. As with all matters of
the heart, you’ll know when you find it, and like any great
relationship it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So
keep looking. Don’t settle.

My third story is about death. When I was 17 I read a quote that went
something like “If you live each day as if it was your last, someday
you’ll most certainly be right.” It made an impression on me, and
since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every
morning and asked myself, “If today were the last day of my life,
would I want to do what I am about to do today?” And whenever the
answer has been “no” for too many days in a row, I know I need to
change something. Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most
important thing I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices
in life, because almost everything–all external expectations, all
pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure–these things just fall
away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important.
Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid
the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already
naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

About a year ago, I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30
in the morning and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn’t
even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost
certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should
expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised
me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctors’ code for
“prepare to die.” It means to try and tell your kids everything you
thought you’d have the next ten years to tell them, in just a few
months. It means to make sure that everything is buttoned up so that
it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your
goodbyes.

I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a
biopsy where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my
stomach into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a
few cells from the tumor. I was sedated but my wife, who was there,
told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope, the
doctor started crying, because it turned out to be a very rare form
of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery
and, thankfully, I am fine now.

This was the closest I’ve been to facing death, and I hope it’s the
closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can
now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a
useful but purely intellectual concept. No one wants to die, even
people who want to go to Heaven don’t want to die to get there, and
yet, death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped
it. And that is as it should be, because death is very likely the
single best invention of life. It’s life’s change agent; it clears
out the old to make way for the new. right now, the new is you. But
someday, not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and
be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it’s quite true. Your
time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t
be trapped by dogma, which is living with the results of other
people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out
your own inner voice, heart and intuition. They somehow already know
what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole
Earth Catalogue, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was
created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo
Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in
the late Sixties, before personal computers and desktop publishing,
so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and Polaroid cameras.
it was sort of like Google in paperback form thirty-five years before
Google came along. I was idealistic, overflowing with neat tools and
great notions. Stewart and his team put out several issues of the The
Whole Earth Catalogue, and then when it had run its course, they put
out a final issue. It was the mid-Seventies and I was your age. On
the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early
morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on
if you were so adventurous. Beneath were the words, “Stay hungry,
stay foolish.” It was their farewell message as they signed off.
“Stay hungry, stay foolish.” And I have always wished that for
myself, and now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.
Stay hungry, stay foolish.

Thank you all, very much.

“Management is about coping with complexity. Leadership, by contrast, is about coping with change.”

– John P. Kotter, Harvard Business Review

“Nothing gives one person so much advantage over another as to remain always cool and unruffled under all circumstances.”
-Thomas Jefferson

“Women and cats will do as they please, and men and dogs should relax and get used to the idea” –Robert A. Heinlein

“It’s not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the ones most responsive to change.” –Charles Darwin

Write down your short and long term GOALS four times a year. Two personal, two business and one health goal. A study at Yale University found that only 3% of the students had writtten goals. Twenty years later, the same 3% were wealthier than the other 97% combined.

Communication is COMPLICATED. Each person is raised in a different family with a different definition of every word.

Hey, maybe I’ll give you a call sometime. Your number still 911? Aaaalrighty then.
— Jim Carrey in Pet Detective (1993)

I ain’t never been in no cell that had a phone in it. Can I stay for a while? I ordered some pizza.
— Axel Foley (Eddie Murphy) in Beverly Hills Cop (1984)

This is the cleanest and nicest police car I’ve ever been in my life. This thing is nicer than my apartment.
— Axel Foley (Eddie Murphy) in Beverly Hills Cop (1984)

Hey, what about Shrek? He’s ugly 24/7!
— Donkey (Eddie Murphy) in Shrek (2001)

Dr. Dolittle: You’ll be the most famous bear in the world! Archie: Bigger than Pooh? Dr. Dolittle: If you get this right, everybody will be saying, Winnie the Who!
— Dr. Dolittle (Eddie Murphy) in Dr Dolittle (1998, 2001)

Oh, Shrek. Don’t worry. Things just seem bad because it’s dark and rainy and Fiona’s father hired a sleazy hitman to whack you.
— Donkey in Shrek 2 (2004)

He trips underwater. Now who trips… underwater? And by the way, on what?
— Oscar (Will Smith) in Shark Tale (2004)

You cannot leave everything to Fate, boy. She’s got a lot to do. Sometimes you must give her a hand.
— Danielle (Drew Barrymore) in Ever After (1998)

I don’t trust a man who makes toys in a land where children are forbidden.
— Childcatcher (Robert Helpmann) in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (1968)

I haven’t lost it, I just can’t find it. There’s a difference you know.
— Alex (Freddie Boath) in The Mummy Returns (2001)

Alex: Are we there yet? Lock-Nah: No. Alex: Are we there yet? Lock-Nah: No. Alex: Are we there yet? Lock-Nah: No. Alex: Are we… [Lock-Nah stabs his knife right between Alex’s fingers] Alex: Wow, that’s amazing. Perfect aim. Lock-Nah: What are you talking about? I missed.
— Freddie Boath and Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje in The Mummy Returns (2001)

Meela: What a bright little child. Your mother must be missing you terribly. If you wish to see her again, you better behave. Alex: Lady, I don’t behave for my parents, what makes you think I’m going to do it for you?
— The Mummy Returns (2001)

I’m not helpless. I’m not helpless. I am helpless. I’m gonna die.
— Daphne (Sarah Michelle Gellar) in Scooby-Doo (2002)

Sometimes belief is all we have.
— Lisa (Kristen Miller) in Team America: World Police (2004)

A flying limo? Now I’ve seen everything.
— Gary Johnston (Trey Parker) in Team America: World Police (2004)

You come here uninvited. Go back to your ships and go home.
— Hector (Eric Bana) in Troy (2004)

I’ll be back!
— The Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger) in Terminator (1984)

Do you want this jacket? I don’t need it.
— Jerry Maguire (Tom Cruise) in Jerry Maguire (1996)

Relax Luther, it’s much worse than you think.
— Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) in Mission: Impossible (1996)

Yeah, but your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should.
— Ian (Jeff Goldblum) in Jurassic Park (1993)

Why don’t you make like a tree… and get outta here.
— Thomas F. Wilson (Biff) in Back to Future (1985)

I;m just a girl, standing infront of a boy, asking him to love her.
— Notting Hill

I have very little time, and so the conversation will be entirely about me and I shall love it.
— Beverly Carlton (Reginald Carlton) in Man Who Came to Dinner (1942)

Did you ever have the feeling that you wanted to go, and still have the feeling that you wanted to stay?
— Banjo (Jimmy Durante) in Man Who Came to Dinner (1942)

A man’s got to know his limitations.
— Harry callahan (Clint Eastwood) in Magnum Force (1973)

Inside each and every one of us is our one, true authentic swing. Something we was born with. Something that’s ours and ours alone. Something that can’t be learned… something that’s got to be remembered.
— Bagger Vance (Will Smith) in Legend of Bagger Vance (2000)

No, I am merely stating that uhh… life finds a way.
— Dr. Ian Malcolm (Jeff GoldBlum)

You don’t actually think they spend $20,000.00 on a hammer, $30,000.00 on a toilet seat do you?
— Julius Levinson (Judd Hirsch) in Independence Day (1996)

Never give up! Never surrender!
— Jason Nesmith (Tim Allen) in Galaxy Quest (1999)

There are only four questions of value in life, Don Octavio. What is sacred? Of what is the spirit made? What is worth living for, and what is worth dying for? The answer to each is the same: only love.
— Don Juan (Johnny Depp) in Don Juan De Marco (1995)

There is no death. It is only a transition to a different sphere of conscienceness.
— Tangina (Zelda Rubenstein) in Poltergeist (1982)

Come on in, and try not to ruin everything by being you.
— Helen Hunt (Carol Connelly) in As Good As It Gets (1997)

(referring to Apple Computers) He got me invested in some kinda fruit company.
— Forrest Gum (Tom Hanks) in Forrest Gump (1994)

I’m a mawg: half man, half dog. I’m my own best friend!
— Barf (John Candy) in Spaceballs (1987)

Smile, it enhances your face value.
— Truvy (Dolly Parton) in Steel Magnolias (1989)

I haven’t got a brain… only straw.
— Scarecrow (Ray Bolger) in Wizard of Oz (1939)

Old age. It’s the only disease, Mr. Thompson, that you don’t look forward to being cured of.
— Bernstein (Everett Sloane) in Citizen Kane (1941)

You might have seen a housefly, maybe even a superfly, but I bet you ain’t never seen a donkey fly!
— Donkey (Eddie Murphy) in Shrek (2001)

Oh! Oh he’s mean. He’s just mean spirited. Alright, how many espressos have you had?
— Rusty Ryan (Brad Pitt) in Ocean’s Twelve (2004)

I can’t think about that right now. If I do, I’ll go crazy. I’ll think about that tomorrow.
— Scarlett (Vivien Leigh) in Gone with the Wind (1939)

I’m your wife! I’m the greatest good you’re ever gonna get!
— Honey in The Incredibles (2004)

Frodo: I’m going to Mordor alone. Sam: Of course you are, and I’m going with you!
— Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)

“Hello, this is a recording, you’ve dialed the right number, now hang up and don’t do it again.”
— Danny Ocean (Frank Sinatra) in Ocean’s Eleven (1960)

“I want to help you. Let me do one last thing, something useful for a change… Let me show you where the Major is.”
— Danilov (Joseph Fiennes) in Enemy at the Gates (2001)

“Mr. President, you’ve got bigger problems than losing me. You just lost my vote.”
— Sydney Ellen Wade (Annette Bening) in The American President (1995)

“First she steals my publicity. Then she steals my lawyer, my trial date. And now she steals my goddamn garter.”
— Velma Kelly (Catherine Zeta-Jones) in Chicago (2002)

“Metaman – express elevator! Dynaguy – snagged on takeoff! Splashdown – sucked into a vortex! NO CAPES!”
— Edna ‘E’ Mode (voice of Brad Bird) in The Incredibles (2004)

“Swordsmanship’s ultimate achievement is the absence of the sword in both hand and heart. The swordsman is at peace with the rest of the world. He vows not to kill and to bring peace to mankind.”
— King of Qin in Hero (2002)

“What if I were in a coma, and the doc says, ‘One more day?'”
“I’d throw you into the ocean… Shock therapy.”
— Manni and Lola in Run Lola Run (1998)

“At least you’ll never be a vegetable – even artichokes have hearts.”
— Amélie (Audrey Tautou) in Amélie(2001)

“He’s a fountain of misplaced rage. Name your cliche; Mother held him too much or not enough, last picked at kickball, late night sneaky uncle, whatever. Now he’s so angry that moments of levity actually cause him pain; give him headaches. Happiness, for that gentleman, hurts.”
— Garland Greene (Steve Buscemi) in Con Air (1997)

“How many languages do you speak? – I speak one. One Zero One Zero Zero. With that I could steal your money, your secrets, your sexual fantasies, your whole life.”
— Taz ‘Rat’ Finch (DJ Qualls) in The Core (2003)

“I can’t judge. There are two kinds of people in Alaska: those who were born here and those who come here to escape something. I wasn’t born here.”
— Rachel Clement (Maura Tierney) in Insomnia (2002)

”I’m here Huckleberry”
— Doc Holliday (Val Kilmer) Tombstone

“Relationships that start under intense circumstances, they never last.”
— Annie (Sandra Bullock) in Speed (1994)

“Are you mad? I already told you my children are photosensitive. THE LIGHT WILL KILL THEM.”
— Grace (Nicole Kidman) in The Others (2001)

“Summoning up a true love spell called Amas Veritas. He can flip pancakes in the air. He’ll be marvelously kind. And his favorite shape will be a star. And he’ll have one green eye and one blue.”
— Sally Owens (Sandra Bullock) in Practical Magic (1998)

“I’m not afraid of the man who wants ten nuclear weapons, Colonel. I’m terrified of the man who only wants one.”
— Julia Kelly (Nicole Kidman) in The Peacemaker (1997)

“Isn’t this the moment where one of us is supposed to say: Look, this is ridiculous, we love each other, all couples go through this, let’s give it another try.”
— Ben Jordan (Bruce Willis) in The Story of Us (1999)

“I think she’s startin’ to suspect something.” “Who?” “Your wife.”
— Claire & Norman Spencer (Michelle Pfeiffer & Harrison Ford) in What Lies Beneath (2000)

“No hay banda! There is no band. It is all an illusion…”
— Bondar (Richard Green) in Mulholland Dr. (2001)

“She doesn’t like it in the barn. The horses keep her up at night.”
— Aidan Keller (David Dorfman) in The Ring (2002)

“Do you believe there is a part of yourself, deep inside in your mind, with things you don’t want other people to see? During a session when I’m inside, I get to see those things.”
— Catharine Deane (Jennifer Lopez) in The Cell (2000)

“You’re a… you’re a complex Freudian hallucination having something to do with my mother and I don’t know why you have wings, but you have very lovely legs and you’re a very nice tiny person and what am I saying, I don’t know who my mother was; I’m an orphan and I’ve never done drugs because I missed the sixties, I was an accountant.”
— Peter Banning (Robin Williams) in Hook (1991)

Look down the road to her wedding. I’m in a room alone with her, fixing her veil, fluffing her dress, telling her no woman has ever looked so beautiful. And my fear is she’ll think, “I wish my mom were here.”
— Isabel (Julia Roberts) in Stepmom (1998)

“*Please* let me follow the nanny. She doesn’t shave her legs. Women like that are so… HOT.”
— Fiedler (Jack Black) in Enemy of the State (1998)

“If you think I’m lying, drop the bomb. If you think I’m crazy, drop the bomb. But don’t drop the bomb just because you’re following orders!”
— Sam Daniels (Dustin Hoffman) in Outbreak (1995)

“You don’t know how hard it is being a woman looking the way I do…I’m not bad. I’m just drawn that way.”
— Jessica Rabbit in Who Framed Roger Rabbit? (1988)

“What have you got against her anyway?” “Not my lips!”
— Oscar and Angie (Will Smith and Renee Zellewegger) in Shark Tale (2004)

That’s what i like about high school girls…..I get older…..they stay the same age.
— Matthew McConaughey (Dazed and Confused) 1992

“One point twenty one Gigawatts!” Whats a gigawatt?
— Doc Brown, Marty McFly(Christopher Lloyd, Michael J Fox) Back To The Future (1985)

A man in a really nice camper, wants to sign us. Im signing………..your signing…….we’re all signing!!
— That Thing You Do (1996)

“I should feel safe, but I don’t, so I live off the grid – no phone, no address, no one and nothing can find me. I’ve erased all connections to the past, but as hard as I try I can’t erase my dreams, my nightmares.”
— John Connor (Nick Stahl) in Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003)

“I need to talk to the guard who forgot to lock the gate.”
— Alice Marano (Claire Danes) in Brokedown Palace (1999)

“Every day for the last three weeks you’ve been coming in here and you’ve been asking me how the tuna is. Now, it was crappy yesterday, it was crappy the day before and guess what? It hasn’t changed.”
— Mia Toretto (Jordana Brewster) in The Fast and the Furious (2001)

“She bit me man, she took a chunk clean right outta me!”
— Rain (Michelle Rodriguez) in Resident Evil (2002)

“A *person* is smart. People are dumb, panicky, dangerous animals and you know it.”
— Agent Kay (Tommy Lee Jones) in Men in Black (1997)

Supercalafragilisticexpialidocious
— Mary Poppins (Julie Andrews)

Have you ever danced with the devil in the pale moonlight? I ask that of all my prey.
— Joker, Jack Nicholson

“Isn’t it funny – you hear a phone ringing and it could be anybody. But a ringing phone has to be answered, doesn’t it?”
— The Caller (Kiefer Sutherland) in Phone Booth (2002)

“I read this article a while back, that said that Microsoft employs more millionaire secretary’s that any other company in the world. They took stock options over Christmas bonuses. It was a good move.”
— Seth Davis (Giovanni Ribisi) in Boiler Room (2000)

“There is a flip side to that coin. What if you do got me boxed in and I gotta put you down? Cause no matter what, you will not get in my way. We’ve been face to face, yeah. But I will not hesitate. Not for a second.”
— Neil McCauley (Robert De Niro) in The Heat (1995)

“Take a look at a castle, any castle. Now, break down the key elements that make it a caste. Location. Protection. Garrison. Flag. The only difference between this castle and all the rest is they were built to keep people out, this castle was built to keep people in.”
— Lt. Gen. Eugene Irwin (Robert Redford) in The Last Castle (2001)

“I have endured what no one on earth has endured. I have kissed the hands of the man who killed my son.”
— Priam (Peter O’Toole) in Troy (2004)

“People ask me, why do you do it man? They don’t understand, it’s about the men next to you. That’s all it is.”
— Sergeant 1st Class Norm “Hoot” Gibson (Eric Bana) in Black Hawk Down (2001)

“What’s his type? Wilting flower? Bright and bubbly? Or smoldering temptress?”
— Satine (Nicole Kidman) in Moulin Rouge! (2001)

“If two people love each other, but they just can’t seem to get it together, when do you get to that point of enough is enough?”
— Samantha Barzel (Julia Roberts) in The Mexican (2001)

“I’ll let fate decide what to do with you. If the police don’t get you, the other Chinese families will. Do what you will father, but this time no one will go to prison for you.”
— Han Sing (Jet Li) in Romeo Must Die (2000)

“Now, if you two don’t mind, I’m going to bed before either of you come up with another clever idea to get us killed. Or worse, expelled.”
— Hermione Granger (Emma Watson) in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (2001)

“Well we can do it my way, or we can all come back in time for the next allignment and you’re welcome to try and kill me then, in oh, say, another 5,000 years.”
— Lara Croft (Angelina Jolie) in Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001)

“I’ve got two jobs. I’ve discovered that you have to work twice as hard when it’s honest.”
— Sway (Angelina Jolie) in Gone in Sixty Seconds (2000)

“I would rather have had one breath of her hair, one kiss from her mouth, one touch of her hand, than eternity without it. One.”
— Seth (Nicolas Cage) in City of Angels (1998)

“The Godfather answers all of life’s questions. What to pack for a trip? ‘Leave the gun, take the cannolis.’ ”
— Joe Fox (Tom Hanks) in You’ve Got Mail (1998)

“Well, I’m gonna get out of bed every morning… breath in and out all day long. Then, after a while I won’t have to remind myself to get out of bed every morning and breath in and out… and, then after a while, I won’t have to think about how I had it great and perfect for a while. ”
— Sam Baldwin (Tom Hanks) in Sleepless in Seattle (1993)

“I am Nature’s arm. Her spirit. Her will. Hell, I am Mother Nature, and the time has come for plants to take back the world so rightfully ours! ’cause it’s not nice to fool with Mother Nature.”
— Poison Ivy (Uma Thurman) in Batman & Robin (1997)

“Ten oughta do it, don’t you think? You think we need one more? You think we need one more. Alright, we’ll get one more.”
— Daniel Ocean (George Clooney) in Ocean’s Eleven (2001)

“Superman stands alone. Superman did not become Superman, Superman was born Superman. When Superman wakes up in the morning, he is Superman.”
— Bill (David Carradine) in Kill Bill Vol. 2 (2004)

“My first day as a woman and I am already having hot flashes.”
— Mrs. Doubtfire (Robin Williams) in Mrs. Doubtfire (1993).

“It was an old tradition. Only the most dutiful of daughters would put her own flesh in a soup to save her mother’s life. My mother did this with her whole heart even though my grandmother had disowned her. This is how a daughter honors her mother. The pain of the flesh is nothing. The pain you must forget. This is the most important sacrifice a daughter can make for her mother. ”
— An-Mei Hsu (Lisa Lu) in The Joy Luck Club (2003)

“I caught an uncatchable fish.”
— Senior Ed Bloom (Albert Finney) in Big Fish (2003)

“Desire is irrelevant. I am a machine.”
— Terminator (Arnold Schwarzenegger) in Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003)

“Forgive them, Father. They know not what they do.”
— Jesus (James Caviezel) in Passion of the Christ (2004)

“They — eat — pigs? Pork, they call it. Or bacon. They only call them pigs when they’re alive.”
— Babe and Cat (Christine Cavanaugh and Russi Taylor voice) in Babe (1995)

“We got… We got cows!”
— Jo (Helen Hunt) in Twister (1996)

“All major theme parks have delays. When they opened Disneyland in 1956, nothing worked.” “Yeah, but if the Pirates of the Caribbean breaks down, the pirates don’t eat the tourists.”
— John Hammond and Dr. Ian Malcolm (Richard Attenborough and Jeff Goldblum) in Jurassic Park (1993)

“Shhh. Give me your hand. Now close your eyes. Go on, step up. Now hold on to the railing. Keep your eyes closed. Don’t peek.”
— Jack and Rose (Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet) in Titanic (1997)

“Whatever life holds in store for me, I will never forget these words, with great power comes great responsibility. This is my gift, my curse. Who am I? ”
— Spider-Man/Peter Parker (Tobey Maguire) in Spider-Man (2002)

“I have to be able to see where I am going, otherwise I could wind up inside a wall.”
— Nightcrawler (Alan Cumming) in X2 (2003)

“I just want to apologize to Josh’s mom, and Mike’s mom, and my mom. I am so sorry!”
— Heather Donahue (Heather Donahue) in The Blair Witch Project (1999)

“Having a kid is great… as long as his eyes are closed and he’s not moving or talking.”
— Sonny Koufax (Adam Sandler) in Big Daddy (1999)

“The fact that you stopped it from falling doesn’t mean it wasn’t going to fall… The fact that you prevented it from happening doesn’t change the fact that it was going to happen.”
— John Anderton (Tom Cruise) in Minority Report (2002)

“Most of us live our whole lives… without any real adventure to call our own.”
— Rebecca Dearborn (Tilda Swinton) in Vanilla Sky (2001)

“Look, I guarantee there’ll be tough times. I guarantee that at some time, one or both of us is gonna want to get out of this thing. But I also guarantee that if I don’t ask you to be mine, I’ll regret it for the rest of my life, because I know, in my heart, you’re the only one for me. ”
— Ike Graham (Richard Gere) in Runaway Bride (1999)

“After all… I’m just a girl, standing in front of a boy, asking him to love her.”
— Anna Scott (Julia Roberts) in Notting Hill (1999)

“Mama always said, dying was a part of life.”
— Forrest Gump (Tom Hanks) in Forrest Gump (1994)

“Remember: Always let your conscience be your guide.”
— The Blue Fairy (Evelyn Venable voice) in Pinocchio (1940)

“Where the Lord closes a door, somewhere He opens a window.”
— Maria (Julie Andrews) in The Sound of Music (1965)

“He’s only a kid Harry. We can take him.”
— Marv Merchants (Daniel Stern) in Home Alone (1990)

[singing]”I want adventure in the great, wide somewhere. I want it more than I can tell. And for once it would be grand to have someone understand. I want so much more than they’ve got planned.”
— Belle (Paige O’Hara voice) in Beauty and the Beast (1991)

“Kids these days. They just don’t get scared like they used to.”
— Henry J. Waternoose (James Coburn voice) in Monsters Inc. (2001)

“Dead people like, in graves? In coffins?” “Walking around like regular people. They don’t see each other. They only see what they want to see. They don’t know they’re dead.”
— Malcolm Crowe and Cole Sear (Bruce Willis and Haley Joel Osment) in The Six Sense (1999)

“I’d be the worst possible Godfather. I’d probably drop her on her head at her christening. I’d forget all her birthdays until she was 18. Then I’d take her out and get her drunk. And, let’s face it, quite possibly try and shag her.”
— Will (Hugh Grant) in About a Boy (2002)

“Five schillings for the possessed toy. Take it away.”
— Captain of Guards in Shrek (2001)

“When I die and I stand before God awaiting judgment and he asks me why I let one of HIS miracles die, what am I gonna say, that it was my job?”
— Paul Edgecomb (Tom Hanks) in The Green Mile (1999)

“Ohh, what’s really going to bake your noodle later on is, would you still have broken it if I hadn’t said anything? ”
— Oracle (Gloria Foster) in The Matrix (1999)

“I only wanted to warn you that Sammy can get into trouble faster than you can make most women smile.”
— Melanie Parker (Michelle Pfeiffer) in One Fine Day (1996)

“I’m too old for you.” “Oh, no… I collect antiques.”
— Will and Charlotte (Richard Gere and Winona Ryder) in Autumn in New York (2000)

“Would you please tell the audience… err… the jury what happened?”
— Billy Flynn (Richard Gere) in Chicago (2002)

“I do wish we could chat longer, but I’m having an old friend for dinner. Bye.”
— Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins) in The Silence of the Lambs

“You’re going to give her an injection of adrenaline directly to her heart. ”
— Lance (Eric Stoltz) in Pulp Fiction (1994)

“Those of you lucky enough to have your lives take them with you. However, leave the limbs you’ve lost. They belong to me now.”
— The Bride (Uma Thurman) in Kill Bill Vol 1 (2003)

“Choice? He’s the only one here your age. That’s not a choice, it’s a lack of option. ”
— Harry Stamper (Bruce Willis) In Armageddon (1998)

“Me? I’m dishonest, and a dishonest man you can always trust to be dishonest. Honestly. It’s the honest ones you want to watch out for, because you can never predict when they’re going to do something incredibly… stupid.”
— Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003)

“I shall call him Squishy, and he shall be mine, and he shall be my Squishy.”
— Dory [to a jellyfish] in Finding Nemo

“I like the way I feel. I like thinking about the red dress and the television and you and your father. Now when I get the sun, I smile.”
— Sara Goldfarb in Requiem for a Dream

“When you have insomnia, you’re never really asleep… and you’re never really awake.”
— The Narrator (Edward Norton) in Fight Club

“Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies.”
— Andy Dufresne (Tim Robbins) [in a letter to Red] in The Shawshank Redemption

“I’m packing your extra pair of shoes, and your angry eyes just in case.”
— Mrs. Potato Head [to Mr. Potato Head] in Toy Story 2 (1999)

“We were supposed to draw a picture, anything we wanted. I drew a man who got hurt in the neck by another man with a screwdriver.”
— Cole Sear (Haley Joel Osment) from The Sixth Sense (1999)

“Remember those posters that said, “Today is the first day of the rest of your life”? Well, that’s true of every day but one – the day you die.”
— Lester Burnham (played by Kevin Spacey) from American Beauty(1999)

“Do you spend time with your family? Good. Because a man that doesn’t spend time with his family can never be a real man.”
— Don Corleone from The Godfather(1972)

“Come on. Stop trying to hit me and hit me.”
— Morpheus from The Matrix (1999)

“You call that begging? You can beg better than that.”
— Go Go Yubari from Kill Bill, Vol 1(2003)

1. “Well, we knocked the bastard off!” – Sir Edmund Hillary, just after ascending Mount Everest

2. “Drink a little wine before dinner and you’ll play for years.” – Ty Cobb to Stan Musial

3. “Being Responsible sometimes means pissing people off.” – Colin Powell

4. “Many are called but few get up.” – Oliver Herford

5. “I prayed for 20 years but received no answer until I prayed with my legs.” – Frederick Douglass, escaped slave

6. “If anything goes bad, I did it. If anything goes really good, you did it. that’s all it takes to get people to win football games for you.” – Paul “Bear” Bryant

7. “Fast is fine, but accuracy is everything.” – Wyatt Earp

8. “It’s not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.” – Charles Darwin

9. “You tried your best, and you failed miserably. The lesson is, don’t try.” – Homer Simpson

10. “Most games are lost, not won.” – Casey Stengel

11. “No one has yet calculated how many imaginary triumphs are silently celebrated by people each year to keep up their courage.” – Athenaeus, circa AD 200

12. “Probe with bayonets. If you encounter steel, withdraw. If you encounter mush, continue.” – Vladimir Lenin

13. “First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.” – Mahatma Gandhi

14. “If a tie is like kissing your sister, losing is like kissing your grandmother with her teeth out.” – George Brett

15. “My formula for success is rise early, work late, and strike oil.” – J. Paul Getty

16. “Coaches who can outline plays on a blackboard are a dime a dozen. the ones who win get inside their players and motivate.” – Vince Lombardi

17. “I feel sorry for someone who has to win at everything.” – Snoopy

18. “If A equals success, then the formula is A = X+Y+Z, where X is work, Y is play, and Z is keep your mouth shut.” – Albert Einstein

19. “Nothing gives one person so much advantage over another as to remain always cool and unruffled under all circumstances.” – Thomas Jefferson

20. “We’re not going to just shoot the sons-of-bitches, we’re going to rip out their living goddamned guts and use them to grease the treads of our tanks…We are advancing constantly, and we are not interested in holding onto anything except the enemy’s balls. We are going to twist his balls and kicke the living shit out of him…” – General George Patton to his troops, just before D Day

21. “Retreat, hell! We just got here!” – Capt. Lloyd Williams, USMC, on the first day of the battle for Belleau Wood in World War I. Williams was killed; the battle was won.

As from Men’s Health, September 2003

“Machines are worshipped beacuse they are beautiful, and valued because they confer power.” – Bertrand Russell

“Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” – Arthur C. Clarke

“A machine is as distinctively and brillinatly and expressively human as a violin sonata or a Euclidean theorem.” – Gregory Vlastos

“However far modern science and [technology] have fallen short of their inherent possibilities, they have taught mankind at least one lesson: Nothing is impossible.” – Lewis Mumford

“A new gadget that lasts only 5 minutes is worth more than an immortal work that bores everyone.” – Francis Picabia

“Old boys have their playthings ass well as young ones; the difference is only in price.” – Benjamin Franklin

“An extravagance is anything you buy that is of no earthly use to your wife.” – Franklin P. Adams

As from Men’s Health, December 2003