There's no rehab for stupidity

I was always taught never to use quotes in speeches, papers, essays, and the like, but I've always loved them. I have Quote of the Day on my iGoogle and if I come across something I like in a book or a movie, I always add it to my quote collection. Here's part of it:

"The challenge of modernity is to live without illusions and without becoming disillusioned." - Antonio Gramsci ["O desafio da modernidade é viver sem ilusões, sem se tornar desiludido."]

My syntax is highly complicated cuz I emigrated from the single greatest little place in the Caribbean
Dominican Republic/I love it, Jesus, I'm jealous of it --In the Heights (musical)

"It's OK, muchacha, he said. Santo Domingo will always be there. It was there in the beginning and it will be there in the end." --Junot Diaz, in The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

"There is nothing in the world so monstrously vast as our indifference." -- Machado de Assis (I found this quote originally in English, and for the life of me I cannot find the original in Portuguese)

La indiferencia es bizca. -Carlos Eire, in Waiting for Snow in Havana [Indifference is cross eyed]

תיקון עולם - Repairing the world

Conoces bien, cada guerra, cada herida, cada ser
Conoces bien cada guerra en la vida y el amor tambien. --Sergio Vargas, "La Quiero a Morir"

"Os ricos não podem continuar vivendo como se fossem uma ilha no meio de um mar de pobreza." --Ayrton Senna [The wealthy cannot continue to live as if they were on an island in a sea of poverty.]

Lo ha hecho pecho. --Cuban saying [What's done is done]

"O povo sabe o que quer mas o povo também quer o que não sabe." - Gilberto Gil [The people know what they want, but the people also want what they don't know.]

Deja que el mundo te cambie y cambiarás el mundo. -The Motorcycle Diaries [Let the world change you and you will change the world.]

There's no rehab for stupidity. -Chris Rock

"El que tiene un derecho no obtiene el de violar el ajeno para mantener el suyo." - Jose Marti [Someone with rights cannot violate the rights of others to maintain his own]

"Todos los días la gente se arregla el cabello, ¿por qué no el corazón?" - Ernesto Che Guevara [Every day we fix our hair, why not our hearts?]

"You've got to have an exit strategy to stay principled. If not, you'll compromise principal for materialism and comfort." - Omar Minaya

"Mas se você achar/Que eu tô derrotado/Saiba que ainda estão rolando os dados..." - Cazuza

"Morar em Nova York é bom, mas é uma merda. Morar no Rio é uma merda, mas é bom." -- Tom Jobim [Living in New York is good, but it sucks. Living in Rio sucks, but it's good.]

"Los seres humanos no nacen para siempre el día en que sus madres los alumbran, sino que la vida los obliga a parirse a sí mismos una y otra vez." - Gabriel Garcia Marquez

"Paradise was always over there, a day's sail away. But it's a funny thing, escapism. You can go far and wide and you can keep moving on and on through places and years, but somehow you never escape your own life. I, finally, knew where my life belonged. Home." --J. Maarten Troost

What are some of your favorite quotes?

Comments

[Adriana]

Oi Rachel, acredito que a frase em português do Machado de Assis seja a seguinte: “a indiferença é o pior de todos os males.”
Está frase pode ser achada em seu primeiro romance, chamado de Ressurreição e publicado primeiramente em 1872.
Você pode achar maiores informações aqui: http://www.machadodeassis.net/hiperTx_romances/obras/ressurreicao.htm

[brazinglish]

Tom Jobim e Chris Rock, geniais.

Aliás, nunca vi nada de não-genial sair da boca do Chris Rock.

[RioGringa]

Adriana, you're my hero!! And Marina, I agree :)

[Jackie]

Thank you for the quotes, I love them too.

"Sin la mujer, la vida es pura prosa." --Rubén Darío
"Cómo no me he preocupado de nacer, no me preocupo de morir." --Federica García Lorca
"Nada está perdido si se tiene el valor de proclamar que todo está perdido y hay que empezar de nuevo." --Julio Cortázar

[Jolly]

"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing."

or

"When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle."

http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Edmund_Burke

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"The road to hell is paved with good intentions."

www.samueljohnson.com/road.html

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"That government is best which governs least."

www.quotedb.com/quotes/1213

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"individual freedom/initiative, a high degree of cooperation/competition and free flow, unfettered access to information are the characteristics that, combined, will create the most free and prosperous of societies."

Jolly

[The Gritty Poet]

"The well is deep, I wish you well"- Chung Me ( The Chinese philosopher/opium dealer from this movie http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0090274/ ).

By the way plenty of Machado´s work, The Divine Comedy, Shakespeare and much more can be found, in Portuguese, here http://www.dominiopublico.gov.br/pesquisa/PesquisaObraForm.jsp .

[Jolly]

Liberalism in Brazil:

http://www.economist.com/world/americas/displaystory.cfm?story_id=15393723

also read the comments by clicking on "view all comments" at the end of the article.

[Kacie]

Love love love the quotes about the DR!

"Jóvenes y mayores: Dense cuenta que estamo viviendo una vida mundiana que no merese la pena vivir. Porque es mui bonita la vida y tu ties que fortaleserte y tener clonpleta fes en Dios y en ustedes mismo. Con simpatía y cariño. De este que lla es libre."

[Kacie]

Btw, that was written by Camarón jsut before his death

[Charles Perry]

just a suggestion for discussion:

"The sanctions were lifted as soon as Sean Goldman was returned. Yet there are 60 or 70 more reported cases similar to Sean, so why was the threat of sanctions lifted so soon?
So much effort was put into it, and we let the ball drop so quickly. Why not lift the sanctions only after the other children are also returned? Or at least when half of them are returned? Or even 30 more. Or 20 more. Or even 10 more! Or even just 5 more!

We negotiate with a kidnapper who has 70 kids. He lets 1 kid go, and now everything's honky dory?
The kidnapper is our pal?
Hmmm...

Could it be interpreted that, in reality, the threat of sanctions was immediately lifted, because the other kids don't matter as much as Sean?
Or perhaps because they're from a less wealthy background? Because their alienated parent doesn't have the means to hire expensive international attorneys? Because the other kids are of little interest? Because the other kids are not worth the politicians' time and effort?

see what I mean? food for thought...

[Ashley, the Accidental Olympian]

"The actions and reactions of others have nothing to do with me."

-- No clue who said this, but I love it. I tell myself this when I'm in an argument with someone, or feeling guilty. It helps me look at my life a little differently.

[Janaina]

"if you think it's possible you're almost certainly right, and if you think it's impossible you're almost certainly wrong" Einstein

[Eduardo]

"There are times when it is better to be silent and thought an idiot than to open your mouth and remove all doubt".(unknown)

[Christina]

O melhor amigo do povo é o povo organizado.