March 29, 2010

What Price Glory? – or Victory, Fame or Beauty?



FAMOUS QUOTE AND PLAY TITLE:

“What Price Glory?” 
       The famous play by Maxwell Anderson and Laurence Stallings 
       The title of this World War I drama is taken from a line in the play: “And since six o’clock there’s been a wounded sniper in the tree by that orchard angle crying ‘Kamerad! Kamerad!’ Just like a big crippled whippoorwill. What price glory now?” The classic 1952 movie version starred James Cagney as Capt. Flagg.



RECENT POLITICAL VARIATION:


“What price victory?”

       Cover headline on The Week magazine, April 2, 2010
       Referring to the passage of the Democrats’ health care bill


CELEBRITY FAME VERSION:


“What Price Fame?”
       Cover of OK! magazine, January 11, 2009
       Referring to the ups and downs of Britney Spears



CELEBRITY FACE VERSION:

“What Price Beauty?”
       From the headline of a 2009 article by Hugh Wilson on MSN about plastic surgery addicts like socialite Jocelyn Wildenstein. She spent $4 million on plastic surgery and ended up with this disfigured face.


The book of quotations for theatre fans:

The Audience Book of Theatre Quotations

A great source of quotes from and about the theatre, compiled by Prof. Louis Phillips

March 22, 2010

“The world is too much with us” – or is it the World Wide Web?


FAMOUS WORDSWORTH QUOTE:

“The world is too much with us; late and soon,
Getting and spending, we lay waste our powers:
Little we see in Nature that is ours;
We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!”
 
       William Wordsworth (1770-1850)
       English Romantic poet  
       From his poem “The World Is Too Much With Us” (1807)


WORLD WIDE WEB QUOTE:

“400 million people are friending, unfriending, and trading Farmville cows on Facebook. 50 million people are tweeting, retweeting, and getting into tweetbates about March Madness or the virtues of Four Square. To paraphrase William Wordsworth, the World Wide Web is too much with us.”  
       Katie Couric
       CBS news anchor 
       Posted March 18, 2010 on “Katie Couric’s Notebook” blog


THE PRE-INTERNET VERSION:

“The Press is too much with us, small and great:
We are undone of chatter and on dit,
Report, retort, rejoinder, repartee...
O for a lodge in some vast wilderness!
Some region unapproachable of Print,
Where never cablegram could gain access,
And telephones were not, nor any hint.”
 
       Austin Dobson (1840-1921)
       English poet and essayist  
       In his poem “A Pleasant Invective against Printing” 
       From The Complete Poetical Works of Austin Dobson (1923) 


MEN VS. WOMEN QUOTE:

“Men can concentrate in messy rooms if the alternative is to clean them. But women! The mess ‘is too much with us; late and soon,’ cleaning and cooking, ‘we lay waste our powers.’” 
       Rhiannon Paine
       American writer 
       In her story “The Liverpool School of Dream and Pun”
       From Expat: Women's True Tales of Life Abroad (2002) 


WILLIAM F. BUCKLEY QUOTE:

“The government, the vessel of secular humanism, is too much with us; and...getting and spending in political programs, we lay waste our powers.”  
       William F. Buckley, Jr. (1925-2008) 
       American Conservative journalist and commentator
       In an article titled “The Focus Was on Reagan”
       In his syndicated column "On the Right," August 24, 1976

 


New recommendation…

1001 Funniest Things Ever Said

Funny quotes from comedians, sports and political figures, and literary wits.

March 8, 2010

“Our Father” and his daily bread – updated...


FAMOUS DAILY BREAD QUOTE:

“Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done
   in earth, as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil:
For thine is the kingdom, and the power,  
   and the glory, for ever. Amen.”
       “The Lord’s Prayer,” King James Bible version
       Matthew 6:9-13


UPDATED GOVERNMENT BUDGET VERSION:

“Our budget, which art in shambles,
Nightmare be thy name.
The reckoning hath come,
The damage will be done statewide
As it is in our home districts.
Give us this day new sources of revenue
And forgive us our double-talk
As we raise taxes while calling them ‘fees.’
And lead us not into the clutches of special interests,
But deliver us from voter backlash in November.
For thou must be balanced
Regardless of consequences
For ever and ever, Amen.”

       “The Legislature Prayer,” from a political cartoon by Chan Lowe
       South Florida Sun Sentinel, March 2, 2010,


BEATNIK VERSION:

“Our father whose art’s in heaven
hollow be thy name, unless things change
Thy wigdom come and gone, thy will will be undone
   on earth as it isn’t heaven
Give us this day our daily bread 
   at least three times a day
   and forgive us our trespasses
   as we would forgive those lovelies
   whom we wish would trespass against us
And lead us not into temptation too often on weekdays
   but deliver us from evil
   whose presence remains unexplained
   in thy kingdom of power and glory
Oh man”

       Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s “Loud Poem”
       The original long version, printed in The Beatitude Anthology (1960)
       Famously recited (in part) at The Band’s “Last Waltz” concert


BEER DRINKERS VERSION:

“Our beer, Which art in barrels,
Hallowed be thy drink.
Thy will be drunk, I will be drunk,
   at home as it is in public.
Forgive us this day our daily spillage
As we forgive those who spillest against us.
And lead us not into the practice of sissy wine tasting,
And deliver us from DUI's
For mine is the barley, the hops and the malt, forever and ever.”
       “The Beer Drinkers Prayer” 
       From the Beer Drinkers League of Vancouver Facebook site


Newly recommended in The Quotation Bookstore:

Are You a Miserable Old Bastard? - Quips, Quotes, and Tales from the Eternally Pessimistic

An amusing celebration of the grouchiness in life, featuring wittily downbeat sayings from famous grumps including: P. J. O’Rourke, Dorothy Parker, H. L. Mencken, Groucho Marx, W. C. Fields and other real and fictional grumps.

March 7, 2010

“That’s not a knife!”



FAMOUS KNIFE QUOTE (USUALLY MISQUOTED):

SUE: “Mick, give him [a mugger] your wallet.”
DUNDEE: “What for?”
SUE: “He’s got a knife.”
DUNDEE: “That’s not a knife. THAT’S a knife.”

       Linda Kozlowski, as Sue, and Paul Hogan, as "Crocodile" Dundee 
       In the fmous scene in Crocodile Dundee (1986)  
       Often misquoted as: “That’s not a knife. THIS is a knife.”


THE SWISS ARMY KNIFE VERSION: 

“That’s not a knife. THIS is a knife!”
       Photo from Firebox.com
       The Guinness World Record-holding Wenger Swiss Army knife 
       Sold on Amazon.com for $1,200.00


THE BIG GUN VERSION:

“That's not a gun, THIS is a gun.”
       Posted on the DemocraticUnderground.com site


THE AUSTRALIAN PENIS VERSION:

“About fifty-two hundred naked people posed for a group photo taken on the steps of the Sydney Opera House this week — in the process breaking the record for the most Australian men saying ‘That’s not a penis. THIS is a penis!’”
       Seth Meyer, on the “Weekend Update” segment of Saturday Night Live, March 6, 20

.

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Comments? Questions? Corrections? Post them on my quotations Facebook group.




Newly recommended in The Quotation Bookstore:

The Sopranos: Classic Quotes — 100 Unforgettable Bits of Wisdom & Humor From America’s Favorite Families

March 5, 2010

“Lord, what fools these mortals be!”

 

FAMOUS FOOL QUOTE:

“Lord, what fools these mortals be!”
       William Shakespeare
       The famous line said by Puck, a “shrewd and knavish sprite”
       In A Midsummer Night’s Dream ( c. 1600), Act 3, Scene 2


POLITICAL FOOLISHNESS QUOTE:

“Lord, what fools these candidates be. When even the Naked Cowboy has thrown his 10-gallon hat in the ring, the time has come to question the legitimacy of the New York City mayoral elections.”
       Journalist Elizabeth Kipp-Giusti
       In the Columbia Spectator, Oct. 18, 2009


FRACTURED FAIRY TALE VERSION:

“Lord, what foods these morsels be!”
       Little Jack Horner in a "Fractured Fairy Tales" cartoon
       On The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show (1959-1964)


THE ZOMBIE VERSION:

“Oh, what foods these mortals be — brainnnnns!”
       “Shakespeare’s plays that could be improved by Brain Eating Zombies” 
       From Christopher Moore's Blog, March 5, 2006

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Comments? Questions? Corrections? Post them on my quotations Facebook group.

March 1, 2010

The fine line between stupid and clever...


FAMOUS STUPID CLEVER QUOTE:

“It’s such a fine line between stupid and clever.”
       A legendary quote from the mockumentary This is Spinal Tap (1984) 
       This “quote” actually combines lines from actors Michael McKean,
       as David St. Hubbins, and Harry Shearer, as Derek Smalls:
            MCKEAN: “It’s such a fine line between stupid and...” 
            SHEARER: “...and clever.”


THE LADY GAGA VERSION:

“Lady Gaga showed up to a costume party at Mr. Chow’s this Saturday wearing a see-through plastic frock with her nipples Xed out in duct tape and a bedazzled lobster on her head...Like the famous quote from Spinal Tap goes, ‘there’s a fine line between clever and stupid’ and with this outfit, she’s definitely crossed over into Stupid Town.” 
       Fashion critique posted on The Zeitgeisty Report, Feb 28, 2010


SPORTS NON-SEQUITUR VERSION:

“It’s a fine line between winning and losing.” 
       Canadian hockey coach Sidney Crosby 
       On Canada’s defeat of the U.S. hockey team at the Winter Olympics
       CBC/Radio-Canada, March 1, 2010


THE SEXY OLDER WOMAN VERSION:

“I’ve always maintained that there is a very fine line between a daring, sexy older woman and mutton dressed as lamb.” 
       Sexy older actress Joan Collins
       In her column on the UK Daily Mail website


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Comments? Questions? Corrections? Post them on my quotations Facebook group.

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