Thread by @MrAlanCooper

As you may have noticed, I was digging around in my Quotations file today. I started putting quotes in my email signature about a million years ago. 1

I put quotes in my sig for a long time before I had the bright idea of logging those quotes. I now keep a text file of quotes I’ve used. 2

The very first quote in that file is this:

"Time is a great teacher, but unfortunately it kills all its pupils."—Berlioz

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Typically, I’ll leave a particular quote in my sig for about a month, sometimes longer or shorter. It’s all just for my own amusement. 4

The first quote I recorded with a use date is:
From 10/24/1998 to 11/25/98
"You spend half your life in transit,
but that's just the way God plans it”-- 10cc, From Rochdale to Ocho Rios

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I love to quote the sages:

From 12/29/98 to 2/24/99
"Suppose you were an idiot, and suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself." --Mark Twain

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I love to quote great thinkers:
From 14 Feb 00 to 8 Mar 00
"The opposite of a correct statement is a false statement. The opposite of a profound truth may well be another profound truth." --Niels Bohr

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Astute readers will note that around the turn of the millennium I decided to abandon the American way of writing dates. Going to the Euro way would engender much confusion, so I followed the middle ground with the month in letters in the middle. I’ve used it ever since. 8

I also love to quote clever rock n roll lyrics, although I seem to do that less and less these days.

From 24 May 2000 to 9 June 2000

"But I was young and foolish then,
I feel old and foolish now."--They Might Be Giants

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I also like to quote New Urbanists:
From 21 July to 7 Aug 2000
"The problem with planning is that it has been overtaken by mathematical models--traffic, density, impact assessment, public costs etc. discarding common sense and empirical observation." -- Andres Duany

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Ironic humor is an evergreen resource:
From From 24 Dec 2000 to26 Jan 2001

"I'm a Leo. Leos don't believe in this astrology stuff."
-- Tom Neff
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I’m not a big fan of unattributed or unattributable quotes, but if they are especially good I’ll quote ‘em.
From 5 Jan 2002 to 22 jan 2002

"Under capitalism man exploits man; under socialism the reverse is true."-- Polish proverb
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A good quote can make you think. From 25 March 2002 to 22 April 2002

"Celestial navigation is based on the premise that the Earth is the center of the universe. The premise is wrong, but the navigation works. An incorrect model can be a useful tool."--Kelvin Throop III
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Or give us insight into human nature.
From 3 March 2004 to 1 April 2004

"Any event, once it has occurred, can be made to appear inevitable by a competent historian." --Lee Simonson
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Comedians are eminently quotable.
From 9 Jan 2007 to 5 February 2007

"What's another word for thesaurus?” -- Steven Wright
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Contrarian comedians are an even richer vein.
From 4 October 2007 to 28 October 2007

"Furs are wasteful. Every fur coat consumes 18 trees to make all of the protest signs.” –-Emo Philips
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Then there’s acerbic poets…
From July 26, 2009 to 12 October 2009
"An alcoholic is someone you don't like who drinks as much as you do.”--Dylan Thomas
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I love Dune quotes.
From 24 Aug 2013 to 29 Sep 2013
"Arrakis teaches the attitude of the knife--chopping off what's incomplete and saying: 'Now, it's complete because it's ended here.'" --from "Collected Sayings of Muad'Dib" by the Princess Irulan
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And quotes about entrepreneurship.
From 27 Sep 2016 to 8 Nov 2016
“Those who successfully managed a company to maturity are unlikely to be able to manage it back to youth.”—Russell Ackoff
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There’s good stuff from contemporary thinkers, too.
From 6 Dec 2018 to 9 Jan 2019
“Tech culture prizes intelligence but is doggedly anti-intellectual.”—Cennydd Bowles
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My all time favorite quote, and one that I repeat frequently is:

"The ability to quote is a serviceable substitute for wit."-- W. Somerset Maugham
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Okay. I can’t resist. Here are a few good quotes that I have not yet used in my email sig.

"Having your book turned into a movie is like seeing your ox turned into bouillon cubes." --John Le Carré
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"The optimist proclaims that we live in the best of all possible worlds, and the pessimist fears that this is true."-- James Branch Cabell 1879-1958
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"Never tell people how to do things. Tell them what to do and they will surprise you with their ingenuity."--General George S. Patton, 1947
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"Man’s mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions."—Oliver Wendell Holmes
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"If you would not be forgotten,
As soon as you are dead and rotten,
Either write things worthy reading,
Or do things worth the writing."
--Benjamin Franklin
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“One. The important things are always simple.
Two. The simple things are always hard.”—unknown
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“Fall in love with some activity, and do it! Nobody ever figures out what life is all about, and it doesn't matter.”—Richard Feynman
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“Talk sense to a fool and he calls you foolish.” --Euripides
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"The second kick in the head by a mule is not instructive."--Herbert Allen, Jr.
And an unattributed variant:
“You don’t have to hit me in the head with a two-by-four a second time to get my attention.”

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"After ecstasy, the laundry."--Zen Saying
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"The most exhausting thing in my life is being insincere."--Anne Morrow Lindbergh
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"In America sex is an obsession; in other parts of the world it is a fact."--Marlene Dietrich

"Never fear shadows. They simply mean that there's a light somewhere nearby.”--Ruth E. Renkei
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"Trains have the unique advantage of being both perfectly romantic and perfectly efficient."--Ursula K. LeGuin
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"Cars moving through neighborhoods are only borrowing the street space, which belong to the enfronting dwellings."-- Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk
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Well, this little jaunt through my quotations file has shown me that I don’t have enough quotations from women. Your suggestions are welcome.
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