"To walk in Time, perhaps, as men walk on long roads; or to survey it, as men may see the world from a mountain, or the earth as a living map beneath...to see with eyes and to hear with ears: to see the lie of old and even forgotten lands, to behold ancient men walking, and hear their languages as they spoke them, in the days before the days, when tongues of forgotten lineage were heard in kingdoms long fallen by the shores."
- J.R.R. Tolkien (The Lost Road)
"Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive."
- C.S. Lewis (The Humanitarian Theory of Punishment)
Sheriff's Sister: "We have 10,000 men, what was your plan? Were you going to save England singlehanded?"
Robin: "Not singlehanded. There's five or six of us."
- BBC Robin Hood
"Normal people scare me."
- Anonymous
Edmund: "That's the worst of girls. They never carry a map in their heads."
Lucy: "That's because our heads have something inside them."
- C.S. Lewis (Prince Caspian)
"So it's possible there's an alternate universe out there somewhere
where I actually know what the hell you're talking about?"
- Jack O'Neill (SG-1: Point of View)
Apophis: "A single human life is worth so much you'd risk a world?"
Jack: "That's right. That's why they call us the good guys."
- SG-1 (Serpent's Song)
This tretonin seems to have had an effect on your memory. For you have forgotten a true warrior's strength comes from his heart and his mind.
- Master Bra'tac (SG-1: Orpheus)
There is a tendency...to assume that because a man is ill-treated, he must be a good fellow; in our indignation against the whole system, we unconsciously draw a false picture...on whom we need in fact waste no sympathy.
- Warren Lewis (The Galleys of France)
Fool! There's only one sacrifice, and the God of gods makes it, not you.
- Charles Williams (The Place of the Lion)
Good government never depends upon laws, but upon the personal qualities of those who govern. The machinery of government is always subordinate to the will of those who administer that machinery. When I am weaker than you, I ask you for freedom because that is according to your principles; when I am stronger than you, I take away your freedom because that is according to my principles.
- Frank Herbert (Children of Dune)
True Love is the greatest thing in the world...except for a nice M.L.T. -- mutton, lettuce and tomato...where the mutton is sliced nice and thin...
- Miracle Max (Princess Bride)
Good gracious woman! This is war, not a garden party!
- The Doctor (Gone With The Wind)
All humans make mistakes, and all leaders are...but human.
- Leto II (Children of Dune Miniseries)
If we do not live another day, say this over our byre: They died like High Guard Lancers with their faces to the fire.
- Regimental Hymn (Andromeda)
Those who fail to learn history are doomed to repeat it; those who fail to learn history correctly -- why, they are simply doomed.
- Achem Dro'him (Andromeda)
After the firing squad - the worms.
Thus does the single logic go.
But in the storm we'll be with you,
My people, for we loved you so.
- Nikola Yonkov Vaptsarov
I was just thinking of the distances we've travelled ... and yet how far we've still to sail as men.
- Hornblower (Horatio Hornblower)
Well, it's not Royal Academy I suppose. Still, it's better than a finger in the eye, ain't it?
- Burt (Mary Poppins)
[to the uninformed listener] A meeting of fell enemies hurling deadling insults before drawing their guns.
- J.R.R. Tolkien (About the Inklings)
Zorro (about swords): "Do you know how to use that thing?"
Alejandro: "Yes, the pointy end goes into the other man!"
Zorro: "This is going to take a lot of work..."
- The Mask of Zorro
It's time to prove you're worth something to your friends - sometimes that means dying.
- Sin City
"Why would people in Washington care about some nutcase?"
"Have you been to Washington?"
- Threshold
Trust me - when this thing hits you're gonna want beer.
- Dave (Invasion)
Reporter: "What is it, Major Lawrence, that attracts you personally to the desert?"
Lawrence: "It's clean."
- Lawrence of Arabia
General: "We can't just do nothing!"
Politician: "Why not? It's usually best."
- Lawrence of Arabia
"I appreciate your opinion, but no-one is beyond redemption."
- Threshold
"Half of writing history is hiding the truth."
- Mal (Serenity)
"Suppression is the instrument of a totalitarian dictatorship, we
don't talk about that sort of thing in a free country. We simply take a
democratic decision not to publish it."
- Sir Humphrey (Yes, Minister)
"Well, under consideration means we've lost the file, under active consideration means we're trying to find it."
- Bernard (Yes, Minister)
"Well, it may come as a surprise to the Foreign Office, but you are supposed to be on our side."
- Jim Hacker (Yes, Minister)
"I promise you we'll make sure it is part of the environment. It's bound to be once it's there, isn't it?"
- Sir Desmond (Yes, Minister)
"No, we can't have alphabetical seating. That would put Iran and Iraq in the same pew... along with Israel. Ireland? Ireland never solved anything!"
- Bernard (Yes, Minister)
"The past might, even materially, exist; only man was not aware of it, time being, whatever else
it was, a necessity of his consciousness...but because [he] can only be sequentialy conscious...
must [he] hold that what is not communicated to consciousness does not exist? I think in a line -
but there is the potentiality of the plane...this perhaps was what great art was...
the sense of vastness in those small things was the vastness of all that had been felt in the present."
- Lord Arglay (Many Dimensions)
"You see, every once in a while I suddenly find myself dancing."
Jerry Travers (Top Hat)
"There's two types of people in the world-- people who panic, and then there's us."
Sarah Jane Smith (The Sarah Jane Smith Adventures)
-- > BACK TO MISC







