These are a small collection of quotes that have either been highly influential for me in my life, have provided me with insightful wisdom, or saying that I just found cool.  Enjoy.

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"Imagination is more important than knowledge."

Albert Einstein

 

"Criminals are a superstitious cowardly lot…"

Bruce Wayne—Detective Comics #27

 

"A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…"

George Lucas—1977

 

"I’ll be back."

Arnold Schwarzenegger—1993

"It is not the critic who counts, nor the man who points how the strong man stumbled or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly... who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, and spends himself in a worthy cause; who at best, knows the triumph of high achievement; and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat."
Theodore Roosevelt—1910

"I am turning my back on a sure thing for some, perhaps, unattainable goal.

My wife and I have a new daughter and I know that because I am following my heart I will be a better husband and father.

No amount of money could by me that."

Todd McFarlane—1992

On leaving Spider-Man to form Image Comics

 

"Virtue is absolute."

R.A. Salvatore

 

"This is America and if you stay the course and believe in yourself,

you can get away with anything."

David Letterman—1998

 

"The truth is out there."

Chris Carter—1993

 

"The surest sign that there is intelligent life on other planets

is the fact that they haven’t tried to contact us yet."

Bill Watterson--Creator of Calvin & Hobbes

 

"History is rarely made by reasonable men."

Terry Goodkind

 

"Courage, love, friendship, compassion and empathy

lift us above the simple beasts and define humanity."

The Book of Counted Sorrows

 

"Courage is almost a contradiction in terms.

It means a strong desire to live taking the form of a readiness to die."

G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy

 

"The ultimate measure of a man is not where

he stands in moments of comfort and convenience,

but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy."

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

 

"The soul is the sense of something higher than ourselves,

something that stirs in us thoughts, hopes, and aspiration…

The soul is a burning desire to… remain children of the light."

Albert Schweitzer, Reverence for Life

"I'm a nonreligious person in search of a religious experience."

Chris Carter--Creator of the X-Files

"I never felt comfortable with myself because I was never part of the majority."

Steven Spielberg

"There are extraordinary men and women, and extraordinary moments when history leaps forward on the backs of these individuals.  That what can be imagined, can be achieved.  That you must dare to dream, but there is no substitute for perseverance and hard work.  And teamwork.   Because no one can get there alone.  And while we commemorate the greatness of these events and the individuals who achieve them, we cannot forget the sacrifices of those who make these achievement and leaps possible."

Special Agent Dana Scully--Gillian Anderson

From the script of Chris Carter and Frank Spotnitz

"As a kid I always idolized the winning athletes.

It is one thing to idolize heroes.

It is quite another to visualize yourself in their place.

When I saw great people, I said to myself: ‘I can be there.’ 

We all have great inner power. The power is self-faith.

There’s really an attitude to winning.

You have to see yourself winning before you win.

And you have to be hungry.

You have to want to conquer.

My instinct was to win, eliminate anyone who is in competition,

destroy my enemy, and move on without

any kind of hesitation at all."

Arnold Schwarzenegger

 

"For those who believe, no explanation is necessary.

For those who do not, none will suffice."

Joe Dunninger

"If you smell what The Rock is cooking."

The Rock

"To do my father's work, Padre... To do my father's work..."

Daredevil--The Man Without Fear

From author Kevin Smith; Daredevil #8

You'd have to read it to understand...

"Greater indeed are pleasures that are shared."

R.A. Salvatore

"Everybody is wrong.  Keep writing.  Keep fighting. Keep dreaming.

Because sometimes, every once in a while, the dream really does come true.

Even for folks like us."

J. Michael Straczynski--Creator of Babylon 5

"If you are a real writer, you infuse your characters with truths from your own life.  The old saw is, Write What You Know.   I think it would be equally appropriate to add, Write Who You Are.  Give your readers little insights into how you think.  Share your feelings and beliefs in a way that makes others question their own, requiring them in some small way to reevaluate their lives.  Good storytelling compels up to do this."

Terry Brooks--Fantasy Author

"It doesn't matter that the horse is blind, just load the wagon."

John Madden

"I'm strong enough to take these dreams and make them mine."

Creed; Higher

"And his eyes have all the seeming of a demon that is dreaming..."

Edgar Allan Poe--The Raven

 

"We've got to be some of the luckiest people on Earth to be doing what we do. To tell stories in a universe where a man can fly and the best of humanity triumphs more often than it loses is a special, special thing.   Thanks to all of you who keep coming back. Thanks to you who still believe."

Joe Kelly, talking about writing comic books

 

"A big book is like a serious relationship; it requires commitment. Not only that, but there is no guarantee you will enjoy it, or that it will have a happy ending. Kind of like going out with a girl, having to spend time every day with her—with absolutely no guarantee of nailing her in the end. No thanks."

Pro Wrestler (and Best Selling Author) Mick Foley on big books vs. smaller books.

 

"No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main... Any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls;

it tolls for thee."

John Donne--For Whom The Bell Tolls

 

"They can't tell me who to be
'Cause I'm not what they see
Yeah, the world is still sleepin'
While I keep on dreaming for me
And their words are just whispers
And lies that I'll never believe."

John Rzeznik--I'm Still Here

 

"If you can keep your head while all those about you

    Are losing theirs and blaming you,

If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,

    But make allowances for their doubting too...

If you can dream--and not make dreams your master;

    If you can think--and not make thought your aim;

If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster

    And treat those two imposters same.

If you can make one heap of all your winnings

    And risk them in one turn of pitch-n-toss,

And lose, and start again at your beginnings

    And never breathe a word about your loss...

Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,

    And--which is more--you'll be a Man, my son."

Rudyard Kipling

"D’oh!"

Homer Simpson—2000

  A Letter from J. Michael Straczynski

    Wizard Magazine: The Guide to Comics, dedicates one letter column a year to professionals of the comic book industry.  In the professionals' letter column of 2000, new arrival to the comic book industry, J. Michael Straczynski, penned this letter. You may recognize his name as he is the creator of the television series Babylon 5 and a major heavy in Hollywood. Such a man coming to comics is as big as filmmaker Kevin Smith writing for Daredevil and Green Arrow.  In his letter were these words of wisdom...

Wizard Readers,

    You, reading this. Yeah, you, by the comics rack. Listen to me. Listen carefully. Because the lesson doesn't come around often, and you have to be attentive when it does.

    Put down this issue and go into a restaurant, to a park, someplace where there are kids around. Watch the kids. They run, spontaneously; they color and draw and make up little stories, spontaneously; they sing, spontaneously. But these are all the things we become self-conscious about as we grow older. At some point, we stop drawing and coloring and making up stories because people will judge us or laugh at us. We unlearn the things that give us joy.

    You've probably got people around you who don't understand why you keep wasting your time and money with comics. These are the same people whose voices we hear when we stop singing, and drawing, and telling stories. And here is the lesson: They're wrong. They're always wrong.

    Follow your passion, whatever it is. Sing. Draw. Tell stories. Because the thing of it is, the remarkable, astonishing, nearly unbelievable but utterly, undeniably true thing about it is… if you follow your joy, and step out on the frontier of your passion, sooner or later, if you do it right, you can actually make a living at it.

    It may sound dopey, but it’s the truest thing I know. The faces and names between the covers of this magazine stand as profound testimony to that truth.

    Go thou and do likewise.

                                                                        J. Michael Straczynski

                                                                        Writer, Rising Stars, Midnight Nation,

                                                                        occasional singer

    Amen, Brother JMS, Amen.

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