What is the most powerfull quote in literature for you?

[Vesayen]

Aldous Huxley is the greatest author in history, or one of them


What quote from anything you've ever read, was the most powerfull thing you've ever read that appealed to you personally?

For me, its a quote from brave new world-every time I hear it is brings up tremendous emotion:

"But I like inconveniences."

"We don't" said the Controller. "We prefer to do things comfortably."

"But I don't want comfort. I want God, I want poetry, I want real danger, I want freedom, I want goodness. I want sin."
"In fact," said Mustapha Mond, "you're claiming the right to be unhappy."
"All right, then," said the Savage defiantly, "I'm claiming the right to be unhappy."

"Not to mention the right to have syphilis and cancer; the right to have too little to eat; the right to be busy; the right to live in constant apprehension of what may happen tomorrow; the right to catch typhoid; the right to be tortured by unspeakable pains of every kind."

There was a long silence

"I claim them all," said the Savage at last.

Mustapha Mond shrugged his shoulders. "You're welcome," he said.

[Jaguar]

We all know this one:

The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.

[Traianvs]

great ones

can't exactly think of something myself unfortunately

[Vesayen]

Originally posted by Jaguar Warrior
We all know this one:

The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.

Ooooh thats a really good one too, close second.

[Jaguar]

I really like your choice as well.

[SlowwHand]

Out of many, I'll go with:

Now, faith is the assurance of things hoped for.
The evidence of things not seen. --Hebrews 11:1

[Agathon]

"Freedom is the ability to say 2+2=4"

[Sava]

The evidence of things not seen

[Bereta_Eder]

Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.
Voltaire

[Sava]

one of my favorite paragraphs of all time:

People say "I'm a Christian" the way certain politicians say "I have integrity," like we're all supposed to be impressed and back off and kneel down to that almighty testament to naivete and hypocrisy. When people brag that they have religious faith, I hear "stupidity". Faith is saying, "I will ignore my God-given gifts for discerning reality and instead throw my lot in with blind belief in something that was forced into my head before I could even think."

[...]

But hey, "You have to respect people's religion!"

Why? I don't. I don't respect thinking that is dangerous, prejudicial, childish, and could get me killed.

ahhh Bill Maher from "When You Ride Alone, You Ride With bin Laden"

[Verto]

To each his own, Sava. Why have blind faith in science, which has been constantly changing it's absolutes and facts for centuries? But, like I said, to each his own.

[molly bloom]

"We who often glorify our tendency to ignore reason, installing in its place blind faith, valuing it as spiritual, are ever paying for its cost with the obscuration of our mind and destiny."

Rabindranath Tagore.

Or: The Merchant of Venice, Act Three scene one:

Shylock-

"[....] Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions?
Fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer as a Christian is?
If you ***** us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die? And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge?"

The beauty of the speech is that 'Jew' and 'Christian' are easily substituted with Hutu, Tutsi, Protestant, Catholic, Tamil, Sinhalese, and so forth.

[Sava]

Originally posted by Verto
To each his own, Sava. Why have blind faith in science, which has been constantly changing it's absolutes and facts for centuries? But, like I said, to each his own.

I don't have blind faith in science... but I respect the scientific method and the means of using data, observation, and experimentation to form theories. Frankly, I don't trust something that is set in stone. Our world and the universe is constantly changing. It's the difference between being open minded and not.

[Verto]

Originally posted by Sava
It's the difference between being open minded and not.

Yes, Bill Maher is an example to us all!

[Sava]

that paragraph I quoted made more sense than Peter, Paul, Matthew, Luke... err... John... uhmm... Barry... uhmm... Bruce...