In Progress: The Publick Demesne Nothing in the world is less interesting than an actor on the stage involved in his or her own emotions, says [David] Mamet...
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Movies:
1930s
Oh, Professor, you're full of whimsy.
Can you notice it from there? I'm always that way after I eat radishes.
I was going to get a flat-bottom but the girl at the boathouse didn't have one. I'll see you at the opera tonight. I'll hold your seat till you get there. After you get there you're on your own. Now it isn't that I don't like you, Susan, because, after all, in moments of quiet, I'm strangely drawn toward you, but - well, there haven't been any quiet moments. For the woman the kiss, for the man the sword! What makes a king out of a slave? Courage! What makes the flag on the mast to wave? Courage! What makes the elephant charge his tusk in the misty mist, or the dusky dusk? What makes the muskrat guard his musk? Courage! What makes the sphinx the seventh wonder? Courage! What makes the dawn come up like thunder? Courage! What makes the Hottentot so hot? What puts the "ape" in apricot? What have they got that I ain't got?
A heart is not judged by how much you love; but by how much you are loved by others.
Now I know I have a heart, because it's breaking
1940s
Mortals are weak and frail. If their stomach speaks, they forget their brain. If their brain speaks, they forget their heart. And if their heart speaks... they forget everything. When a man's partner is killed, he's supposed to do something about it. It doesn't make any difference what you thought of him. He was your partner and you're supposed to do something about it.
Heavy. What is it?
The, uh, stuff that dreams are made of. No, no. I'm not a Brewster. I'm the son of a sea-cook! You know Steve, you're not very hard to figure, only at times. Sometimes I know exactly what you're going to say. Most of the time. The other times... the other times, you're just a stinker.
Was you ever bit by a dead bee?
You know you don't have to act with me, Steve. You don't have to say anything, and you don't have to do anything. Not a thing. Oh, maybe just whistle. You know how to whistle, don't you, Steve? You just put your lips together and... blow.
You don't like to be rated yourself.
I haven't met anyone yet that can do it. Any suggestions?
Well, I can't tell till I've seen you over a distance of ground. You've got a touch of class, but I don't know how, how far you can go.
A lot depends on who's in the saddle.
Years ago my mother used to say to me, she'd say, In this world, Elwood, you must be - she always called me Elwood - 'In this world, you must be oh so smart or oh so pleasant.' Well, for years I was smart. I recommend pleasant. And you may quote me.
1950s
Professor Elwell, you are the only man I know who can say 'malignant' the way other people say 'Bingo!'
I consider faith properly injected into a patient as effective in maintaining life as Adrenaline, and a belief in miracles has been the difference between living and dying as often as any surgeon's scalpel. Ah, yes... I knew your people, Sean. Your grandfather; he died in Australia, in a penal colony. And your father, he was a good man too The pellet with the poison's in the flagon with the dragon; the vessel with the pestle has the brew that is true.
1960s
What do you do this kind of crummy work for, anyway?
What, are you trying to be funny? I do it because I believe in the United Nations and Southeast Asia, and - you think it's funny if your life depends on what goes through the Panama Canal? What about the English pound? I'll tell you something - as long as there's a Siberia, you'll find Lew Harper on the job.
Are you putting me on?
Jeez, I don't think so.
You mean to say you can actually legally kill someone?
Yeah, and it bothers me sometimes that I don't feel guilty about it...Don't you think that's psychotic behavior?
No I don't! It explains your utter lack of hostility. You can vent your aggressive feelings by actually killing people! It's a sensational solution to the hostility problem.
1970s
Can you get a mob together?
After what happened to Luther, I don't think I can get more than two, three hundred guys. Great Raisuli, we have lost everything. All is drifting on the wind as you said. We have lost everything.
Sherif, is there not one thing in your life that is worth losing everything for?
To hell with them fellas. Buzzards gotta eat, same as worms.
1980s
You know, I believe we have two lives.
The life we learn with and the life we live with after that.Tell us what you had in mind.
To hit away.
I thought I could rely on your honor, Hobbs!
You're about to.
You know my mama wanted me to be a farmer.
My dad wanted me to be a baseball player.
Well you're better than any player I ever had. And you're the best God damn hitter I ever saw. Suit up. My mommy always said there were no monsters - no real ones - but there are, aren't there? Everything that you wanted I have done. You asked that the child be taken. I took him. You cowered before me and I was frightening. I have reordered time. I have turned the world upside down...And I have done it all for you! I am exhausted from living up to your expectations.
Through dangers untold and hardships unnumbered, I have fought my way here to the castle beyond the Goblin City to take back the child that you have stolen, for my will is as strong as yours, and my kingdom is as great. You have no power over me. Well, I believe in the soul, the c*ck, the p*ssy, the small of a woman's back, the hanging curve ball, high fiber, good scotch, that the novels of Susan Sontag are self-indulgent, overrated crap. I believe Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone. I believe there ought to be a constitutional amendment outlawing Astroturf and the designated hitter. I believe in the sweet spot, soft-core pornography, opening your presents Christmas morning rather than Christmas Eve and I believe in long, slow, deep, soft, wet kisses that last three days.
Honey, we all deserve to wear white.
We should've got the live chicken. as much as I really admire your shoes, and as much as I'd love to have a pair just like them, I really wouldn't want to be IN your shoes at this particular time and place. Hello, my name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die. Damnit, Neil, the name is Nuwanda
1990s
In the name of the father, the son, and the holy spigot.
Let me ask you one thing. Do you think - after we've dried off, after we've spent lots more time together - you might agree
not to marry me? And do you think not being married to me might maybe be something you could consider doing for the rest of your life? What would you do if you were stuck in one place and every day was exactly the same, and nothing that you did mattered? Mr. Fennyman, allow me to explain about the theatre business. The natural condition is one of insurmountable obstacles on the road to imminent disaster.
The show must... you know...
Go on! The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist. Your best! Losers always whine about their best. Winners go home and f*ck the prom queen. Exceptional my ass!
Pain heals. Chicks dig scars. Glory lasts forever You know what they say. It's better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.
Try it.
2000s
Sometimes the things that may or may not be true are the things a man needs to believe in the most. That people are basically good; that honor, courage, and virtue mean everything; that power and money, money and power mean nothing; that good always triumphs over evil; and I want you to remember this, that love... true love never dies. You remember that, boy. You remember that. Doesn't matter if it's true or not. You see, a man should believe in those things, because those are the things worth believing in. Men are gonna get killed here today, Sue, and I'm gonna kill 'em. For those regarded as warriors, when engaged in combat the vanquishing of thine enemy can be the warrior's only concern. Suppress all human emotion and compassion. Kill whoever stands in thy way, even if that be Lord God, or Buddha himself. This truth lies at the heart of the art of combat. Whenever I get gloomy with the state of the world, I think about the arrivals gate at Heathrow Airport. General opinion's starting to make out that we live in a world of hatred and greed, but I don't see that. It seems to me that love is everywhere. Often it's not particularly dignified or newsworthy, but it's always there - fathers and sons, mothers and daughters, husbands and wives, boyfriends, girlfriends, old friends. When the planes hit the Twin Towers, as far as I know none of the phone calls from the people on board were messages of hate or revenge - they were all messages of love. If you look for it, I've got a sneaky feeling you'll find that love actually is all around.
I'm Irish. We let people know how we feel. Now f*ck off. When the f*ck did we get ice cream?
You're probably wondering how a girl like me arrived here, at the arse end of the Nevada desert with a blood-spattered Winnebago. Jesus, Joey.
Jesus, Richie.
Television:
1940s: Crusader Rabbit (A forerunner of Rocky and Bullwinkle, I saw these in repeats years later);
1950s: The Mickey Mouse Club, Howdy Doody, Maverick, 77 Sunset Strip, Rocky and His Friends, The Soupy Sales Show, Checkmate;
1960s: Diver Dan, The Bugs Bunny Show, The Addams Family, Dr. Who, Johnny Quest, That Was the Week that Was, The Dick Van Dyke Show, Get Smart, Dark Shadows, The Avengers, Secret Agent, The Prisoner, The Rogues, The Man from U.N.C.L.E, The Twilight Zone, The Outer Limits, Star Trek, Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In, Monty Python's Flying Circus;
1970s: The Bob Newhart Show, Nichols, The Rockford Files, Barney Miller, The Muppet Show, WKRP in Cincinnati;
1980s: Newhart, Hill Street Blues, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Jeeves and Wooster;
1990s: NYPD Blue, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Star Trek: Voyager, Seinfeld, Friends, 3rd Rock from the Sun, Working, The X Files, Millennium;
2000s: Star Trek: Enterprise, House, NCIS, CSI, CSI: NY, Firefly, Alias.
Heroes:
It's a steamy day in the jungle. Sure, all the days in the jungle are humid but this is a real schvitz-bath. A miasma of moisture hangs over the water hole.
Slowly the heads of two hippos rise from the water, just enough for their eyes and nostrils to show.
On the bank behind them a flock of pink wading birds searches for food in the water and shoreline grasses. A troop of monkeys plays in the trees above them. In front of them several wildebeests and one lone zebra drink cautiously.
The one hippo turns to the other and says, "You know, I just can't get it into my head that it's Tuedsay."
[Said to be one of Johnny Carson's favorite jokes, I miss him, thank God for Letterman.]
If by chance some day you're not feeling well and you should remember some silly thing I've said or done and it brings back a smile to your face or a chuckle to your heart, then my purpose as your clown has been fulfilled.
Red Skelton
It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done 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 errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat."
Theodore Roosevelt
Citizenship in a Republic
Speech at the Sorbonne, Paris, April 23, 1910
The President is merely the most important among a large number of public servants. He should be supported or opposed exactly to the degree which is warranted by his good conduct or bad conduct, his efficiency or inefficiency in rendering loyal, able, and disinterested service to the Nation as a whole. Therefore it is absolutely necessary that there should be full liberty to tell the truth about his acts, and this means that it is exactly necessary to blame him when he does wrong as to praise him when he does right. Any other attitude in an American citizen is both base and servile. To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President, right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public. Nothing but the truth should be spoken about him or any one else. But it is even more important to tell the truth, pleasant or unpleasant, about him than about any one else.[emphasis mine]
Roosevelt in the Kansas City Star, 149
May 7, 1918
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