What (book) quote would you like on your gravestone?

[Sir_Winston54]

YK ran into this query last night and asked me, "If you were going to have a gravestone (I'm not), what quote from a book would you want on it?"

It took exactly NO time for me to answer.

I'll give you the answer I gave her in a day or two, but until then, what quote would *you* like on your gravestone (if you have one)?

 

[danger2no]

This little piggy cried wee-wee all the way home.

 

[BiBunny]

"Wherever she went, including here, it was against her better judgment."

It's part of a longer quote from Dorothy Parker's short story, "But the One on the Right": "That would be a good thing for them to cut on my tombstone: Wherever she went, including here, it was against her better judgment."

 

[Ropebunny]

A wee bit long but as this is only for a hypothetical gravestone (and I'm not planning on having one) mine would be J.R.R Tolkien's Walking Song, Fellowship of the Ring, book 1 chapter 1 version:

"The road goes ever on and on down from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the road has gone, and I must follow, if I can,
Pursuing it with eager feet until it joins some farther way where many paths and errands meet.
And whither then? I cannot say."

I've always had a great fondness for that song, and it seems particularly apt for whatever journey I may find myself on after my demise.

 

[Keroin]

Can we use a movie quote? I'm thinking:

"I'll be back."




I'll think of a real one later.

 

[midwestyankee]

The End.

 

[Sir_Winston54]

Can we use a movie quote?

Books, please, dear friend; we already have a favorite movie quotes thread, though in a different context (no gravestones involved in most of them).

 

[HussarVanburen]

I assume fiction?

If so, how about:

"Eh, gentlemen, let us reckon upon accidents! Life is a chaplet of little miseries which the philosopher counts with a smile. Be philosophers, as I am, gentlemen; sit down at the table and let us drink. Nothing makes the future look so bright as surveying it through a glass of chambertin."

- Athos from "The Three Musketeers".

 

[Loverskitten]

Can we use a movie quote? I'm thinking:

"I'll be back."[/

I LOVE this!
I had a friend pass unexpectantly a couple years ago. We visit her (ashes) in the cemetery and "take breaks" to walk and cry and read the other (small) plaques. Funny ones are the best as it gives people a break from the tears.

 

[OzoneRed]

The motto of Hogwart's School of Witchcraft and Wizardry

 

[Sir_Winston54]

So mine comes from Robert A. Heinlein's "The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress:"

TANSTAAFL

"There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch."

For those not familiar with the works of Heinlein, or the economic philosophy of Milton Friedman, explanations of the phrase can be found here at Wikipedia, and here in Investopedia.

 

[IrisAlthea]

"Wherever she went, including here, it was against her better judgment."

It's part of a longer quote from Dorothy Parker's short story, "But the One on the Right": "That would be a good thing for them to cut on my tombstone: Wherever she went, including here, it was against her better judgment."

I actually instantly thought of "You might as well live" when I read the thread title.
I love Dorothy Parker.
Don't think I want a quote on the gravestone I don't want though.

 

[Keroin]

So mine comes from Robert A. Heinlein's "The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress:"

TANSTAAFL

"There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch."

For those not familiar with the works of Heinlein, or the economic philosophy of Milton Friedman, explanations of the phrase can be found here at Wikipedia, and here in Investopedia.

Nice!

OK, I've got mine and I think it's PERFECT...




"So long and thanks for all the fish."

 

[DeepGreenEyes]

“Is my paranoia getting completely out of hand, or are you mongoloids really talking about me?”

― John Kennedy Toole, A Confederacy of Dunces

 

[Curious_in_Cali]

"And the tree was happy."

~ Shel Silverstein, The Giving Tree

 

[LadyVer]

Mine wouldn't be from a book, although it would be from a great writer.

In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer.” ~Albert Camus.

 

[celestialdragon]

"There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy." Hamlet, Act I scene 5. One of my favorite Shakespeare plays of all time, and I love that quote.

 

[Ahlam]

"In the sunset of dissolution, everything is illuminated by the aura of nostalgia, even the guillotine."--Milan Kundera, The Unbearable Lightness of Being

 

[Kajira Callista]

Well, that mother, she got older. She got older and older and older. One day she called up her son and said, "You'd better come see me because I'm very old and sick." So her son came to see her. When he came in the door she tried to sing the song. She sang:

I'll love you forever,
I'll like you for always...

But she couldn't finish because she was too old and sick. The son went to his mother. He picked her up and rocked her back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. And he sang this song:

I'll love you forever,
I'll like you for always,
As long as I'm living
my Mommy you'll be
(In small print of course)

 

[Yasashii_Kaze]

Since SW hasn't posted mine yet, I'll put it in.

“To die would be an awfully big adventure.” (J.M. Barrie, "Peter Pan")

 

[knot_sweet]

"Million to one chances come up nine times out of ten" - this one comes up in more than one of Terry Pratchett's books.

or

"No-one gets pardoned for living" - Mort, Terry Pratchett.

or more than likely this one

“We do what we do, because of who we are. If we did otherwise, we would not be ourselves.” - Neil Gaimen.

 

[gypsy*seer]

Wordy ~ I know...

"This is what you shall do: love the earth and sun, and animals, despise riches, give alms to every one that asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote your income and labor to others, hate tyrants, argue not concerning God, have patience and indulgence towards the people, take off your hat to nothing known or unknown, or to any man or number of men; go freely with the powerful uneducated persons, and with the young, and mothers, of families: read these leaves in the open air every season of every year of your life: re-examine all you have been told at school or church, or in any books, and dismiss whatever insults your soul.” Whitman

and this, (sorry - a quote from books of poetry)

Lost

"Stand still. The trees ahead and bushes beside you
Are not lost. Wherever you are is called Here,
And you must treat it as a powerful stranger,
Must ask permission to know it and be known.
The forest breathes. Listen. It answers,
I have made this place around you,
If you leave it you may come back again, saying Here.
No two trees are the same to Raven.
No two branches are the same to Wren.
If what a tree or a bush does is lost on you,
You are surely lost. Stand still. The forest knows
Where you are. You must let it find you."

David Wagoner

These are also my daily "affirmations", if you will...

 

[graceanne]

Well, that mother, she got older. She got older and older and older. One day she called up her son and said, "You'd better come see me because I'm very old and sick." So her son came to see her. When he came in the door she tried to sing the song. She sang:

I'll love you forever,
I'll like you for always...

But she couldn't finish because she was too old and sick. The son went to his mother. He picked her up and rocked her back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. And he sang this song:

I'll love you forever,
I'll like you for always,
As long as I'm living
my Mommy you'll be
(In small print of course)

LOVE that book.

I can't decide on ONE. But I think little women's 'let us be elegant or die' would amuse me.

 

[graceanne]

LOVE that book.

I can't decide on ONE. But I think little women's 'let us be elegant or die' would amuse me.

Or, how 'bout 'the rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated.'?

(I told you, I can't decide. You should see YK's thread on facebook. lol)

 

[marieR19]

DAMNIT Kajira Callista, I cry every single time I see/hear a quote from that book!! *has goosebumps*

In life did I reap much pain,
In death greater pain I sow.
'Tis a garden of poison'd ivy,
And the roots lie here below.

The first part of a tombstone-confession in the YA book 'What Eric Knew' by James Howe. .... Whatever, it's special to me.