When you run with the Doctor, it feels like it can never end.
But however hard you try, you can’t run forever…
Everybody knows that everybody dies,
and nobody knows it like the Doctor.
But I do think, that all the skies of all the worlds,
might just turn dark, if he ever, for one moment, accepts it…
Where does it come from, this quest, this need to solve life’s mysteries, when the simplest of questions can never be answered? Why are we here? What is the soul? Why do we dream? Perhaps we’d be better off not looking at all. Not delving, not yearning. But that’s not human nature. Not the human heart. That is not why we are here. Yet still we struggle to make a difference, to change the world, to dream of hope, never knowing for certain who we will meet along the way. Who among the world of strangers will hold our hand, touch our hearts, and share the pain and triumph?
We dream of hope, we dream of change, of fire, of love, of death. And then it happens; the dream becomes real, and the answer to this quest, this need to solve life’s mysteries finally shows itself like the glowing light of the new dawn. So much struggle for meaning, for purpose. And in the end, we find it only in each other. Our shared experience of the fantastic and the mundane. The simple human need to find a kindred. To connect. And to know in our hearts… that we are not alone.
- Mohinder Suresh, Heroes - 123 - How to stop an exploding man
Corny they may be, but these are some Bollywood “quotes” that have caught my fancy. See if you can figure out which movie they come from.
“I am slave to the law of the land. Don’t see this as an emperor’s cruelty, but as a slave’s helplessness“.
“Why do you feel that all the burdens of the world rest on your frail shoulders? Who do you think you are? What is the point in praying to God when you don’t even value the life he has given you? I may not know much about your life, but I do know that what you have, may be less in your eyes, but from an outsider’s view, you have so much.”
“.. you first job, your first suit, your first salary, the first time you touched a girl, the first time you kissed her, the first time your heart fluttered… how many such days do you remember? .. 15? 20? 25? .. 30, right? 30 special days, 30 special days.. you’ve lived for 30 years and you only remember 30 special days? what happened to the rest? you have 90 days left to live. you can waste them agonising about death, or you can live 3 lifetimes in these 90 days.”
There are more. Will post them when I remember…
Some quotes from various X-men comics
“Sit it out, boy, I have no interest in reading your mind. I might get lost in all that empty space.”
“I believe you people have something that belongs to us?”
“Short li’l fella.”
“All adamantium and attitude. He’s one of a kind. We’d like him back.”
“And finally, those of you with red in your costumes will follow attack plan D, schedule C — or is it plan C, schedule D…? Uh, any questions?” ‘I’m wearing red underwear, do I use plan D?’ ‘Hey, I just got here.. are we the X’s or the circles?’ I don’t know, Colossus, I thought it was shirts and skins!’” “Just beat up the ^&&*%$%# bad guys, all right!!!!”
Storm: “We are here to see a man about a rescue.”
Xavier: “Pity. I was hoping for a pizza delivery.”
Colossus: “Is Professor Xavier unwell, Storm? He is making a joke.”
Jean Grey: “Contrary to popular belief, the man’s only human. Complete with a sense of humor.”
Archangel: “Such as it is.”
Xavier: “Et tu, Archangel? Don’t I get respect anymore from anyone?”
“Dog bites man — that’s not a story. Man bites dog — *that’s* a story. and if the dog and man slug it out for six issues and then Wolverine shows up for a guest appearance, and the dog turns out to be a mutant; that’s a *Marvel* story.”
“Like, is that a cigarette? I am SOOOOOO impressed.”
“I have a small list of people I try to impress, chica. And surprise, surprise, you ain’t on it.”
“You have no idea what it’s like to have your entire life pulled out from under you!”
“Warren, please. You’re talking to the woman who’s been killed, cloned and kidnapped more times than *I* can remember. Let’s keep it in perspective.”
“Guido, go *with* her.”
“Why me?”
“Because I *ordered* you to, ‘cupcake’!”
“Okay. So long as there’s a reason.”
“I *hate* this! I’m a trained mercenary! I know 64 ways to kill a guy with a spoon and I’m stuck guarding an electric generator.”
“D’you mean you can kill a guy who *has* a spoon — or that you can kill a guy with your own personal spoon?”
“The truth is out there - and it’s got bloody great teeth.”
“If I had a nickel for every catatonic body down here….well, I’d have fifteen cents, but that’s beside the point”
“My name is Blink. Who do you *think* is faster…halfscan?”
“Why does everyone say my name like it means shut up?”
“Yeah, it’s Jaimie alright.”
“You know this guy?”
“No, Einstein, my hobby is looking at random stiffs and saying ‘It’s Jaimie all right.’”
“Oh. Well, it beats collecting comics.”
“With everyone assuming a fifty degree variant. I’ll propel the projectile at a maximum rate of nineteen feet per square…”
“Forge, this is a huddle…not a physics class. What he’s trying to say is ‘Go Long’.”
“So what’s her power? ‘Sides the ability t’stick her chest out?”
“If we nail X-Force, then we get… CABLE.”
“Oh, good! Including HBO? And maybe the Disney Channel for Rahne…”
“Quiet. You’re embarrassing me.”
Some random movie quotes that caught my fancy:
Callisto: You’re so proud of being a mutant, where’s your mark? (nodding to her and her friend’s tattoes)
Magneto: I have been marked once my dear, (pulls back his sleeve to reveal the Nazi concentration camp serial number tattoed on his arm) and let me assure you that no needle shall ever touch my skin again.
- X-Men: The Last stand
Leonidas: Spartans! Enjoy your breakfast, for tonight, we dine in Hell!
- 300
Persian Officer: The thousand nations of the Persian Empire descend upon you. Our arrows will blot out the sun!
Stelios: Then we shall fight in the shade.
- 300
Lester: I guess I could be pretty pissed off about what happened to me… but it’s hard to stay mad, when there’s so much beauty in the world. Sometimes I feel like I’m seeing it all at once, and it’s too much, my heart fills up like a balloon that’s about to burst… And then I remember to relax, and stop trying to hold on to it, and then it flows through me like rain and I can’t feel anything but gratitude for every single moment of my stupid little life… You have no idea what I’m talking about, I’m sure. But don’t worry… you will someday.
- American Beauty
Police Camera Technician: Who the $#@^ are you?
Dignam: I am the guy who does his job. You must be the other guy.
- The Departed
An all time favourite true story:
“A lady in a faded gingham dress and her husband, dressed in a homespun threadbare suit, stepped off the train in Boston and walk timidly without an appointment into the Harvard University President’s outer office. The secretary could tell in a moment that such backwoods, country Hicks had no business at Harvard and probably didn’t even deserve to be in Cambridge.
“We want to see the president,” the man said softly.
“He’ll be busy all day,” the secretary snapped.
“We’ll wait,” the lady replied”.
For hours the secretary ignored them, hoping that the couple would Finally become discouraged and go away. They didn’t and the secretary grew frustrated and finally decided to disturb the president, even though it was a chore she always regretted.
“Maybe if you see them for a few minutes, they’ll leave,” she said to him.
He sighed in exasperation and nodded. Someone of his importance obviously didn’t have the time to spend with them, but he detested gingham dresses and homespun suits cluttering up his outer office. The president, stern faced and with dignity, strutted toward the couple.
The lady told him, “We had a son who attended Harvard for one year. He loved Harvard. He was happy here. But about a year ago, he was accidentally killed. My husband and I would like to erect a memorial to him, somewhere on campus”.
The president wasn’t touched…. He was shocked.
“Madam,” he said, gruffly, “we can’t put up a statue for every person who attended Harvard and died. If we did, this place would look like a cemetery.
“Oh, no,” the lady explained quickly. “We don’t want to erect a
statue. We thought we would like to give a building to Harvard.”
The president rolled his eyes. He glanced at the gingham dress and Homespun suit, and then exclaimed, “A building! Do you have any earthly idea how much a building costs? We have over seven and a half million dollars in the physical buildings here at Harvard.”
For a moment the lady was silent. The president was pleased. Maybe he could get rid of them now. The lady turned to her husband and said quietly, “Is that all it costs to start a university? Why don’t we just start our own?”
Her husband nodded. The president’s face wilted in confusion and bewilderment. Mr. and Mrs. Leland Stanford got up and walked away, traveling to Palo Alto, California where they established the university that bears their name, Stanford University, a memorial to a son that Harvard no longer cared about.“
Readers please note this. I have since found out that this is an urban myth. Stanford University throws some light on the actual events here.
Sam: I know. It’s all wrong. By rights we shouldn’t even be here. But we are. It’s like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger, they were. And sometimes you didn’t want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it’s only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something, even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they didn’t. They kept going. Because they were holding on to something.
Frodo: What are we holding on to Sam?
Sam: That there’s some good in this world, Mr. Frodo… and it’s worth fighting for.
Sam: I wonder if we’ll ever be put into songs or tales.
Frodo: What?
Sam: I wonder if people will ever say, ‘let’s hear about Frodo and the Ring.’
And they’ll say, ‘yes, that’s one of my favorite stories. Frodo was really courageous, wasn’t he, dad.’
‘Yes, my boy, the most famousest of hobbits. And that’s saying a lot.’
Frodo: You left out one of the chief characters. ‘Samwise the Brave. I want to hear more about Sam. Frodo wouldn’t have got far without Sam.’
Sam: Now Mr. Frodo, you shouldn’t make fun. I was being serious.
Frodo: So was I.
Elrond: If Aragorn survives this war, you will still be parted. If Sauron is defeated and Aragorn made king and all that you hope for comes true… you will still have to taste the bitterness of mortality. Whether by the sword or the slow decay of time, Aragorn will die. And there will be no comfort for you, no comfort to ease the pain of his passing. He will come to death. An image of the splendor of the kings of men in glory, undimmed before the breaking of the world. But you, my daughter, you will linger on, in darkness and in doubt. As nightfall winter that comes without a star. Here you will dwell, bound to you grief, under the fading trees, until all the world has changed and the long years of your life are utterly spent. Arwen… there is nothing for you here, only death.
Theoden: Where is the horse and the rider? Where is the horn that was blowing? They have passed like rain on the mountain, like wind in the meadow. The days have gone down in the West behind the hills into shadow. How did it come to this?
Théoden: So much death. What can men do against such reckless hate?
Aragorn: Ride out with me. Ride out and meet them.
Théoden: For death and glory.
Aragorn: For Rohan. For your people.
Gimli: The sun is rising.
(Flashback Voiceover) Gandalf: Look to my coming at first light on the fifth day. At dawn look to the East.
Théoden: Yes.. Yes! The Horn of Helm Hammerhand shall sound in the Deep one last time.
Gimli: Yes!
Théoden: Let this be the hour when we draw swords together. Fell deeds awake. Now for wrath. Now for ruin. And the red dawn!
Théoden: Forth Eorlingas!
Gandalf: Théoden-king stands alone.
Éomer: Not alone. Rohirrim!
Théoden: Éomer!
Éomer: To the king!
Aragorn: Hold your ground, hold your ground. Sons of Gondor, of Rohan, my brothers. I see in your eyes the same fear that would take the heart of me. A day may come when the courage of men fails, when we forsake our friends and break all bonds of fellowship, but it is not this day. An hour of wolves and shattered shields, when the age of men comes crashing down, but it is not this day. This day we fight! By all that you hold dear on this good Earth, I bid you stand, Men of the West!
Aragorn: For Frodo.
Sam: Do you remember the Shire, Mr. Frodo? It’ll be spring soon. And the orchards will be in blossom. And the birds will be nesting in the hazel thicket. And they’ll be sowing the summer barley in the lower fields… and eating the first of the strawberries with cream. Do you remember the taste of strawberries?
Frodo: No, Sam. I can’t recall the taste of food… nor the sound of water… nor the touch of grass. I’m… naked in the dark. There’s… There’s nothing. No veil between me and the wheel of fire. I can see him… with my waking eyes.
Sam: Then let us be rid of it… once and for all. Come on, Mr. Frodo. I can’t carry it for you… but I can carry you.
Gimli: Never thought I’d die fighting side by side with an Elf.
Legolas: What about side by side with a friend?
Gimli: Aye. I could do that.
Aragorn: My friends, you bow to no one.
I see in your eyes, the same fear, that would take the heart of me
A day may come when the courage of men fails,
When we forsake our friends and break all bonds of Fellowship
But it is not this day…
An hour of wolves and shattered steel when the age of men comes crashing down,
But it.. is.. not.. this day..
This day we fight. For all that you hold dear on this good earth,
I bid you.. Stand..
Men…Of…The West….