The Hun is either at your throat or at your feet.

- Churchill, refering to the Germans; likely meaning they either conquer or show themselves (obnoxiously) willing to oblige.

-clears throat- That man can be provoking.

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"I ain't got no quarrel with them Vietcong."

Muhammad Ali in his refusal to fight… in that war

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Don't get in any gunfights with buffalo hunters. There's no such thing as cover.

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I  cannot forecast to you the action of Russia. It is a riddle wrapped in a
mystery inside an enigma.

Broadcast talk, 1 Oct. 1939

Man occasionally stumbles over the truth - but almost
always picks himself up and continues on." - Winston Churchill

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One evening an old Cherokee told his granddaughter about a battle that goes on inside people. He said, "My dear, the battle is between two wolves inside us all.

One is Evil. It is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego. The other is Good. It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith."

The granddaughter thought about it for a minute and then asked her grandfather:  "Which wolf wins?"

The old Cherokee simply replied, "The one you feed."

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Nice one. :]

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Glad you like it, Sam :].

So here for a more known one (or at least partly):

"No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend's or of thine own were. 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."

"Meditation XVII" of Devotions Upon Emergent Occasions,
a 1624 metaphysical poem by John Donne.

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Always been one of my favorites.

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I agree, Val.  Thanks for posting it, Thayer; it's a beautiful piece.

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Agreed also.

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The Israelites countered the Kanaans. The outnumbered Israelites were led by the woman Deborah, an old judge. They asked their leader: "Deborah, will we be victorious?" "No," replied she. "Why not?" "Because you ask."

- about from the Old Testament, (don't ask, I don't know the numbers)

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"America is a large, friendly dog in a very small room. Every time it wags its tail, it knocks over a chair."

- Arnold Toynbee

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"The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity."     

- Dorothy Parker (I lurve her madly)

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"The world has achieved brilliance without conscience.  Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants."

General Omar  Bradley

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Religion, any religion, can be so depressing, suppressing, and all those other
pressing words.

~My mother, in an email received last night.

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Sarcasm: the last refuge of modest and chaste-souled people when the privacy of their soul is coarsely and intrusively invaded.

- Fyodor Dostoyevsky

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One going to take a pointed stick to pinch a baby bird should first try it on himself to feel how it hurts.  

- Yoruba Proverb (Nigeria)

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What is hateful to you, do not to your fellow man; that is the whole Torah; all the rest of it is commentary; go and learn.   

- Rabbi Hillel, First Century A.D. citing Talmud, Shabbat 31a

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An it harm none, do what ye will.

~Wiccan Rede

Do unto others as you would have others do unto you.

~the Bible

If one receives evil from another, let one not do evil in return.

~the Taalmaan

(Okay that last one isn't earthly.)

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The most painful state of being is remembering the future - particularly one you can never have.

~Kierkegaard