For me, a few come to mind:

  • “You’re imagining everybody in this story way more attractive than they actually were.”

It was posted somewhere on one of those spicy subreddits under some affair threesome story. And it sort if clicked with me. Like look around, normal people on the street don’t all look like supermodels. And supermodels don’t lurk around in reddit comment sections. It really put things into perspective for me.

  • “Life isn’t short, it’s the longest thing you’ll ever do.”

It is a bit uplifting to realize that no matter if you have bad or good period in your life, it is only a short chapter contained in the longest time period possible for you to experience.

There were a few others that I probably can’t remember of the top of my head right now.

  • eldavi@lemmy.ml
    0·
    2 months ago

    “May I have the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.”

    it’s a variation of the serenity prayer and it’s helped me immensely for the last 40ish years

  • LouNeko@lemmy.worldOP
    0·
    2 months ago

    “I’m a leaf in the wind.”

    Said by Wash the pilot in the movie Serenity. I tend to whisper that to myself when things aren’t going my way and I need a reminder to just go with the flow.

  • Mister Neon@lemmy.world
    0·
    2 months ago

    Happiness is for pussies.

    Frankie from The Goon comics.

    In my twenties life was a continual slog in a cycle of disappointment and desperation. That gave me something I could “steel myself” with.

  • LouNeko@lemmy.worldOP
    0·
    2 months ago

    Another one came to mind.

    “Because he’s my man.”

    From the series Legion on FX. The main female lead Sydney wanted to safe her boyfriend and others doubted her on her reasoning, since her boyfriend turned out to be a shady guy. When questioned “Why?” She gave that answer. I’ve never heard a female character be this positively possessive over her love interest before. Usually its the guy that saves the girl.

  • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
    0·
    2 months ago

    Despair is typical of those who do not understand the causes of evil, see no way out, and are incapable of struggle.

    -Vladimir Lenin

    • Achyu@lemmy.sdf.org
      0·
      2 months ago

      Thank you. Been thinking about finding good leftist quotes to as my phone wallpaper. Are there more, shorter quotes?

      I’m curious about the intro reading list. I’ve tried the manifesto and listened to some audiobooks by Dessalines. Are there newer articles that are recommended, that summarise/improve the pre-existing content? Especially ones that talk about how the things were/are to be applied.

      • Cowbee [he/they]@lemmy.ml
        0·
        2 months ago

        Lenin is a huge yapper, he has tons of fantastic quotes. Another good one is “There are decades where nothing happens; and there are weeks where decades happen.”

        Here’s a little “intro to Marxism-Leninism” list I threw together, modified a bit. It’s critically missing Queer Theory, Feminist Theory, and National Liberation theory, so any additions on that matter would be excellent. I am working through intersectional theory right now, which is why it is missing from this present list, the goal is to be as straight to the point as possible.

        A good intro for someone with no familiarity is Engels’ Principles of Communism and if you are anti-AES but willing to read I recommend Parenti’s Blackshirts and Reds.

        From there, it becomes more important to understand that Marxism-Leninism is broken into 3 major components:

        1. Dialectical and Historical Materialism

        2. Critique of Capitalism along the lines of Marx’s Law of Value

        3. Advocacy for Revolutionary Socialism

        And as such, I recommend, in order:

        1. Politzer’s Elementary Principles of Philosophy

        By far my favorite primer on Dialectical and Historical Materialism. By understanding DiaMat first, you make it easier to understand the rest of Marxism.

        1. Engels’ Socialism: Utopian and Scientific

        Further reading on DiaMat, but crucially introduces the why of Scientific Socialism, essentially explaining how Capitalism itself preps the conditions for public ownership and planning by centralizing itself into monopolist syndicates.

        1. Marx’s Wage Labor and Capital as well as Wages, Price and Profit

        Best taken as a pair, these essays simplify the most important parts of the Law of Value.

        1. Lenin’s Imperialism, The Highest Stage of Capitalism

        Absolutely crucial and the most important work for understanding the modern era and its primary contradictions.

        1. Lenin’s The State and Revolution

        Excellent refutation of revisionists and Social Democrats who think the State can be reformed, and not replaced. Also a good call to action to cap off the intro.

        After reading all of this, whoever has completed these works should have a good grasp of the basics of Marxism-Leninism and be equipped to do their own Marxist-Leninist analysis, though tons of excellent and fairly critical works were dropped for the sake of limiting the scope to an intro reading list.

        For your specific question regarding modern, easier to get into theory, I really love this person’s essays on Marxism. They are more advanced, but focus on modern Marxist analysis. I think Why Do Marxists Fail to Bring the “Worker’s Paradise?”, Socialism Developed China, Not Capitalism, and Why Public Property? are 3 of the best modern essays and primers on Socialism. The first goes over the Materialist theory of Democratic Structures and how they can be built while critically analyzing AES through an AES-positive viewpoint, the second goes over misconceptions about the PRC, and the last helps explain why Marxists advocate for public ownership and central planning, and why Capitalism makes way for this through decentralized markets coalescing into monopolist syndicates.

        Let me know if you have any questions!

  • Plum@lemmy.world
    0·
    2 months ago

    I give myself a “Dammit, Steve” from Life Aquatic maybe twice a week. I’m a woman, and my name isn’t Steve.

    I’ve also got a lot of mileage out of, “everyone knows when you make an assumption, you make an ass out of you and umption.”

  • rtxn@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    2 months ago

    “Some people deserve to be punished.” - Amos Burton (actor Wes Chatham), The Expanse season 2, in reference to an opportunist who had been enriching himself during a humanitarian crisis; comparing him to pimps that force kids and vulnerable people into prostitution.

    Full quote

    (after beating up an uncooperative person and threatening him at gunpoint, then getting confronted about it)

    I didn’t kill him. Not yet. He’s a bully, and where I come from, bullies take desperate young girls like your daughter and force them into prostitution. And when they finally get knocked up, they peddle them to johns who get off on that. After they have the kid, they push them right back out on the streets even before they have a chance to heal. And those kids, they use them, too. Some people deserve to be punished.

    • LouNeko@lemmy.worldOP
      0·
      2 months ago

      The Expanse has so many memorable quotes.

      • “You’re not that guy. I am that GUY.”
        - Amos
      • “What is it you’re think you’re doing?” “WHATEVER I GOD DAMN LIKE.”
        - Avaserala answering to the council
      • “You look like shit.” “You look amazing.”
        - Avaserala and Amos on Luna
      • “I’m just gonna take my pet nuke for a walk.”
        - Miller on Ceres Station
      • Im_old@lemmy.world
        0·
        2 months ago

        And Amos was so great. Both the actor and the character. The books are possibly even better

  • Redacted@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    2 months ago

    Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

    The whole poem by Dylan Thomas is fantastic but that line in particular often pops into my head during difficult times, like these.

  • jet@hackertalks.comEnglish
    0·
    2 months ago

    Reminds me of bash.org RIP https://bash-org-archive.com/?top

    • “Where ever you go, there you are”
    • “We have just enough fuel to make it to the crash site”
    • “Ruh-Rouh”
    • “Deny, Deny, Deny - Until you believe!”
    • “A Rule without Enforcement is just wishful thinking”
    • “When life gives you lemons- BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD”
    • “Ignoring a alert is the same as normalizing alerts, if it’s important, don’t ignore it, if it’s not important don’t alert for it”
    • “Follow the money” - Gripping Hand I think
    • “Premature optimization is the root of all evil” - Knuth maybe
    • “Once you know something is possible, doing it becomes a exercise in persistence.”
    • “Science isn’t what other people say, its what YOU can observe”