I can't think of any good QUOTATIONS.  Researchers are invited to
comment with a fascinating fact.  The first fact that I am unfamiliar
with wins the right to post the answer.

You may post only one fact to this thread.  You may not post facts
used in prior races.  Violation = disqualification.

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Clarification of Question by nelson-ga on 30 Nov 2006 11:23 PST

Ignore "fact".  It should be "quotation".

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Clarification of Question by nelson-ga on 30 Nov 2006 17:06 PST

Cynthia?

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Request for Question Clarification by cynthia-ga on 30 Nov 2006 22:00 PST

Hi Nelson!

Thanks ever so much for accepting my quotation as your official
Answer. Since this will be one of (if not the absolute) last Answers I
will ever give as an official GAR, I would like to take a couple days,
and give you a bit more than you are expecting. I want my last Answer
to illustrate the value of what _we_ do here.

I would appreciate your patience. You are about to get my heart and
soul for a $10.00 question. Quotations is perfect for me.

Is that okay with you? 

~~Cynthia

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Clarification of Question by nelson-ga on 01 Dec 2006 05:07 PST

Absolutely!

Thanks for the space to do something a bit personal. 

When I was a kid I had big feet that I eventually grew into. My Dad,
kind soul that he was used to laugh his ass of after telling me:

..."Cyndy, you have a good understanding..."

When I was a bit older, I remember sitting on my Dad's lap in the
backyard swimming pool. I exclaimed one day that I wanted to marry
him. He asked why, and unashamed, I replied:

..."Because you have a LOT of money Dad!..."

When I ran away from home, his words still ring in my mind's ear:

..."Cyndy, someday you're going to regret leaving home at 13..."

So stubborn (read: stupid), I came home at 17, still full of hot air.
I went to work for him. Thought I was indispensible. Made demands.
I'll never forget the look on his face as he said:

..."Cyndy, you're Fired..."

Later at 20, he gave me the 100th chance. He helped me start my first
business. I made him a Grandfather, all was good. I started to listen.
I started to ask him questions and actually want an answer. Some of
the best things quotes from him are:

..."There are two ways to make money in life: Invent something, or
Copy somebody else..."

So true are those words. And when I wanted to try out a new marketing idea he said:

..."Track the source of your income, what advertising advertising
method is generating most of your business, and DO MORE OF THAT..."

That one piece of advice netted me $50,000 the next year. Dad's
sounding pretty good at this point.

When I had trouble with my husband's ex-girlfriend, my Mom had a gem to pass on:

..."Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer..."

No kidding. Rose and I are very good friends to this day, much to my
now ex-husbands chagrin.

When I was older and divorced, and becoming jaded by men, my Dad
summed it up like this:

..."Women get married hoping their man will change, and Men get
married hoping their woman will NEVER change..."

That makes a helluva lot of sense. I saw the futility of wanting
someone else to change. I gave up the majority of my control issues
and became much happier.

I decided i needed to do something for ME, and I moved to Nevada, just
for the sun (!), and got a job as VP of Marketing in a Mortgage
Company. After four grueling months working for a verbally abusive
asshole, I remembered these words from my Dad:

..."If you want to be happy, find something you would do for free, and
find a way to get paid for it..."

At that moment, I planned my escape. I finsihed my commitments to him,
said goodbye to my staff, walked into his office and did NOT shut the
door. I LOUDLY proclaimed:

..."Thanks for the crash course in the Mortgage industry, life is TOO
SHORT to work for an asshole, I QUIT!..."

I left to a stunning applause and a bunch of phone numbers of
employees that wanted to follow me wherever I went. How uplifting, I'd
do THAT for free!

Later as there was trouble in Dad's business, he shooed me away from a
discussion he was having with some dark suited men with Federal
'Customs' Badges.

..."Ignorance is no excuse for not following the law..."

He was a smooth talker, the best salesman I ever saw, and somehow he
emerged handcuff free and I never saw another thing. He had "no idea"
the parts were being shipped from Canada! (ya right Dad). I asked how
he managed that...

..."Honey catches more flies than denial, and even Big Bad Men will
give an honest bloke the benefit of the doubt--ONCE, if you are polite
and repent your ignorance..."

I heard that one loud and clear. It's worked once or twice as I skated
on my own thin ice.

Later, my Dad started to fall ill, lung disease. I can hear his words
loud and clear:

..."Cyndy, QUIT SMOKING!..., it'll KILL YOU..."

And a couple weeks before he died, --literally trying to breathe, he said:

..."Dying of lung disease is a tough way to go, you feel like you're
drowning, for MONTHS..."

Most of all, I remember my Dad's love, care, and concern for my well
being, even when I was hell-on-wheels, undeserving of anything but a
swift kick in the ass. I remember him in the office a few days before
the end, looking at a letter. I saw where he placed it. It was the
drawer where his will was kept. After his death, we read it.

It was a letter from his Mother, written 25 years prior. She was very
religious, it was all about the Lord--but one thing in the letter was
VERY REMARKABLE.

She predicted the day that she would meet him at the Pearly Gates:
Norweigan Independence Day. It's more than ironic that he died on his
Birthday. His Birthday is May 17th--Norweigan Independence Day. We
buried him with his unopened Birthday Cards in the breast pocket of
his best suit. I promised I would be the best person I could be, in
his honor.

I'm still trying to live up to that promise, and today I wanted to use
this space to honor him.

I LOVE YOU DAD! - I'LL SEE YOU WHEN THE TIME COMES!

REST IN PEACE - LES LYSTAD
MAY 17, 1923 - MAY 17, 1991

*sniff*


So in closing...

..."The slowness of genius is hard to bear--but the slowness of
incompetence is unbearable..."   ~~by unknown



~~Cynthia Lystad
Google Answers Researcher

Cynthia, thank you for sharing.  What a touching way to close out my
Google Answers experience.

My favorite:

...The slowness of genius is hard to bear--but the slowness of
incompetence is unbearable...by unknown

Whatever you do will be insignificant, but it is very important that
you do it. [Mahatma Gandhi]

Nelson --

The New York Times, for all of its expertise and decades of excellent
reporting, has some incredible comments on flight.  This from a 1921
editorial writing about Robert Goddard's groundbreaking work:

"Professor Goddard does not know the relation between action and
reaction and the need to have something better than a vacuum against
which to react. He seems to lack the basic knowledge ladled out daily
in high schools."

The day after Neil Armstrong walked on the moon in 1969, the New York
Times printed a short boxed item on page 2 reading :
"Errata: It has now been conclusively demonstrated that a rocket ship can
travel through the vacuum of space. The Times sincerely regrets the error."

Best regards,

Omnivorous-GA

Ooh, I know I've violated the question's rules by not being a
researcher, but I couldn't help myself. What do rules matter now?

A few of my favourites:

"It is never difficult to distinguish between a Scotsman with a
grievance and a ray of sunshine." - P.G. Wodehouse. (Lest any Scots
out there are offended by this, I heard of this through my favourite
Scottish writer, Christopher Brookmyre.)

"Tout se passa simplement, convenablement, et de sa part, sans aucune
affectation." - Stendahl's complete description in _Le Rouge et le
Noir_ of the execution of his main character, Julien Sorel, after
about 900 pages of his life story (quotation and number of pages
approximate because I'm too lazy to look them up). My poor
translation: "Everything took place simply, conveniently, and, on his
part, without any affectation whatsoever." Made me laugh!

No quotation question can be answered without an Oscar. Hmm. I'm sure
there are others I've preferred, but how about: "All women become like
their mothers, that's their tragedy; no man does, that's his."

Former Texas Governor Ann Richards re George Bush: "Poor George. He
can't help it - he was born with a silver foot in his mouth."

Two classic Churchill/Lady Astor exchanges: 

   Lady Astor: Sir, if you were my husband, I would poison your drink. 
   Winston Churchill: Madam, if you were my wife, I would drink it.

   Lady Astor: Mr. Churchill, you're drunk! 
   Winston Churchill: Yes, and you, Madam, are ugly. But tomorrow, I
shall be sober.

On a darker note, I remember this quotation but haven't been able to
find it on-line: "The time has come when we shall have to pay for
having been Christians for 2000 years." - Nietzsche

And lastly, the immortal Monty Python: "No-one expects the Spanish Inquisition!"

"Some mornings it just doesn't seem worth it to gnaw through the leather straps."
~Emo Phillips

My favorites:

?Great minds discuss ideas; Average minds discuss events; Small minds
discuss people?

Eleanor Roosevelt

"Everybody should believe in something -- I believe I'll have another 
drink."

Rusty Staub (may not be the first to say)

"I actually know everything...I just can't remember it all at once."

"Be yourself to see yourself to free yourself to be your Self."

"When I was a kid, I had my appendix taken out. This year,
 I'm having my table of contents removed."

"There's really only one of us here."

"If I was REALLY naked, I'd be invisible."

"There IS no time! Like the present!"

~ sublime1-ga

http://www.boardofwisdom.com/default.asp?topic=1003&search=sublime1

Excellent all around, but Cynthia wins this one.

Thanks for the 5 stars, the kind words and the Generous Tip!

I'd also like to mention that I named my 2nd child after my Dad, with
my middle name. Her name is Leslie Marie, and she's turning 23 on
December 27th! She's pregnant with my first grandchild! Love you
Leslie!

And, so my son doesn't feel slighted if he ever reads this, his name
is Travis John, he's an Aquarian like me, and he's turning 26 on
February 9th, 2007. Love you Travis!

And I love my Mom too, TONS!

~~Cynthia