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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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inspired by mav, who declaims we don' need no stinkin' motto - we will NEVER agree on just one (and then repeats his plaint about our disunity in another thread!), herewith is a thread for All the [wordy] Mottoes in the Universe (as we know it).
here are some previous attempts:
All language reflects the prejudices of the society in which it evolved.
-- Casey Miller
Thanks to words, we have been able to rise above the brutes, and thanks to words, we have sunk to the level of the demons.
-- Aldous Huxley
For every man there is something in the vocabulary that would stick to him like a second skin. His enemies have only to find it.
-- Ambrose Bierce
We die. That may be the meaning of life. But we do language. That may be the measure of our lives.
-- Toni Morrison
Words are loaded pistols.
-- Jean-Paul Sarte
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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We die. That may be the meaning of life. But we do language. That may be the measure of our lives.
-- Toni Morrison
Seems to be the only one (aside from inevitable death) that speaks of measurement, yet doesn't conclude from it!
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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I don't suppose Honi soit qui mal y pense would be appropriate...? 
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Honi soit qui mal y pense
Definitely! Apart from being very euphonious, I love the sentiment, and use that phrase often, even though I seldom wear garters.
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Joined: Feb 2001
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member
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For mottos: I'm partial to Mason Williams: To be poetic is to bare one's soul
To show all of the holes and patches
Go ahead and step on it
Give it a kick and a Ha-Ha...
It'll make it tough.and Garrison Keillor: Some luck lies in not getting what you thought you wanted but getting what you have, which once you have it you may be smart enough to see is what you would have wanted had you known.shoshannah 
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Some luck lies in not getting what you thought you wanted but getting what you have, which once you have it you may be smart enough to see is what you would have wanted had you known.Sage, undoubtedly, but I confess to preferring my mottoes to be a little more on the pithy side. Working my way through the above put me in mind of a labrynthine 'compliment' from The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy, to wit, "That young girl is one of the least benightedly unintelligent life forms it has been my profound lack of pleasure not to be able to avoid meeting." 
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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One day riding my bike to save ten cents carfare on my way to classes , I went down a long hill at 40mph past a church that had a glassed in bulletin board for inspirational quotations. Out of the corner of my eye, in a split second I read a motto I have never been able to forget.
Cheating is a confession of inferiority which I do not choose to make.
Alas, I am not sure of the author, but I think it was Booker T. Washington, a noted educator of over a hundred years ago. I have searched the Internet in vain. If anyone knows the author, please let me know.
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enthusiast
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enthusiast
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Nice, Max. I prefer the famous phrase "Don't Panic". The next one I like is a bit long winded, so not good for a motto, is "Meanwhile, the poor Babel fish, by effentively removing all barriers to communication between different races and cultures, has caused more and bloodier wars than anything else in the history of creation" from the article on (obviously) Babel fish.
jimthedog
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Carpal Tunnel
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"All for Words and Words for all"
wow
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Yep, "don't Panic" is a good one. My personal motto would be closer to "Share and Enjoy", but I havw always loved the theological argument using the babelfish to prove the non-existence of God.
"Now it is such a bizarrely improbable coincidence that anything
so mindboggingly useful could have evolved purely by chance that
some thinkers have chosen to see it as the final and clinching
proof of the non-existence of God.
"The argument goes something like this: `I refuse to prove that I
exist,' says God, `for proof denies faith, and without faith I am
nothing.'
"`But,' says Man, `The Babel fish is a dead giveaway, isn't it?
It could not have evolved by chance. It proves you exist, and so
therefore, by your own arguments, you don't. QED.'
"`Oh dear,' says God, `I hadn't thought of that,' and promptly
vanished in a puff of logic.
"`Oh, that was easy,' says Man, and for an encore goes on to
prove that black is white and gets himself killed on the next
zebra crossing.
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