Ever come across a saying that you "hold" on to? I have read many but for some reason, I only remember two.
From Dances with Wolves:
"I did not ascend to this position by being an idiot. Please do not treat me as such".
and from novelist Stephen King:
"...95% of the people that walk the earth are inert. One percent are imbecile, one percent are genius. The other three percent are those that can do the things they say they can do"
I apply the Stephen King approach to my daily work, and make sure I either can or capable of learning to do at a high level, the things I say I can do.
Posted by David Harding (Member # 108) on :
From Mom:
"Just DO IT!"
Nike owes her loads of royalties.
Posted by William Holohan (Member # 2514) on :
My late father had an expression/saying for almost amything that really pleased or pleasantly surprised him. It was "slicker-n-owl poop" said with his thick Irish brough.(accent) As a very young lad I heard it often, so it was easy to remember the words and the context of their use. One day in the first grade, our teacher took us out during recess to the parking lot to see her new red pickup. She asked us "What do you think of that kids?" I, standing very close by, of course said .. "Thats slicker n owl poop" the other kids hearing the naughty word "poop" all chimed in repeating the 5 words you don't say in the first grade. For about two months after, everything in school was "Slicker n owl poop" except. of course the miscreant who started it all.
Posted by Si Allen (Member # 420) on :
"Do unto others....then RUNNNNNN! "
Posted by George Perkins (Member # 156) on :
Laura Dern to Nicholas Cage in Wild at Heart...."You got me hotter than Georgia asphalt"
Posted by Dawud Shaheed (Member # 5719) on :
My grandmother used to always say about anything she liked that it was "the cat's ass" and anything she disliked was "horse****" haha.
Me, having 5 kids. I find myself saying "If you don't have anything good to say, don't say anything" a lot.
I'm not as cool as my grandmother was.
Posted by Kissymatina (Member # 2028) on :
"The competitor to fear is the one who pays no attention to your business but rather concerns himself with bettering his" Henry Ford.
"I'll be your Huckleberry" Doc Holiday
"You're not a god", "Shoot me & find out" Young Guns 2
Posted by Bruce Bowers (Member # 892) on :
On a sign my first boss, Jimmy Wilke, father lettered on a showcard...
"We have no quarrel with those who work for less... They know what they stuff is worth"
I still have the showcard...
Posted by Alicia B. Jennings (Member # 1272) on :
Any line from The Godfather" especially "Leave the gun, take the canoli"
Posted by Jon Butterworth (Member # 227) on :
Conversation with Si other day about still learning tricks at our age [we talk daily on Skype.]
Told him:
"You trying to teach me how to suck eggs?"
Trick is which end of the egg you put the bigger hole in to get the yolk out without breaking the shell.
Think about that one!
Posted by Mike Clayton (Member # 723) on :
"It Couldn't Be Done" by Edgar Albert Guest (1881-1959)
Somebody said that it couldn't be done But he with a chuckle replied That "maybe it couldn't," but he would be one Who wouldn't say so till he tried. So he buckled right in with the trace of a grin On his face. If he worried he hid it. He started to sing as he tackled the thing That couldn't be done, and he did it! Somebody scoffed: "Oh, you'll never do that; At least no one ever has done it;" But he took off his coat and he took off his hat And the first thing we knew he'd begun it. With a lift of his chin and a bit of a grin, Without any doubting or quiddit, He started to sing as he tackled the thing That couldn't be done, and he did it. There are thousands to tell you it cannot be done, There are thousands to prophesy failure, There are thousands to point out to you one by one, The dangers that wait to assail you. But just buckle in with a bit of a grin, Just take off your coat and go to it; Just start in to sing as you tackle the thing That "cannot be done," and you'll do it.
Posted by Raymond Chapman (Member # 361) on :
"If it was easy anybody could do it"
"Do it right the first time."
My Dad.
"Competition drops off dramatically after 5:00"
Me
[ January 24, 2009, 06:42 AM: Message edited by: Raymond Chapman ]
Posted by Neil D. Butler (Member # 661) on :
This is my Saying when dealing with cheap customers...
"I'd rather go home hungry and broke, than Tired hungry and broke"
I'm sure a lot of us has said that.
Posted by Jon Butterworth (Member # 227) on :
"Nappy time" (diapers in USA) finishes before you are 5y/o ... starts again after 50y/o .... RAY!
This old dude needs a Nap now ... long day "walldogging" alone.
Posted by Jon Butterworth (Member # 227) on :
"Got the Monkey off my back at last"
Applied to that walldog job today! Fourth try at it in 3 months. Long story about aborts, but very tight time frame of getting in and out in a hurry without disrupting business with expensive power cuts and huge PITA B/S permits costing more than twice the price of the sign.
Customer happy at last, so am I Posted by Stephen Deveau (Member # 1305) on :
I swim in a pool of fools! but my head is always above the waterline..
Posted by Dale Manor (Member # 4858) on :
"Man, I ain't gotta friend within' a hundred miles of this place"
Dale Earnhardt Jr. Daytona International Speedway July 5, 2003
"If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?"
Steve Jobs Stanford University June 12, 2005
Posted by Jon Butterworth (Member # 227) on :
"When the going gets tough ... the tough get going"
Applies to a few sigwriters I know!
Posted by Jon Butterworth (Member # 227) on :
"Cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey"
Think Boone will like that old english one Posted by Jon Jantz (Member # 6137) on :
Man, I'm from the South. I know people that can't open their mouth without a funny saying coming out..... (warning, sometimes they are a little colorful) These don't really pertain to the sign or business world... just things you hear in a day down here...
Busy -
"I'm busier than a cat on a hot tin roof.." "Busier than a one-armed paper hanger.." "Busier than a three-peckered billy goat..." "Busier than a long-tailed cat in a room full of rockin' chairs"
Good Food -
"So good it'll make your tongue slap your brains out.." "Make you slap your grandma..."
Gettin' Mad -
"I'm madder than a wet hornet" "Spittin' nails" "Fit to be tied" "Madder'n Fire" "Madder'n a wet hen" "Throwing a hissie fit" "Havin a conniption"
Doin' Stuff the Hard Way or Being Just Plain Sorry or Dumb -
"He's goin' around his ass to get to his elbow.." "Worthless as tits on a boar" "If he were any smarter he'd have to be watered once a week" "Even a blind hog finds an acorn once in a while" "He's like a bump on a log"
Raining Hard -
"Raining cats and dogs" "Raining pitchforks and babies." (Politically corrected over the years...) "Raining like a cow pi$$in' on a flat rock.."
Referring to fast talkers and liars-
"He's pullin' your leg.." "Don't pi$$ on my leg, and tell me it's rainin'" "He'd tell a lie if the truth sounded better.."
Dumb Folks
"2 bricks shy of a full load" "His elevator doesn't go all the way to the top" "Crazier than a sprayed roach" "Dumber than a box of rocks" "If he had bird brains he'd fly backward"
Fast or Loud -
"He run like a scalded dog" "He squealed like a stuck pig" "It'll run like a raped ape."
Surpised -
"Well, butter my butt and call me a biscuit" "Well, I'll be switched."
Misc. -
"Scared the livin' daylights outa me" Out of kilter - "Cattywompus" "How's your mommernem?" (How's your momma and them?)
Those are just few that come to mind. I could probably make a list of a couple hundred if I sat and thought about it... and that be without even getting into the ugly, skinny or fat people sayings...
Posted by Dale Feicke (Member # 767) on :
How 'bout this..."It is useless for sheep to pass resolutions in favor of vegetarianism, while wolves remain of a different opinion."
Posted by Santo (Member # 411) on :
It takes a lazy man to get something done, because there is no extent a lazy will not go to, in order to get out of work. He will even do it right the first time.
Posted by Doug Allan (Member # 2247) on :
"you get what you settle for"
Posted by Bob Moroney (Member # 9498) on :
In God we trust, all others pay cash.
Posted by William DeBekker (Member # 3848) on :
I prefer..
"If the Going gets tough.. Hire someone else."
Posted by Todd Gill (Member # 2569) on :
"Get off my lawn" - Clint Eastwood
Posted by Kerry Hargraves (Member # 6837) on :
"Carry on bravely"
An old friend's favorite meeting ender.
Posted by Dawud Shaheed (Member # 5719) on :
Another good Clint Eastwood saying is... (after the guy said he's not digging the grave)
"there's two types of people in this world, those with guns and those who dig, you dig."
Posted by Dave Grundy (Member # 103) on :
Totaly silly but written in a yearbook in grade eight by a buddy.....
"Love many, trust few...Always paddle your own canoe"
I think I may have always lived my life that way.
I have tried and tried to find that wise young lad in Chilliwack in these days of internet.
Maybe Dan or Donna might have heard of him...name is Doug Pohl.
???
Posted by Catalin Dretcanu (Member # 4136) on :
I like the one that I posted in my signature: "Do or do not…there is no try!". This quote is from the Star Wars movie, The Empire Strikes Back when Yoda gives Luke an assignment to lift the X-wing fighter from the swamp using the power of his mind alone. Luke responds: ‘I’ll try’. Yoda then gets agitated and replies: ‘No! Do or do not…there is no try!’. We use the verb try very much in our language. To try means to make an effort to do or accomplish something. With it we commit ourselves to the effort, but not to the result! Worse still the word try focuses more on failure than on success. The message “I’ll try to do it” clearly sends a different message than “I’ll do this”. When we try we anticipate failure, and send this message of failure to our subconscious mind. When we do we send a message focused on success. Don’t try to do a job which looks impossible at first sight, don’t try to drink enough water during the day, don’t try to do weight lifting exercises three times a week. Just do it!(like David Harding is saying ) Remember Yoda: Do or do not…there is no try!
Posted by Rusty Bradley (Member # 6938) on :
Posted by Nikki Goral (Member # 7844) on :
Learned this one at a 5 year olds party last week:
"You get what you get, so don't throw a fit!"
Works on husbands who are crabby that it is January (every year) and temp without windchill is -10 too!
Posted by Jon Butterworth (Member # 227) on :
I like:
"You can lead a horse to water ... but you can't make it drink"
and
"Some people just need the warning shot between the eyes"
Jon ... us even more "southern" down under saying get a bit colourfull too
Couple that sprng to mind:
Flat out like a lizard drinking
Dry as a dead dingos donga
May yer chickens turn in emus and kick yer dunny down.
He's not home ... gone "walk-about"
Posted by Cam Bortz (Member # 55) on :
"You've been here all this time, and you still expect 'fairness?' You really are a blithering idiot." - Rudyard Kipling, from 'Stalky and Company'.
Sherm Dodge, an elderly retired fisherman I knew years ago had some of the most exquiste New England turns of phrase I ever heard. Example: Another fisherman had recently purchased a very large, very rusty and decrepit boat, about which Sherm commented, "Ain't no way in Jesus' world he gonna make any money on that Christless great Ark." A few other gems: "He aint got the brains god gave a ringworm" "Tougher than a bag full a hammers" and "Numb as a hake"(Hake being a species of groundfish similar to a flounder). A prediction of rain would come out as "I 'spec she'll wet up here by'n'by". About a person whose influence of events did not match their ambitions, "He don't draw enough water". I wish I remembered more, old Sherm was just a treasure to listen to.
Posted by Anne McDonald (Member # 6842) on :
"You're a good woman....then again you could be the antichrist" Doc Holliday
A fella I dated way back when reckoned this line summed me up perfectly Posted by Joe Cieslowski (Member # 2429) on :
I remember this one posted on the team locker room in high school....
"There is no security in life, only opportunity." The quote was from Mark Twain.
Werks fer me.
Joe,
Makin Chips and Havin Fun!
Posted by David Harding (Member # 108) on :
My next door neighbor used to say:
"Take your time, but hurry every chance you get."
Posted by Rick Beisiegel (Member # 3723) on :
"I'm such a loser, even my imaginary friend played with the neighbor kid instead of me"
[ January 26, 2009, 07:59 AM: Message edited by: Rick Beisiegel ]
Posted by Joe Cieslowski (Member # 2429) on :
"It's not how many hours you put into your work that counts, it's the work you put into the hours." Sam Ewing
I use this one when folks are so suprissed when I tell them "how long it takes to make one".
This one goes something like this.....
"A carving tool takes advantage of the laws of physics and mechanics to create a tool that can REALLY hurt you!!!!"
Joe,
Makin Chips and Havin Fun!
Posted by Stephen Deveau (Member # 1305) on :
As a truck driver in the past.. The dispatch would say "Hurry up and get there!" and when you are there, "Then sit there and wait!"
Posted by David Harding (Member # 108) on :
Larry Mitchell said at at workshop:
"Some people have fifteen years experience doing this, some have one year, fifteen times over."
Posted by Jon Butterworth (Member # 227) on :
"I have over 60 years of experience ... want to share it? Just need some of your's in return"
Quote Bushie^
Posted by Dan Beach (Member # 9850) on :
"Ah beer, the cause of and solution to all of life's problems." -Homer Simpson
"Oh Lisa, you and your stories . . . Barts a vampire, beer kills brain cells. . . Now lets go back to that . . . place . . . where bed and TV . . . is." -Homer Simpson
Posted by Tim Barker (Member # 4209) on :
If at first you dont succeed, sky diving is probably not for you.
Posted by KARYN BUSH (Member # 1948) on :
yes we cannabis! ~obama in the future
madder than a legless Ethiopian watching a donut roll down a hill. ~larry the cable guy
Posted by karen m stanley (Member # 7178) on :
The early bird gets the worm - but the second mouse gets the cheese!
Posted by Ray Rheaume (Member # 3794) on :
"Do...or do not. There is no try." Yoda
"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." Albert Einstein.
"Igor, would you give me a hand with the bags?" "Certainly. You take the blonde and I'll take the one in the toiban.". Young Frankenstein
Posted by Rich Stebbing (Member # 368) on :
I read a couple of bumper stickers lately, these were on the same car:
"Honk if you think I'm Jesus" and "I am so F***ing Happy, I could Sh** Rainbows"
Posted by Carl Wood (Member # 1223) on :
"Let's meet at the roundhouse. . .they can't corner us there !"
Uncle Skeet
Posted by Jon Butterworth (Member # 227) on :
"It is easy to drown in self pity"
"take a good look at yourself in the mirror, you may not like what you see"
"Caught between a rock and a hard place"
"Life is not just a bed of roses .... there are thorns too"
'Rollercoaster rides sometimes come right off the rails"
"A problem shared is a problem halved"
"Dial the wrong number and you will get the wrong answer"
"pick up the phone before you pick up a drink"
"lead a horse to water but you can't make it drink"
"Often the hardest decisions in life hurt the worst"
Posted by Jim Bagaas (Member # 3808) on :
never meddle in the affairs of dragons....
Posted by Graham Parsons (Member # 1129) on :
Straight from my dad - and, of course, now I'm saying them too...
"It'll put muscles on yer back like bars of iron"
"So hungry, I could eat a baby's bum through a wooden chair.."
"'tis nothing on a big ship" (when something goes wrong)
"as black as Newgate's knocker" (referring to the large black iron knocker on the gates of Newgate prison)
Posted by Rick Beisiegel (Member # 3723) on :
"It'll make your hair grow long, and your muscles strong"
-Grandma Dorothy regarding liver
Posted by Jon Butterworth (Member # 227) on :
NO ! Graham ... Proper English Translation used on OZ:
"Put hairs on yer chest, mate" Not best refered to wives!
"So hungry I'll eat the horse and then chase the rider"
"Peeing in the dam, mate?"
Finaly, sota like that last Canadian one.
"So black that night! The only thing I saw was the difference between his teeth shining and the pedestrian crossing before I hit him!"
Posted by Donald Miner (Member # 6472) on :
Some that come to mind are; Dumber than the box the rocks came in. In God we trust, all others pay cash. There is no fool like an old fool. They told him it couldn't be done, but the poor fellow didn't know any better, so he went and did it anyway. If at first you don't succeed, suck eggs. If it don't go, chrome it. Chrome won't get you home.
Posted by David Fisher (Member # 107) on :
Attributable to Mick and Morrie, the former I grew up with and the latter is the tradesman I did my apprenticeship under. Two irreplaceable characters. Bad drivers: That bloke couldn't drive a greasy stick up a pigs arse. He couldn't drive a nail into a bark ****house. He couldn't drive ducks to water with a stockwhip. Intelligence: He's got a couple of sheep loose in the top paddock. If brains were jelly (explosives) he couldn't blow his nose Weather: It's as cold/black as a whore's heart. Did you order this rain/hail/cyclone/heat, coz if you did I'm not paying for it. Measurement: It's as close as F**k is to swearing (you can use dammit for polite company)
Posted by Sheila Ferrell (Member # 3741) on :
These are a hoot!!
Jon! I wonder what people who are not from the south think of all them sayin's! LOL We do say that stuff all the time.
For people who lie all the time I have this saying:
'He lies (even when he don't have to) just to keep in practice.'
All my life, I mean like from the time I was 5, my daddy drilled this saying into me:
'To thine own self be true'
Because some people, especially teens tend to lump everything to the extreme, for example they'll say something like 'they ALWAYS do -etc.', or 'They NEVER do -etc'. . .'), I say:
'Never say never - never say always - always say sometimes'
For when I get bogged down in ridiculous details which are not profitable I tell myself:
'Perfection is completion when time is of the essence'
When my teenager and I are playin' around wrestlin', we call each other names and pinch or whatever, we say, in ebonics, as if to dare each other: 'Do it one-mo'gin' or 'SAY it one-mo'gin!'
Which is, in technical translation: 'I dare you to do (or say) that one more time again'
I love quotes, so, lastly, here's one I have in my shop:
'We the willing led by the unknowing & unconcerned have done so much, for so long, with so little, we are now qualified to do anything with nothing'
[ February 04, 2009, 04:05 PM: Message edited by: Sheila Ferrell ]
Posted by Raymond Chapman (Member # 361) on :
"I feel so bad I'm just going off and eat worms."
Posted by Bruce Bowers (Member # 892) on :
"Just wait until your father gets home."
Posted by Dawud Shaheed (Member # 5719) on :
the famous saying we all hear as kids "if you have nothing good to say, don't say anything at all"
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