Rodents of the Sea

Harvey: "What are you doing, killing seals?"

Louis: "Would that I were. Rodents of the sea..."

The Smell of Banks

Vetinari: "The smell of banks is alway pleasing, don't you think? A mixture of polish and wealth." 

Moist: "And ursary." 

Vetinari: "That would be cruelty to bears. I suspect you mean usury."

The Naked Gun 2 and a Half

Quentin Hapsburg: "Any final requests, Lieutenant?"

Lt. Frank Drebin: "Er, yes... Can I have the gun?"

Look fair and square at the world

"We want to stand upon our own feet and look fair and square at the world — its good facts, its bad facts, its beauties, and its ugliness; see the world as it is and be not afraid of it. Conquer the world by intelligence and not merely by being slavishly subdued by the terror that comes from it. The whole conception of God is a conception derived from the ancient Oriental despotisms. It is a conception quite unworthy of free men. When you hear people in church debasing themselves and saying that they are miserable sinners, and all the rest of it, it seems contemptible and not worthy of self-respecting human beings.

We ought to stand up and look the world frankly in the face. We ought to make the best we can of the world, and if it is not so good as we wish, after all it will still be better than what these others have made of it in all these ages. A good world needs knowledge, kindliness, and courage; it does not need a regretful hankering after the past or a fettering of the free intelligence by the words uttered long ago by ignorant men. It needs a fearless outlook and a free intelligence. It needs hope for the future, not looking back all the time toward a past that is dead, which we trust will be far surpassed by the future that our intelligence can create."

Bertrand Russel

Don't You Wonder

‘A thousand years ago we thought the world was a bowl,’ he said. ‘Five hundred years ago we knew it was a globe. Today we know it is flat and round and carried through space on the back of a turtle.’ He turned and gave the High Priest another smile. ‘Don’t you wonder what shape it will turn out to be tomorrow?’

Lord Vetinari, Terry Pratchett's "The Truth"

"Science is a match..."

"Science is a match that man has just got alight. He thought he was in a room - in moments of devotion, a temple - and that his light would be reflected from and display the walls inscribed with wonderful secrets and pillars carved with philosophical systems wrought into harmony. It is a curious sensation, now that the preliminary splutter is over and the flame burns up clear, to see his hands lit and just a glimpse of himself and the patch he stands on visible, and around him, in place of all that human comfort and beauty he anticipated - darkness still."

H.G. Wells, "The Rediscovery of The Unique"

Amy Farrah Fowler on The Doctor

"For someone who has a machine that can travel anywhere in time and space, Doctor Who sure does have a thing for modern-day London."

True Terror

"True terror is to wake up one morning and discover that your high school class is running the country."

The Truth

'WHO KNOWS WHAT EVIL LURKS IN THE HEARTS OF MEN?'
The Death of Rats looked up from the feast of potato.
'SQUEAK', he said.
Death waved a hand dismissively. 'WELL, YES, OBVIOUSLY ME', he said. 'I JUST WONDERED IF THERE WAS ANYONE ELSE.'

- Terry Pratchett's "The Truth"