Quotations Weblog

Once again, the latest episode of Criminal Minds on CBS included quotations at the beginning and ending of the episode, and once again, people are asking us what they were. Here are the quotes from this week’s episode:

The Kundera quotation was used in an abbreviated form: “The basis of shame is not some personal mistake of ours, but that this humiliation is seen by everyone.” I’m reasonably sure the longer version above is the correct one. Their rendering stripped much of the meaning from the quotation, although the essence remains.

Stay tuned each week for our report on the quotations used in this show.

I like to think of our lives here as just one big video game. It’s an open video game kind of like Sims or Animal Crossing. I get to choose what I want in life. Even when I feel like I don’t have any choices, I still get to choose.

When I look at life like a video game, I have this strange trust that I can do anything. Even though I’m a 37 year-old woman, I can do anything. I just need to figure out how to do it with my character. You see, I may not be a big strong man, but I have other abilities that make up for masculinity and strength. I just need to figure out how to use my abilities to my advantage.

Even if I’m learning how to succeed on the day I die, I think that imagining the world to be like a video game is far more inspiring to me than any other intellectual construct I could imagine.

I learned so much about running a business from the Cashing In or Selling Out session at SXSWi last year. I have almost forgotten that there was a time when I didn’t know about the dangers of venture capital.

With so many burgeoning companies, they accept venture capital from investors. From that point on, they are more focused on keeping the investors happy than keeping the customers happy. Suddenly, the investors are the customers instead of the people who buy your product.

I never knew this before March of last year. Here are some other things I never knew before SXSWi:

• The Quotations Page – SXSW Quotes

The South by Southwest conference is getting started. Get on the list and register to go next year.

Is there something getting you down right now? Maybe you are disheartened by political wrangling. Maybe the suffering in the world is weighing heavily on you. Maybe a more intimate disagreement has hurt you. Whatever it is, identify it. Greed, lust, hate, anger, starvation? Whatever it is, identify what is getting you down.

Now, this is the hard part.

Get rid of it. You don’t have to rid the world of the evil, just yourself. If the greed of corporations who are willing to sacrifice morals for money has angered you, your job is to find the one thing in your life that you are greedy with and eliminate it. If the dishonesty of political characters has made you feel like you can’t trust anyone, you must find how you have been dishonest in your own life and erradicate it. Learn to trust yourself again.

It might sound simplistic. You might feel like you’re not changing what has angered you in the first place, and you will be right. The truth of the matter is, you can’t do anything about the corporations, governments, politicians or even the suffering of others. All you can do is change yourself. It’s the only corner of this universe that you control.

Make the most of it.

I’ve found that quotations are one of the best ways to learn from the mistakes of others. Even better, when someone disagrees with you, you have ammunition to back it up. Here are some of my favorite quotations about how to have a happy marriage.

You can see all the quotations about marriage here:

• Marriage Quotes – The Quotations Page