"Maybe you’re sad because you’re bored."

from the blog entry 100 Ways to live a better life by Dragos Florin Roua

"The future does not belong to those who are content with today, apathetic toward common problems and their fellow man alike, timid and fearful in the face of new ideas and bold projects."

Senator Edward Kennedy quoting his brother Robert Kennedy at Robert Kennedy's funeral in 1968

"Möchtest du die Gitarre klopfen?"

ein Freund bei der Bandprobe

"[Obama] spoke in New Hampshire and wisely used the metafor 'Yes we can,' which was originally a spanish metafor, si, se puede, which was historically used in many speeches refering to the working (labor) class heroes."

from a student exam answer

"Das Netz stört mein Genie."

ein Bekannter beim Tischtennis spielen heute Abend

"Is common sense really common?"

a friend's Skype status line today

"Is chon vorbei."

Verkäuferin an der Sushibar, nachdem ich meine Punktesammel-Karte hatte geben wollte. Zu spät!

"I think that's pretty sad. People that is alone, they has water in their eyes."

Angelo, a kindergarten student quoted in You Can't Say You Can't Play by Vivian Paley as heard on This American Life

"Bill Maher: You're a Senator. You are one of the very few people who are really running this country. It worries me that people are running my country who think - who believe in a talking snake.

Mark Pryor: You don't have to pass an IQ test to be in the Senate, though."

Religulous by Bill Maher

"Not all who wander are aimless."

Mona Lisa Smile by Lawrence Konner and Mark Rosenthal

"Anwohnerinformation: Sehr geehrte Damen und Herren, vom 17.08. bis 29.8.2009 sind Bauarbeiten zur Nachtzeit unumgänglich."

Baumaßnahme Oxfordstraße bis Berliner Freiheit

"After years of communicative euphoria, some language teachers are becoming dissatisfied with purely functional uses of language."

Claire Kramsch

"Now we look up in,
Into the eyes of bullies breaking backs.
They seem so very tough,
They seem so very scared of us.
I look into the mirror,
For evil that just does not exist.
I don't see what they see."

From the song "I was married" on The Con by Tegan and Sara

"As our ferryboat from Denmark made its way up the winding Oslo Fjord in May 1959, we looked at the granite boulders and high cliffs covered with pine tress, sniffed the cool, salty-piney air, and said to each other: 'Norway is just like Maine!' Which it was, and wasn't."

My Life in France by Julia Child with Alex Prud'homme

"I just set the world record in bullshitting."

Labor pains by Lara Shapiro and Stacey Kramer

"'Be kind and then be kind and then be kind,' sagte sie auf Englisch."

Paola Brunetti quoting Henry James.

Acqua alta by Donna Leon

"My home life is unsatisfying."

The Breakfast Club by John Hughes

"Madame Michel has the elegance of the hedgehog: on the outside, she's covered in quills, a real fortress, but my gut feeling is that on the inside, she has the same simple refinement as the hedgehog: a deceptively indolent little creature, fiercely solitary - and terribly elegant."

The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery