This place is an X-file, wrapped in a cover-up and deep-fried in a paranoid conspiracy. — Monsters vs. Aliens

There are two good reasons to classify something:  to protect operations and to protect sources.  Lately, I’ve been seeing a lot of things in the press that are being kept secret to keep the citizenry from knowing how their government works, or to save the government from embarrassment.  Keeping good guys from catching a bullet in the back of the neck is a good thing.  Keeping our elected officials and the bureaucrats that support them off of the TV news is not.  We have to know what is going on in order to be good citizens and voters.  If the government is not transparent enough for us to know whether our employees are doing a good job or not, then we are being prevented from fulfilling those roles.

Commissioner Anabell Brumford: Do you realize that because of you this city is being overrun by baboons?
Lt. Frank Drebin: Well, isn’t that the fault of the voters?

— The Naked Gun 2 1/2: The Smell of Fear

Well, we’re coming into the home stretch of the 2014 election.  I can’t wait for the recounts, recriminations, crying, and gnashing of teeth to start.  To be honest, I’m sick of the whole thing.  Can’t we think of a better way to do this?  What about gladiatorial fights between the candidates, but only arm them with chop sticks and frozen tunas.

A pox on all of their houses.

Seriously, if I see one more attack ad or get one more spam email promising dire consequences if I don’t donate right now, I’m going to get stone drunk, crawl under the porch, and sleep until mid-November.

I’m not responsible for what people think, Pat, only for what I am. — The Big Country

I realized just how much of the baggage from growing up I had lost when there came a day when I just quit caring about what people think of me.  At least, I don’t care what most people think.  There are a few people in my family, my friends, and my co-workers who I respect, and I value their opinion.  But the vast majority of humanity, while I care about them as fellow human beings, can take a walk off a pier if they form an opinion about me.   I do the best I can, I take care of my own, and if someone wants to either respect or dislike that, it’s no skin off my nose.

Oh, please, God, please tell me none of this is real. Please tell me I had a nervous breakdown at my wedding and I’m in a mental hospital and I’m on medication that’s giving me hallucinations. — Monsters vs. Aliens

Reality sometimes seems very surreal, but it is what it is.  Wishing for things to be different gets you nowhere.  Regrets are even less helpful.  Accept what is, and if you don’t like it, find a way to either change it or make it no longer matter to you.

We gotta get outta here! We gotta get out! I gotta start packing, Your Highness! Only essentials, we gotta travel light. I’ll bring the guns, the weapons, the knives… And uh, how about this picture? I don’t know, I think I’m making a weird face in it… — Aladdin

There’s going to come that time when you have to get out of Dodge quickly.  Maybe it’s a flood or a fire.  It could be civil strife.  Heck, it might be your mama’s fallen and she can’t get up, and you have to get over there to spend a few days helping her out.  But the time to figure out what you need to grab and getting it together is not while you’re warming up the car.  Take time now to figure out what you need, where it is, and how you’re going to pack it.

And no, “I’m going to back up the truck and put the gunsafes and ammo boxes in the bed.” isn’t good enough.

When I come back, I expect to find you gone. Wait for me! — Arsenic and Old Lace

Communication is everything.  Be concise, be thorough, and be understandable.

I never liked a girl well enough to give her twelve sharp knives. — Scrooged

Do you trust her with your life?  I don’t mean your beating heart.  I mean your money, your car, your home, and your children.  If he can’t be trusted with the check book, can you trust him with the rest of your life?

I have no idea to this day what those two Italian ladies were singing about. Truth is, I don’t want to know. Some things are best left unsaid. I’d like to think they were singing about something so beautiful, it can’t be expressed in words, and makes your heart ache because of it. I tell you, those voices soared higher and farther than anybody in a gray place dares to dream. It was like some beautiful bird flapped into our drab little cage and made those walls dissolve away, and for the briefest of moments, every last man in Shawshank felt free. — The Shawshank Redemption

There are some things that are beautiful whether you understand them or not.  You don’t have to understand the interaction of sunlight, atmospheric dust, and clouds to know that a Texas sunset is gorgeous.  You don’t have to be able to explain how the northern lights work in order to be in awe of them.   Sometimes, you just have to accept the beauty.

I’m a parent. I haven’t got the luxury of principles. – The Patriot

A lot of things change when you have people depending on you.  The jobs that were beneath you are welcomed, so long as they put food on the table.  Suddenly that pack of smokes or that cup of designer coffee become a lot less important when the money could go to shoes or the light bill.  You can survive on absolute crap for years when it’s just you, but you put a baby in a high chair, and suddenly you’re pricing fresh fruit and milk.

And yes, that minivan suddenly starts to look like a better option than the sports coupe when you have to find space for multiple car seats.

When others depend on you for the necessities of life, you’ll sacrifice a lot of who you think you are to make sure they are OK.  That’s what being a wife, a husband, a father, or a mother is about.  When someone else is more important to you than you are to yourself, then you’ve finally grown up.

You know, you can remove men like Alan and me from the system, but we helped create it. And our spirit remains in every program we design for this computer. — Tron

Everything you create has a piece of you in it.  Every cook makes things just a little different; every painter uses the brush in their own way.  The world and history will remember you by what you leave behind, whether you like it or not.