How did you pick/come up with/choose/create/whatever your motto?

[Venomous 18,813]

My personal motto is from a religous song

[Justin_Case001 4,855]

"Get busy livin or get busy dyin."

 

-The Shawshank Redemption

[Princess Periwinkle 3,774]

"Hold the mayo."

 

Because... I don't like mayo. It is inspired, no?

[Poetic Stone 1,040]

I say "Think for yourself" because I do, and believe everyone should, and also question everything.

[TimeyMarey007 110]

"Not everything just works."

 

Even the new high-tech stuff have their own faults too. Everything has an imperfection, therefore, one part of it doesn't "work".

[ThatOneComrade 1,091]

Okay so mine is "the secret to happiness is lowered expectations." It's negative as heck, but it works well enough. For example, if I make a project for school, and I pour my blood and sweat into it, I set my expectations to a B+. If I get a C, I'm not as disappointed as I would've been had I set my expectations to an A. When I go see a movie, I want it to be decent at the very least. If it's a great movie, I haven't wasted my time and money, and I leave the theater more satisfied than I would've if I'd wanted a great movie in the first place. You see my logic here?

 

Of course, there are times when I have to drop the motto, like when I desperately need success to feel some form of accomplishment, but generally the motto sticks.

[Steel Accord 6,658]

@@Koukatsu,

 

"The pen and sword, in equal accord."

 

This actually comes from Samurai Miyamoto Musashi in his Book of Five Rings. For years I was told that "the pen is mightier than the sword," and that always made me angry.

 

"Yeah, say that when the blade is to your throat." I thought. The phrase sounded so condescending and undeniably smug. It was always uttered by people who would never stand for anything. To those speakers, danger was always something far away and they preferred it that way. Not to say I wished violence and strife to be visited upon me, but if such does, I'm not going to throw my hands up in surrender and let red tape save me after the aggressor has made me a victim.

 

On the flip side there are those brutal and cynical "pragmatists" who think nothing of art, philosophy, or ideals beyond "who has the gun/money/power." To which I would respond with a Shakespeare quote and a possible slap of the dueling glove. To say that the physical, the material, was the only thing that mattered betrayed a worldview purposefully darkened under a shroud and calling it wisdom.

 

So . . . the pen and sword in equal accord.

 

That made so much more sense to me! The pen represented art, communication, expression and the sword represented physical action and the willingness to dig in one's heels and fight for their convictions. Strength without direction is destruction, but knowledge without strength is impotence. One needs both to be a balanced and true person.

Edited April 11, 2015 by Steel Accord

[Ziggy + Angel + Rain 11,298]

"The bluest blue / Cascading in / And staying / Where I've made / This spot, this calm / That knows not / Storm or strife"

 

^ It's from a poem I wrote; inspired by my constant muse Rainbow Angelbaby.  She's my safe haven.  My place away from pain and anger.

[The Professor...8D 823]

"Water is the Source of All Life, for without Water, there would be no COFFEE, & without COFFEE, I'll KILL you All."

 

 

Because it's true............8D

[1Bit 1,531]

"The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination."

 

It just represents what I stand for. My strength comes through creativity and art. Imagination is a powerful tool and our world is filled with amazing things all thanks to the vivid imagination of their creators   

[FlutterDash4072 189]

I already shamelessly sole one from Dan Vs: I can't believe how much I hate everything.

[Yummychickenblue 301]

"Never apologize when you can criticize!" -Iron Will

 

I feel like there is some deep wisdom in Iron Wills words and his ideas and opinions I agree a lot.

 

 

/jk

[Omega Centauri 316]

"I take death threats as compliments."

 

It was my senior quote, I regret nothing.

 

Basically, if someone wants me dead, then I'm doing something right with my life. Or something really wrong, either one works for me.

[Espurr 449]

Personal motto? Well, it used to be "If you can swim, you can fly." But obviously, that's not true. So I changed it.

 

It changes every so often, but right now its, "Beauty isn't a fact, it's an opinion."

 

And that is so true.

[gone~ 614]

Hmm... when I chose mine, I was thinking about liberty and anarcho-capitalism. "Individuality, liberty, property — this is man" is a quote from Frédéric Bastiat, a French classical liberal.

 

Now, though, I think it should be something more lighthearted. I'm changing it to "Have fun~ ^^".

[Koukatsu 5,898]

I can't figure out how ya'll keep finding, and resurrecting, my thread, but I like it. I enjoy reading all of these little tidbits of info. Keep it up!<3

[Mr. Right 115]

My first motto is "Keep moving forward!" which is obviously taken from the movie "Meet the Robinson". It's about motivating yourself at doing what you want to do and what you should do so that you can be as successful as you've dreamed to be.

And the next is... "GOD BLESS AMERICA!!" because I'm ridiculously obsessed with America. I love the USA. Even though I'm not American.

(It's in my profile. They're both in my profile)

[Trickilee 139]

"It wasn't my fault"? It's my first and last line of defense.

[Guest]

"When the music hits, I feel no pain at all" From a song I like a lot from Rancid.

[catnet 9,353]

'There's always a bright side, when you let yourself look away from the darkness.'

 

Let's just say, I wouldn't be posting here right now if I didn't consider those words...  I think I just worded it myself from a thought someone once gave me.

[LittleMac 3,084]

'I will love and care for others as Jesus has loved and cared for me'

 

Pretty self explanatory. I have this as my motto because it's exactly what I intend to base my life on. I can build myself up and chase after my own dreams, but I know it is better to help others and that's just a fact

[I used to be a stranger 7,988]

This post has been redacted by the author.

Edited May 9, 2021 by Blue

[Kivil 1,721]

My motto has been created over a century of good grades and tough times.

[Tom Snyder 4,111]

I choose based on what nobody else has done, that's my originality. Plus a few traits here and there; but i try not to make them anything like me. Plus i love the simplistic backstories and personalities; plus i'm not good with appearances.

Edited May 27, 2015 by Candy Star

[Miles 2,512]

To be honest, my personal motto on my profile is less my personal motto of what I have in my signature.

In my profile, it's: "A tradition is a tradition; doesn't matter if it's old or new."

This means that tradition doesn't necessitate stale waters; that traditions can be progressive and can grow, and thus, are malleable in form.  A new tradition, in its own sake, is still a tradition as much as an old tradition.  A new tradition is just the outcome of how time allowed progressive changes to occur with the tradition.  Replace the word "tradition" with routine, if you'd like.  It still means the same thing.

But, in my signature, my real motto is: "Rise and rise again, until lambs become lions."

It comes more namely from a sort of recent-ish Robin Hood movie... but the core value comes from this passage in the Bible:

 

Isaiah 11:6 New International Version (NIV)
 

 The wolf will live with the lamb,
    the leopard will lie down with the goat,
the calf and the lion and the yearling together;
    and a little child will lead them.

 

It's basically my chosen personal motto because I like to create peace among those who fight.  I like to be the vulnerable child that leads and feeds the lions and the calves together with each other.  

So, "Rise and rise again, until lambs become lions," can mean the same thing as, "[...], until lions become lambs," in a slightly bigger picture aspect...

However, the "[...], until lambs become lions" is meant to mean something both literal and figurative at the same time.  The literal meaning is that enemies can be led by a good leader to peacefully co-exist.  The figurative meaning is that "lions" represent not just actual lions, but also they represent how people from anywhere can become new kinds of leaders, in-themselves, greater than they were before.  The child represents peaceful shepherding.

It's really an inspiring quote, and I think it fits my posting style and my overall self-atmosphere here on the forums.

~ Miles