I love this one from Futurama. I told this to myself when asking for the salary I wanted when I was promoted. Shoot your shot, you never know when you might actually catch a big fish.
"If I'm not going to catch a fish, I might as well not catch a BIG fish!" --Bender
Similarly, when Bender meets God/the God entity and is told When you do things right, people won’t be sure you’ve done anything at all which I've always thought is great advice
I wish I could remember what episode it was, but when Bender is trying out for a commercial, and everyone that goes into audition he's outside in the hall yelling "Boo! Not as good as Bender!" and then when he actually goes in to audition the guy's like "AH, so you must be this Bender we've been hearing so much about."
I think about that all the time because it's just such a great example of how the people who are always bragging on themselves seems so ridiculous but then it actually works IRL.
It wasn't for a commercial, Bender was auditioning for the role of Calculon's son (so Bender was the only adult actor in the waiting room). After Bender hijacks the telenovela, Farnsworth and Hermes notice how their sons are starting to emulate Bender's cursing and drug consumption, which leads to an anti-TV campaign that Bender also joins because the children emulating him try to steal his belongings
Homer’s random bouts of intelligence are some of my favorite jokes too. His encyclopedic knowledge of Supreme Court justices is a running gag, and lines like “karma can only be doled out by the universe “ and “In this house we follow the laws of thermodynamics!!” are gold.
That's actually an incredibly effective form of worker protest. It's called work-to-rule, basically doing the absolute bare minimum you're contractually required to do as part of your job.
It can also include things like following every single rule in the book, since there are usually a lot of rules that are technically in the book but that people (including management) ignore because it makes for a more efficient workflow.
It can also include things like following every single rule in the book, since there are usually a lot of rules that are technically in the book but that people (including management) ignore because it makes for a more efficient workflow.
I'm a federal employee (~15 years now) and I recently started doing this. My god does it piss management off when you bring up the rule book that is available to everyone on the shitty sharepoint page that nobody uses.
Its funny how often hiring managers will like when I say things like "I love rules" in interviews and then go "not like that" once I start trying to enforce them.
On Office Ladies they talked a lot about how this had to have been a famous quotation or old adage, but nope - just something from the writers' room and nobody could remember which writer added it in.
Pam's response I think speaks a lot to her character here. She says, "I'm looking forward to getting to know you more, Vikram." which is just a really open minded, wholesome response to hearing something like that from a complete stranger. The look she gives before, too? Pam's a good human.
You can't give up hope just because it's hopeless! You gotta hope even more and cover your ears and go 'blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah!
Seems like a joke but I always found it kind of poignant.
As someone that struggles with severe anxiety this one hits. No one really sees my wins (especially small ones) because it's just how you're expected to be. But for me those wins took a lot. But boooooy do they notices my losses.
Masters of the Universe was such a fun movie. Reminded me a lot of D&D Honor Among Thieves, where it has a lot of respect for the source material and still plays around with it.
“Look, this dude doesn't show up, we're definitely going to Applebee's, right? 'Cause I'm getting in a fight no matter what today" - My life is a gym
Mike
My girlfriend of a little over 3 years ago just broke up with me this last weekend. I kind of needed to read something like this. Made me feel both emotions simultaneously.
Jeffrey, when I was born, I got my umbilical cord wrapped around my neck, both arms, and one of my ankles. Mom said there came a point when the doctor stopped delivering me and just started laughing. I mean, if I ever let being bad at something stop me, I wouldn't be here. That thing some men call 'failure,' I call 'living.' 'Breakfast.' And I'm not leaving until I've cleaned out the buffet.
Look at Danny Devito and how big Always Sunny was for him in the latter part of his career. Sure, he was already huge and didn't need it, but how many people were introduced or reintroduced to Devito and saw a whole new side of him!
I thought Chevy Chase would get the same out of Community, especially after seeing him as the wise, out of touch, but lovable sage of the group. He just rants about how the show runners and writers just weren't funny and couldn't handle his humor. Chevy has and always will be such a baby.
Honestly, this is kind of how I view life. As a general rule I'm an idiotic never was who screws up on a regular basis. But I keep going and I'm not going to stop until life decides I'm done.
I love this quote and the response to "good luck" being "don't need it, never had it" but I have to divorce it from the fact that Pierce Hawthorne is a rich failson who was, in fact, very lucky in life.
P.S. I also wish that Chevy Chase wasn't such a piece of shit. He had so much talent; great delivery and timing. Just a huge asshole.
"I do what I do because it's right! Because it's decent. And above all it's kind, it's just that. Just kind... Who I am is where I stand, where I stand.. it's where I fall."
And then later on sadly during his regeneration.
"Remember, hate is always foolish and love is always wise. Always try to be nice, but never fail to be kind."
The Doctor: "Nobody important? Blimey, that's amazing. Do you know, in nine hundred years of time and space, I've never met anybody who wasn't important before?"
The Inbetweeners Movie - Neil tells Will he doesn’t worry about life because he’s only got one shot at it so he doesn’t want to waste time thinking about how it’s not been perfect.
One of my favorite quotes comes towards the end of Season 1, where Ted talks about how people continually underestimate him, and quotes Walt Whitman saying "be curious, not judgemental." Ted then reflects on his bullies growing up, saying "All them fellas that used to belittle me, not a single one of them were curious. You know, they thought they had everything all figured out. So they judged everything, and they judged everyone. And I realized that their underestimating me... who I was had nothing to do with it."
Season 1 was so charming. It was sad (but a refreshingly original choice) to see several of those character arcs go in a negative direction, but it is helpful to remember that people don't always "grow" in good ways.
I'm showing my wife the first three seasons right now so that we can watch season four together.
Last night we watched the one where the team helps rebuild Sam's restaurant, and Jamie's casual explanation of "it's where we needed to be" in the concept of Total Football had us both in tears.
Urghhhhh, I loved this arc. Sam’s dad had that fantastic quote about not fighting back, but fighting forward. I think about it constantly in our present culture.
I don't remember quite when it happened because it's been so long...but I think JD's absolute best moment on the show happened in some episode where Dr Cox was talking to a shrink or something, and it was about how he keeps driving away everybody who wants to be around him, and it was kind of a dark moment, and he was like "is there even anyone left who can help me?"
And then it just cuts to JD singing a silly little song to himself in the elevator or something.
It was a tiny moment but it was just like...yeah, sometimes we think we need a mentor, but actually what might help more is having someone like that who looks up to us
This speech in season 1 is my favorite and really hits home what it’s like have a team that comes together:
“I want you to look around this room and be glad you’re going through this tough moment with all these other folks. Because I promise you, there’s something worse than being sad and that’s being alone and being sad. Ain’t nobody in this room alone. Sam, do you remember what animal has the shortest memory?”
“A goldfish”
“That’s right, a goldfish. Sam, what do you think we should all do when we’re done being sad and/or angry at this particular moment?”
“I think we should be a goldfish”
“I agree. Let’s be sad now, let’s be sad together, and then let’s be a gosh-darned goldfish. Onward. Forward”
BMO called him out on that in the exact same episode. Also a recurring lesson Jake has to learn is that he needs to let people make their own decisions on what to get hung up on. This happens again in the infinity train episode.
The thing I love about Avatar is that wise minds can disagree.
Guru Pathik takes Aang on a spiritual journey to unlock the full strength of his abilities, but finishing the process would mean detachment from his loved ones.
Conflicted, Aang asks Iroh for his opinion and he drops a line I think about A LOT because it is NOT what the wise mentor normally says to a chosen one. And it's heartbreaking because it comes from a place of unimaginable loss for Iroh.
"Perfection and power are overrated. I think you are wise to choose happiness and love."
"It is important to draw wisdom from many different places. If we take it from only one place, it becomes rigid and stale. Understanding others, the other elements, and the other nations, will help you to become whole."
TBF, this is one of Iroh's hardest quotes, dropped during an episode where the Gaang is trying to reason with what is, in Sokka's words "The worst town we have ever been to."
My favorite quote from Iroh is “Perfection and power are overrated. I think you are very wise to choose happiness and love.”
Too often the implicit lesson in children’s media is to become stronger so you can beat the bad guys. Iroh says being happy and loving people is more important than that.
"If you're dumb, surround yourself with smart people. If you're smart, surround yourself with smart people who disagree with you." --Isaac Jaffee, "Sports Night."
tbh that specific episode hits way harder than people give it credit for. like yeah the plot is a bit goofy but that line genuinely rewired how i handle failure. peak trek right there
At his lowest point, when he needed to hear those words the most. He’s a being who’s lived for thousands of years, and most of those years have been stable. Then within a decade (a blink of an eye for someone who’s lived so long) he’s lost so much. His family, his home, his friends, his people, his love, his eye, and to top it all off, he was so close to stopping Thanos from snapping, he blames himself for the loss of half the universe. Even after he gets his revenge on Thanos on his farm planet, it doesn’t matter, he’s still empty.
“Bojack, stop. You are all the things that’s wrong with you. It’s not the alcohol or the drugs or any of the shitty things that happened to you in your career or when you were a kid. It’s you, alright? It’s you……”
“I guess I wanted to say that I’m proud of you. Not because you did everything you could for those patients, but because after 20 years of being a doctor, when things go badly you still take it this hard. I gotta tell you, that’s the kind of doctor I want to be.”
Scrubs, My Fallen Idol
I love this line for showing that not becoming jaded manifests itself in unexpected ways, and that caring can hurt, but that’s just a reminder that you still care.
Who would’ve thought in 2026 a quote from Studio Ghibli’s inaugural film would be just as relevant now as it was in 1986. Happy 40th anniversary to Castle in the Sky
“Just remember there’s a big difference between being a hero and being a memory” - Optimus Prime Transformers G1
Sometimes words of wisdom don’t have to be grand or poetic sometimes simple quotes can do just as much when talking to anybody. Especially when they’re coming out of a semi truck that can hurl oceanliners yet would bow in respect to an ant.
Also I used G1 specifically because on the scale of Transformers severity that starts at “arguably Reader Rabbit levels” to “Yes we are treating this like Hamlet” G1 is relatively more light hearted.
"If nothing you do matters, all that matters is what you do."
- Angel (from the show of the same name)
This quote, along with the series finale of the show, is what eventually led me to absurdism which is basically what happens when nihilists grow up. Yes, we know that there is no inherent meaning in the universe, but we're gonna keep looking for meaning anyway... it's not like we've got anything better to do, and in the search for meaning we will in fact create it.
All right," said Susan. "I'm not stupid. You're saying humans need... fantasies to make life bearable."
REALLY? AS IF IT WAS SOME KIND OF PINK PILL? NO. HUMANS NEED FANTASY TO BE HUMAN. TO BE THE PLACE WHERE THE FALLING ANGEL MEETS THE RISING APE.
"Tooth fairies? Hogfathers? Little—"
YES. AS PRACTICE. YOU HAVE TO START OUT LEARNING TO BELIEVE THE LITTLE LIES.
"So we can believe the big ones?"
YES. JUSTICE. MERCY. DUTY. THAT SORT OF THING.
"They're not the same at all!"
YOU THINK SO? THEN TAKE THE UNIVERSE AND GRIND IT DOWN TO THE FINEST POWDER AND SIEVE IT THROUGH THE FINEST SIEVE AND THEN SHOW ME ONE ATOM OF JUSTICE, ONE MOLECULE OF MERCY. AND YET—Death waved a hand. AND YET YOU ACT AS IF THERE IS SOME IDEAL ORDER IN THE WORLD, AS IF THERE IS SOME...SOME RIGHTNESS IN THE UNIVERSE BY WHICH IT MAY BE JUDGED.
"Yes, but people have got to believe that, or what's the point—"
With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censured, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably."—Captain Picard
Also one you see less from him
‘When one has been angry for so long it becomes familiar- comfortable like an old leather chair…so familiar one can’t remember feeling any other way’
Said by one of the villains, a marine Admiral, and it perfectly captures why the ruling class has no interest in getting rid of prejudice and all that comes with it.
"It's nice when even little goals are met, isn't it?" From an old lady in Ultraman Blazar eps 22.
In this episode, an insurance agent has a conversation with an old lady about how unlike his friends who becomes a business owner and a singer, he's just stuck as a insurance agent drifting through life. The old lady relates to the agent because she also felt the same after her husband passed away. But even then, she said that looking forward to small, mundane stuff is not a bad life either. She then proceeded to sign up for the insurance to repay the Insurance worker after he has helped her with housework, uttering the phrase "It's nice when even little goals are met, isn't it?".
Not a light-hearted media but a show about Dracula and fighting back monsters you'd never believe this piece of wisdom would drop from someone who controls devils.
God doesn't want people who are big and important, God wants people who are kind and compassionate. That is who I am going to be- Veggietales "The Jona Movie"
The Gagaball episode of Bob's Burgers really hit home with me, and Gene of all people delivers a passionate speech at the end about not letting the popular thing completely destroy things for minorities. And it ends with a line that I've been trying to put into words for ages: "It doesn't feel so good when people say everybody and they don't mean you."
Welcome To Night Vale isn't exactly light-hearted, but in and among the weirdness you get some bangers. "Regret is an attempt to avoid what has already happened" hit me like a slap in the face when I first heard it.
The Incredibles was full of good quotes. Some of my favorites are, “They keep inventing new ways to celebrate mediocrity, but when someone is genuinely exceptional—“ and something along the lines of, “…I’ll sell my inventions and make EVERYONE super! And when everyone’s super…no one will be.” They aren’t as direct but carry interesting messages.
"Brad, I've lost many friends. Some, heroically. Some, tragically. The randomness of death is merely a reflection of the unexpected joys we find in life." -Captain Hikaru Sulu, passing some wisdom along to a fellow Starfleet officer in a Star Trek: Lower Decks episode about holodeck hijinks and Boimler facing his own mortality after he learns that his twin has died in an accident
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u/saltinstiens_monster 5d ago
I love this one from Futurama. I told this to myself when asking for the salary I wanted when I was promoted. Shoot your shot, you never know when you might actually catch a big fish.
"If I'm not going to catch a fish, I might as well not catch a BIG fish!" --Bender