What are your favorite words of wisdom from a musical?

[ComedyTradgedy]

Posted: 1/6/11 at 11:54pm

I am looking for inspirational and/or wise quotes from Broadway musicals about life (Not heavily involving romance, please) it can be a spoken line or sung. It needs to be able to be taken out of context and still make sense though, and it can be comical or serious. It would have to be friendly to all ages with subject matter, too. So no swears, sexual or drug references please. I already have the line "Every knot was once a straight rope" from INTO THE WOODS , and I'm sure I can find some others from there too. Thank you!

[othell]

Posted: 1/7/11 at 12:07am

"I don't say I'm no better than anybody else, but I'll be darned if I ain't just as good!" courtesy of Aunt Eller in the Rodgers and Hammerstein classic OKLAHOMA! From the song THE FARMER AND THE COWHAND, and I did have to substitute the word darned for another possibly inappropriate word that was originally used, due to your restrictions of being youth appropriate.
Updated On: 1/7/11 at 12:07 AM

[BroadwayNorth2]

Posted: 1/7/11 at 12:08am

"Stop worrying where you're going-
Move on
If you can know where you're going
You've gone
Just keep moving on"

('Move On' from Sunday in the Park with George)

[bwayphreak234]

Posted: 1/7/11 at 12:09am

"To love another person is to see the face of God" - Les Mis

[TheatreFreak05]

Posted: 1/7/11 at 12:24am

My favorite (and also from "Move On")

"Anything you do,
let it come from you,
and it will be new.
Give us more to see."

[bwayfan7000]

Posted: 1/7/11 at 12:44am

Another from Into the Woods..."Nice is different than good."

[Overkill]

Posted: 1/7/11 at 12:48am

Another from SUNDAY IN THE PARK WITH GEORGE.

This has always, always been my favorite lyric from a musical, from "Beautiful":

Pretty isn't beautiful. Pretty is what changes. What the eye arranges is what is beautiful.

[BroadwayNorth2]

Posted: 1/7/11 at 12:50am

I'm not sure about "nice is different than good"; can it really be taken out of its context and understood by someone who's never seen ITW or the particular scene?

Updated On: 1/7/11 at 12:50 AM

[alawhat]

Posted: 1/7/11 at 1:15am

I think 'nice is different from good' completely makes sense out of context...

[angelxschunard]

Posted: 1/7/11 at 1:38am

"Life is a mistake that only art can correct." -Passing Strange.

[chewy5000]

Posted: 1/7/11 at 2:28am

"Take some time for yourself. I'm going to go have sex with your father."

[rougeduck]

Posted: 1/7/11 at 2:32am

I'M JOHN QUINCY ADAMS!

[HistoryBoy2]

Posted: 1/7/11 at 8:17am

"What use is sitting alone in your room? Come hear the music play!" ~ Cabaret

"Nobody's on nobody's side" ~ Chess

"Men are stupid, men are vain; love's disgusting, love's insane - a humiliating business." ~ A Little Night Music

[backwoodsbarbie]

Posted: 1/7/11 at 8:20am

This is very obvious, but "careful the things you say, children will listen, careful the things you do, children will see" from Into the Woods.

[CockeyedOptimist2]

Posted: 1/7/11 at 9:15am

"When the Lord closes a door, somewhere he opens a window" (Sound of Music)
"Climb every mountain, ford every stream, follow every rainbow till you find your dream" (Sound of Music)
"Life's not worth a sham til you can shout out loud I am what I am" (La Cage aux Folles)

There are so many more but I'm late for work...I'll come up with some more on the way.

[HummingAlong]

Posted: 1/7/11 at 9:17am

Day after day,
Wishing all our cares away
trying to fight the things we feel,
But some hurts never heal. Some ghosts are never gone,
But we go on...we still go on.
And you find some way to survive,
And you find out you don't have to be happy at all to be happy you're alive...

Day after day,
Give me clouds and rain and gray
Give me pain if that's what real
It's the price we pay to feel

-Next To Normal

[maesmass]

Posted: 1/7/11 at 9:50am

"Into the Woods" is abundant with them.

My particular favorite (that I chose for my high school yearbook quote): "Opportunity is not a lengthy visitor".

[Katurian2]

Posted: 1/7/11 at 10:31am

"By your pupils you'll be taught." - King and I

Updated On: 1/7/11 at 10:31 AM

[TheatreFan27]

Posted: 1/7/11 at 10:50am

"But there are dreams that cannot be, and there are storms we cannot weather" from LES MIS. Very sobering but very beautiful.

[jpbran]

Posted: 1/7/11 at 11:34am

There are a ton from Sondheim, but "nice is different than good" is a favorite (and yes, perfect even out of context.) "There's a hole in the world like a great black pit, and it's filled with people who are filled with ****!" Tru dat. (sometimes)

And -- cheese alert -- Larson's "no day but today" is a simple truism that more people should take to heart.

[GlindatheGood22]

Posted: 1/7/11 at 12:57pm

"Life is around you and in you." - Hair

"Start by admitting from cradle to tomb, it isn't that long a stay." - Cabaret

"What difference does it make? An offer comes, you take." - Cabaret

"The darkest skies with someday see the sun." Next to Normal

[madbrian]

Posted: 1/7/11 at 1:17pm

You've got to be taught
To hate and fear,
You've got to be taught
From year to year,
It's got to be drummed
In your dear little ear
You've got to be carefully taught.

You've got to be taught to be afraid
Of people whose eyes are oddly made,
And people whose skin is a diff'rent shade,
You've got to be carefully taught.

You've got to be taught before it's too late,
Before you are six or seven or eight,
To hate all the people your relatives hate,
You've got to be carefully taught!

[dragonlp86]

Posted: 1/7/11 at 1:27pm

"You don't have to be happy at all to be happy you're alive."

[Sauja]

Posted: 1/7/11 at 1:32pm

Folks have already tackled the two shows whose lyrics immediately popped to mind. Obviously Into the Woods is a cup that runneth over. I personally love, "The difference between a cow and a bean is a bean can begin an adventure." But context is all in that one.

I also love this from Passing Strange:
Wish we could talk about how the means will not prepare you for the ends.
How your epiphanies become fair-weather friends.
How death will make you lower your defenses.
The only truth of youth is the grown-up consequences.

[GertrudeMcFuzz]

Posted: 1/7/11 at 1:43pm

From Sunday in the Park with George:

"It's not so much do what you like as it is that you like what you do."

Words to live by.