Advocacy & Safety - Favorite bike quotes

The wisest thing J F Kennedy ever said was
Nothing compares to the simple pleasure of a bike ride. This was printed on a trails map I got for my region, and struck a chord with me. The joy of cycling has always been more important to me than the exercise, convenience, transportation, or even the thrill of Silly Commuter Racing. :D

Hemmingway's observation doesn't hit quite the same note, but describes something I think everybody in this forum knows very well, and might have trouble explaining to the avid motorists we know:
It is by riding a bicycle that you learn the contours of a country best, since you have to sweat up the hills and coast down them. Thus you remember them as they actually are, while in a motor car only a high hill impresses you, and you have no such accurate remembrance of country you have driven through as you gain by riding a bicycle.

This one, by Louis Heller Jr, is another favorite:
Bicycling is the nearest approximation I know to the flight of birds. The airplane simply carries a man on its back like an obedient Pegasus; it gives him no wings of his own.

Finally, Grant Peterson weighs in:


Think of bicycles as rideable art that can just about save the world.

So what quotes have you read or heard about cycling, that have stuck with you ever since? This being the advocacy forum, and not just safety, I wonder what wisdom others have already shared? Not that clever quotes prove anything, or change laws, but a little bit of inspiration never hurt anybody. ;)

Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving
A.Einstein


It doesn't get any easier, you just go faster.

G.Lemond

Get a bicycle. You will not regret it if you live. ~Mark Twain, "Taming the Bicycle"

Mark Twain was right. I got a bicycle, I lived, and I don't regret either one of those things... :D

"I came out for exercise, gentle exercise, and to notice the scenery and to botanise. And no sooner do I get on the accursed machine, than off I go hammer and tongs; I never look to right or left, never notice a flower, never see a view, get hot, juicy, red,--like a grilled chop."

-H.G. Wells, The Wheels of Chance.

"Riding is the only drug that's actually good for you, and has no ill side effects." -- Me, as told to a store manager at work several years ago, at the conclusion of a rainy ride.

The civilized man has built a coach, but has lost the use of his feet. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson, "Self-Reliance," 1841

"All bikes are 40 pounds. A 40 pound bike doesn't need a lock. A 15 pound bike needs 25 pounds of locks."

pgoat (http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=489015) here on bikeforums. It might need some tuning to be catchier...

"All bikes are 40 pounds. A 40 pound bike doesn't need a lock. A 30 pound bike only needs 10 pounds of locks. A 20 pound bike needs 20 pounds of locks..."

"Big wheels are for when you've admitted to yourself that you're old." Taken from the Vintage BMX forums, in a discussion on (BMX) cruisers.

"You're not wearing a helmet? YOU'REGOINNADIEYOU'REGOINNADIEYOU'REGOINNADIEYOU'REGOINNADIEYOU'REGOINNADIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

-Random A&S helmet nannies.

-Kurt

I started sending emails with "motivational or funny bike quotes" several times a week to my non-rider friends about a year ago. A few of them have actually started riding since. I've slowed down some in the last few months because I've been really busy, but also because I'm having a hard time finding new, great, quotes. Here are some of my favorites. At least several of them were found on Bike Forums in some form or another.



"No wonder we keep testing positive in their bicycle races. Everyone looks like they're full of testosterone when they're surrounded by Frenchmen." – Argus Hamilton

“Light. Strong. Cheap. Pick two.” – Keith Bontrager-Bicycle Designer


“There are two types of road bikers: Bikers who are faster than me, and me.” – Bruce Cameron


“If it weren't for bicycles, world domination would be within my grasp!” – Stuart Black

“[A bicycle is] an unparalleled merger of a toy, a utilitarian vehicle, and sporting equipment. The bicycle can be used in so many ways, and approaches perfection in each use. For instance, the bicycle is the most efficient machine ever created: Converting calories into gas, a bicycle gets the equivalent of three thousand miles per gallon. A person pedaling a bike uses energy more efficiently than a gazelle or an eagle. And a triangle-framed bicycle can easily carry ten times its own weight - a capacity no automobile, airplane, or bridge can match.” – Bill Strickland

“My mother and I have a difference of opinion. She thinks I should go see a shrink; I think I should buy a new bike.” – Alex Obbard


“Pain is temporary. It may last a minute, or an hour, or a day, or a year, but eventually it will subside and something else will take its place. If I quit however, it lasts forever.” – Lance Armstrong

“Let's have a moment of silence for all those Americans who are stuck in traffic on their way to the gym to ride the stationary bicycle.” – Earl Blumenauer

“A bike is the world's most used form of transportation” – David Byrne

"When man invented the bicycle, he reached the peak of his attainments. Here was a machine of precision and balance for the convenience of man. And unlike subsequent inventions for mans convenience, the more he used it the fitter his body became. Here, for once was a product of mans brain that was entirely beneficial to those who used it, and of no harm or irritation to others. Progress should have stopped when man invented the bicycle." – Elizabeth West

“The sound of a car door opening in front of you is similar to the sound of a gun being cocked.”– Amy Webster

“When I see an adult on a bicycle, I do not despair for the future of the human race.” – H.G. Wells

“Bicycling is a big part of the future. It has to be. There's something wrong with a society that drives a car to workout in a gym.” – Bill Nye the Science Guy

“Cycling to work is an important issue for business – the more who do it, the more our communities will support it. Healthy and green, cycling is worthy of the support of every business in the land.” – Sir Digby Jones, Director General of the Confederation for British Industry

“In 2008, Dutch researchers asked people to match an emotion to each of various forms of transportation. The number one match for bicycling was…..JOY.”


"The reward for riding up hills, is the fun of riding down them." – Barry McCarty

“Marriage is a wonderful invention; but then again, so is a bicycle repair kit.” – Billy Connolly

“When I was a kid I used to pray every night for a new bicycle. Then I realized that the Lord doesn’t work that way, so I stole one and asked Him to forgive me.” – Emo Philips

http://www.quotegarden.com/bicycling.html