The Dude is more than just a character, he's a force of nature, an idea whose time is always present.

This is a perfect movie; there is literally not situation to which portions of dialog from The Big Lebowski cannot be used to keep things in perspective.

Also, I treat objects like women, man.

Seems to me that he is a larger-than-life character, even though it is fictional.Jeff Bridges is perfect in the role, which no doubt gives a lot o weight to the movie. Love it.

to treat objects like women sounds pretty much like the definition of a fetish to me.

Kidding aside: It's hard to tell the most memorable line or scene, since I've watched that movie gazillions of times.
But it is probably the introduction of Jesus. The gypsie version of "Hotel California", Turturro licking the bowling ball, the dance, the funny dialogue until it goes "klick".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rsucK43_DoM

And of the course the dream sequence after the Dude went to Jackie Treehorn. I think there already was a discussion of that here on the site. It refers to multiple things that appear in the movie but just so subtle that, if you watch the movie for the first or second time, you would probably never recognize. I think that might be one of the factors that made this a cult classic. Every time you rewatch it there is more that you discover.

I took a class with Pete Exline. One of my fellow classmates straight up asked him what was the deal with "the Dude". He almost avoided the question, but then talked about the rug he found that tied some room together.

This is my FAVORITE film of ALL time and for me, the appeal of the Dude has always just been that he's a minimalist. Give him a roof over his head,a crappy car,decent rug, a bowl of weed and a few frames of bowling. That's it. He's happy. I think that's what makes him so admirable. He isn't concerned nor does he seem to know anything about the "rat race". Most people would revel in being so secure with having so few material possessions and not giving a damn if you ever acquire more.