August 18

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Quotes of the day from previous years:

2003
It's a thingy! A fiendish thingy! ~ George Harrison in Help!
2004
The best mind-altering drug is the truth. ~ Lily Tomlin
2005
If you continue to hate, you are entering into the same philosophy that began the war. You have to look forward at people and new times. ~ Roman Polański (born 18 August 1933)
2006
When childhood dies, its corpses are called adults and they enter society, one of the politer names of hell. That is why we dread children, even if we love them. They show us the state of our decay. ~ Brian Aldiss (born 18 August 1925)
2007
What we say is the truth is what everybody accepts ... Psychiatry: it's the latest religion. We decide what's right and wrong. We decide who's crazy or not. I'm in trouble here. I'm losing my faith. ~ Madeleine Stowe as "Dr. Kathryn Railly" in Twelve Monkeys (born 18 August 1958)
2008
Oh, my Lolita, I have only words to play with! ~ Vladimir Nabokov in Lolita (50th anniversary of its publication in the United States on 18 August 1958)
2009
Tho' the world could turn from you,
This, at least, I learn from you:
Beauty and Truth, tho' never found, are worthy to be sought,
The singer, upward-springing,
Is grander than his singing,
And tranquil self-sufficing joy illumes the dark of thought.
~ Robert Williams Buchanan ~
2010
I saw the starry Tree
Eternity
Put forth the blossom Time.
~ Robert Williams Buchanan ~
2011
I ask no more from mortals
Than your beautiful face implies,—
The beauty the artist beholding
Interprets and sanctifies.
Who says that men have fallen,
That life is wretched and rough?
I say, the world is lovely,
And that loveliness is enough.
~ Robert Williams Buchanan ~
2012
I can't help believing that these things that come from the subconscious mind have a sort of truth to them. It may not be a scientific truth, but it's psychological truth.
~ Brian Aldiss ~
2013 
Rank or add further suggestions…

Ranking system:

4 : Excellent - should definitely be used.
3 : Very Good - strong desire to see it used.
2 : Good - some desire to see it used.
1 : Acceptable - but with no particular desire to see it used.
0 : Not acceptable - not appropriate for use as a quote of the day.

Suggestions [edit]

The pleasure and joy of man lies in treading down the rebel and conquering the enemy, in tearing him up by the root, in taking from him all that he has. - Genghis Khan, died this day.

  • 3 AllanHainey 12:00, 26 July 2005 (UTC)
  • 3 ~ MosheZadka (Talk) 06:32, 31 July 2005 (UTC)
  • 1 Kalki 12:00, 16 August 2007 (UTC) with a strong lean toward 0.
  • 2 InvisibleSun 23:31, 17 August 2007 (UTC)
  • 3 because the desire to completely dominate exists in mankind and this quote says it perfectly, Khan had the tendency to say it as it was. Zarbon 15:42, 24 April 2008 (UTC)
  • 3 Peace and Passion ("I'm listening....") 05:55, 12 August 2009 (UTC) Not for the content / meaning, but I think it fits well as QOTD.

You have to show violence the way it is. If you don't show it realistically, then that's immoral and harmful. If you don't upset people, then that's obscenity. ~ Roman Polański (date of birth)

Whatever creativity is, it is in part a solution to a problem. ~ Brian Aldiss (born 18 August 1925)

  • 3 Kalki 12:12, 16 August 2005 (UTC) with a strong lean toward 4. I would rank this as one of the best as yet suggested here, but feel a certain inclination to use the Madeleine Stowe quote on Psychiatry this year in expectation of using the Nabokov one next year.
  • 3 InvisibleSun 23:31, 17 August 2007 (UTC)
  • 1 Zarbon 15:42, 24 April 2008 (UTC)
  • 2 Peace and Passion ("I'm listening....") 05:55, 12 August 2009 (UTC)

Ach! I know. If I were to play the Pathetique or the Moonlight Sonata for the high judges, they would let me off. But my defense unfortunately will not be musical. ~ Walther Funk (born August 18)

  • 3 because the sheer thought of a musical defense would be interesting. Zarbon 04:29, 18 April 2008 (UTC)
    • SOURCE: The Nuremberg Interviews by Leon Goldensohn, Robert Gellately - History - 2004 - Page 82
  • 1 Kalki 08:13, 17 August 2008 (UTC)
  • 1 InvisibleSun 21:46, 17 August 2008 (UTC)
  • 3 Peace and Passion ("I'm listening....") 05:55, 12 August 2009 (UTC) I usually do not agree with Zarbon's votes here (and never his reasonings), but there is "something" to this quote.

I can spot a musical type. I can tell by looking at a woman whether she is a contralto or a soprano. ~ Walther Funk (born August 18)

  • 4 because I like both contralto's and soprano's. And I'm sure both types of women would sing well. This is a very nice musical dynamic personification. Zarbon 04:29, 18 April 2008 (UTC)
    • SOURCE: The Nuremberg Interviews by Leon Goldensohn, Robert Gellately - History - 2004 - Page 83
  • 1 Kalki 08:13, 17 August 2008 (UTC)
  • 1 InvisibleSun 21:46, 17 August 2008 (UTC)
  • 1 Peace and Passion ("I'm listening....") 05:55, 12 August 2009 (UTC)

A race that binds
Its body in chains and calls them Liberty,
And calls each fresh link Progress.
~ Robert Williams Buchanan

  • 2 Zarbon 05:58, 28 May 2008 (UTC)
  • 2 Kalki 08:13, 17 August 2008 (UTC) but would extend this slightly to read:
Even on the white English crags
A few strong spirits, in a race that binds
Its body in chains and calls them Liberty,
And calls each fresh link Progress, stood erect
With faces pale that hunger'd to the light.

All that is beautiful shall abide,
All that is base shall die.
~ Robert Williams Buchanan

  • 2 Zarbon 05:58, 28 May 2008 (UTC)
  • 3 Kalki 08:13, 17 August 2008 (UTC), but would prefer to extend this for context and could give this a four:
In Balder's hand Christ placed His own,
And it was golden weather,
And on that berg as on a throne
The Brethren stood together!

And countless voices far and wide
Sang sweet beneath the sky —
"All that is beautiful shall abide,
All that is base shall die."

Cassandra in Greek legend, you recall, was condemned to know the future but to be disbelieved when she foretold it. Hence the agony of foreknowledge combined with the impotence to do anything about it.. ~ Madeleine Stowe as "Dr. Kathryn Railly" in Twelve Monkeys

I love the life of an actor because you spend brief amounts of time with other people and then you just leave. I need to be alone a lot, and I need the outdoors. ~ Madeleine Stowe

I'd just love to see a great love story, and nobody makes them anymore. ~ Madeleine Stowe

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