Wikiquote:Quote of the day/January

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Today is Friday, December 5, 2008; it is now 13:12 (UTC)


December << January 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 >> February

This page lists quote of the day proposals specifically for dates in the month of January, and quotes proposed should ideally have some relation to the day, or persons born on it, though sometimes exceptions can be made, usually for notable quotes that relate to recent events, such as the death of prominent individuals. Developing ideas of people or works to quote on specific days can be explored through the Wikipedia page: List of historical anniversaries. The numeric section heading of each date is also a direct link to the Wikipedia list of births, deaths, and other events which occured on that date.

See also: January 2008

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.
2004
Jackie Biskupski is running for a seat in the Utah Legislature, and she's attracting a lot of attention because she's a lesbian. Her Republican opponent, Dan Alderson, is a staunch Mormon, and is running a negative ad campaign calling her lifestyle abnormal and deviant. His six wives agree. ~ Rick Mercer, on This Hour Has 22 Minutes (12 October 1998)
2005
Ring out false pride in place and blood,
The civic slander and the spite;
Ring in the love of truth and right,
Ring in the common love of good.
~ Alfred, Lord Tennyson ~
2006
Only connect! That was the whole of her sermon. Only connect the prose and the passion, and both will be exalted, and human love will be seen at its height. Live in fragments no longer. Only connect, and the beast and the monk, robbed of the isolation that is life to either, will die. ~ E. M. Forster (date of birth)
2007
I do not believe in Belief. But this is an Age of Faith, and there are so many militant creeds that, in self defence, one has to formulate a creed of one's own. Tolerance, good temper and sympathy are no longer enough in a world where ignorance rules, and Science, which ought to have ruled, plays the pimp. Tolerance, good temper and sympathy — they are what matter really, and if the human race is not to collapse they must come to the front before long. ~ E. M. Forster
2008
What is wonderful about great literature is that it transforms the man who reads it towards the condition of the man who wrote, and brings to birth in us also the creative impulse. ~ E. M. Forster
  • proposed by Fys
2009

[edit] Suggestions

I have good dispositions; my life has been hitherto harmless and in some degree beneficial; but a fatal prejudice clouds their eyes, and where they ought to see a feeling and kind friend, they behold only a detestable monster. ~ Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, published that day

  • 2. Fys. “Ta fys aym”. 13:52, 30 December 2006 (UTC)
  • 2 Kalki 07:36, 31 December 2006 (UTC) Not a great lead for any "New Year"...
  • 2 InvisibleSun 09:21, 31 December 2006 (UTC)
  • 1 Zarbon 17:50, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

The people I respect most behave as if they were immortal and as if society was eternal. ~ E. M. Forster

  • 3 Kalki 07:36, 31 December 2006 (UTC)
  • 3 InvisibleSun 09:21, 31 December 2006 (UTC)
  • 1 Zarbon 17:50, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

If God could tell the story of the Universe, the Universe would become fictitious. ~ E. M. Forster

Most of us will be eclectics to this side or that according to our temperament. The human mind is not a dignified organ, and I do not see how we can exercise it sincerely except through eclecticism. And the only advice I would offer my fellow eclectics is: "Do not be proud of your inconsistency. It is a pity, it is a pity that we should be equipped like this. It is a pity that Man cannot be at the same time impressive and truthful." ~ E. M. Forster

Those who seek absolute power, even though they seek it to do what they regard as good, are simply demanding the right to enforce their own version of heaven on earth. And let me remind you, they are the very ones who always create the most hellish tyrannies. Absolute power does corrupt, and those who seek it must be suspect and must be opposed. ~ Barry Goldwater

  • 3 Kalki 07:36, 31 December 2006 (UTC)
  • 3 InvisibleSun 09:21, 31 December 2006 (UTC)
  • 1 Zarbon 17:50, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

My faith in the future rests squarely on the belief that man, if he doesn't first destroy himself, will find new answers in the universe, new technologies, new disciplines, which will contribute to a vastly different and better world in the twenty-first century...To my mind the single essential element on which all discoveries will be dependent is human freedom. ~ Barry Goldwater

  • 3 Kalki 07:36, 31 December 2006 (UTC)
  • 3 InvisibleSun 09:21, 31 December 2006 (UTC)
  • 1 Zarbon 17:50, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

Civilizations have been founded and maintained on theories which refused to obey facts. ~ Joe Orton (born January 1, 1933)

God will not forgive us if we fail. ~ Leonid Brezhnev (born January 1)

  • 3 Zarbon 06:41, 21 April 2008 (UTC)
    • SOURCE: Understanding the Cold War: A Historian's Personal Reflections - Page 269 - by Adam Bruno Ulam - History - 2002

It is madness for any country to build its policy with an eye to nuclear war. ~ Leonid Brezhnev (born January 1)

  • 3 Zarbon 06:41, 21 April 2008 (UTC)
    • SOURCE: Indefensible Weapons: The Political and Psychological Case Against Nuclearism - Page 224 by Robert Jay Lifton, Richard A. Falk - Political Science - 1982


2004
Nationalism is an infantile disease. It is the measles of mankind. ~ Albert Einstein
2005
We are all in this together. ~ English proverb
2006
How often people speak of art and science as though they were two entirely different things, with no interconnection...That is all wrong. The true artist is quite rational as well as imaginative and knows what he is doing; if he does not, his art suffers. The true scientist is quite imaginative as well as rational, and sometimes leaps to solutions where reason can follow only slowly; if he does not, his science suffers. ~ Isaac Asimov (born c. 2 January 1920)
2007
Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent. ~ Isaac Asimov
2008
When people grow wise in one direction, they are sure to make it easier for themselves to grow wise in other directions as well. On the other hand, when they split up knowledge, concentrate on their own field, and scorn and ignore other fields, they grow less wise — even in their own field. ~ Isaac Asimov
2009

[edit] Suggestions

I prefer rationalism to atheism. The question of God and other objects-of-faith are outside reason and play no part in rationalism, thus you don't have to waste your time in either attacking or defending. ~ Isaac Asimov (date of birth)

  • 3 Kalki 01:10, 2 January 2006 (UTC)
  • 3 InvisibleSun 13:51, 1 January 2007 (UTC)
  • 1 Zarbon 17:51, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

Those people who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do. ~ Isaac Asimov (date of birth)

  • 2 Kalki 01:10, 2 January 2006 (UTC) (A paraphrase of this by "anonymous" was onced used as QOTD prior to indications of this originating with Asimov, but I would eventually like to use this as well, IF we can find sourcing of it. I generally prefer to avoid "anonymous" quotes in QOTDs, and now would rank them highly only if they were some widely known "traditional" lyrics or proverb.)
  • 1 Zarbon 17:51, 22 April 2008 (UTC)


2004
Ring out a slowly dying cause,
And ancient forms of party strife;
Ring in the nobler modes of life,
With sweeter manners, purer laws.
~ Alfred, Lord Tennyson ~
2005
No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend's or of thine own were. Any man's death diminishes me because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee… ~ John Donne
2006
Not to know what happened before you were born is to be a child forever. For what is the time of a man, except it be interwoven with that memory of ancient things of a superior age? ~ Cicero (born 3 January 106 BC)
2007
Each comprehended only that part of the mind of Ilúvatar from which he came, and in the understanding of their brethren they grew but slowly. Yet ever as they listened they came to deeper understanding, and increased in unison and harmony. ~ J. R. R. Tolkien in The Silmarillion
2008
The rule of no realm is mine, neither of Gondor nor any other, great or small. But all worthy things that are in peril as the world now stands, those are my care. And for my part, I shall not wholly fail of my task, though Gondor should perish, if anything passes through this night that can still grow fair or bear fruit and flower again in days to come. ~ "Gandalf" in The Lord of the Rings : The Return of the King by J. R. R. Tolkien
2009

[edit] Suggestions

Gratitude is not only the greatest of virtues, but the parent of all others. ~ Cicero (born January 3)

  • 3 Zarbon 17:05, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

Let your desires be ruled by reason. ~ Cicero (born January 3)

  • 3 because reasoning is more important than mere desires. Zarbon 17:05, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

A room without books is like a body without a soul. ~ Cicero (born January 3)

  • 3 because without knowledge, we have emptiness. Zarbon 17:05, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

Friends, though absent, are present still. ~ Cicero (born January 3)

  • 3 because death is not an end. The memory will always remain and linger. Magnificent. Zarbon 17:05, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

We must not say every mistake is a foolish one. ~ Cicero (born January 3)

  • 3 because sometimes good comes from one's mistakes, elegant. Zarbon 17:05, 22 April 2008 (UTC)


2005
I know this in no way alleviates the enormous amounts of pain and loss experienced by those who have suffered from the tsunami, but I hope it can make a difference. ~ Sandra Bullock on her large donation to tsunami relief efforts of the American Red Cross
2006
I do not know what I may appear to the world, but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the sea-shore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me. ~ Isaac Newton (born 4 January 1643)
2007
Men learn little from others' experience. But in the life of one man, never the same time returns. ~ T. S. Eliot, in Murder in the Cathedral (died 4 January 1965)
2008
The main Business of natural Philosophy is to argue from Phenomena without feigning Hypotheses, and to deduce Causes from Effects, till we come to the very first Cause, which certainly is not mechanical. ~ Isaac Newton (born 4 January 1643)
2009

Quotes by people born this day, already used as QOTD:

  • To explain all nature is too difficult a task for any one man or even for any one age. 'Tis much better to do a little with certainty, and leave the rest for others that come after you, than to explain all things. ~ Isaac Newton

[edit] Suggestions

If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants. ~ Isaac Newton (born January 4, 1643)

  • 3 InvisibleSun 22:38, 3 January 2007 (UTC)
  • 1 Kalki 16:16, 3 January 2008 (UTC) A variant of this has already been used. ~ Kalki 16:16, 3 January 2008 (UTC)
  • 3 Zarbon 17:53, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

I can calculate the motions of the heavenly bodies, but not the madness of people. ~ Isaac Newton

  • 3 Kalki 19:23, 3 January 2008 (UTC)
  • 3 InvisibleSun 21:50, 3 January 2008 (UTC)
  • 3 because it is true, where civilization has not been able to find an explanation for many of mankind's follies. Zarbon 17:53, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

Truth is ever to be found in simplicity, and not in the multiplicity and confusion of things. ~ Isaac Newton

  • 3 Kalki 19:23, 3 January 2008 (UTC)
  • 3 InvisibleSun 21:50, 3 January 2008 (UTC)
  • 1 Zarbon 17:53, 22 April 2008 (UTC)


2004
Skeptical scrutiny is the means, in both science and religion, by which deep thoughts can be winnowed from deep nonsense. ~ Carl Sagan
2005
I can not do everything, but I can do something. I must not fail to do the something that I can do. ~ Helen Keller
2006
Evil spreads with the wind; truth is capable of speading even against it. ~ Paramahansa Yogananda (born 5 January 1893)
2007
All statements are true in some sense, false in some sense, meaningless in some sense, true and false in some sense, true and meaningless in some sense, false and meaningless in some sense, and true and false and meaningless in some sense. ~ Principia Discordia
  • proposed by Kalki (for the anniversary of discovery of the "dwarf planet" Eris, named after the patron goddess of the Discordians)
2008
A dreaded society is not a civilized society. The most progressive and powerful society in the civilized sense, is a society which has recognized its ethos, and come to terms with the past and the present, with religion and science, with modernism and mysticism, with materialism and spirituality; a society free of tension, a society rich in culture. Such a society cannot come with hocus-pocus formulas and with fraud. It has to flow from the depth of a divine search. ~ Zulfikar Ali Bhutto (born 5 January 1928)
2009

[edit] Suggestions

Nothing in the world can take the place of Persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan "Press On" has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race. ~ Calvin Coolidge (Date of death)

  • 3 ~ UDScott 00:22, 2 January 2006 (UTC)
  • 1 ~ Kalki 00:04, 5 January 2007 (UTC) I would normally rank this a 3, if I were confident of it's authorship, but though this has been attributed to Coolidge, I have found no definitive source; though in one book I actually found the definite statement that he said this on the 4th of July 1872, this would be quite extraordinary, as that was the day he was born. Some attributions state that entrepreneur Ray Kroc used it as an "inspirational dictum" but not clearly stating any author, and thus I am doubtful of attributing it to Coolidge, and reluctant to use it until authorship is more clearly determined.
  • 3 Zarbon 17:56, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

Reality is the original Rorschach. ~ Principia Discordia

  • 3 Kalki 00:04, 5 January 2007 (UTC)
  • 1 Zarbon 17:56, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

I am guiding you to seek truth from the facts of the historical conditions of our society and to identify the problems. The correct solutions will come with the correct identification of the problems. ~ Zulfikar Ali Bhutto (born 5 January 1928)

  • 3 Kalki 19:14, 4 January 2008 (UTC)
  • 1 Zarbon 17:56, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

If people really stopped and realized how much art and creative people move the world versus politics and religion, I mean it's not even up for debate. An artist at least creates things, puts things into the world. Whereas these other people are destroying things, taking things out of the world. ~ Marilyn Manson

  • 3 Zarbon 15:07, 1 July 2008 (UTC)

Sometimes we admire the feathers and ignore the dying bird. ~ Marilyn Manson

  • 3 Zarbon 15:07, 1 July 2008 (UTC)

...anything that is a church is really just far too close minded. ~ Marilyn Manson

  • 2 Zarbon 15:07, 1 July 2008 (UTC)


2004
All of humanity is in peril of extinction if each one of us does not dare, now and henceforth, always to tell only the truth, and all the truth, and to do so promptly — right now. ~ Buckminster Fuller
2005
I know the biggest crime is just to throw up your hands and say "This has nothing to do with me, I just want to live as comfortably as I can." ~ Ani DiFranco
2006
In the future days which we seek to make secure, we look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms. The first is freedom of speech and expression — everywhere in the world. The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way — everywhere in the world. The third is freedom from want... everywhere in the world. The fourth is freedom from fear... anywhere in the world. That is no vision of a distant millennium. It is a definite basis for a kind of world attainable in our own time and generation. ~ Franklin Delano Roosevelt
2007
History is the present. That's why every generation writes it anew. But what most people think of as history is its end product, myth. ~ E.L. Doctorow (born 6 January 1931)
2008
Yesterday we obeyed kings and bent our necks before emperors. But today we kneel only to truth, follow only beauty, and obey only love. ~ Khalil Gibran (born 6 January 1883)
2009

[edit] Suggestions

There is no formula for generating the authentic warmth of love. It cannot be copied. You cannot talk yourself into it or rouse it by straining at the emotions or by dedicating yourself solemnly to the service of mankind. Everyone has love, but it can only come out when he is convinced of the impossibility and the frustration of trying to love himself. This conviction will not come through condemnations, through hating oneself, through calling self love bad names in the universe. It comes only in the awareness that one has no self to love. ~ Alan Watts (born 6 January 1915)

  • 3 Kalki 00:43, 9 March 2008 (UTC)
  • 1 Zarbon 17:57, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

Progress lies not in enhancing what is, but in advancing toward what will be. ~ Khalil Gibran

  • 3 because enhancement [the betterment of already existing formulas and inventions] and advancement [the creation of entirely new formulas and inventions] are two different things. Zarbon 04:48, 1 May 2008 (UTC)

Your thought sees power in armies, cannons, battleships, submarines, aeroplanes, and poison gas. But mine asserts that power lies in reason, resolution, and truth. ~ Khalil Gibran

  • 3 because I agree with Gibran here. It's true that my thought sees power in armies, cannons, battleships, submarines, aeroplanes, and poison gas. He forgot to mention atomic bombs, rocket launchers, tanks, and heat-seeking missiles...but yeah, he's right. He asserts furthermore that he finds power in reason, resolution, and truth. Not so sure how far that would go against an entire army, but it is a rather moral perspective painted by Gibran here, a dynamic comparison, if you will. Zarbon 04:48, 1 May 2008 (UTC)

To understand the heart and mind of a person, look not at what he has already achieved, but what he aspires to. ~ Khalil Gibran

  • 3 because to see where a person's going, one must understand that person's aspirations. Zarbon 04:48, 1 May 2008 (UTC)

Planning to write is not writing. Outlining ...researching ...talking to people about what you’re doing, none of that is writing. Writing is writing. ~ E. L. Doctorow

  • 3 because planning to do something and actually doing it are two different things. Zarbon 04:53, 1 May 2008 (UTC)


2004
Truth alone will endure; all the rest will be swept away before the tide of time. ~ Mohandas Gandhi
2005
The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew. ~ Abraham Lincoln
2006
There is no first world and third world. There is only one world, for all of us to live and delight in. ~ Gerald Durrell (born 7 January 1925)
2007
It does not do harm to the mystery to know a little more about it. For far more marvelous is the truth than any artists of the past imagined it. Why do the poets of the present not speak of it? What men are poets who can speak of Jupiter if he were a man, but if he is an immense spinning sphere of methane and ammonia must be silent? ~ Richard Feynman (speaking of art, reality, and Jupiter, which Galileo Galilei discovered to have moons on this day in 1610)
2008
You cannot begin to preserve any species of animal unless you preserve the habitat in which it dwells. Disturb or destroy that habitat and you will exterminate the species as surely as if you had shot it. So conservation means that you have to preserve forest and grassland, river and lake, even the sea itself. This is not only vital for the preservation of animal life generally, but for the future existence of man himself — a point that seems to escape many people. ~ Gerald Durrell (born 7 January 1925)
2009

[edit] Suggestions

Ships at a distance have every man's wish on board. ~ Zora Neale Hurston (born January 7, 1891)

There are years that ask questions and years that answer. ~ Zora Neale Hurston

  • 3 InvisibleSun 09:06, 6 January 2007 (UTC)
  • 3 Kalki 04:26, 5 January 2008 (UTC)
  • 3 because this has been taught by the course of history. Very nice quotation. Zarbon 17:59, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

She pulled in her horizon like a great fish-net. Pulled it from around the waist of the world and draped it over her shoulder. So much of life in its meshes! She called in her soul to come and see. ~ Zora Neale Hurston

Love, I find is like singing. Everybody can do enough to satisfy themselves, though it may not impress the neighbors as being very much. ~ Zora Neale Hurston

  • 3 InvisibleSun 09:06, 6 January 2007 (UTC)
  • 3 Kalki 04:26, 5 January 2008 (UTC)
  • 1 Zarbon 17:59, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

When I take people round to see my animals, one of the first questions they ask (unless the animal is cute and appealing) is, "what use is it?" by which they mean, "what use is it to them?" To this one can reply "What use is the Acropolis?" Does a creature have to be of direct material use to mankind in order to exist? By and large, by asking the question "what use is it?" you are asking the animal to justify its existence without having justified your own. ~ Gerald Durrell

  • 3 InvisibleSun 09:06, 6 January 2007 (UTC)
  • 3 Kalki 04:26, 5 January 2008 (UTC)
  • 1 Zarbon 17:59, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

Until we consider animal life to be worthy of the consideration and reverence we bestow upon old books and pictures and historic monuments, there will always be the animal refugee living a precarious life on the edge of extermination, dependent for existence on the charity of a few human beings. ~ Gerald Durrell

  • 3 InvisibleSun 09:06, 6 January 2007 (UTC)
  • 3 Kalki 04:26, 5 January 2008 (UTC)
  • 1 Zarbon 17:59, 22 April 2008 (UTC)



2004
True Love in this differs from gold and clay, That to divide is not to take away. Love is like understanding, that grows bright, Gazing on many truths. ~ Percy Bysshe Shelley
2005
The worst sin towards our fellow creatures is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them: that's the essence of inhumanity. ~ George Bernard Shaw
2006
For millions of years mankind lived just like the animals. Then something happened which unleashed the power of our imagination. We learned to talk. ~ Stephen Hawking (born 8 January 1942)
2007
Some marry the first information they receive, and turn what comes later into their concubine. Since deceit is always first to arrive, there is no room left for truth. ~ Baltasar Gracián
2008
If you cannot make knowledge your servant, make it your friend. ~ Baltasar Gracián
2009

[edit] Suggestions

Some would be sages if they did not believe they were so already. ~ Baltasar Gracián (born January 8, 1601)

  • 3 InvisibleSun 14:15, 6 January 2007 (UTC)
  • 3 Kalki 23:00, 7 January 2007 (UTC)
  • 3 because this is highly true. Many would become better if they didn't already believe themselves to be. Very powerful meaning. Zarbon 18:00, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

Politeness and a sense of honor have this advantage: we bestow them on others without losing a thing. ~ Baltasar Gracián

  • 3 InvisibleSun 14:15, 6 January 2007 (UTC)
  • 3 Kalki 23:00, 7 January 2007 (UTC)
  • 1 Zarbon 18:00, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

Some die because they feel everything, others because they feel nothing. Some are fools because they suffer no regrets, and others because they do. ~ Baltasar Gracián

  • 3 InvisibleSun 14:15, 6 January 2007 (UTC)
  • 3 Kalki 23:00, 7 January 2007 (UTC)
  • 2 Zarbon 18:00, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

Ethical obligation has to subordinate itself to the totalitarian nature of war. ~ Karl Brandt (born January 8)

  • 3 Zarbon 04:19, 18 April 2008 (UTC)
    • SOURCE: 1947 Trial Documents


2004
Shared pain is lessened; shared joy, increased — thus do we refute entropy. ~ Spider Robinson
2005
Each time a person stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, these ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance. ~ Robert F. Kennedy
2006
Life will not perish! It will begin anew with love; it will start out naked and tiny; it will take root in the wilderness, and to it all that we did and built will mean nothing — our towns and factories, our art, our ideas will all mean nothing, and yet life will not perish! Only we have perished. Our houses and machines will be in ruins, our systems will collapse, and the names of our great will fall away like dry leaves. Only you, love, will blossom on this rubbish heap and commit the seed of life to the winds. ~ Karel Čapek (born 9 January 1890)
2007
I think it is possible, and that is the most dramatic element in modern civilization, that a human truth is opposed to another human truth no less human, ideal against ideal, positive worth against worth no less positive, instead of the struggle being as we are so often told, one between noble truth and vile selfish error. ~ Karel Čapek (date of birth)
2008
One's life has value so long as one attributes value to the life of others, by means of love, friendship, indignation and compassion. ~ Simone de Beauvoir
2009

[edit] Suggestions

I am incapable of conceiving infinity, and yet I do not accept finity. I want this adventure that is the context of my life to go on without end. ~ Simone de Beauvoir (born January 9, 1908)

  • 3 InvisibleSun 22:10, 8 January 2007 (UTC)
  • 3 Kalki 14:41, 19 January 2007 (UTC)
  • 2 Zarbon 18:01, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

That's what I consider true generosity. You give your all, and yet you always feel as if it costs you nothing. ~ Simone de Beauvoir

  • 3 InvisibleSun 22:10, 8 January 2007 (UTC)
  • 3 Kalki 14:41, 19 January 2007 (UTC)
  • 1 Zarbon 18:01, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

I tore myself away from the safe comfort of certainties through my love for truth — and truth rewarded me. ~ Simone de Beauvoir

  • 4 Kalki 19:57, 8 January 2008 (UTC)
  • 3 InvisibleSun 20:10, 8 January 2008 (UTC)
  • 1 Zarbon 18:01, 22 April 2008 (UTC)


2005
The best things in life are nearest: Breath in your nostrils, light in your eyes, flowers at your feet, duties at your hand, the path of right just before you. Then do not grasp at the stars, but do life's plain, common work as it comes, certain that daily duties and daily bread are the sweetest things in life. ~ Robert Louis Stevenson
2006
Know that however ugly the parts appear
the whole remains beautiful...
... the wholeness of life and things, the divine beauty
of the universe. Love that, not man
Apart from that, or else you will share man's pitiful confusions,
or drown in despair when his days darken.
~ Robinson Jeffers (born 10 January 1887)
2007
Science and mathematics
Run parallel to reality, they symbolize it, they squint at it,
They never touch it: consider what an explosion
Would rock the bones of men into little white fragments and unsky the world
If any mind for a moment touch truth.
~ Robinson Jeffers ~
2008
I believe that the Universe is one being, all its parts are different expressions of the same energy, and they are all in communication with each other, therefore parts of one organic whole. This whole is in all its parts so beautiful, and is felt by me to be so intensely in earnest, that I am compelled to love it and to think of it as divine. ~ Robinson Jeffers
2009

[edit] Suggestions

"You are the big drop of dew under the lotus leaf, I am the smaller one on its upper side," said the dewdrop to the lake. ~ Rabindranath Tagore, Stray Birds.

  • Posted on 7 January 2006, at the January 10th QotD page, by IP 67.37.190.144
  • 2 Kalki 23:47, 9 January 2006 (UTC) (no clear correlation to the date)
  • 1 Zarbon 18:03, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

Corruption never has been compulsory; when the cities lie at the monster's feet there are left the mountains.. ~ Robinson Jeffers (date of birth)

Look west at the hill of water: it is half the planet:
this dome, this half-globe, this bulging
Eyeball of water, arched over to Asia,
Australia and white Antartica: those are the eyelids that never close;
this is the staring unsleeping
Eye of the earth; and what it watches is not our wars. ~ Robinson Jeffers (born January 10, 1887)

  • 3 InvisibleSun 21:18, 9 January 2007 (UTC)
  • 3 Kalki 21:24, 9 January 2007 (UTC)
  • 1 Zarbon 18:03, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

The gang serves lies, the passionate
Man plays his part; the cold passion for truth
Hunts in no pack. ~ Robinson Jeffers

  • 3 Kalki 21:24, 9 January 2007 (UTC)
  • 1 Zarbon 18:03, 22 April 2008 (UTC)


2005
If men would consider not so much where they differ, as wherein they agree, there would be far less of uncharitableness and angry feeling in the world. ~ Joseph Addison
2006
The sacred rights of mankind are not to be rummaged for among old parchments or musty records. They are written, as with a sunbeam, in the whole volume of human nature, by the hand of the divinity itself; and can never be erased or obscured by mortal power. ~ Alexander Hamilton (born 11 January 1755)
2007
Has it been found that bodies of men act with more rectitude or greater disinterestedness than individuals? The contrary of this has been inferred by all accurate observers of the conduct of mankind; and the inference is founded upon obvious reasons. Regard to reputation has a less active influence, when the infamy of a bad action is to be divided among a number than when it is to fall singly upon one. A spirit of faction, which is apt to mingle its poison in the deliberations of all bodies of men, will often hurry the persons of whom they are composed into improprieties and excesses, for which they would blush in a private capacity. ~ Alexander Hamilton
2008
I do indeed disbelieve that we or any other mortal men can attain on a given day to absolutely incorrigible and unimprovable truth about such matters of fact as those with which religions deal. But I reject this dogmatic ideal not out of a perverse delight in intellectual instability. I am no lover of disorder and doubt as such. Rather do I fear to lose truth by this pretension to possess it already wholly. ~ William James (born 11 January 1842)
2009

[edit] Suggestions

I have thought it my duty to exhibit things as they are, not as they ought to be. ~ Alexander Hamilton (born January 11)

  • 3 because to be frank and blatant is sometimes the best course of action. Zarbon 04:56, 2 May 2008 (UTC)

Government implies the power of making laws. It is essential to the idea of a law, that it be attended with a sanction; or, in other words, a penalty or punishment for disobedience. ~ Alexander Hamilton (born January 11)

  • 3 because without some form of punishment, there would be anarchy. Zarbon 04:56, 2 May 2008 (UTC)

Men often oppose a thing merely because they have had no agency in planning it, or because it may have been planned by those whom they dislike. ~ Alexander Hamilton (born January 11)

  • 3 because this is very true. Many times, even when men may agree with an ideology, they will decline to go along with it simply because they may dislike who is saying it. Thickheadedness has been a supreme cause of man's sheer dogmatism and blindness for his own comrades. To throw away an opinion, plan, or idea just because of who is behind it...is clearly a sign of mental blindness, one far worse than the blindness of eyesight. Zarbon 04:56, 2 May 2008 (UTC)

We must make the best of those ills which cannot be avoided. ~ Alexander Hamilton (born January 11)

  • 3 because sometimes it is important to make the best of the worst situations. Zarbon 04:56, 2 May 2008 (UTC)

When the sword is once drawn, the passions of men observe no bounds of moderation. ~ Alexander Hamilton (born January 11)

  • 3 because moderation is for those whom have not tasted victory. One who is given to unparalleled power, will eventually know no boundaries out of self reliance and overconfidence. Zarbon 04:56, 2 May 2008 (UTC)

I never expect to see a perfect work from imperfect man. ~ Alexander Hamilton (born January 11)

  • 3 because there is truly no such thing as a "perfect man" in existence and therefore, a perfect work is that much inexistent. Zarbon 04:56, 2 May 2008 (UTC)

Why has government been instituted at all? Because the passions of men will not conform to the dictates of reason and justice, without constraint. ~ Alexander Hamilton (day of Birth)

  • Potus23 00:18, 10 January 2006 (UTC)
  • 2 ~ Kalki 23:53, 10 January 2006 (UTC)
  • 2 InvisibleSun 05:24, 10 January 2007 (UTC)
  • 2 because a system of checking upon man's excesses is important. The institution of government should therefore rectify and prevent the damage of justice, furthermore constraining those who are intent on harming the government, its ideals, or being governed by their own principles not dictated by the sanctions of law. Zarbon 18:06, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

The history of human conduct does not warrant that exalted opinion of human virtue which would make it wise in a nation to commit interests of so delicate and momentous a kind as those which concern its intercourse with the rest of the world to the sole disposal of a magistrate, created and circumstanced, as would be a President of the United States. ~ Alexander Hamilton (born January 11, 1755 or 1757)

Real culture lives by sympathies and admirations, not by dislikes and disdain — under all misleading wrappings it pounces unerringly upon the human core. ~ William James (born 11 January 1842)

  • 3 Kalki 23:27, 9 January 2007 (UTC)
  • 3 InvisibleSun 05:24, 10 January 2007 (UTC)
  • 1 Zarbon 18:06, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

There is but one indefectibly certain truth, and that is the truth that pyrrhonistic scepticism itself leaves standing, — the truth that the present phenomenon of consciousness exists. ~ William James (born 11 January 1842)

  • 3 Kalki 23:27, 9 January 2007 (UTC)
  • 3 InvisibleSun 05:24, 10 January 2007 (UTC)
  • 1 Zarbon 18:06, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

Genius, in truth, means little more than the faculty of perceiving in an unhabitual way. ~ William James (born 11 January 1842)

  • 3 Kalki 23:27, 9 January 2007 (UTC)
  • 3 InvisibleSun 05:24, 10 January 2007 (UTC)
  • 1 Zarbon 18:06, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

Be not afraid of life. Believe that life is worth living, and your belief will help create the fact. ~ William James (born 11 January 1842)

  • 3 Kalki 23:27, 9 January 2007 (UTC)
  • 2 InvisibleSun 05:24, 10 January 2007 (UTC)
  • 3 Zarbon 18:06, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

The normal process of life contains moments as bad as any of those which insane melancholy is filled with, moments in which radical evil gets its innings and takes its solid turn. The lunatic's visions of horror are all drawn from the material of daily fact. ~ William James

  • 4 InvisibleSun 05:24, 10 January 2007 (UTC)
  • 3 Kalki 14:47, 19 January 2007 (UTC)
  • 2 Zarbon 18:06, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

Man's chief difference from the brutes lies in the exuberant excess of his subjective propensities — his preeminence over them simply and solely in the number and in the fantastic and unnecessary character of his wants, physical, moral, aesthetic, and intellectual. Had his whole life not been a quest for the superfluous, he would never have established himself as inexpugnably as he has done in the necessary. ~ William James

  • 3 InvisibleSun 05:24, 10 January 2007 (UTC)
  • 2 Kalki 14:47, 19 January 2007 (UTC)
  • 1 Zarbon 18:06, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

Away with all cars, they are the devil's work! ~ Kudno Mojesic. He was arrested in the street outside his Belgrade home attacking cars with an axe. Sunday Mirror, London UK: 11TH January 1976.

  • 4 ds238 03:46, 9 June 2008 (PST)

There are two ways of constructing a software design: One way is to make it so simple that there are obviously no deficiencies, and the other way is to make it so complicated that there are no obvious deficiencies. The first method is far more difficult. It demands the same skill, devotion, insight, and even inspiration as the discovery of the simple physical laws which underlie the complex phenomena of nature. ~ C. A. R. Hoare (date of birth)

  • 4 Ningauble 17:20, 29 October 2008 (UTC) (I would also approve using this without the final sentence.)



2004
Dignity does not come in possessing honors, but in deserving them. ~ Aristotle
2005
Do not think of knocking out another person's brains because he differs in opinion from you. It would be as rational to knock yourself on the head because you differ from yourself ten years ago. ~ Horace Mann
2006
Magnanimity in politics is not seldom the truest wisdom; and a great empire and little minds go ill together. ~ Edmund Burke (born 12 January 1729)
2007
Society is indeed a contract... it is not a partnership in things subservient only to the gross animal existence of a temporary and perishable nature. It is a partnership in all science; a partnership in all art; a partnership in every virtue, and in all perfection. As the ends of such a partnership cannot be obtained in many generations, it becomes a partnership not only between those who are living, but between those who are to be born. ~ Edmund Burke
2008
Whoever undertakes to set himself up as a judge of Truth and Knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the gods. ~ Edmund Burke (born 12 January 1729)
2009

[edit] Suggestions

The people never give up their liberties but under some delusion. ~ Edmund Burke (born 12 January 1729)

  • 3 Kalki 23:29, 9 January 2007 (UTC)
  • 3 InvisibleSun 10:07, 11 January 2007 (UTC)
  • 1 Zarbon 18:08, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

Your representative owes you, not his industry only, but his judgment; and he betrays instead of serving you if he sacrifices it to your opinion. ~ Edmund Burke (born 12 January 1729)

  • 3 Kalki 23:29, 9 January 2007 (UTC)
  • 3 InvisibleSun 10:07, 11 January 2007 (UTC)
  • 1 Zarbon 18:08, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

The use of force alone is but temporary. It may subdue for a moment; but it does not remove the necessity of subduing again: and a nation is not governed, which is perpetually to be conquered. ~ Edmund Burke (born 12 January 1729)

  • 3 Kalki 23:29, 9 January 2007 (UTC)
  • 4 InvisibleSun 10:07, 11 January 2007 (UTC)
  • 1 Zarbon 18:08, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

The true danger is when liberty is nibbled away, for expedients, and by parts. ~ Edmund Burke

  • 3 InvisibleSun 10:07, 11 January 2007 (UTC)
  • 3 Kalki 00:01, 12 January 2007 (UTC)
  • 1 Zarbon 18:08, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

Whenever a separation is made between liberty and justice, neither, in my opinion, is safe. ~ Edmund Burke

  • 3 InvisibleSun 10:07, 11 January 2007 (UTC)
  • 3 Kalki 00:01, 12 January 2007 (UTC)
  • 1 Zarbon 18:08, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

Justice is itself the great standing policy of civil society; and any eminent departure from it, under any circumstances, lies under the suspicion of being no policy at all. ~ Edmund Burke

  • 3 InvisibleSun 10:07, 11 January 2007 (UTC)
  • 3 Kalki 00:01, 12 January 2007 (UTC)
  • 1 Zarbon 18:08, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

I take toleration to be a part of religion. I do not know which I would sacrifice; I would keep them both: it is not necessary that I should sacrifice either. ~ Edmund Burke

  • 3 InvisibleSun 10:07, 11 January 2007 (UTC)
  • 3 Kalki 00:01, 12 January 2007 (UTC)
  • 2 Zarbon 18:08, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

I think that women are wonderful but I've never met one yet who didn't show more feeling than logic. ~ Hermann Göring (born January 12)

  • 3 Zarbon 04:35, 18 April 2008 (UTC)
    • SOURCE: The Nuremberg Interviews by Leon Goldensohn, Robert Gellately - History - 2004 - Page 120

Every bullet which leaves the barrel of a police pistol now is my bullet. If one calls this murder, then I have murdered: I ordered all this. I back it up. I assume the responsibility, and I am not afraid to do so. ~ Hermann Göring (born January 12)

  • 3 because courage to admit and take responsibility is an admirable quality. Zarbon 04:35, 18 April 2008 (UTC)

Guns will make us powerful; butter will only make us fat. ~ Hermann Göring (born January 12)

  • 3 Zarbon 04:35, 18 April 2008 (UTC)

The victor will always be the judge, and the vanquished the accused. ~ Hermann Göring (born January 12)

  • 3 because next to the victor, the weak shall be the vanquished. A magnificent narrative of Darwinism, where the strong survive and the weak perish. Zarbon 17:08, 25 September 2008 (UTC)

You could not claim for yourself that which you were not prepared to grant others. ~ Pieter Willem Botha (born January 12)

  • 3 because giving and claiming are all a nicely knit package of morality, compensation isn't always had. Zarbon 03:44, 27 April 2008 (UTC)

I never have the nagging doubt of wondering whether perhaps I am wrong. ~ Pieter Willem Botha (born January 12)

  • 2 because sometimes thinking too much of one's own errors would cause further errors, like a chain reaction, so to speak. Zarbon 03:44, 27 April 2008 (UTC)


2004
There may be love without jealousy, but there is none without fear. ~ Miguel de Cervantes
2005
Wisdom tends to grow in proportion to one's awareness of one's ignorance. ~ Anthony de Mello
2006
I have but one passion: to enlighten those who have been kept in the dark, in the name of humanity which has suffered so much and is entitled to happiness. My fiery protest is simply the cry of my very soul. ~ Émile Zola (J'accuse published 13 January 1898)
2007
I still feel that sincerity and realism are avant-garde, or can be, just as I did when I started out. ~ Edmund White (born January 13, 1940)
2008
The explorers of the past were great men and we should honour them. But let us not forget that their spirit lives on. It is still not hard to find a man who will adventure for the sake of a dream or one who will search, for the pleasure of searching, not for what he may find. ~ Sir Edmund Hillary‎
  • proposed by Kalki (recent death)
2009

[edit] Suggestions

Sometimes I look at the battered exteriors of apartment buildings in New York and think how these sorry shells have housed such a long procession of styles. The money! The effort! One tenant mirrors everything, the next panels the walls, the third lines them with mylar, the fourth turns to toile de Jouy, the fifth to pegboard or handblocked rice paper. The expensive if often shoddy interiors installed only to be dismantled, the exterior left untouched as it turns yet another shade sootier — this transience seems a fitting emblem for the way we stay up-to-date without ever changing. ~ Edmund White

Being up on something is a way of dismissing it. To espouse any point of view is a danger — it might leave us stuck with last year's cause. Prized for their novelty alone, ideas, gimmicks, trends become equivalent, interchangeable. ~ Edmund White

  • 3 Kalki 00:06, 13 January 2007 (UTC)
  • 1 Zarbon 18:09, 22 April 2008 (UTC)


2004
Jealousy is a disease, love is a healthy condition. The immature mind often mistakes one for the other, or assumes that the greater the love, the greater the jealousy — in fact, they are almost incompatible; one emotion hardly leaves room for the other ~ Robert Heinlein in Stranger In A Strange Land
2005
Appearances are a glimpse of the unseen. ~ Æschylus
2006
Not one of us knows what effect his life produces, and what he gives to others; that is hidden from us and must remain so, though we are often allowed to see some little fraction of it, so that we may not lose courage. ~ Albert Schweitzer (born 14 January 1875)
2007
Various medical authorities swarm in and out of here predicting I have between two days and two months to live. I think they are guessing. I remain cheerful and unimpressed. I look forward without dogmatic optimism but without dread. I love you all and I deeply implore you to keep the lasagna flying.
Please pardon my levity, I don't see how to take death seriously. It seems absurd. ~ Robert Anton Wilson (recent death)
2008
At no time are we ever in such complete possession of a journey, down to its last nook and cranny, as when we are busy with preparations for it. After that, there remains only the journey itself, which is nothing but the process through which we lose our ownership of it. ~ Yukio Mishima (born January 14, 1925)
2009

[edit] Suggestions

Let me die in this old uniform in which I fought my battles. May God forgive me for ever having put on another. ~ Benedict Arnold (born January 14)

  • 3 because this is a perfect example of one trying to gain redemption for one's own betrayal. Beautiful. Zarbon 16:24, 22 April 2008 (UTC)
    • SOURCE: The Morning of America - Page 209 by Frank Joseph Klingberg - United States - 1941

The great secret of success is to go through life as a man who never gets used up. That is possible for him who never argues and strives with men and facts, but in all experience retires upon himself, and looks for the ultimate cause of things in himself. ~ Albert Schweitzer

  • 3 because blaming others is easy, but taking responsibility for one's own life is admirable. Zarbon 05:04, 1 May 2008 (UTC)

The only way out of today's misery is for people to become worthy of each other's trust. ~ Albert Schweitzer

  • 3 because trust is not easily earned. Zarbon 05:04, 1 May 2008 (UTC)

It does not matter so much what you do. What matters is whether your soul is harmed by what you do. If your soul is harmed, something irreparable happens, the extent of which you won't realize until it will be too late. ~ Albert Schweitzer

  • 3 because the damaged soul begs for redemption. Zarbon 05:04, 1 May 2008 (UTC)


2004
There is a theory which states that if ever anybody discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. ... There is another theory which states that this has already happened. ~ Douglas Adams
2005
The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy. ~ Martin Luther King, Jr. (born 15 January 1929)
2006
Imagine a world in which every single person on the planet is given free access to the sum of all human knowledge. That's what we're doing. ~ Jimmy Wales (Wikipedia Day — Wikipedia started 15 January 2001)
2007
I build no system. I ask an end to privilege, the abolition of slavery, equality of rights, and the reign of law. Justice, nothing else; that is the alpha and omega of my argument: to others I leave the business of governing the world. ~ Pierre-Joseph Proudhon
  • selected by Kalki (no other proposals existed)
2008
I'm concerned about justice. I'm concerned about brotherhood. I'm concerned about truth. And when one is concerned about these, he can never advocate violence. For through violence you may murder a murderer but you can't murder murder. Through violence you may murder a liar but you can't establish truth. Through violence you may murder a hater, but you can't murder hate. Darkness cannot put out darkness. Only light can do that. ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.
2009

Quotes by people born this day, already used as QOTD:

  • I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.
    • Used 11 June 2003, as first Wikiquote "Quote of the Day".
  • Cowardice asks the question, "Is it safe?" Expediency asks the question, "Is it politic?" And Vanity comes along and asks the question, "Is it popular?" But Conscience asks the question "Is it right?" And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but he must do it because Conscience tells him it is right. ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.
  • I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood... I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today... ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.
  • What is needed is a realization that power without love is reckless and abusive, and love without power is sentimental and anemic. Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice, and justice at its best is power correcting everything that stands against love... I know that love is ultimately the only answer to mankind's problems. And I'm going to talk about it everywhere I go. ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

[edit] Suggestions

Men, for years now, have been talking about war and peace. But now, no longer can they just talk about it. It is no longer a choice between violence and nonviolence in this world; it's nonviolence or nonexistence. ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

  • 3 Kalki 15:02, 19 January 2007 (UTC)
  • 3 InvisibleSun 05:32, 11 January 2008 (UTC)
  • 1 Zarbon 18:11, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

Man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love. ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

  • 3 Kalki 15:02, 19 January 2007 (UTC)
  • 3 InvisibleSun 05:32, 11 January 2008 (UTC)
  • 1 Zarbon 18:11, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

I know that love is ultimately the only answer to mankind's problems. And I'm going to talk about it everywhere I go. I know it isn't popular to talk about it in some circles today. I'm not talking about emotional bosh when I talk about love, I'm talking about a strong, demanding love. And I have seen too much hate... I have decided to love. If you are seeking the highest good, I think you can find it through love. And the beautiful thing is that we are moving against wrong when we do it, because John was right, God is love. He who hates does not know God, but he who has love has the key that unlocks the door to the meaning of ultimate reality. ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

  • 3 Kalki 15:02, 19 January 2007 (UTC)
  • 3 InvisibleSun 05:32, 11 January 2008 (UTC)
  • 1 Zarbon 18:11, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

Communism violates the sovereignty of the conscience, and equality: the first, by restricting spontaneity of mind and heart, and freedom of thought and action; the second, by placing labor and laziness, skill and stupidity, and even vice and virtue on an equality in point of comfort. For the rest, if property is impossible on account of the desire to accumulate, communism would soon become so through the desire to shirk. ~ Pierre-Joseph Proudhon

  • 3 Kalki 15:02, 19 January 2007 (UTC)
  • 3 InvisibleSun 05:32, 11 January 2008 (UTC)
  • 1 Zarbon 18:11, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

Those whose conduct gives room for talk
Are always the first to attack their neighbors.
~ Molière (born January 15, 1622)

  • 3 InvisibleSun 05:32, 11 January 2008 (UTC)
  • 3 Kalki 00:29, 16 January 2008 (UTC)
  • 2 Zarbon 18:11, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

If everyone were clothed with integrity,
If every heart were just, frank, kindly,
The other virtues would be well-nigh useless,
Since their chief purpose is to make us bear with patience
The injustice of our fellows.
~ Molière

  • 3 InvisibleSun 05:32, 11 January 2008 (UTC)
  • 3 Kalki 00:29, 16 January 2008 (UTC)
  • 1 Zarbon 18:11, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

A learned fool is more foolish than an ignorant one. ~ Molière

  • 3 InvisibleSun 05:32, 11 January 2008 (UTC)
  • 3 Kalki 00:29, 16 January 2008 (UTC)
  • 2 Zarbon 18:11, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

There's no system foolproof enough to defeat a sufficiently great fool. ~ Edward Teller (born January 15)

  • 3 because a sufficiently great fool will assume control of any system. Zarbon 22:49, 29 April 2008 (UTC)

When you come to the end of all the light you know, and it's time to step into the darkness of the unknown, faith is knowing that one of two things shall happen: Either you will be given something solid to stand on or you will be taught to fly. ~ Edward Teller (born January 15)

  • 2 because there is a dynamic shroud of imagery surrounding angels, flight, and furthermore, the unknown. Zarbon 22:49, 29 April 2008 (UTC)


2004
When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong. ~ Arthur C. Clarke
2005
If we win here we will win everywhere. The world is a fine place and worth the fighting for and I hate very much to leave it. ~ Ernest Hemingway
2006
What is needed is a realization that power without love is reckless and abusive, and love without power is sentimental and anemic. Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice, and justice at its best is power correcting everything that stands against love... I know that love is ultimately the only answer to mankind's problems. And I'm going to talk about it everywhere I go. ~ Martin Luther King, Jr. (Martin Luther King Day 2006 in U.S.)
2007
To me, literature is a calling, even a kind of salvation. It connects me with an enterprise that is over 2,000 years old. What do we have from the past? Art and thought. That's what lasts. That's what continues to feed people and give them an idea of something better. A better state of one's feelings or simply the idea of a silence in one's self that allows one to think or to feel. Which to me is the same. ~ Susan Sontag (born January 16, 1933)
2008
I don't want to express alienation. It isn't what I feel. I'm interested in various kinds of passionate engagement. All my work says be serious, be passionate, wake up. ~ Susan Sontag
2009

[edit] Suggestions

Complete honesty has nothing to do with "purity" or naivety. The full truth is unattainable to naivety, and the completely honest artist is not pure in heart. ~ Clement Greenberg (born January 16, 1909)

One cannot condemn tendencies in art; one can only condemn works of art. To be categorically against a current art tendency or style means, in effect, to pronounce on works of art not yet created and not yet seen. It means inquiring into the motives of artists instead of into results. Yet we all know — or are supposed to know — that results are all that count in art. ~ Clement Greenberg

  • 3 InvisibleSun 09:40, 5 January 2007 (UTC)
  • 3 Kalki 19:51, 15 January 2008 (UTC)
  • 1 Zarbon 18:15, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

Once efficiency is universally accepted as a rule, it becomes an inner compulsion and weighs like a sense of sin, simply because no one can ever be efficient enough, just as no one can ever be virtuous enough. ~ Clement Greenberg

  • 3 InvisibleSun 09:40, 5 January 2007 (UTC)
  • 3 Kalki 23:21, 15 January 2007 (UTC)
  • 1 Zarbon 18:15, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

Ours is an age which consciously pursues health, and yet only believes in the reality of sickness. The truths we respect are those born of affliction. We measure truth in terms of the cost to the writer in suffering — rather than by the standard of an objective truth to which a writer's words correspond. Each of our truths must have a martyr. ~ Susan Sontag

  • 3 InvisibleSun 09:40, 5 January 2007 (UTC)
  • 3 Kalki 23:21, 15 January 2007 (UTC)
  • 2 Zarbon 18:15, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

The principal instances of mass violence in the world today are those committed by governments within their own legally recognized borders. ~ Susan Sontag

Illness is the night-side of life, a more onerous citizenship. Everyone who is born holds dual citizenship, in the kingdom of the well and in the kingdom of the sick. Although we all prefer to use only the good passport, sooner or later each of us is obliged, at least for a spell, to identify ourselves as citizens of that other place. ~ Susan Sontag

I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it. ~ Voltaire

  • 4 In particular I think this is an important quote in these days when the Pope cannot speak in Rome University in Italy...
—This unsigned comment is by 151.48.89.127 (talk • contribs) .
  • 1 Kalki 19:51, 15 January 2008 (UTC) no clear relation to the date, and though I would like to use this someday, it is actually Evelyn Beatrice Hall.
  • 4 because this is a very powerful quote and it emphasizes the devotion complex which I wholeheartedly love. If only it were related to the date and the author were corrected, it should definitely eventually be used. Zarbon 18:15, 22 April 2008 (UTC)


2005
The hope of a secure and livable world lies with disciplined nonconformists who are dedicated to justice, peace and brotherhood. ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.
2006
Human felicity is produc'd not so much by great pieces of good fortune that seldom happen, as by little advantages that occur every day. ~ Benjamin Franklin (born 17 January 1706)
2007
Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety. ~ Benjamin Franklin
2008
All true histories contain instruction; though, in some, the treasure may be hard to find, and when found, so trivial in quantity, that the dry, shrivelled kernel scarcely compensates for the trouble of cracking the nut. Whether this be the case with my history or not, I am hardly competent to judge. I sometimes think it might prove useful to some, and entertaining to others; but the world may judge for itself. Shielded by my own obscurity, and by the lapse of years, and a few fictitious names, I do not fear to venture; and will candidly lay before the public what I would not disclose to the most intimate friend. ~ Anne Brontë (born 17 January 1820)
2009

[edit] Suggestions

We hear of the conversion of water into wine at the marriage in Cana as of a miracle. But this conversion is, through the goodness of God, made every day before our eyes. Behold the rain which descends from heaven upon our vineyards; there it enters the roots of the vines, to be changed into wine; a constant proof that God loves us, and loves to see us happy. ~ Benjamin Franklin

  • 3 Kalki 14:17, 16 January 2007 (UTC)
  • 3 InvisibleSun 22:51, 16 January 2007 (UTC)
  • 1 Zarbon 18:16, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

What is this life? A frenzy, an illusion,
A shadow, a delirium, a fiction.
The greatest good's but little, and this life
Is but a dream, and dreams are only dreams.
~ Pedro Calderón de la Barca (born January 17, 1600)

Liberty is not merely a privilege to be conferred; it is a habit to be acquired. ~ David Lloyd George (born January 17, 1863)

  • 3 InvisibleSun 12:12, 16 January 2008 (UTC)
  • 3 Kalki 01:27, 17 January 2008 (UTC)
  • 1 Zarbon 18:16, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

The finest eloquence is that which gets things done; the worst is that which delays them. ~ David Lloyd George

  • 3 InvisibleSun 12:12, 16 January 2008 (UTC)
  • 3 Kalki 01:27, 17 January 2008 (UTC)
  • 3 because this is a great quote. If you're going to do something, do not hesitate to do it, for you may not have the chance to do it always. Very enigmatic and charming. Zarbon 18:16, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

Over the years my religion has changed and my spirituality has evolved. Religion and spirituality are very different, but people often confuse the two. Some things cannot be taught, but they can be awakened in the heart. Spirituality is recognizing the divine light that is within us all. It doesn't belong to any particular religion; it belongs to everyone. ~ Muhammad Ali

  • 3 Kalki 18:29, 13 March 2008 (UTC)
  • 1 Zarbon 18:16, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

In a competition of love we'll all share in the victory, no matter who comes first. ~ Muhammad Ali

  • 3 Kalki 18:29, 13 March 2008 (UTC)
  • 1 Zarbon 18:16, 22 April 2008 (UTC)


2005
The danger is not that a particular class is unfit to govern. Every class is unfit to govern. The law of liberty tends to abolish the reign of race over race, of faith over faith, of class over class. ~ Lord Acton
2006
There is absolutely nothing that can be taken for granted in this world. ~ Robert Anton Wilson (born 18 January 1932)
2007
It's important to abolish the unconscious dogmatism that makes people think their way of looking at reality is the only sane way of viewing the world. My goal is to try to get people into a state of generalized agnosticism, not agnosticism about God alone, but agnosticism about everything. ~ Robert Anton Wilson
2008
The success of most things depends upon knowing how long it will take to succeed. ~ Charles de Montesquieu (born 18 January 1689)
2009

[edit] Suggestions

Most animals, including most domesticated primates (humans) show a truly staggering ability to "ignore" certain kinds of information — that which does not "fit" their imprinted/conditioned reality-tunnel. We generally call this "conservatism" or "stupidity", but it appears in all parts of the political spectrum, and in learned societies as well as in the Ku Klux Klan. ~ Robert Anton Wilson

  • 3 Kalki 15:34, 13 January 2007 (UTC)
  • 3 InvisibleSun 07:56, 17 January 2007 (UTC)
  • 1 Zarbon 18:21, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

The worst that can happen under monarchy is rule by a single imbecile, but democracy often means the rule by an assembly of three or four hundred imbeciles. ~ Robert Anton Wilson

  • 3 Kalki 15:34, 13 January 2007 (UTC)
  • 3 InvisibleSun 07:56, 17 January 2007 (UTC)
  • 2 Zarbon 18:21, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

Beyond a certain point, the whole universe becomes a continuous process of initiation. ~ Robert Anton Wilson

  • 3 Kalki 15:34, 13 January 2007 (UTC)
  • 3 InvisibleSun 07:56, 17 January 2007 (UTC)
  • 1 Zarbon 18:21, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

"Is," "is." "is" — the idiocy of the word haunts me. If it were abolished, human thought might begin to make sense. I don't know what anything "is"; I only know how it seems to me at this moment. ~ Robert Anton Wilson

  • 3 Kalki 15:34, 13 January 2007 (UTC)
  • 2 InvisibleSun 07:56, 17 January 2007 (UTC)
  • 1 Zarbon 18:21, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

There is only one thing that can form a bond between men, and that is gratitude...we cannot give someone else greater power over us than we have ourselves. ~ Charles de Montesquieu (born January 18, 1689)

  • 3 InvisibleSun 07:56, 17 January 2007 (UTC)
  • 3 Kalki 15:16, 19 January 2007 (UTC)
  • 1 Zarbon 18:21, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

Men, who are rogues individually, are in the mass very honorable people. ~ Charles de Montesquieu

  • 3 InvisibleSun 07:56, 17 January 2007 (UTC)
  • 2 Kalki 15:16, 19 January 2007 (UTC)
  • 3 Zarbon 18:21, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

Justice, sir, is the great interest of man on Earth. It is the ligament which holds civilized beings and civilized nations together. ~ Daniel Webster (born January 18, 1782)

  • 3 InvisibleSun 07:56, 17 January 2007 (UTC)
  • 3 Kalki 15:16, 19 January 2007 (UTC)
  • 1 Zarbon 18:21, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

The law: It has honored us; may we honor it. ~ Daniel Webster

  • 3 InvisibleSun 07:56, 17 January 2007 (UTC)
  • 2 Kalki 15:16, 19 January 2007 (UTC)
  • 2 Zarbon 18:21, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

When tillage begins, other arts follow. The farmers therefore are the founders of human civilization. ~ Daniel Webster

  • 3 InvisibleSun 07:56, 17 January 2007 (UTC)
  • 3 Kalki 15:16, 19 January 2007 (UTC)
  • 1 Zarbon 18:21, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things. The decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth war is much worse. The person who has nothing for which he is willing to fight, nothing which is more important than his own personal safety, is a miserable creature and has no chance of being free unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself. ~ John Stuart Mill

  • Naglem 20:47, 17 January 2007 (UTC)
  • 1 Kalki 15:16, 19 January 2007 (UTC) (though I would rank it 3 or perhaps even a 4, if proposed for a date with which it had