Wikiquote:Quote of the day/January 2010

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January 1
The true poet has no choice of material. The material plainly chooses him, not he it.

~ J. D. Salinger ~

   


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January 2
  I believe in evidence. I believe in observation, measurement, and reasoning, confirmed by independent observers. I'll believe anything, no matter how wild and ridiculous, if there is evidence for it. The wilder and more ridiculous something is, however, the firmer and more solid the evidence will have to be.

~ Isaac Asimov ~

 


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January 3
  Of the theme that I have declared to you, I will now that ye make in harmony together a Great Music. And since I have kindled you with the Flame Imperishable, ye shall show forth your powers in adorning this theme, each with his own thoughts and devices, if he will. But I will sit and hearken, and be glad that through you great beauty has been wakened into song.

~ J. R. R. Tolkien~
in
The Silmarillion

 


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January 4
  That's me in the corner
That's me in the spotlight
Losing my religion
Trying to keep up with you
And I don't know if I can do it.
Oh, no, I've said too much.
I haven't said enough.

~ R.E.M. ~

 


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January 5
  A democratic civilization will save itself only if it makes the language of the image into a stimulus for critical reflection — not an invitation for hypnosis.

~ Umberto Eco ~

 


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January 6
  To understand the heart and mind of a person, look not at what he has already achieved, but what he aspires to.

~ Khalil Gibran ~

 


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January 7
  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 ~

 


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January 8
  My intent is to tell the truth as I know it, realizing that what is true for me may be blasphemy for others.

~ Gerry Spence ~

 


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January 9
  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 ~

 


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January 10
  Corruption never has been compulsory; when the cities lie at the monster's feet there are left the mountains.

~ Robinson Jeffers ~

 


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January 11
  I should esteem it the extreme of imprudence to prolong the precarious state of our national affairs, and to expose the union to the jeopardy of successive experiments, in the chimerical pursuit of a perfect plan. I never expect to see a perfect work from imperfect man. The result of the deliberations of all collective bodies must necessarily be a compound as well of the errors and prejudices, as of the good sense and wisdom of the individuals of whom they are composed.

~ Alexander Hamilton ~

 


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January 12
  Whenever a separation is made between liberty and justice, neither, in my opinion, is safe.

~ Edmund Burke ~

 


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January 13
  Conscious faith is freedom.
Emotional faith is slavery.
Mechanical faith is foolishness.

~ G. I. Gurdjieff ~

 


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January 14
  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 ~

 


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January 15
  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. ~

 


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January 16
  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 ~

 


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January 17
  I somehow see what's beautiful
In things that are ephemeral.
I'm my only friend of mine,
And love is just a piece of time
In the world
In the world.
And I couldn't help but fall in love again.

~ Zooey Deschanel ~

 


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January 18
  I have always observed that to succeed in the world one should appear like a fool but be wise.

~ Charles de Montesquieu ~

 


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January 19
  Duty is the sublimest word in our language. Do your duty in all things. You cannot do more. You should never wish to do less.

~ Robert E. Lee ~

 


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January 20
  To those who would tear the world down: We will defeat you. To those who seek peace and security: We support you. And to all those who have wondered if America's beacon still burns as bright: Tonight we proved once more that the true strength of our nation comes not from the might of our arms or the scale of our wealth, but from the enduring power of our ideals: democracy, liberty, opportunity and unyielding hope.

~ Barack Obama ~

 


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January 21
  That which is above comprehension we cannot perceive to be contradictory, nor on the other hand can we perceive its rationality or consistency.

~ Ethan Allen ~

 


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January 22
  Truth is always strange;
Stranger than fiction.

~ Lord Byron ~
in
Don Juan

 


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January 23
  Love has always been the most important business in my life, I should say the only one.

~ Stendhal ~

 


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January 24
  True originality consists not in a new manner but in a new vision.

~ Edith Wharton ~

 


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January 25
  O, wad some Power the giftie gie us
To see oursels as others see us!
It wad frae monie a blunder free us,
An' foolish notion.
What airs in dress an' gait wad lea'e us
An' ev'n Devotion.

~ Robert Burns ~

 


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January 26
  If you don't have enemies, you don't have character.
~ Paul Newman ~
 


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January 27
  Twas brillig and the slithy toves,
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

"Beware the Jabberwock, my son,
the jaws that bite and claws that scratch
Beware the jubjub bird
and shun the frumious bandersnatch."

~ Lewis Carroll ~
in
Through the Looking-Glass

 


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January 28
  Life on earth is a hand-to-hand mortal combat... between the law of love and the law of hate.

~ José Martí ~

 


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January 29
  Each of us is full of too many wheels, screws and valves to permit us to judge one another on a first impression or by two or three external signs.

~ Anton Chekhov ~

 


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January 30
  Is there not glory enough in living the days given to us? You should know there is adventure in simply being among those we love and the things we love, and beauty, too.

~ Lloyd Alexander ~

 


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January 31
  Anybody can they say they are being "spiritual" — and they are, because everybody has some type and level of concern. Let us therefore see their actual conception, in thought and action, and see how many perspectives it is in fact concerned with, and how many perspectives it actually takes into account, and how many perspectives it attempts to integrate, and thus let us see how deep and how wide runs that bodhisattva vow to refuse rest until all perspectives whatsoever are liberated into their own primordial nature.

~ Ken Wilber ~

 


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QOTD by month + Suggestions for: January - February - March - April - May - June - July - August - September - October - November - December

Today is Tuesday, March 19, 2024; it is now 07:37 (UTC)