Wikiquote:Quote of the day/October

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Today is Monday, November 30, 2009; it is now 17:51 (UTC)


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This page lists "Quotes of the day" which have been used for dates in October, with links to pages for further suggestions for each date. 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: October 2008 - October 2009

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
When you get to a fork in the road, take it. ~ Yogi Berra
2005
War may sometimes be a necessary evil. But no matter how necessary, it is always an evil, never a good. We will not learn how to live together in peace by killing each other's children. ~ Jimmy Carter (born 1 October 1924)
2006
Love and music and happiness and family, that's what it's all about. I believe in these things. It would be awful not to, wouldn't it? ~ Julie Andrews
2007
Creators, makers of the new, can never become obsolete, for in the arts there is no correct answer. The story of discoverers could be told in simple chronological order, since the latest science replaces what went before. But the arts are another story — a story of infinite addition. We must find order in the random flexings of the imagination. ~ Daniel J. Boorstin
2008
Any customer can have a car painted any colour that he wants so long as it is black. ~ Henry Ford (100th anniversary of Ford putting the Model T on the market at a price of US$825)
2009
The final end of government is not to exert restraint but to do good. ~ Rufus Choate
2010 
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2004
Between two evils, I always pick the one I never tried before. ~ Mae West
2005
There is a fifth dimension beyond that which is known to man. It is a dimension as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It is the middle ground between light and shadow, between science and superstition, and it lies between the pit of man's fears and the summit of his knowledge. This is the dimension of imagination. It is an area which we call the Twilight Zone. ~ Rod Serling in The Twilight Zone
  • proposed by Kalki The first episode of The Twilight Zone, "Where is Everybody?" aired on 2 October 1959.
2006
Before you do anything, think. If you do something to try and impress someone, to be loved, accepted or even to get someone's attention, stop and think. So many people are busy trying to create an image, they die in the process. ~ Salma Hayek
2007
If there must be a god in the house, must be,
Saying things in the room and on the stair,

Let him move as the sunlight moves on the floor,
Or moonlight, silently, as Plato's ghost

Or Aristotle's skeleton. Let him hang out
His stars on the wall. He must dwell quietly.

~ Wallace Stevens ~

2008
I am one of you and being one of you
Is being and knowing what I am and know.
Yet I am the necessary angel of earth,
Since, in my sight, you see the earth again,
Cleared of its stiff and stubborn, man-locked set
And, in my hearing, you hear its tragic drone
Rise liquidly in liquid lingerings,
Like watery words awash; like meanings said
By repetitions of half-meanings.

~ Wallace Stevens ~

2009
There is but one means to extenuate the effects of enemy fire: it is to develop a more violent fire oneself. ~ Ferdinand Foch
2010 
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2003
We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.
~ The Four Quartets by T. S. Eliot ~
2004
Given the choice between two theories, take the one which is funnier. ~ "Blore's Razor" (Author unknown)
2005
Everyone seems to be playing well within the boundaries of his usual rule set. I have yet to hear anyone say something that seemed likely to mitigate the idiocy of this age. ~ John Perry Barlow (born 3 October 1947)
2006
The average "educated" American has been made to believe that, somehow, the United States must lead the world even though hardly anyone has any information at all about those countries we are meant to lead. Worse, we have very little information about our own country and its past. ~ Gore Vidal (born 3 October 1925)
2007
I'm an optimist. In order to be libertarian, you have to be an optimist. You have to have a benign view of human nature, to believe that human beings left to their own devices are basically good. But I'm not so sure about human institutions, and I think the real point of argument here is whether or not large corporations are human institutions or some other entity we need to be thinking about curtailing. Most libertarians are worried about government but not worried about business. I think we need to be worrying about business in exactly the same way we are worrying about government. ~ John Perry Barlow (born 3 October 1947)
2008
As societies grow decadent, the language grows decadent, too. Words are used to disguise, not to illuminate, action: you liberate a city by destroying it. Words are to confuse, so that at election time people will solemnly vote against their own interests. ~ Gore Vidal
2009
We are forming our own Social Contract. This governance will arise according to the conditions of our world, not yours. Our world is different.
Cyberspace consists of transactions, relationships, and thought itself, arrayed like a standing wave in the web of our communications. Ours is a world that is both everywhere and nowhere, but it is not where bodies live.
We are creating a world that all may enter without privilege or prejudice accorded by race, economic power, military force, or station of birth.
We are creating a world where anyone, anywhere may express his or her beliefs, no matter how singular, without fear of being coerced into silence or conformity. ~ John Perry Barlow
2010 
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2004
As for myself, I always willingly acknowledge my own self as the principal cause of every good and of every evil which may befall me; therefore I have always found myself capable of being my own pupil, and ready to love my teacher. ~ Giacomo Casanova
2005
If we do discover a complete theory, it should in time be understandable in broad principle by everyone, not just a few scientists. Then we shall all, philosophers, scientists, and just ordinary people, be able to take part in the discussion of the question of why it is that we and the universe exist. If we find the answer to that, it would be the ultimate triumph of human reason — for then we would know the mind of God. ~ Stephen Hawking
2006
A comedian does funny things. A good comedian does things funny. ~ Buster Keaton (born 4 October 1895)
2007
Personally I do not resort to force — not even the force of law — to advance moral reforms. I prefer education, argument, persuasion, and above all the influence of example — of fashion. ~ Rutherford B. Hayes (born 4 October 1822)
2008
The quicker humanity advances, the more important it is to be the one who deals the first blow. ~ Ernst Kaltenbrunner (born 4 October 1903)
2009
The real difficulty is with the vast wealth and power in the hands of the few and the unscrupulous who represent or control capital. Hundreds of laws of Congress and the state legislatures are in the interest of these men and against the interests of workingmen. These need to be exposed and repealed. All laws on corporations, on taxation, on trusts, wills, descent, and the like, need examination and extensive change. This is a government of the people, by the people, and for the people no longer. It is a government of corporations, by corporations, and for corporations. — How is this? ~ Rutherford B. Hayes
2010 
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2004
You cannot hope to build a better world without improving the individuals. To that end each of us must work for his own improvement, and at the same time share a general responsibility for all humanity, our particular duty being to aid those to whom we think we can be most useful. ~ Marie Curie
2005
Politicians at international forums may reiterate a thousand times that the basis of the new world order must be universal respect for human rights, but it will mean nothing as long as this imperative does not derive from the respect of the miracle of Being, the miracle of the universe, the miracle of nature, the miracle of our own existence. ~ Václav Havel (born 5 October 1936)
2006
Almost all men, and those that seem to be very miserable, love life, because they cannot bear to lose sight of such a beautiful and lovely world. The ideas, that every moment whilst we live have a beauty that we take not distinct notice of, brings a pleasure that, when we come to the trial, we had rather live in much pain and misery than lose. ~ Jonathan Edwards
2007
The philosopher forms his principles on an infinity of particular observations. ... He does not confuse truth with plausibility; he takes for truth what is true, for false what is false, for doubtful what is doubtful, and probable what is probable. ... The philosophical spirit is thus a spirit of observation and accuracy. ~ Denis Diderot
2008
Anyone who takes himself too seriously always runs the risk of looking ridiculous; anyone who can consistently laugh at himself does not. ~ Václav Havel
2009
There are things I can't force. I must adjust. There are times when the greatest change needed is a change of my viewpoint. ~ Denis Diderot
2010 
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2003
That man is an Euclidian point: position without substance. ~ Ernest Rutherford
2004
I don't get no respect! ~ Rodney Dangerfield (recent death)
2005
Old age hath yet his honor and his toil.
Death closes all; but something ere the end,
Some work of noble note, may yet be done,
Not unbecoming men that strove with gods.
~ Alfred, Lord Tennyson ~ (died 6 October 1892)
2006
Behold, we know not anything;
I can but trust that good shall fall
At last — far off — at last, to all,
And every winter change to spring.

So runs my dream; but what am I?
An infant crying in the night;
An infant crying for the light,
And with no language but a cry.
~ Alfred, Lord Tennyson ~

2007
Are God and Nature then at strife,
That Nature lends such evil dreams?
So careful of the type she seems,
So careless of the single life.
~ Alfred, Lord Tennyson ~ (died 6 October 1892)
2008
It is said that power corrupts, but actually it's more true that power attracts the corruptible. The sane are usually attracted by other things than power. ~ David Brin
2009
Every marvel of our age arose out of the critical give and take of an open society. No other civilization ever managed to incorporate this crucial innovation, weaving it into daily life. And if you disagree with this ... say so! ~ David Brin
2010 
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2003
One of the basic tenets of Zen Buddhism is that there is no way to characterize what Zen is. No matter what verbal space you try to enclose Zen in, it resists, and spills over... ~ Douglas Hofstadter in Gödel, Escher, Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid
2004
Every human being, of whatever origin, of whatever station, deserves respect. We must each respect others even as we respect ourselves. ~ U Thant
2005
The opposite of a correct statement is a false statement. But the opposite of a profound truth may well be another profound truth. ~ Niels Bohr (born 7 October 1885)
2006
It is wrong to think that the task of physics is to find out how nature is. Physics concerns what we can say about nature. ~ Niels Bohr
2007
We depend on our words ... Our task is to communicate experience and ideas to others. We must strive continually to extend the scope of our description, but in such a way that our messages do not thereby lose their objective or unambiguous character ... We are suspended in language in such a way that we cannot say what is up and what is down. The word "reality" is also a word, a word which we must learn to use correctly. ~ Niels Bohr
2008
Chaos needs no allies, for it dwells like a poison in every one of us. ~ Steven Erikson
2009
I am doing it
the it I am doing is
the I that is doing it
the I that is doing it is
the it I am doing
it is doing the I that am doing it
I am being done by the it I am doing
it is doing it
~ Ronald David Laing ~
2010 
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2003
We've moved away from being a culture of people who think about movies to one made up of people who believe that spouting a list of preferences is the same as registering an opinion. ~ Stephanie Zacharek
2004
No one is useless in this world who lightens the burden of it for anyone else. ~ Charles Dickens in Our Mutual Friend
2005
Much that was called religion has carried an unconscious attitude of hostility toward life. True religion must teach that life is filled with joys pleasing to the eye of God, that knowledge without action is empty. All men must see that the teaching of religion by rules and rote is largely a hoax. The proper teaching is recognized with ease. You can know it without fail because it awakens within you that sensation which tells you this is something you've always known. ~ Frank Herbert in Dune (born 8 October 1920)
2006
Does the prophet see the future or does he see a line of weakness, a fault or cleavage that he may shatter with words or decisions as a diamond-cutter shatters his gem with a blow of a knife? ~ Frank Herbert in Dune
2007
The sequential nature of actual events is not illuminated with lengthy precision by the powers of prescience except under the most extraordinary circumstances. The oracle grasps incidents cut out of the historic chain. Eternity moves. It inflicts itself upon the oracle and the supplicant alike. Let Muad'dib's subjects doubt his majesty and his oracular visions. Let them deny his powers. Let them never doubt Eternity. ~ Frank Herbert in Dune Messiah
2008
The year of jubilee has come;
Gather the gifts of Earth with equal hand;
Henceforth ye too may share the birthright soil,
The corn, drink the wine and all the harvest-home.

~ Edmund Clarence Stedman ~

2009
Muad'Dib could indeed see the Future, but you must understand the limits of this power. Think of sight. You have eyes, yet cannot see without light. If you are on the floor of a valley, you cannot see beyond your valley. Just so, Muad'Dib could not always choose to look across the mysterious terrain. He tells us that a single obscure decision of prophecy, perhaps the choice of one word over another, could change the entire aspect of the future. He tells us "The vision of time is broad, but when you pass through it, time becomes a narrow door." And always, he fought the temptation to choose a clear, safe course, warning "That path leads ever down into stagnation." ~ Frank Herbert in Dune ~
2010 
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2004
Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong remedies. ~ Groucho Marx
2005
I think the ultimate sense of security will be when we come to recognize that we are all part of one human race. Our primary allegiance is to the human race and not to one particular color or border. ~ Mohamed ElBaradei, 2005 Nobel Peace Prize winner
2006
Imagine all the people
Sharing all the world...

You may say I'm a dreamer
But I'm not the only one
I hope someday you'll join us
And the world will live as one.
~ John Lennon ~ (born 9 October 1940)

2007
Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans. ~ John Lennon
2008
Builders and warriors, strengthen the steps.
Reader, if you have not grasped — read again,
after a while.
The predestined is not accidental,
The leaves fall in their time.
And winter is but the harbinger of spring.
All is revealed; all is attainable.
~ Nicholas Roerich ~ (born 9 October 1874)
2009
Living is easy with eyes closed, misunderstanding all you see.
It's getting hard to be someone but it all works out.
It doesn't matter much to me.
~ John Lennon ~
2010 
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2003
The reason that clichés become clichés is that they are the hammers and screwdrivers in the toolbox of communication. ~ Terry Pratchett
2004
You are educated when you have the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or self-confidence. ~ Robert Frost
2005
The truth is that there is only one terminal dignity — love. And the story of a love is not important — what is important is that one is capable of love. It is perhaps the only glimpse we are permitted of eternity. ~ Helen Hayes (born 10 October 1900)
2006
I would like to make the point that we cannot undo the past but we can learn from it, and we cannot predict the future but we can shape and build it. ~ Epeli Ganilau (born 10 October 1951)
2007
The search for the truth is the most important work in the whole world — and the most dangerous. ~ James Clavell (born 10 October 1924)
2008
When there are too many policemen, there can be no liberty. When there are too many soldiers, there can be no peace. When there are too many lawyers, there can be no justice. ~ Lin Yutang
2009
Only very rarely has a person to the same extent as Obama captured the world's attention and given its people hope for a better future. His diplomacy is founded in the concept that those who are to lead the world must do so on the basis of values and attitudes that are shared by the majority of the world's population.
For 108 years, the Norwegian Nobel Committee has sought to stimulate precisely that international policy and those attitudes for which Obama is now the world's leading spokesman. The Committee endorses Obama's appeal that "Now is the time for all of us to take our share of responsibility for a global response to global challenges."

~ The Norwegian Nobel Committee on the Nobel Peace Prize of 2009 ~

2010 
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2003
We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately. ~ Benjamin Franklin
2004
I don't really know why I care so much. I just have something inside me that tells me that there is a problem, and I have got to do something about it. I think that is what I would call the God in me. All of us have a God in us, and that God is the spirit that unites all life, everything that is on this planet. ~ Wangari Maathai (Nobel Peace Prize of 2004)
2005
You always fall when you're training, that's sort of part of the process. If you're not falling, you're not training hard enough. ~ Michelle Trachtenberg (born 11 October 1985)
2006
It takes courage to love, but pain through love is the purifying fire which those who love generously know. We all know people who are so much afraid of pain that they shut themselves up like clams in a shell and, giving out nothing, receive nothing and therefore shrink until life is a mere living death ~ Eleanor Roosevelt (born 11 October 1884)
2007
At all times, day by day, we have to continue fighting for freedom of religion, freedom of speech, and freedom from want — for these are things that must be gained in peace as well as in war. ~ Eleanor Roosevelt (born 11 October 1884)
2008
Your true home is in the here and the now. It is not limited by time, space, nationality, or race. Your true home is not an abstract idea. It is something you can touch and live in every moment. With mindfulness and concentration, the energies of the Buddha, you can find your true home in the full relaxation of your mind and body in the present moment. No one can take it away from you. Other people can occupy your country, they can even put you in prison, but they cannot take away your true home and your freedom. ~ Thich Nhat Hanh (born 11 October 1926)
2009
The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams. ~ Eleanor Roosevelt
2010 
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Quotes by people born this day, already used as QOTD:

  • One's philosophy is not best expressed in words; it is expressed in the choices one makes. In the long run, we shape our lives and we shape ourselves. The process never ends until we die. And, the choices we make are ultimately our own responsibility. ~ Eleanor Roosevelt
  • A mature person is one who does not think only in absolutes, who is able to be objective even when deeply stirred emotionally, who has learned that there is both good and bad in all people and all things, and who walks humbly and deals charitably with the circumstances of life, knowing that in this world no one is all-knowing and therefore all of us need both love and charity. ~ Eleanor Roosevelt
2004
So many of our dreams at first seem impossible, then they seem improbable, and then, when we summon the will, they soon become inevitable. ~ Christopher Reeve
2005
Tragedy blows through your life like a tornado, uprooting everything, creating chaos. You wait for the dust to settle, and then you choose. You can live in the wreckage and pretend it's still the mansion you remember. Or you can crawl from the rubble and slowly rebuild. ~ Kristen Bell as "Veronica" in Veronica Mars episode "Meet John Smith" (originally aired 12 October 2004)
2006
I have always read that the world, both land and water, was spherical, as the authority and researches of Ptolemy and all the others who have written on this subject demonstrate and prove, as do the eclipses of the moon and other experiments that are made from east to west, and the elevation of the North Star from north to south. ~ Christopher Columbus
2007
Everything abstract is ultimately part of the concrete. Everything inanimate finally serves the living. That is why every activity dealing in abstraction stands in ultimate service to a living whole. ~ Edith Stein (born 12 October 1891)
2008
The concept which assumes that everything in the Church is irrevocably set for all times appears to me to be a false one. It would be naive to disregard that the Church has a history; the Church is a human institution and like all things human, was destined to change and evolve; likewise, its development takes place often in the form of struggles. ~ Edith Stein
2009
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law. ~ Aleister Crowley
2010 
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Quotes by people born this day, already used as QOTD:

  • I'm not a politician, I'm a musician. I care about giving people a place where they can go to enjoy themselves and to begin to live again. To the man you have to give the spirit, and when you give him the spirit, you have done everything. ~ Luciano Pavarotti
2003
Really, I'm not out to destroy Microsoft. That will just be a completely unintentional side effect. ~ Linus Torvalds
  • selected by IP 68.227.198.159
2004
Here is the test to find whether your mission on earth is finished: If you're alive, it isn't. ~ Richard Bach
2005
Forgive us the breach of positive commands and negative commands, whether or not they involve an act, whether or not they are known to us. ~ Liturgy for Yom Kippur (begins the night of the 12th)
2006
If you ever get trial by television or guilt by accusation, that day freedom dies because you have not had it done with all of the careful rules that have developed in a court of law. Press and television rely on freedom. Those who rely on freedom must uphold the rule of law and have a duty and a responsibility to do so and not try to substitute their own system for it. ~ Margaret Thatcher (born 13 October 1925).
2007
I'm always astounded at the way we automatically look at what divides and separates us. We never look at what people have in common. If you see it, black and white people, both sides look to see the differences, they don't look at what they have together. Men and women, and old and young, and so on. And this is a disease of the mind, the way I see it. ~ Doris Lessing (recent Nobel Prize winner for Literature)
2008
I think it's a disgrace for the international community that we have allowed so many conflicts to become frozen, and we are not making a serious effort to solve them. ~ Martti Ahtisaari (recent winner of the Nobel Peace prize of 2008)
2009
The practical reason for freedom is that freedom seems to be the only condition under which any kind of substantial moral fiber can be developed — we have tried law, compulsion and authoritarianism of various kinds, and the result is nothing to be proud of. ~ Albert Jay Nock (born 13 October 1873)
2010 
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Quotes by people born this day, already used as QOTD:

  • Hello darkness, my old friend
    I've come to talk with you again
    Because a vision softly creeping
    Left its seeds while I was sleeping
    And the vision that was planted in my brain
    Still remains
    Within the sound of silence.
    ~ Paul Simon ~
  • And the sign flashed out its warning
    In the words that it was forming
    And the sign said "The words of the prophets
    Are written on the subway walls
    And tenement halls
    And whispered in the sound of silence."
    ~ Paul Simon ~
2004
It is better to debate a question without deciding it than to decide it without debate. ~ Joseph Joubert
2005
love is the every only god ~ E. E. Cummings (born 14 October 1894)
2006
I am totally convinced from my experience of working with poor people that they can get themselves out of poverty if we give them the same or similar opportunities we give to others. The poor themselves can create a poverty-free world — all we have to do is to free them from the chains that we have put around them. ~ Muhammad Yunus (winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006)
2007
There's an old African proverb that says "If you want to go quickly, go alone. If you want to go far, go together." We have to go far — quickly. And that means we have to quickly find a way to change the world's consciousness about exactly what we're facing, and why we have to work to solve it. ~ Al Gore (winner of the Nobel Peace Prize of 2007)
2008
A people that values its privileges above its principles soon loses both. ~ Dwight D. Eisenhower (born 14 October 1890)
2009
Man cannot be free if he does not know that he is subject to necessity, because his freedom is always won in his never wholly successful attempts to liberate himself from necessity. ~ Hannah Arendt
2010 
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2004
Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. ~ Margaret Mead
2005
Behold the believers of all beliefs! Whom do they hate most? Him who breaketh up their tables of values, the breaker, the law-breaker — he, however, is the creator. Companions, the creator seeketh, not corpses — and not herds or believers either. Fellow-creators the creator seeketh — those who grave new values on new tables. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche (born 15 October 1844)
2006
In all life one should comfort the afflicted, but verily, also, one should afflict the comfortable, and especially when they are comfortably, contentedly, even happily wrong. ~ John Kenneth Galbraith (born 15 October 1908)
2007
Without art we would be nothing but foreground and live entirely in the spell of that perspective which makes what is closest at hand and most vulgar appear as if it were vast, and reality itself. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche
2008
A nuclear war does not defend a country and it does not defend a system. I've put it the same way many times; not even the most accomplished ideologue will be able to tell the difference between the ashes of capitalism and the ashes of communism. ~ John Kenneth Galbraith
2009
All of the great leaders have had one characteristic in common: it was the willingness to confront unequivocally the major anxiety of their people in their time. This, and not much else, is the essence of leadership. ~ John Kenneth Galbraith
2010 
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Quotes by people born this day, already used as QOTD:

  • Where the market works, I'm for that. Where the government is necessary, I'm for that. I'm deeply suspicious of somebody who says, "I'm in favor of privatization," or, "I'm deeply in favor of public ownership." I'm in favor of whatever works in the particular case. ~ John Kenneth Galbraith
2004
Nothing endures but change. ~ Heraclitus
2005
We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars. ~ Oscar Wilde (born 16 October 1854)
2006
Selfishness is not living as one wishes to live, it is asking others to live as one wishes to live. ~ Oscar Wilde
2007
If one tells the truth, one is sure, sooner or later, to be found out. ~ Oscar Wilde
2008
The way to combat noxious ideas is with other ideas. The way to combat falsehoods is with truth. ~ William O. Douglas
2009
The struggle is always between the individual and his sacred right to express himself and the power structure that seeks conformity, suppression, and obedience. ~ William O. Douglas
2010 
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Quotes by people born this day, already used as QOTD:

  • As long as war is regarded as wicked, it will always have its fascination. When it is looked upon as vulgar, it will cease to be popular. ~ Oscar Wilde
2003
Sex is only dirty if it's done right. ~ Woody Allen
  • selected by IP 195.100.67.10
2004
Try not. Do. Or do not. There is no try. ~ "Yoda" in Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back
2005
Live as one of them, Kal-El, to discover where your strength and your power are needed. Always hold in your heart the pride of your special heritage. They can be a great people, Kal-El — they wish to be. They only lack the light to show the way. ~ Marlon Brando as "Jor-El" in Superman: The Movie
2006
Maybe all one can do is hope to end up with the right regrets. ~ Arthur Miller (born 17 October 1915)
2007
My conception of the audience is of a public each member of which is carrying about with him what he thinks is an anxiety, or a hope, or a preoccupation which is his alone and isolates him from mankind; and in this respect at least the function of a play is to reveal him to himself so that he may touch others by virtue of the revelation of his mutuality with them. If only for this reason I regard the theater as a serious business, one that makes or should make man more human, which is to say, less alone. ~ Arthur Miller
2008
There's too much of an attempt, it seems to me, to think in terms of controlling man, rather than freeing him. Of defining him rather than letting him go. It's part of the whole ideology of this age, which is power-mad. ~ Arthur Miller
2009
An era can be said to end when its basic illusions are exhausted. ~ Arthur Miller
2010 
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Quotes by people born this day, already used as QOTD:

  • The apple cannot be stuck back on the Tree of Knowledge; once we begin to see, we are doomed and challenged to seek the strength to see more, not less. ~ Arthur Miller
2003
He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster. And when you gaze long into an abyss the abyss also gazes into you. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche
2004
These children that you spit on as they try to change their worlds are immune to your consultations. They're quite aware of what they're going through... ~ David Bowie
2005
We take the position that there is no place for the state in the bedrooms of the nation. ~ Pierre Trudeau (born 18 October 1919)
  • proposed by IP 65.110.28.95 (originally for September 28)
2006
Give me my freedom for as long as I be
All I ask of livin' is to have no chains on me
All I ask of livin' is to have no chains on me
And all I ask of dyin' is to go naturally...
And when I die, and when I'm gone
There'll be one child born, in our world
To carry on, to carry on...
~ Laura Nyro ~
2007
There are two things to aim at in life: first, to get what you want; and, after that, to enjoy it. Only the wisest of mankind achieve the second. ~ Logan Pearsall Smith
2008
The essential ingredient of politics is timing. ~ Pierre Trudeau
2009
Don't laugh at a youth for his affectations; he is only trying on one face after another to find his own. ~ Logan Pearsall Smith
2010 
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2003
I really believe that if there's any kind of God, he wouldn't be in any one of us — not you, not me, but just this space in between. If there's some magic in this world, it must be in the attempt of understanding someone else, sharing something. ~ Before Sunrise
2004
Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows. ~ George Orwell in Nineteen Eighty-Four
2005
Traditionalists are pessimists about the future and optimists about the past. ~ Lewis Mumford (born 19 October 1895)
2006
There is surely a piece of divinity within us, something that was before the elements, and owes no homage unto the sun. ~ Thomas Browne (born 19 October 1605)
2007
Nothing is unthinkable, nothing impossible to the balanced person, provided it comes out of the needs of life and is dedicated to life's further development. ~ Lewis Mumford
2008
To be nameless in worthy deeds exceeds an infamous history. ~ Thomas Browne
2009
He gave it for his opinion, that whoever could make two ears of corn, or two blades of grass, to grow upon a spot of ground where only one grew before, would deserve better of mankind, and do more essential service to his country, than the whole race of politicians put together. ~ Jonathan Swift
2010 
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Quotes by people born this day, already used as QOTD:

Quotes by people who died this day, already used as QOTD:

2004
I know that most men, including those at ease with problems of the greatest complexity, can seldom accept even the simplest and most obvious truth if it be such as would oblige them to admit the falsity of conclusions which they have delighted in explaining to colleagues, which they have proudly taught to others, and which they have woven, thread by thread, into the fabric of their lives. ~ Leo Tolstoy
2005
I think for it to be unhip to be idealistic is weird, you know? I mean, even all the best rebels to me had some sense of hope in them. ~ Tom Petty (born 20 October 1950)
2006
We sometimes talk as if "original research" were a peculiar prerogative of scientists or at least of advanced students. But all thinking is research, and all research is native, original, with him who carries it on, even if everybody else in the world already is sure of what he is still looking for. ~ John Dewey (born 20 October 1859)
2007
I'm learning to fly, but I ain't got wings
Coming down is the hardest thing.
~ Tom Petty ~
2008
We're overdue for a dream come true.
Long time nothing new.
We're overdue for a dream come true.

~ Tom Petty ~

2009
Gonna stand my ground, won't be turned around
and I'll keep this world from draggin' me down
gonna stand my ground and I won't back down.
~ Tom Petty ~
2010 
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2004
It doesn't matter if we were down 3-0. You've just got to keep the faith. The game is not over until the last out. ~ David Ortiz
2005
Genius is one per cent inspiration, ninety-nine per cent perspiration. ~ Thomas Alva Edison (tested first practical light bulb 21 October 1879)
2006
He prayeth well, who loveth well
Both man and bird and beast.

He prayeth best, who loveth best
All things both great and small;
For the dear God who loveth us,
He made and loveth all.
~ Samuel Taylor Coleridge ~

2007
All thoughts, all passions, all delights,
Whatever stirs this mortal frame,
All are but ministers of Love,
And feed his sacred flame.
~ Samuel Taylor Coleridge ~
2008
You must not change one thing, one pebble, one grain of sand, until you know what good and evil will follow on that act. The world is in balance, in Equilibrium. A wizard's power of Changing and Summoning can shake the balance of the world. It is dangerous, that power. It is most perilous. It must follow knowledge, and serve need. To light a candle is to cast a shadow. ~ Ursula K. Le Guin
2009
Should children be permitted to read Romances, & Relations of Giants & Magicians, & Genii? — I know all that has been said against it; but I have formed my faith in the affirmative. — I know no other way of giving the mind a love of "the Great," & "the Whole." — Those who have been led by the same truths step by step thro' the constant testimony of their senses, seem to me to want a sense which I possess — They contemplate nothing but parts — and all parts are necessarily little — and the Universe to them is but a mass of little things. ~ Samuel Taylor Coleridge
2010 
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2004
There’s a time when a man needs to fight, and a time when he needs to accept that his destiny is lost, that the ship has sailed, and that only a fool would continue. The truth is, I’ve always been a fool. ~ Albert Finney as "Ed Bloom" in Big Fish
2005
I am 100 percent in favor of the intelligent use of drugs, and 1,000 percent against the thoughtless use of them, whether caffeine or LSD. And drugs are not central to my life. ~ Timothy Leary (born 22 October 1920)
2006
All political movements are like this — we are in the right, everyone else is in the wrong. The people on our own side who disagree with us are heretics, and they start becoming enemies. With it comes an absolute conviction of your own moral superiority. There's oversimplification in everything, and a terror of flexibility. ~ Doris Lessing (born 22 October 1919)
2007
Think for yourself and question authority. ~ Timothy Leary
2008
I often observed to my brother, You see now how little nature requires to be satisfied. Felicity, the companion of content, is rather found in our own breasts than in the enjoyment of external things; And I firmly believe it requires but a little philosophy to make a man happy in whatsoever state he is. This consists in a full resignation to the will of Providence; and a resigned soul finds pleasure in a path strewed with briars and thorns. ~ Daniel Boone
2009
If you want to change the way people respond to you, change the way you respond to people. ~ Timothy Leary
2010 
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Quotes by people born this day, already used as QOTD:

  • I'm always astounded at the way we automatically look at what divides and separates us. We never look at what people have in common. If you see it, black and white people, both sides look to see the differences, they don't look at what they have together. Men and women, and old and young, and so on. And this is a disease of the mind, the way I see it. ~ Doris Lessing (recent Nobel Prize winner for Literature)
2004
You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. In fact, it may be necessary to encounter the defeats, so you can know who you are, what you can rise from, how you can still come out of it. ~ Maya Angelou
2005
Reality is always greater — much greater — than what we know, than whatever we can say about it. ~ Michael Crichton (born 23 October 1942)
2006
I am certain there is too much certainty in the world. ~ Michael Crichton
2007
Life engenders life. Energy creates energy. It is by spending oneself that one becomes rich. ~ Sarah Bernhardt
2008
We ought to hate very rarely, as it is too fatiguing; remain indifferent to a great deal, forgive often and never forget. ~ Sarah Bernhardt
2009 
Once the curtain is raised, the actor ceases to belong to himself. He belongs to his character, to his author, to his public. He must do the impossible to identify himself with the first, not to betray the second, and not to disappoint the third. And to this end the actor must forget his personality and throw aside his joys and sorrows. He must present the public with the reality of a being who for him is only a fiction. With his own eyes, he must shed the tears of the other. With his own voice, he must groan the anguish of the other. His own heart beats as if it would burst, for it is the other's heart that beats in his heart. And when he retires from a tragic or dramatic scene, if he has properly rendered his character, he must be panting and exhausted. ~ Sarah Bernhardt
2010 
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2004
Only when we are no longer afraid do we begin to live. ~ Dorothy Thompson
2005
The world is a comedy to those that think, a tragedy to those who feel. ~ Horace Walpole
2006
Poems present their testimony as circumstantial evidences, not as closing argument. Where Wallace Stevens says, “God and the imagination are one,” I would say that the imagination, which synergizes intellect, emotion and instinct, is the perceptive organ through which it is possible, though not inevitable, to experience God. ~ Denise Levertov (born 24 October 1923)
  • proposed by Fys
2007
Two girls discover
the secret of life
in a sudden line of
poetry.

I who don't know the
secret wrote
the line. ...

I love them
for finding what
I can't find,

and for loving me
for the line I wrote,
and for forgetting it
so that

a thousand times, till death
finds them, they may
discover it again, in other
lines

in other
happenings.

~ Denise Levertov ~

2008
We present a dramatically different approach to time management. This is a principle-centered approach. It transcends the traditional prescriptions of faster, harder, smarter, and more. Rather than offering you another clock, this approach provides you with a compass — because more important than how fast you're going, is where you're headed. ~ Stephen Covey
2009 
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2004
Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can. ~ John Wesley
2005
Few men during their lifetime come anywhere near exhausting the resources dwelling within them. There are deep wells of strength that are never used. ~ Richard E. Byrd (born 25 October 1888)
2006
A man doesn't begin to attain wisdom until he recognizes that he is no longer indispensable. ~ Richard E. Byrd
2007
For out of olde feldes, as men seith,
Cometh al this new corn fro yeer to yere;
And out of olde bokes, in good feith,
Cometh al this newe science that men lere.
~ Geoffrey Chaucer ~
2008
I would prefer to remain in prison for another 20 years than bargain my beliefs for freedom. ~ Samir Geagea
2009
This day is call'd — the feast of Crispian:
He that outlives this day, and comes safe home,
Will stand a tip-toe when this day is nam'd,
And rouse him at the name of Crispian.
He that outlives this day, and sees old age,
Will yearly on the vigil feast his friends,
And say, "To-morrow is Saint Crispian;"
Then will he strip his sleeve, and show his scars,
And say, "These wounds I had on Crispin's day."
Old men forget; yet all shall be forgot,
But he'll remember, with advantages,
What feats he did that day. Then shall our names,
Familiar in his mouth as household words, —
Harry the King, Bedford, and Exeter,
Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloucester,
Be in their flowing cups freshly remember'd.
This story shall the good man teach his son;
And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remember'd, —
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers.
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me,
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition:
And gentlemen in England, now a-bed,
Shall think themselves accurs'd, they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap, whiles any speaks,
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.

King Henry V
as portrayed in
Henry V
by
 ~ William Shakespeare ~

2010 
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2004
I'm not against God. I'm against the misuse of God. ~ Marilyn Manson
2005
I know that it will hurt, I know that it will break your heart, the way things are, and the way they've been. Don't spread the discontent, don't spread the lies, don't make the same mistakes with your own life. ~ "Break Your Heart" by Natalie Merchant (born 26 October 1963)
2006
The youth are not always right, but the society which ignores them and beats, is always wrong. ~ François Mitterrand (born 26 October 1916) on les événements of May 1968.
  • proposed by Fys
2007
Contempt loves the silence
it thrives in the dark
with fine winding tendrils
that strangle the heart.
~ Natalie Merchant ~
2008
After bread, education is the first need of the people. ~ Georges Danton (born 26 October 1759)
2009
Cherish your visions and your dreams as they are the children of your soul, the blueprints of your ultimate achievements. ~ Napoleon Hill
2010 
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2004
The antagonism between science and religion, about which we hear so much, appears to me to be purely factitious — fabricated, on the one hand, by short-sighted religious people who confound a certain branch of science, theology, with religion; and, on the other, by equally short-sighted scientific people who forget that science takes for its province only that which is susceptible of clear intellectual comprehension; and that, outside the boundaries of that province, they must be content with imagination, with hope, and with ignorance. ~ T. H. Huxley
2005
It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by the dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions and spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who, at worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly; so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory or defeat. ~ Theodore Roosevelt (born 27 October 1858)
2006
I love people. Everybody. I love them, I think, as a stamp collector loves his collection. Every story, every incident, every bit of conversation is raw material for me. My love's not impersonal yet not wholly subjective either. I would like to be everyone, a cripple, a dying man, a whore, and then come back to write about my thoughts, my emotions, as that person. But I am not omniscient. I have to live my life, and it is the only one I'll ever have. And you cannot regard your own life with objective curiosity all the time. ~ Sylvia Plath (born 27 October 1932)
2007
Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the President or any other public official save exactly to the degree in which he himself stands by the country. It is patriotic to support him insofar as he efficiently serves the country. It is unpatriotic not to oppose him to the exact extent that by inefficiency or otherwise he fails in his duty to stand by the country. ~ Theodore Roosevelt
2008
Books won't stay banned. They won't burn. Ideas won't go to jail. In the long run of history, the censor and the inquisitor have always lost. The only sure weapon against bad ideas is better ideas. The source of better ideas is wisdom. The surest path to wisdom is a liberal education. ~ Alfred Whitney Griswold
2009
Though they go mad they shall be sane,
Though they sink through the sea they shall rise again;
Though lovers be lost love shall not;
And death shall have no dominion.
~ Dylan Thomas ~
2010 
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Quotes by people born this day, already used as QOTD:

2004
We're just being ourselves and having fun playing baseball. The biggest thing is when people look at our team, they can see that we're having a lot of fun. ~ Johnny Damon
2005
Life is an error-making and an error-correcting process, and nature in marking man's papers will grade him for wisdom as measured both by survival and by the quality of life of those who survive. ~ Jonas Salk (born 28 October 1914)
2006
The human mind is inspired enough when it comes to inventing horrors; it is when it tries to invent a Heaven that it shows itself cloddish. ~ Evelyn Waugh (born 28 October 1903)
2007
I have dreams, and I have nightmares. I overcame the nightmares because of my dreams. ~ Jonas Salk (date of birth)
2008
Walk a single path, becoming neither cocky with victory nor broken with defeat, without forgetting caution when all is quiet or becoming frightened when danger threatens. ~ Jigoro Kano
2009
The reward for work well done is the opportunity to do more. ~ Jonas Salk (date of birth)
2010 
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2004
The future is not some place we are going to, but one we are creating. The paths are not to be found, but made, and the activity of making them, changes both the maker and the destination. ~ John Schaar
2005
All those who listen to me shall pass on my words to others and those to others again; and may the last ones understand my words better than those who listen to me directly. ~ Muhammad
  • proposed by Kalki; in 2005, Laylat al-Qadr (The Night of Power) is traditionally celebrated on this night (as the start of the 27th of Ramadan in the Muslim calendar) by many Muslims.
2006
We cannot tell the precise moment when friendship is formed. As in filling a vessel drop by drop, there is at last a drop which makes it run over; so in a series of kindnesses there is at last one which makes the heart run over. ~ James Boswell
  • proposed by Fys
2007
This is a terrific outburst. And since it doesn’t have a tail right now, some observers have confused it with a nova. We’ve had at least two reports of a new star. ~ Brian G. Marsden (on the recent unprecedented brightening of Comet Holmes)
2008
He who has provoked the lash of wit, cannot complain that he smarts from it. ~ James Boswell (born 29 October 1740)
  • proposed by Fys
2009
No moral system can rest solely on authority. ~ Alfred Jules Ayer (born 29 October 1910)
2010 
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2004
It’s always worthwhile to make others aware of their worth. ~ Malcolm Forbes
2005
There is danger from all men. The only maxim of a free government ought to be to trust no man living with power to endanger the public liberty. ~ John Adams (born 30 October 1735)
2006
The fundamental article of my political creed is that despotism, or unlimited sovereignty, or absolute power, is the same in a majority of a popular assembly, an aristocratical council, an oligarchical junto, and a single emperor. Equally arbitrary, cruel, bloody, and in every respect diabolical. ~ John Adams
2007
Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passion, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence. ~ John Adams
2008
Date not the life which thou hast run by the mean of reckoning of the hours and days, which though hast breathed: a life spent worthily should be measured by a nobler line, — by deeds, not years... ~ Richard Brinsley Sheridan
2009
The science of government it is my duty to study, more than all other sciences; the arts of legislation and administration and negotiation ought to take the place of, indeed exclude, in a manner, all other arts. I must study politics and war, that our sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy. ~ John Adams
2010 
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2004
Merry meet, and merry part, and Blessed Be. ~ A pagan expression of blessing.
2005
I can see lights in the distance trembling in the dark cloak of night
Candles and lanterns are dancing, dancing a waltz on All Souls Night.
~ Loreena McKennitt ~ (Halloween / All Soul's Night theme)
2006
A thing of beauty is a joy forever:
Its loveliness increases; it will never
Pass into nothingness; but still will keep
A bower quiet for us, and a sleep
Full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing.
~ John Keats ~ (born October 31, 1795)
2007
There is no law beyond Do what thou wilt.
Love is the law, love under will.
~ Aleister Crowley ~
2008
Youth is not a question of years: one is young or old from birth. ~ Natalie Clifford Barney
2009
Wherein lies happiness? In that which becks
Our ready minds to fellowship divine,
A fellowship with essence; till we shine,
Full alchemiz’d, and free of space. Behold
The clear religion of heaven!
~ John Keats ~
2010 
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Ranking system:

4 : Excellent - should definitely be used. (Perhaps, at most, only one quote per day should be ranked thus by any user, as to avoid confusions.)
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.
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