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November 11

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Quotes of the day from previous years:

2004
All the people of all the nations which had fought in the First World War were silent during the eleventh minute of the eleventh hour of Armistice Day, which was the eleventh day of the eleventh month. It was during that minute in nineteen hundred and eighteen, that millions upon millions of human beings stopped butchering one another. I have talked to old men who were on battlefields during that minute. They have told me in one way or another that the sudden silence was the Voice of God. So we still have among us some men who can remember when God spoke clearly to mankind. ~ Kurt Vonnegut (born 11 November 1922)
2005
Wars may be fought with weapons, but they are won by men. It is the spirit of the men who follow and of the man who leads that gains that victory. ~ George S. Patton, (born 11 November 1885)
2006
We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie,
In Flanders fields.
~ John McCrae ~
  • proposed by IP 65.110.28.123
2007
A purpose of human life, no matter who is controlling it, is to love whoever is around to be loved. ~ Kurt Vonnegut
2008
These are times in which a genius would wish to live. It is not in the still calm of life, or in the repose of a pacific station, that great characters are formed. The habits of a vigorous mind are formed in contending with difficulties. Great necessities call out great virtues. ~ Abigail Adams
2009
Men reject their prophets and slay them, but they love their martyrs and honor those they have slain. ~ Fyodor Dostoevsky
2010
I have seen the truth; I have seen and I know that people can be beautiful and happy without losing the power of living on earth. I will not and cannot believe that evil is the normal condition of mankind. And it is just this faith of mine that they laugh at. But how can I help believing it? I have seen the truth — it is not as though I had invented it with my mind, I have seen it, seen it, and the living image of it has filled my soul for ever. I have seen it in such full perfection that I cannot believe that it is impossible for people to have it. And so how can I go wrong? I shall make some slips no doubt, and shall perhaps talk in second-hand language, but not for long: the living image of what I saw will always be with me and will always correct and guide me. Oh, I am full of courage and freshness, and I will go on and on if it were for a thousand years! Do you know, at first I meant to conceal the fact that I corrupted them, but that was a mistake — that was my first mistake! But truth whispered to me that I was lying, and preserved me and corrected me. But how establish paradise — I don't know, because I do not know how to put it into words. After my dream I lost command of words. All the chief words, anyway, the most necessary ones. But never mind, I shall go and I shall keep talking, I won't leave off, for anyway I have seen it with my own eyes, though I cannot describe what I saw. But the scoffers do not understand that. It was a dream, they say, delirium, hallucination. Oh! As though that meant so much! And they are so proud! A dream! What is a dream? And is not our life a dream? I will say more. Suppose that this paradise will never come to pass (that I understand), yet I shall go on preaching it. And yet how simple it is: in one day, in one hour everything could be arranged at once! The chief thing is to love others like yourself, that's the chief thing, and that's everything; nothing else is wanted — you will find out at once how to arrange it all. And yet it's an old truth which has been told and retold a billion times — but it has not formed part of our lives! The consciousness of life is higher than life, the knowledge of the laws of happiness is higher than happiness — that is what one must contend against. And I shall. If only everyone wants it, it can be arranged at once. ~ Fyodor Dostoevsky in The Dream of a Ridiculous Man
2011
There are plenty of good reasons for fighting, but no good reason ever to hate without reservation, to imagine that God Almighty Himself hates with you, too. Where's evil? It's that large part of every man that wants to hate without limit, that wants to hate with God on its side. ~ Kurt Vonnegut
2012
I didn't learn until I was in college about all the other cultures, and I should have learned that in the first grade. A first grader should understand that his or her culture isn't a rational invention; that there are thousands of other cultures and they all work pretty well; that all cultures function on faith rather than truth; that there are lots of alternatives to our own society. Cultural relativism is defensible and attractive. It's also a source of hope. It means we don't have to continue this way if we don't like it.
~ Kurt Vonnegut ~
2013
A great swindle of our time is the assumption that science has made religion obsolete. All science has damaged is the story of Adam and Eve and the story of Jonah and the Whale. Everything else holds up pretty well, particularly lessons about fairness and gentleness. People who find those lessons irrelevant in the twentieth century are simply using science as an excuse for greed and harshness. Science has nothing to do with it, friends.
~ Kurt Vonnegut ~
2014
About belief or lack of belief in an afterlife: Some of you may know that I am neither Christian nor Jewish nor Buddhist, nor a conventionally religious person of any sort.
I am a humanist, which means, in part, that I have tried to behave decently without any expectation of rewards or punishments after I'm dead. My German-American ancestors, the earliest of whom settled in our Middle West about the time of our Civil War, called themselves "Freethinkers," which is the same sort of thing. My great grandfather Clemens Vonnegut wrote, for example, "If what Jesus said was good, what can it matter whether he was God or not?"
I myself have written, "If it weren't for the message of mercy and pity in Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, I wouldn't want to be a human being. I would just as soon be a rattlesnake."
~ Kurt Vonnegut ~
2015
Whatever occurs, may justice and righteousness be the stability of our times, and order arise out of confusion. Great difficulties may be surmounted by patience and perseverance.
~ Abigail Adams ~
2016
Tiger got to hunt,
Bird got to fly;
Man got to sit and wonder, "Why, why, why?"
Tiger got to sleep,
Bird got to land;
Man got to tell himself he understand.
~ Kurt Vonnegut ~
in
~ Cat's Cradle ~
2017
It's life that matters, nothing but life — the process of discovering, the everlasting and perpetual process, not the discovery itself, at all. But what's the use of talking! I suspect that all I'm saying now is so like the usual commonplaces that I shall certainly be taken for a lower-form schoolboy sending in his essay on "sunrise", or they'll say perhaps that I had something to say, but that I did not know how to "explain" it. But I'll add, that there is something at the bottom of every new human thought, every thought of genius, or even every earnest thought that springs up in any brain, which can never be communicated to others, even if one were to write volumes about it and were explaining one's idea for thirty-five years; there's something left which cannot be induced to emerge from your brain, and remains with you forever; and with it you will die, without communicating to anyone perhaps the most important of your ideas.
~ Fyodor Dostoevsky ~
2018
All the people of all the nations which had fought in the First World War were silent during the eleventh minute of the eleventh hour of Armistice Day, which was the eleventh day of the eleventh month. It was during that minute in nineteen hundred and eighteen, that millions upon millions of human beings stopped butchering one another. I have talked to old men who were on battlefields during that minute. They have told me in one way or another that the sudden silence was the Voice of God. So we still have among us some men who can remember when God spoke clearly to mankind.
~ Kurt Vonnegut ~
  • proposed by Kalki; This was used once before, 14 years ago, in 2004, as the first QOTD for this date, but it is probably even more appropriate to use once again, on this centennial of that historical event of 1918.
2019
The eleventh day of the eleventh month has always seemed to me to be special. Even if the reason for it fell apart as the years went on, it was a symbol of something close to the high part of the heart. Perhaps a life that stretches through two or three wars takes its first war rather seriously, but I still think we should have kept the name "Armistice Day." Its implications were a little more profound, a little more hopeful.
~ Walt Kelly ~
2020
Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.
~ John McCrae ~
2021
Nothing in the world is harder than speaking the truth and nothing easier than flattery. If there’s the hundredth part of a false note in speaking the truth, it leads to a discord, and that leads to trouble. But if all, to the last note, is false in flattery, it is just as agreeable, and is heard not without satisfaction. It may be a coarse satisfaction, but still a satisfaction. And however coarse the flattery, at least half will be sure to seem true. That’s so for all stages of development and classes of society.
~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky ~
in
~ Crime and Punishment ~
2022
I could not dig: I dared not rob:
Therefore I lied to please the mob.
Now all my lies are proved untrue
And I must face the men I slew.
What tale shall serve me here among
Mine angry and defrauded young?
~ Rudyard Kipling ~
  • proposed by Kalki; in regard of Armistice Day/Veteran's Day/Rememberance Day — one of Kipling's epitaphs regarding various archetypal figures of World War I.
2023
Go into the arts. I'm not kidding. The arts are not a way to make a living. They are a very human way of making life more bearable. Practicing an art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make your soul grow, for heaven's sake. Sing in the shower. Dance to the radio. Tell stories. Write a poem to a friend, even a lousy poem. Do it as well as you possibly can. You will get an enormous reward. You will have created something.
~ Kurt Vonnegut ~
2024
Just because some of us can read and write and do a little math, that doesn't mean we deserve to conquer the Universe.
~ Kurt Vonnegut ~
2025
Rank or add further suggestions…

The Quote of the Day (QOTD) is a prominent feature of the Wikiquote Main Page. Thank you for submitting, reviewing, and ranking suggestions!

Ranking system
4 : Excellent – should definitely be used. (This is the utmost ranking and should be used by any editor for only one quote at a time for each date.)
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.
An averaging of the rankings provided to each suggestion produces it’s general ranking in considerations for selection of Quote of the Day. The selections made are usually chosen from the top ranked options existing on the page, but the provision of highly ranked late additions, especially in regard to special events (most commonly in regard to the deaths of famous people, or other major social or physical occurrences), always remain an option for final selections.
Thank you for participating!

Suggestions

[edit]

We have too many high sounding words, and too few actions that correspond with them. ~ Abigail Adams, born that day

—This unsigned comment is by MosheZadka (talk • contribs) .

I come bearing an olive branch in one hand, and the freedom fighter's gun in the other. Do not let the olive branch fall from my hand. ~ Yasser Arafat, died that day

—This unsigned comment is by MosheZadka (talk • contribs) .
  • 1 Kalki 08:10, 9 November 2007 (UTC) No real desire to use this on "Remembrance Day/Armistice Day/Veteran's Day"
  • 1 but 4 if this is used on another date. Zarbon 06:09, 26 April 2008 (UTC)
    • Fossil, you are mimicing my comments far too much, along with my initial votes. Please refrain from doing so. Zarbon 15:28, 8 November 2008 (UTC)
  • 1 InvisibleSun 21:25, 10 November 2008 (UTC)
In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.


We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie,
In Flanders fields.
(This portion was used in 2006)


Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

-John McCrae, poem written during World War I, recited during Remembrance Day Ceremonies on Nov 11, normally in countries from the 'then British Empire'.

  • 4 ~ If the whole poem is deemed too long, perhaps only the second and/or final paragraphs should be used. I don't think this has been used before. --(Person who suggested the quote but is not a registered user.) : —This unsigned comment is by 65.110.28.123 (talk • contribs) .
  • 3 ~ Kalki 23:59, 10 November 2005 (UTC) (for portions of this, not the whole poem)
  • 2. The second stanza was previously used in QotD. InvisibleSun 13:28, 10 November 2006 (UTC)
  • 1 Zarbon 06:09, 26 April 2008 (UTC)
  • 4 ♞☤☮♌︎Kalki ⚚⚓︎⊙☳☶⚡ 23:59, 10 November 2020 (UTC) for the 3rd stanza, this year (2020)

The two real political parties in America are the Winners and the Losers. The people don’t acknowledge this. They claim membership in two imaginary parties, the Republicans and the Democrats, instead. ~ Kurt Vonnegut

  • 3 InvisibleSun 13:28, 10 November 2006 (UTC)
  • 3 Zarbon 06:09, 26 April 2008 (UTC)
  • 2 Kalki 14:00, 10 November 2008 (UTC)
  • 1 Lyle 20:26, 2 December 2008 (UTC)

So it goes. ~ Kurt Vonnegut, recurring statement whenever someone or something dies in Slaughterhouse-Five

Every man has some reminiscences which he would not tell to everyone, but only to his friends. He has others which he would not reveal even to his friends, but only to himself, and that in secret. But finally there are still others which a man is even afraid to tell himself, and every decent man has a considerable number of such things stored away. That is, one can even say that the more decent he is, the greater the number of such things in his mind. ~ Fyodor Dostoevsky (born November 11, 1821, N.S.)

  • 3 InvisibleSun 13:28, 10 November 2006 (UTC)
  • 1 Zarbon 06:09, 26 April 2008 (UTC)
  • 2 Kalki 14:00, 10 November 2008 (UTC)

Inventors and geniuses have almost always been looked on as no better than fools at the beginning of their career, and very frequently at the end of it also. ~ Fyodor Dostoevsky

  • 3 InvisibleSun 13:28, 10 November 2006 (UTC)
  • 3 Kalki 08:10, 9 November 2007 (UTC)
  • 2 Zarbon 06:09, 26 April 2008 (UTC)

I think the devil doesn't exist, but man has created him, he has created him in his own image and likeness. ~ Fyodor Dostoevsky

  • 3 InvisibleSun 13:28, 10 November 2006 (UTC)
  • 3 because the representation of man in history has been built into this quote. Zarbon 06:09, 26 April 2008 (UTC)
  • 2 Kalki 14:00, 10 November 2008 (UTC)

It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God that such men lived. ~ George S. Patton

  • Freddyclaw 4:56, December 18 2007
  • 3 because this is a good quote. The fact that men of this caliber lived should never be forgotten. Zarbon 06:09, 26 April 2008 (UTC)
  • 2 Kalki 14:00, 10 November 2008 (UTC) I will probably rank this a 3 or 4 at some other time, but not this year.
  • 3 InvisibleSun 21:25, 10 November 2008 (UTC)

The man who sailed around his soul
From East to West, from pole to pole
With ego as his drunken captain
Greed, the mutineer, had trapped all reason in the hold ~ Andy Partridge

  • 3 Zarbon 03:59, 3 October 2008 (UTC)
  • 1 Kalki 14:07, 10 November 2008 (UTC)
  • 1 InvisibleSun 21:25, 10 November 2008 (UTC)

I can't see how a single man could spend his time to better advantage than in the Marines. ~ Daniel Daly

  • 3 Zarbon 03:59, 3 October 2008 (UTC)
  • 2 Kalki 14:07, 10 November 2008 (UTC)
  • 1 InvisibleSun 21:25, 10 November 2008 (UTC)

Recognizing and respecting differences in others, and treating everyone like you want them to treat you, will help make our world a better place for everyone. Care... be your best. You don't have to be handicapped to be different. Everyone is different! ~ Kim Peek

  • 3 Zarbon 03:59, 3 October 2008 (UTC)
  • 3 Kalki 14:07, 10 November 2008 (UTC)

All is interrelated. Heaven and earth, air and water. All are but one thing; not four, not two and not three, but one. Where they are not together, there is only an incomplete piece. ~ Paracelsus

  • 2 Zarbon 03:59, 3 October 2008 (UTC)
  • 3 Kalki 14:07, 10 November 2008 (UTC)
  • 3 InvisibleSun 21:25, 10 November 2008 (UTC)

Practice humility at first with man and only then before God. He who despises man, has also no respect for God. ~ Paracelsus

  • 2 Zarbon 03:59, 3 October 2008 (UTC)
  • 3 Kalki 14:07, 10 November 2008 (UTC) with a very strong lean toward 4.
  • 3 InvisibleSun 21:25, 10 November 2008 (UTC)

All substances are poisons; there is none which is not a poison. The right dose differentiates a poison and a remedy. ~ Paracelsus

  • 4 because too much of anything becomes poison. Zarbon 03:59, 3 October 2008 (UTC)
  • 2 Kalki 14:07, 10 November 2008 (UTC)

I couldn't wait for success, so I went ahead without it. ~ Jonathan Winters

  • 2 Zarbon 03:59, 3 October 2008 (UTC)
  • 2 Kalki 14:07, 10 November 2008 (UTC)

Nothing is impossible. Some things are just less likely than others. ~ Jonathan Winters

  • 2 Zarbon 03:59, 3 October 2008 (UTC)
  • 2 Kalki 14:07, 10 November 2008 (UTC)

If your ship doesn't come in, swim out to it! ~ Jonathan Winters

  • 2 Zarbon 03:59, 3 October 2008 (UTC)
  • 2 Kalki 14:07, 10 November 2008 (UTC)

I begin to think, that a calm is not desirable in any situation in life. Every object is beautiful in motion; a ship under sail, trees gently agitated with the wind, and a fine woman dancing, are three instances in point. Man was made for action and for bustle too, I believe. ~ Abigail Adams

  • 3 Kalki 14:00, 10 November 2008 (UTC) with a lean toward 4.
  • 3 Zarbon 14:56, 10 November 2008 (UTC)
  • 3 InvisibleSun 21:25, 10 November 2008 (UTC)

Learning is not attained by chance, it must be sought for with ardor and attended to with diligence. ~ Abigail Adams

  • 3 Kalki 14:00, 10 November 2008 (UTC) with a lean toward 4.
  • 3 Zarbon 14:56, 10 November 2008 (UTC)
  • 3 InvisibleSun 21:25, 10 November 2008 (UTC)
  • 3 Hydrangeans (talk) 21:44, 8 November 2024 (UTC)

I've got one, two, three, four, five
Senses working overtime,
Trying to take this all in,
I've got one, two, three, four, five
Senses working overtime,
Trying to taste the difference,
'Tween the lemons and limes,
The pain and the pleasure,
And the church bells softly chime.
~ Andy Partridge ~

  • 3 Kalki 14:00, 10 November 2008 (UTC) with a lean toward 4.
  • 1 far too repetitive. This is obviously the person's writing style. Zarbon 14:56, 10 November 2008 (UTC)
  • 3 InvisibleSun 21:25, 10 November 2008 (UTC)
  • 3 Hydrangeans (talk) 21:44, 8 November 2024 (UTC) with a lean toward 4

I wonder wonder why the wonder falls
I wonder why the wonder falls on me
I wonder wonder why the wonder falls
With everything I touch and hear and see
~ Andy Partridge ~

  • 3 Kalki 14:00, 10 November 2008 (UTC) with a lean toward 4.
  • 1 I don't particularly like the triple repetition here. Zarbon 14:56, 10 November 2008 (UTC)
  • 2 InvisibleSun 21:25, 10 November 2008 (UTC)
  • 3 Hydrangeans (talk) 21:44, 8 November 2024 (UTC) In this case, repetition is poetic, not monotonous.

Well I don't know how many pounds make up a ton
of all the Nobel prizes that I've never won,
and I may be the Mayor of Simpleton,
but I know one things and that's I love you.
~ Andy Partridge ~

  • 3 Kalki 14:00, 10 November 2008 (UTC)
  • 2 Zarbon 14:56, 10 November 2008 (UTC)
  • 2 InvisibleSun 21:25, 10 November 2008 (UTC)

Oh, now, life, life! I lifted up my hands and called upon eternal truth, not with words, but with tears; ecstasy, immeasurable ecstasy flooded my soul. Yes, life and spreading the good tidings! Oh, I at that moment resolved to spread the tidings, and resolved it, of course, for my whole life. I go to spread the tidings, I want to spread the tidings — of what? Of the truth, for I have seen it, have seen it with my own eyes, have seen it in all its glory. ~ Fyodor Dostoevsky in The Dream of a Ridiculous Man

  • 3 Kalki (talk · contributions) 00:42, 2 November 2010 (UTC) * 4 Kalki 17:14, 9 November 2009 (UTC) but also considering this as but a start of a more extensive quote of one, or perhaps even both of the passages suggested above, from the end of the same work.
In most cases, people, even the most vicious, are much more naive and simple-minded than we assume them to be. And this is true of ourselves too.
~ Fyodor Dostoevsky ~
Above all, avoid falsehood, every kind of falsehood, especially falseness to yourself. Watch over your own deceitfulness and look into it every hour, every minute.
~ Fyodor Dostoevsky ~
Neither a person nor a nation can exist without some higher idea. And there is only one higher idea on earth, and it is the idea of the immortality of the human soul, for all other "higher" ideas of life by which humans might live derive from that idea alone.
~ Fyodor Dostoevsky ~
The wisest of all, in my opinion, is he who can, if only once a month, call himself a fool — a faculty unheard of nowadays. In old days, once a year at any rate a fool would recognise that he was a fool, but nowadays not a bit of it. And they have so muddled things up that there is no telling a fool from a wise man.
~ Fyodor Dostoevsky ~
Civilization has made man, if not always more bloodthirsty, at least more viciously, more horribly bloodthirsty.
~ Fyodor Dostoevsky ~
Every man has some reminiscences which he would not tell to everyone, but only to his friends. He has others which he would not reveal even to his friends, but only to himself, and that in secret. But finally there are still others which a man is even afraid to tell himself, and every decent man has a considerable number of such things stored away. That is, one can even say that the more decent he is, the greater the number of such things in his mind.
~ Fyodor Dostoevsky ~
People only count their misfortunes; their good luck they take no account of. But if they were to take everything into account, as they should, they'd find that they had their fair share of it.
~ Fyodor Dostoevsky ~
Lack of originality, everywhere, all over the world, from time immemorial, has always been considered the foremost quality and the recommendation of the active, efficient and practical man....
~ Fyodor Dostoevsky ~
If you are penitent, you love. And if you love you are of God. All things are atoned for, all things are saved by love. If I, a sinner even as you are, am tender with you and have pity on you, how much more will God have pity upon you. Love is such a priceless treasure that you can redeem the whole world by it, and cleanse not only your own sins but the sins of others.
~ Fyodor Dostoevsky ~
Love a man even in his sin, for that is the semblance of Divine Love and is the highest love on earth. Love all God's creation, the whole of it and every grain of sand in it. Love every leaf, every ray of God's light. Love the animals, love the plants, love everything. If you love everything, you will perceive the divine mystery in things. Once you have perceived it, you will begin to comprehend it better every day, and you will come at last to love the world with an all-embracing love. Love the animals: God has given them the rudiments of thought and untroubled joy. So do not trouble it, do not harass them, do not deprive them of their joy, do not go against God's intent. Man, do not exhale yourself above the animals: they are without sin, while you in your majesty defile the earth by your appearance on it, and you leave the traces of your defilement behind you — alas, this is true of almost every one of us! Love children especially, for like the angels they too are sinless, and they live to soften and purify our hearts, and, as it were, to guide us. Woe to him who offends a child.
My young brother asked even the birds to forgive him. It may sound absurd, but it is right none the less, for everything, like the ocean, flows and enters into contact with everything else: touch one place, and you set up a movement at the other end of the world. It may be senseless to beg forgiveness of the birds, but, then, it would be easier for the birds, and for the child, and for every animal if you were yourself more pleasant than you are now. Everything is like an ocean, I tell you. Then you would pray to the birds, too, consumed by a universal love, as though in ecstasy, and ask that they, too, should forgive your sin. Treasure this ecstasy, however absurd people may think it.
~ Fyodor Dostoevsky ~
You know, in my opinion it's sometimes even good to be ridiculous, if not better: we can the sooner forgive each other, the sooner humble ourselves; we can't understand everything at once, we cant start right out with perfection! To achieve perfection, one must first begin by not understanding many things! And if we understand too quickly, we may not understand well. This I tell you, you, who have already been able to understand. .. and not understand … so much.
~ Fyodor Dostoevsky ~

From little towns in a far land we came,
To save our honour and a world aflame.
By little towns in a far land we sleep,
And trust the world we won for you to keep.
~ Rudyard Kipling ~

—This unsigned comment is by Iamheredude (talk • contribs) .



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