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August 14

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Quotes of the day from previous years:

2003
I never met a man so stupid I could not learn something from him. ~ Galileo Galilei
2004
Life itself is the proper binge. ~ Julia Child
2005
There is a road from the eye to the heart that does not go through the intellect. ~ Gilbert Keith Chesterton
2006
Usually, terrible things that are done with the excuse that progress requires them are not really progress at all, but just terrible things. ~ Russell Baker (born August 14, 1925)
2007
It's always worth while before you do anything to consider whether it's going to hurt another person more than is absolutely necessary. ~ John Galsworthy
2008
Life seemed to be an educator's practical joke in which you spent the first half learning and the second half learning that everything you learned in the first half was wrong. ~ Russell Baker
2009

Time will rust the sharpest sword,
Time will consume the strongest cord;
That which molders hemp and steel,
Mortal arm and nerve must feel.

~ Walter Scott

2010
One hour of life, crowded to the full with glorious action, and filled with noble risks, is worth whole years of those mean observances of paltry decorum, in which men steal through existence, like sluggish waters through a marsh, without either honour or observation. ~ Walter Scott
2011
Art is the one form of human energy in the whole world, which really works for union, and destroys the barriers between man and man. It is the continual, unconscious replacement, however fleeting, of oneself by another; the real cement of human life; the everlasting refreshment and renewal. ~ John Galsworthy
2012
Come! Let us lay a lance in rest,
And tilt at windmills under a wild sky!
For who would live so petty and unblest
That dare not tilt at something ere he die;
Rather than, screened by safe majority,
Preserve his little life to little end,
And never raise a rebel cry!
~ John Galsworthy ~
2013
Perfection, cosmically, was nothing but perfect Equanimity and Harmony; and in human relations, nothing but perfect Love and Justice. And Perfection began to glow before the eyes of the Western world like a new star, whose light touched with glamour all things as they came forth from Mystery, till to Mystery they were ready to return.
This — I thought is surely what the Western world has dimly been rediscovering. There has crept into our minds once more the feeling that the Universe is all of a piece, Equipoise supreme; and all things equally wonderful, and mysterious, and valuable. We have begun, in fact, to have a glimmering of the artist's creed, that nothing may we despise or neglect — that everything is worth the doing well, the making fair — that our God, Perfection, is implicit everywhere, and the revelation of Him the business of our Art.
~ John Galsworthy ~
2014
It isn't enough to love people because they're good to you, or because in some way or other you're going to get something by it. We have to love because we love loving.
~ John Galsworthy ~
2015
Long years ago we made a tryst with destiny, and now the time comes when we shall redeem our pledge, not wholly or in full measure, but very substantially. At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom. A moment comes, which comes but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the new, when an age ends, and when the soul of a nation, long suppressed, finds utterance. It is fitting that at this solemn moment, we take the pledge of dedication to the service of India and her people and to the still larger cause of humanity.
~ Jawaharlal Nehru ~
2016
O, what a tangled web we weave,
When first we practise to deceive!
~ Walter Scott ~
2017
Art is the great and universal refreshment. For Art is never dogmatic; holds no brief for itself; you may take it, or you may leave it.
~ John Galsworthy ~
2018
Only out of stir and change is born new salvation. To deny that is to deny belief in man, to turn our backs on courage! It is well, indeed, that some should live in closed studies with the paintings and the books of yesterday — such devoted students serve Art in their own way. But the fresh-air world will ever want new forms. We shall not get them without faith enough to risk the old! The good will live, the bad will die; and tomorrow only can tell us which is which!
~ John Galsworthy ~
2019
The seeing of things as they really are — the seeing of a proportion veiled from other eyes (together with the power of expression), is what makes a man an artist. What makes him a great artist is a high fervour of spirit, which produces a superlative, instead of a comparative, clarity of vision.
~ John Galsworthy ~
2020
Of all kinds of human energy, Art is surely the most free, the least parochial; and demands of us an essential tolerance of all its forms. Shall we waste breath and ink in condemnation of artists, because their temperaments are not our own?
~ John Galsworthy ~
2021
God save the pennon, ragged to the dawn,
That signs to moon to stand, and sun to fly;
And flutters when the weak is overborne
To stem the tide of fate and certainty.
That knows not reason, and that seeks no fame —

So! Undismayed beneath the serried clouds,
Raise up the banner of forlorn defence —
A jest to the complacency of crowds —
Bright-haloed with the one diviner sense:
To hold itself as nothing to itself;
And in the quest of its imagined star
To lose all thought of after-recompense!
~ John Galsworthy ~
2022
All of a sudden I had to remember some words that Marlowe had told me over fifteen years ago: "Dead men don't wear plaid."
Hmm... Dead men don't wear plaid.
I still don't know what it means.
~ Steve Martin ~
2023
Human civilization is the outgrowth of conscious altruism; and the directive Moral Purpose in the world nothing but our dim perception, ever growing through spiritual friction, that we are all bound more and more toward the understanding of ourselves and each other, and all that this carries with it.
~ John Galsworthy ~
2024
Truth, to the human consciousness at least, is but that vitally just relation of part to whole which is the very condition of life itself. And the task before the imaginative writer, whether at the end of the last century or all these aeons later, is the presentation of a vision which to eye and ear and mind has the implicit proportions of Truth.
~ John Galsworthy ~
2025
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The new phone book's here! The new phone book's here! This is the kind of spontaneous publicity I need. My name in print. That really makes somebody. Things are going to start happening to me now! ~ Steve Martin as "Navin R. Johnson" in The Jerk (date of birth)

You kill me and I'll see that you never work in this town again. ~ Steve Martin as "Dr. Michael Hfuhruhurr" in The Man with Two Brains (date of birth)

It's so hard to believe in anything anymore. If it weren't for my lucky astrology mood watch, I wouldn't believe in anything.. ~ Steve Martin (date of birth)

You talk a great deal about building a better world for your children, but when you are young you can no more envision a world inherited by your children than you can conceive of dying. The society you mold, you mold for yourself. ~ Russell Baker

All politicians are humble, and seldom let you forget it. They go around the country boasting about their humility. They are proud of their humility. Many are downright arrogant about their humility and insist that it qualifies them to be President. ~ Russell Baker

A solved problem creates two new problems, and the best prescription for happy living is not to solve any more problems than you have to. ~ Russell Baker

Inanimate objects can be classified scientifically into three major categories: those that don't work, those that break down and those that get lost.
The goal of all inanimate objects is to resist man and ultimately to defeat him, and the three major classifications are based on the method each object uses to achieve its purpose. As a general rule, any object capable of breaking down at the moment when it is most needed will do so. ~ Russell Baker

Revenge is the sweetest morsel to the mouth, that ever was cooked in hell. ~ Walter Scott

Vacant heart, and hand, and eye,
Easy live and quiet die. ~ Walter Scott

  • 3 because those who live without struggle, die a quiet death. Zarbon 05:27, 28 May 2008 (UTC)
  • 2 InvisibleSun 20:41, 13 August 2008 (UTC)
  • 2 Kalki 00:11, 14 August 2008 (UTC)
  • 3 Peace and Passion ("I'm listening....") 20:12, 10 August 2009 (UTC) Intriguing kind of corollary to "An unexamined life is not worth living...."

And come he slow, or come he fast,
It is but Death who comes at last. ~ Walter Scott

  • 3 because sooner or later, we all die. Zarbon 05:27, 28 May 2008 (UTC)
  • 2 InvisibleSun 20:41, 13 August 2008 (UTC)
  • 2 Kalki 00:11, 14 August 2008 (UTC)
  • 1 Peace and Passion ("I'm listening....") 20:12, 10 August 2009 (UTC) One of the most common "concepts" in literature — The same sentiment has been stated much more "pleasingly" (for grievous lack of a better word).

For he that does good, having the unlimited power to do evil, deserves praise not only for the good which he performs, but for the evil which he forbears. ~ Walter Scott

Love! Beyond measure — beyond death — it nearly kills. But one wouldn't have been without it. ~ John Galsworthy

The value of a sentiment is the amount of sacrifice you are prepared to make for it. ~ John Galsworthy ~

The beginnings and endings of all human undertakings are untidy, the building of a house, the writing of a novel, the demolition of a bridge, and, eminently, the finish of a voyage. ~ John Galsworthy


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