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January 17

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Quotes of the day from previous years:

2005
The hope of a secure and livable world lies with disciplined nonconformists who are dedicated to justice, peace and brotherhood. ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.
2006
Human felicity is produc'd not so much by great pieces of good fortune that seldom happen, as by little advantages that occur every day. ~ Benjamin Franklin (born 17 January 1706)
2007
Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety. ~ Benjamin Franklin
2008
All true histories contain instruction; though, in some, the treasure may be hard to find, and when found, so trivial in quantity, that the dry, shrivelled kernel scarcely compensates for the trouble of cracking the nut. Whether this be the case with my history or not, I am hardly competent to judge. I sometimes think it might prove useful to some, and entertaining to others; but the world may judge for itself. Shielded by my own obscurity, and by the lapse of years, and a few fictitious names, I do not fear to venture; and will candidly lay before the public what I would not disclose to the most intimate friend. ~ Anne Brontë (born 17 January 1820)
2009
We have this window of opportunity; we have a chance to make something real happen. Something possible happen, to live beyond our fear — think about that, and help us. Help lift us up, help us fight this fight to change, — transform — this country in a fundamental way.
This chance won’t come around again. ~ Michelle Obama
2010
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 ~
2011
I think all the heretics I have known have been virtuous men. They have the virtue of fortitude or they would not venture to own their heresy; and they cannot afford to be deficient in any of the other virtues, as that would give advantage to their many enemies; and they have not like orthodox sinners, such a number of friends to excuse or justify them. Do not, however mistake me. It is not to my good friend's heresy that I impute his honesty. On the contrary, 'tis his honesty that has brought upon him the character of heretic. ~ Benjamin Franklin
2012
My goal as an actor is always to be as truthful as possible, and to find the truth in the material I am representing. So I think that it’s the same with performing music. But in a way, performing your own music, it’s easier to find the truth in it, because it’s coming from yourself. There’s no translation needed. ~ Zooey Deschanel
2013
Mankind naturally and generally love to be flatter'd: Whatever sooths our Pride, and tends to exalt our Species above the rest of the Creation, we are pleas'd with and easily believe, when ungrateful Truths shall be with the utmost Indignation rejected. "What! bring ourselves down to an Equality with the Beasts of the Field! with the meanest part of the Creation! 'Tis insufferable!" But, (to use a Piece of common Sense) our Geese are but Geese tho' we may think 'em Swans; and Truth will be Truth tho' it sometimes prove mortifying and distasteful.
~ Benjamin Franklin ~
2014

All I know is that I'm tired of being clever
Everybody's clever these days

Take a win
Take a fall
I never wanted your love
But I needed it all…

~ Zooey Deschanel ~
2015
God grant, that not only the Love of Liberty, but a thorough Knowledge of the Rights of Man, may pervade all the Nations of the Earth, so that a Philosopher may set his Foot anywhere on its Surface, and say, "This is my Country."
~ Benjamin Franklin ~
2016
As we enjoy great Advantages from the Inventions of Others, we should be glad of an Opportunity to serve others by any Invention of ours, and this we should do freely and generously.
~ Benjamin Franklin ~
2017
It is our fundamental belief in the power of hope that has allowed us to rise above the voices of doubt and division, of anger and fear that we have faced in our own lives and in the life of this country. Our hope that if we work hard enough and believe in ourselves, then we can be whatever we dream, regardless of the limitations that others may place on us. The hope that when people see us for who we truly are, maybe, just maybe they, too, will be inspired to rise to their best possible selves.
~ Michelle Obama ~
2018
I want our young people to know that they matter, that they belong. So don't be afraid — you hear me, young people? Don't be afraid. Be focused. Be determined. Be hopeful. Be empowered. Empower yourselves with a good education, then get out there and use that education to build a country worthy of your boundless promise. Lead by example with hope, never fear. And know that I will be with you, rooting for you and working to support you for the rest of my life.
~ Michelle Obama ~
2019
If your family doesn't have much money, I want you to remember that in this country, plenty of folks, including me and my husband — we started out with very little. But with a lot of hard work and a good education, anything is possible — even becoming President. That's what the American Dream is all about.
If you are a person of faith, know that religious diversity is a great American tradition, too. In fact, that's why people first came to this country — to worship freely. And whether you are Muslim, Christian, Jewish, Hindu, Sikh — these religions are teaching our young people about justice, and compassion, and honesty. So I want our young people to continue to learn and practice those values with pride. You see, our glorious diversity — our diversities of faiths and colors and creeds — that is not a threat to who we are, it makes us who we are.
~ Michelle Obama ~
2020
Do not ever let anyone make you feel like you don't matter, or like you don't have a place in our American story — because you do. And you have a right to be exactly who you are.
But I also want to be very clear: This right isn't just handed to you. No, this right has to be earned every single day. You cannot take your freedoms for granted. Just like generations who have come before you, you have to do your part to preserve and protect those freedoms.
~ Michelle Obama ~
2021
When people ask me whether being in the White House has changed my husband, I can honestly say that when it comes to his character, and his convictions, and his heart, Barack Obama is still the same man I fell in love with all those years ago.
He's the same man who started his career by turning down high paying jobs and instead working in struggling neighborhoods where a steel plant had shut down, fighting to rebuild those communities and get folks back to work … because for Barack, success isn't about how much money you make, it's about the difference you make in people's lives.
~ Michelle Obama ~
2022
When I feel it my duty to speak an unpalatable truth, with the help of God, I will speak it, though it be to the prejudice of my name and to the detriment of my readers immediate pleasure as well as my own.
~ Anne Brontë ~


2023
The greatest worldly distinctions and discrepancies of rank, birth, and fortune are as dust in the balance compared with the unity of accordant thoughts and feelings, and truly loving, sympathising hearts and souls.
~ Anne Brontë ~
2024
All Wars are Follies, very expensive & very mischievous ones. When will Mankind be convinc’d of this, and agree to settle their Differences by Arbitration? Were they to do it even by the Cast of a Dye, it would be better than by Fighting & destroying each other.
~ Benjamin Franklin ~
2025
Rank or add further suggestions…

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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.
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Suggestions

[edit]
Battle of Cowpens (1781)
DOB: Muhammad Ali · Pedro Calderón de la Barca · Anne Brontë · Al Capone · Zooey Deschanel · Benjamin Franklin · David Lloyd George · Michelle Obama

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

  • 3 Kalki 14:17, 16 January 2007 (UTC) with a very strong lean toward 4.
  • 3 InvisibleSun 22:51, 16 January 2007 (UTC)
  • 1 Zarbon 18:16, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

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

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

  • 3 InvisibleSun 12:12, 16 January 2008 (UTC)
  • 3 Kalki 01:27, 17 January 2008 (UTC) with a strong lean toward 4.
  • 1 Zarbon 18:16, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

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

  • 3 InvisibleSun 12:12, 16 January 2008 (UTC)
  • 2 Kalki (talk · contributions) 23:44, 13 January 2010 (UTC) * 3 Kalki 01:27, 17 January 2008 (UTC) with a strong lean toward 4. I have a very strong liking for this, but a much stronger liking for something else this year.
  • 3 because this is a great quote. If you're going to do something, do not hesitate to do it, for you may not have the chance to do it always. Very enigmatic and charming. Zarbon 18:16, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

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

  • 3 Kalki 18:29, 13 March 2008 (UTC) with a very strong lean toward 4.
  • 1 Zarbon 18:16, 22 April 2008 (UTC)
  • 3 InvisibleSun 23:30, 16 January 2009 (UTC)

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

  • 3 Kalki 18:29, 13 March 2008 (UTC) with a strong lean toward 4.
  • 1 Zarbon 18:16, 22 April 2008 (UTC)
  • 3 InvisibleSun 23:30, 16 January 2009 (UTC)

These flowers, which were splendid and sprightly,
Waking in the dawn of the morning,
In the evening will be a pitiful frivolity,
Sleeping in the cold night’s arms.
~ Pedro Calderón de la Barca

What surprises you, if a dream taught me this wisdom, and if I still fear I may wake up and find myself once more confined in prison? And even if this should not happen, merely to dream it is enough. For this I have come to know, that all human happiness finally ceases, like a dream. ~ Pedro Calderón de la Barca

  • 4 magnificent, beautiful sadness depicted here. I love the verbalization of nothing lasts forever, or the denounciation of anything lasting forever, hence the ceasing of happiness in the end, which is an illusion in itself. Beautiful and majestic. Zarbon 05:07, 20 December 2008 (UTC)
  • 2 Kalki 22:58, 16 January 2009 (UTC)
  • 3 InvisibleSun 23:30, 16 January 2009 (UTC)

Green is the prime color of the world, and that from which its loveliness arises. ~ Pedro Calderón de la Barca

  • 2 eh, green's my favorite color. Zarbon 05:07, 20 December 2008 (UTC)
  • 2 Kalki 22:58, 16 January 2009 (UTC)
  • 2 InvisibleSun 23:30, 16 January 2009 (UTC)

When I sell liquor, it’s called bootlegging. When my patrons serve it on silver trays on Lake Shore Drive, it’s called hospitality. ~ Al Capone

You can get much farther with a kind word and a gun than you can with a kind word alone. ~ Al Capone

  • 3 Zarbon 05:07, 20 December 2008 (UTC)
  • 2 Kalki 22:58, 16 January 2009 (UTC) with a lean toward 3.

We need to fix our souls. Our souls are broken in this nation. We have lost our way. And it begins with inspiration. It begins with leadership. ~ Michelle Obama

  • 2 Zarbon 05:07, 20 December 2008 (UTC)
  • 3 Kalki 22:58, 16 January 2009 (UTC) with a strong lean toward 4.
  • 2 InvisibleSun 23:30, 16 January 2009 (UTC)

I have not brought you freedom, I found it here among you. ~ Skanderbeg (birth unknown, date of death)

  • 2 Zarbon 05:17, 20 December 2008 (UTC)
  • 2 Kalki 22:58, 16 January 2009 (UTC)

I think people are hungry for change. And I have been desperate to see our country moving in that direction and just not feeling so alone in my frustration and disappointment. I've seen people who are hungry to be unified around some basic common issues, and it's made me proud.~ Michelle Obama

  • 3 Kalki 22:58, 16 January 2009 (UTC) with a strong lean toward 4.
  • 3 InvisibleSun 23:30, 16 January 2009 (UTC)
  • 2 Zarbon 19:26, 17 January 2009 (UTC)

Change is hard, I should know.
I should know.
~ Zooey Deschanel ~

  • 3 Kalki 23:44, 17 January 2009 (UTC) this quote was one I had actually intended to prefer here with a 4 for this year, until I realized it was also Michelle Obama's birthday as well as Zooey's, so for this year, with her husband's inauguration days away, Michelle clearly had much greater status of social interest.

For those of us who try to keep remembering,
Try to do our better than our best.
Think of all the children in the drifts of snow.
Winners never quit, but winters never rest.
~ Zooey Deschanel ~

  • 3 Kalki 23:44, 17 January 2009 (UTC) with a strong lean toward 4.

Most people dislike vanity in others, whatever share they have of it themselves; but I give it fair quarter wherever I meet with it, being persuaded that it is often productive of good to the possessor, and to others that are within his sphere of action; and therefore, in many cases, it would not be altogether absurd if a man were to thank God for his vanity among the other comforts of life. ~ Benjamin Franklin

I think opinions should be judged of by their influences and effects, and if a man holds none that tend to make him less virtuous or more vicious, it may be concluded that he holds none that are dangerous; which I hope is the case with me. ~ Benjamin Franklin

As to Jesus of Nazareth, my Opinion of whom you particularly desire, I think the System of Morals and his Religion, as he left them to us, the best the world ever saw or is likely to see; but I apprehend it has received various corrupt changes, and I have, with most of the present Dissenters in England, some Doubts as to his divinity; tho' it is a question I do not dogmatize upon, having never studied it, and I think it needless to busy myself with it now, when I expect soon an Opportunity of knowing the Truth with less Trouble. ~ Benjamin Franklin

Sell not virtue to purchase wealth, nor Liberty to purchase power. ~ Benjamin Franklin

Language forms a kind of wealth, which all can make use of at once without causing any diminution of the store, and which thus admits a complete community of enjoyment; for all, freely participating in the general treasure, unconsciously aid in its preservation. ~ August Comte, born 17 January 1798.

I am for doing good to the poor, but I differ in opinion of the means. I think the best way of doing good to the poor, is not making them easy in poverty, but leading or driving them out of it. In my youth I travelled much, and I observed in different countries, that the more public provisions were made for the poor, the less they provided for themselves, and of course became poorer. And, on the contrary, the less was done for them, the more they did for themselves, and became richer.
~ Benjamin Franklin ~
My soul is awakened, my spirit is soaring
And carried aloft on the wings of the breeze;
For above and around me the wild wind is roaring,
Arousing to rapture the earth and the seas.
~ Anne Brontë ~

All for myself the sigh would swell,
The tear of anguish start;
I little knew what wilder woe
Had filled the Poet's heart.

I did not know the nights of gloom,
The days of misery;
The long, long years of dark despair,
That crushed and tortured thee.

~ Anne Brontë ~

I ask not how remote the day
Nor what the sinner's woe
Before their dross is purged away,
Enough for me to know

That when the cup of wrath is drained,
The metal purified,
They'll cling to what they once disdained,
And live by Him that died.

~ Anne Brontë ~
He, that dares not grasp the thorn
Should never crave the rose.
~ Anne Brontë ~
God is Infinite Wisdom, and Power, and Goodness — and Love; but if this idea is too vast for your human faculties — if your mind loses itself in its overwhelming infinitude, fix it on Him who condescended to take our nature upon Him, who was raised to heaven even in His glorified human body, in whom the fullness of the Godhead shines.
~ Anne Brontë ~
God will judge us by our own thoughts and deeds, not by what others say about us.
~ Anne Brontë ~
It is better to arm and strengthen your hero, than to disarm and enfeeble your foe.
~ Anne Brontë ~
I love that for Barack, there is no such thing as "us" and "them" — he doesn’t care whether you’re a Democrat, a Republican, or none of the above … he knows that we all love our country … and he’s always ready to listen to good ideas … he’s always looking for the very best in everyone he meets.
~ Michelle Obama ~
I had a sinking feeling... I’m an American, I’m standing in Calcutta, and my country is sailing up, and now I’m the enemy of my country? Because I’m living in India and thinking they’re on the right side? It was the worst feeling, to this day, one of the worst feelings in my life. You don’t want to hate your government. Somehow someone’s tipped the world upside down.
~ Sydney Schanberg ~
  • 3 (about the 1971 Bangladesh genocide) ᘙ (talk) 11:17, 9 December 2022 (UTC)


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