Quotes of the day from previous years:
- 2004
- It took a couple of hundred million years to develop a thinking ape and you want a smart one in a lousy few hundred thousand? ~ Spider Robinson
- 2005
- Mankind must put an end to war or war will put an end to mankind. ~ John F. Kennedy (elected U.S. President 8 November 1960)
- 2006
- No man knows till he has suffered from the night how sweet and dear to his heart and eye the morning can be. ~ Bram Stoker (born 8 November 1847)
- 2007
- The important thing
is to pull yourself up by your own hair
to turn yourself inside out
and see the whole world with fresh eyes.
~ Peter Weiss ~
- 2008
Once and for all
the idea of glorious victories
won by the glorious army
must be wiped out
Neither side is glorious
On either side they're just frightened men messing their pants
and they all want the same thing
Not to lie under the earth
but to walk upon it
without crutches
~ Peter Weiss ~ (born November 8, 1916)
- 2009
- Charity keepeth us in Faith and Hope, and Hope leadeth us in Charity. And in the end all shall be Charity. ~ Julian of Norwich
- 2010
- He that made all things for love, by the same love keepeth them, and shall keep them without end. ~ Julian of Norwich
- 2011
- Nothing is too small. I counsel you, put down in record even your doubts and surmises. Hereafter it may be of interest to you to see how true you guess. We learn from failure, not from success! ~ Bram Stoker
- 2012
| If any such lover be in earth which is continually kept from falling, I know it not: for it was not shewed me. But this was shewed: that in falling and in rising we are ever preciously kept in one Love.
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| ~ Julian of Norwich ~
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- 2013
- 2014
- 2015
- 2016
Mercy is a sweet gracious working in love, mingled with plenteous pity: for mercy worketh in keeping us, and mercy worketh turning to us all things to good. Mercy, by love, suffereth us to fail in measure and in as much as we fail, in so much we fall; and in as much as we fall, in so much we die: for it needs must be that we die in so much as we fail of the sight and feeling of God that is our life. Our failing is dreadful, our falling is shameful, and our dying is sorrowful: but in all this the sweet eye of pity and love is lifted never off us, nor the working of mercy ceaseth.
For I beheld the property of mercy, and I beheld the property of grace: which have two manners of working in one love.
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| ~ Julian of Norwich ~
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- 2017
- 2018
- 2019
It is sooth that sin is cause of all this pain; but all shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well.
These words were said full tenderly, showing no manner of blame to me nor to any that shall be saved. Then were it a great unkindness to blame or wonder on God for my sin, since He blameth not me for sin.
And in these words I saw a marvellous high mystery hid in God, which mystery He shall openly make known to us in Heaven: in which knowing we shall verily see the cause why He suffered sin to come. In which sight we shall endlessly joy in our Lord God.
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| ~ Julian of Norwich ~
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- 2020
- 2021
| Truth seeth God, and Wisdom beholdeth God, and of these two cometh the third: that is, a holy marvellous delight in God; which is Love. Where Truth and Wisdom are verily, there is Love verily, coming of them both. And all of God’s making: for He is endless sovereign Truth, endless sovereign Wisdom, endless sovereign Love, unmade; and man’s Soul is a creature in God which hath the same properties made, and evermore it doeth that it was made for: it seeth God, it beholdeth God, and it loveth God. Whereof God enjoyeth in the creature; and the creature in God, endlessly marvelling.
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| ~ Julian of Norwich ~
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- 2022
- 2023
| When I saw that God doeth all that is done, I saw no sin: and then I saw that all is well. But when God shewed me for sin, then said He: All SHALL be well.
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| ~ Julian of Norwich ~
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- 2024
- 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]
- DOB: Pierre Bosquet · Robert Bulwer-Lytton · Dorothy Day · Julian of Norwich · Bram Stoker · Peter Weiss · Edmond Halley
We can say what we like without favour or fear
and what we can't say we can breathe in your ear
~ Peter Weiss
- 3 InvisibleSun 20:21, 3 November 2007 (UTC)
- 3 Kalki 20:17, 7 November 2007 (UTC)
- 2 Zarbon 05:51, 26 April 2008 (UTC)
The world is filled with folly and sin,
And Love must cling, where it can, I say:
For Beauty is easy enough to win;
But one isn't loved every day.
~ Robert Bulwer-Lytton
The things which must be must be for the best. ~ Robert Bulwer-Lytton
The ages roll
Forward; and forward with them draw my soul
Into Time’s infinite sea.
And to be glad or sad I care no more;
But to have done and to have been before
I cease to do and be!
~ Robert Bulwer-Lytton
Genius does what it must, talent does what it can. ~ Robert Bulwer-Lytton
- 3 Zarbon 05:05, 8 July 2008 (UTC)
- 2 InvisibleSun 02:28, 7 November 2008 (UTC)
- 2 Kalki 15:23, 7 November 2008 (UTC) with a lean toward 3, or even 4.
It is magnificent, but it is not war; it is madness. ~ Pierre Bosquet
- 3 Zarbon 05:05, 8 July 2008 (UTC)
0 because it is unsourced. - InvisibleSun 02:28, 7 November 2008 (UTC)
- It is no longer unsourced. You may recast your vote for this one. Zarbon 06:51, 7 November 2008 (UTC)
- 2 InvisibleSun 23:30, 7 November 2008 (UTC)
- 2 Kalki 15:23, 7 November 2008 (UTC)
Religion does not mean to surrender to dogmas and religious scriptures or conformity to rituals. But my religion constitutes an abiding faith in the perfect values of truth and the ceaseless attempt to realise them in the inner most part of our nature. ~ Hans Ji Maharaj
In this world, who you are is more important than what you are saying. ~ P. L. Deshpande
My whole life I have been waving the names of writers, as if we needed rescue. From these writers, for almost 50 years, I have received narrative, witness, companionship, sanctuary, shock, and steely strangeness; good advice, bad news, deep chords, hurtful discrepancy, and amazing grace. At an average of five books a week, not counting all those sighed at and nibbled on before they go to the Strand, I will read 13,000. Then I'm dead. Thirteen thousand in a lifetime, about as many as there are new ones published every month in this country.
It's not enough, and yet rich to excess. The books we love, love us back. ~ John Leonard (recent death)
- 4 InvisibleSun 02:28, 7 November 2008 (UTC)
- 2 Zarbon 06:51, 7 November 2008 (UTC)
- 2 Kalki 15:23, 7 November 2008 (UTC)
I am sure that God did not intend that there be so many poor. The class structure is of our making and our consent, not His. It is the way we have arranged it, and it is up to us to change it. So we are urging revolutionary change. ~ Dorothy Day
| I saw God in a Point, that is to say, in mine understanding, — by which sight I saw that He is in all things.
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| ~ Julian of Norwich ~
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| By our blindness and our unforesight we say: these be haps and adventures. But to our Lord God they be not so.
Wherefore me behoveth needs to grant that all-thing that is done, it is well-done: for our Lord God doeth all. For in this time the working of creatures was not shewed, but of our Lord God in the creature: for He is in the Mid-point of all thing, and all He doeth. And I was certain He doeth no sin.
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| ~ Julian of Norwich ~
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| All His doings are easy and sweet, and to great ease bringing the soul that is turned from the beholding of the blind Deeming of man unto the fair sweet Deeming of our Lord God. For a man beholdeth some deeds well done and some deeds evil, but our Lord beholdeth them not so: for as all that hath being in nature is of Godly making, so is all that is done, in property of God’s doing.
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| ~ Julian of Norwich ~
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It is easy to understand that the best deed is well done: and so well as the best deed is done — the highest — so well is the least deed done; and all thing in its property and in the order that our Lord hath ordained it to from without beginning. For there is no doer but He.
I saw full surely that he changeth never His purpose in no manner of thing, nor never shall, without end.
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| ~ Julian of Norwich ~
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| This word: Thou shalt not be overcome, was said full clearly and full mightily, for assuredness and comfort against all tribulations that may come. He said not: Thou shalt not be tempested, thou shalt not be travailed, thou shalt not be afflicted; but He said: Thou shalt not be overcome. God willeth that we take heed to these words, and that we be ever strong in sure trust, in weal and woe. For He loveth and enjoyeth us, and so willeth He that we love and enjoy Him and mightily trust in Him; and all shall be well.
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| ~ Julian of Norwich ~
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For in the sight of God all man is one man, and one man is all man. This man was hurt in his might and made full feeble; and he was stunned in his understanding so that he turned from the beholding of his Lord. But his will was kept whole in God’s sight; — for his will I saw our Lord commend and approve. But himself was letted and blinded from the knowing of this will; and this is to him great sorrow and grievous distress: for neither doth he see clearly his loving Lord, which is to him full meek and mild, nor doth he see truly what himself is in the sight of his loving Lord. And well I wot when these two are wisely and truly seen, we shall get rest and peace here in part, and the fulness of the bliss of Heaven, by His plenteous grace.
And this was a beginning of teaching which I saw in the same time, whereby I might come to know in what manner He beholdeth us in our sin. And then I saw that only Pain blameth and punisheth, and our courteous Lord comforteth and sorroweth; and ever He is to the soul in glad Cheer, loving, and longing to bring us to His bliss.
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| ~ Julian of Norwich ~
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| I saw that God rejoiceth that He is our Father, and God rejoiceth that He is our Mother, and God rejoiceth that He is our Very Spouse and our soul is His loved Wife. And Christ rejoiceth that He is our Brother, and Jesus rejoiceth that He is our Saviour. These are five high joys, as I understand, in which He willeth that we enjoy; Him praising, Him thanking, Him loving, Him endlessly blessing.
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| ~ Julian of Norwich ~
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Highly ought we to rejoice that God dwelleth in our soul, and much more highly ought we to rejoice that our soul dwelleth in God. Our soul is made to be God’s dwelling-place; and the dwelling-place of the soul is God, Which is unmade. And high understanding it is, inwardly to see and know that God, which is our Maker, dwelleth in our soul; and an higher understanding it is, inwardly to see and to know that our soul, that is made, dwelleth in God’s Substance: of which Substance, God, we are that we are.
And I saw no difference between God and our Substance: but as it were all God; and yet mine understanding took that our Substance is in God: that is to say, that God is God, and our Substance is a creature in God.
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| ~ Julian of Norwich ~
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| God is nearer to us than our own Soul: for He is Ground in whom our Soul standeth, and He is Mean that keepeth the Substance and the Sense-nature together so that they shall never dispart. For our soul sitteth in God in very rest, and our soul standeth in God in very strength, and our Soul is kindly rooted in God in endless love: and therefore if we will have knowledge of our Soul, and communing and dalliance therewith, it behoveth to seek unto our Lord God in whom it is enclosed.
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| ~ Julian of Norwich ~
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| The age of every man shall be acknowledged before him in Heaven, and every man shall be rewarded for his willing service and for his time.
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| ~ Julian of Norwich ~
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| We may never come to full knowing of God till we know first clearly our own Soul.
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| ~ Julian of Norwich ~
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As verily as God is our Father, so verily God is our Mother; and that shewed He in all, and especially in these sweet words where He saith: I IT AM. That is to say, I IT AM, the Might and the Goodness of the Fatherhood; I IT AM, the Wisdom of the Motherhood; I IT AM, the Light and the Grace that is all blessed Love: I IT AM, the Trinity, I IT AM, the Unity: I am the sovereign Goodness of all manner of things. I am that maketh thee to love: I am that maketh thee to long: I IT AM, the endless fulfilling of all true desires.
For there the soul is highest, noblest, and worthiest, where it is lowest, meekest, and mildest: and of this Substantial Ground we have all our virtues in our Sense-part by gift of Nature, by helping and speeding of Mercy and Grace: without the which we may not profit.
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| ~ Julian of Norwich ~
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| I understood three manners of beholding of Motherhood in God: the first is grounded in our Nature’s making; the second is taking of our nature, — and there beginneth the Motherhood of Grace; the third is Motherhood of working, — and therein is a forthspreading by the same Grace, of length and breadth and height and of deepness without end. And all is one Love.
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| ~ Julian of Norwich ~
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| The mother may suffer the child to fall sometimes, and to be hurt in diverse manners for its own profit, but she may never suffer that any manner of peril come to the child, for love.
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| ~ Julian of Norwich ~
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| This fair lovely word Mother, it is so sweet and so close in Nature of itself that it may not verily be said of none but of Him; and to her that is very Mother of Him and of all.
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| ~ Julian of Norwich ~
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| God is Nature in His being: that is to say, that Goodness that is Nature, it is God. He is the ground, He is the substance, He is the same thing that is Nature-hood. And He is very Father and very Mother of Nature: and all natures that He hath made to flow out of Him to work His will shall be restored and brought again into Him by the salvation of man through the working of Grace.
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| ~ Julian of Norwich ~
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| Our Soul may never have rest in things that are beneath itself.
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| ~ Julian of Norwich ~
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| This word: Thou shalt not be overcome, was said full clearly and full mightily, for assuredness and comfort against all tribulations that may come. He said not: Thou shalt not be tempested, thou shalt not be travailed, thou shalt not be afflicted; but He said: Thou shalt not be overcome. God willeth that we take heed to these words, and that we be ever strong in sure trust, in weal and woe. For He loveth and enjoyeth us, and so willeth He that we love and enjoy Him and mightily trust in Him; and all shall be well.
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| ~ Julian of Norwich ~
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| I am sure that no man asketh mercy and grace with true meaning, but if mercy and grace be first given to him.
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| ~ Julian of Norwich ~
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| It is most impossible that we should beseech mercy and grace, and not have it.
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| ~ Julian of Norwich ~
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| Our good Lord answered to all the questions and doubts that I might make, saying full comfortably: I may make all thing well, I can make all thing well, I will make all thing well, and I shall make all thing well; and thou shalt see thyself that all manner of thing shall be well.
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| ~ Julian of Norwich ~
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| Here understand I in truth that all manner of things are made ready for us by the great goodness of God, so far forth that what time we be ourselves in peace and charity, we be verily saved.
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| ~ Julian of Norwich ~
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| Each brotherly compassion that man hath on his fellow Christians, with charity, it is Christ in him.
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| ~ Julian of Norwich ~
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| Endlessly hate the sin and endlessly love the soul, as God loveth it. Then shall we hate sin like as God hateth it, and love the soul as God loveth it. And this word that He said is an endless comfort: I keep thee securely.
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| ~ Julian of Norwich ~
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I had no other answer in Shewing of our Lord God but this: That which is impossible to thee is not impossible to me: I shall save my word in all things and I shall make all things well. Thus I was taught, by the grace of God, that I should steadfastly hold me in the Faith as I had aforehand understood, therewith that I should firmly believe that all things shall be well, as our Lord shewed in the same time.
For this is the Great Deed that our Lord shall do, in which Deed He shall save His word and He shall make all well that is not well. How it shall be done there is no creature beneath Christ that knoweth it, nor shall know it till it is done; according to the understanding that I took of our Lord’s meaning in this time.
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| ~ Julian of Norwich ~
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| Our courteous Lord willeth not that His servants despair, for often nor for grievous falling: for our falling hindereth not Him to love us. Peace and love are ever in us, being and working; but we be not alway in peace and in love. But He willeth that we take heed thus that He is Ground of all our whole life in love; and furthermore that He is our everlasting Keeper and mightily defendeth us against our enemies, that be full fell and fierce upon us; — and so much our need is the more for we give them occasion by our falling.
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| ~ Julian of Norwich ~
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| Our Lord God shewed that a deed shall be done, and Himself shall do it, and I shall do nothing but sin, and my sin shall not hinder His Goodness working.
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| ~ Julian of Norwich ~
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| In every soul that shall be saved is a Godly Will that never assented to sin, nor ever shall. Right as there is a beastly will in the lower part that may will no good, right so there is a Godly Will in the higher part, which will is so good that it may never will evil, but ever good. And therefore we are that which He loveth and endlessly we do that which Him pleaseth.
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| ~ Julian of Norwich ~
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| By contrition we are made clean, by compassion we are made ready, and by true longing toward God we are made worthy. These are three means, as I understand, whereby that all souls come to heaven: that is to say, that have been sinners in earth and shall be saved: for by these three medicines it behoveth that every soul be healed.
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| ~ Julian of Norwich ~
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| The creature that is made shall see and endlessly behold God which is the Maker. For thus may no man see God and live after, that is to say, in this deadly life. But when He of His special grace will shew Himself here, He strengtheneth the creature above its self, and He measureth the Shewing, after His own will, as it is profitable for the time.
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| ~ Julian of Norwich ~
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| Two things belong to our soul as duty: the one is that we reverently marvel, the other that we meekly suffer, ever enjoying in God. For He would have us understand that we shall in short time see clearly in Himself all that we desire.
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| ~ Julian of Norwich ~
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Man is changeable in this life, and by frailty and overcoming falleth into sin: he is weak and unwise of himself, and also his will is overlaid. And in this time he is in tempest and in sorrow and woe; and the cause is blindness: for he seeth not God. For if he saw God continually, he should have no mischievous feeling, nor any manner of motion or yearning that serveth to sin.
Thus saw I, and felt in the same time; and methought that the sight and the feeling was high and plenteous and gracious in comparison with that which our common feeling is in this life; but yet I thought it was but small and low in comparison with the great desire that the soul hath to see God.
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| ~ Julian of Norwich ~
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Our good Lord the Holy Ghost, which is endless life dwelling in our soul, full securely keepeth us; and worketh therein a peace and bringeth it to ease by grace, and accordeth it to God and maketh it pliant. And this is the mercy and the way that our Lord continually leadeth us in as long as we be here in this life which is changeable.
For I saw no wrath but on man’s part; and that forgiveth He in us.
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| ~ Julian of Norwich ~
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| I saw full surely that where our Lord appeareth, peace is taken and wrath hath no place. For I saw no manner of wrath in God, neither for short time nor for long; — for in sooth, as to my sight, if God might be wroth for an instant, we should never have life nor place nor being.
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| ~ Julian of Norwich ~
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| Thus saw I that God is our very Peace, and He is our sure Keeper when we are ourselves in unpeace, and He continually worketh to bring us into endless peace. And thus when we, by the working of mercy and grace, be made meek and mild, we are fully safe; suddenly is the soul oned to God when it is truly peaced in itself: for in Him is found no wrath. And thus I saw when we are all in peace and in love, we find no contrariness, nor no manner of letting through that contrariness which is now in us; our Lord of His Goodness maketh it to us full profitable.
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| ~ Julian of Norwich ~
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| In this life mercy and forgiveness is our way and evermore leadeth us to grace. And by the tempest and the sorrow that we fall into on our part, we be often dead as to man’s doom in earth; but in the sight of God the soul that shall be saved was never dead, nor ever shall be.
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| ~ Julian of Norwich ~
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| I desired oftentimes to learn what was our Lord’s meaning. And fifteen years after, and more, I was answered in ghostly understanding, saying thus: Wouldst thou learn thy Lord’s meaning in this thing? Learn it well: Love was His meaning. Who shewed it thee? Love. What shewed He thee? Love. Wherefore shewed it He? For Love. Hold thee therein and thou shalt learn and know more in the same. But thou shalt never know nor learn therein other thing without end. Thus was I learned that Love was our Lord’s meaning.
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| ~ Julian of Norwich ~
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| I saw full surely that ere God made us He loved us; which love was never slacked, nor ever shall be. And in this love He hath done all His works; and in this love He hath made all things profitable to us; and in this love our life is everlasting. In our making we had beginning; but the love wherein He made us was in Him from without beginning: in which love we have our beginning. And all this shall we see in God, without end.
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| ~ Julian of Norwich ~
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| It is God’s will that we hold us in comfort with all our might: for bliss is lasting without end, and pain is passing and shall be brought to nought for them that shall be saved. And therefore it is not God’s will that we follow the feelings of pain in sorrow and mourning for them, but that we suddenly pass over, and hold us in endless enjoyment.
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| ~ Julian of Norwich ~
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I conceived a mighty desire to receive three wounds in my life: that is to say, the wound of very contrition, the wound of kind compassion, and the wound of steadfast longing toward God. And all this last petition I asked without any condition.
These two desires aforesaid passed from my mind, but the third dwelled with me continually.
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| ~ Julian of Norwich ~
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| Jesus, who in this Vision informed me of all that is needful to me, answered by this word and said: It behoved that there should be sin; but all shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of thing shall be well.
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| ~ Julian of Norwich ~
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| Our Lord answered in this manner: A great thing shall I make hereof in Heaven of endless worship and everlasting joys.
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| ~ Julian of Norwich ~
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| We are kept all as securely in Love in woe as in weal, by the Goodness of God.
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| ~ Julian of Norwich ~
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| All thing that is done, it is well done: for our Lord God doeth all.
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| ~ Julian of Norwich ~
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| Our Lord Jesus oftentimes said: I IT AM, I IT AM: I IT AM that is highest, I IT AM that thou lovest, I IT AM that thou enjoyest, I IT AM that thou servest, I IT AM that thou longest for, I IT AM that thou desirest, I IT AM that thou meanest, I IT AM that is all. I IT AM that Holy Church preacheth and teacheth thee, I IT AM that shewed me here to thee. The number of the words passeth my wit and all my understanding and all my powers. And they are the highest, as to my sight: for therein is comprehended — I cannot tell, — but the joy that I saw in the Shewing of them passeth all that heart may wish for and soul may desire. Therefore the words be not declared here; but every man after the grace that God giveth him in understanding and loving, receive them in our Lord’s meaning.
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| ~ Julian of Norwich ~
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Like Babe Ruth predicting where his next home run would land in the stands, Halley stated flatly that the comet would return at the end of 1758, from a particular part of the sky, following a specific path. ~ Narration of Edmond Halley's predicted return of the comet which is now named after him, from the third episode of the science documentary television series Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey (2014) (the sequel to Carl Sagan's Cosmos: A Personal Voyage (1980)).
- 4 Pithy Francoln (talk) 21:55, 8 October 2016 (UTC) Like many scientists, Edmond Halley (born 8 November 1656) wasn't a particularly gifted writer, so we really can't honor him in a quote of the day by using his own words. He was undeniably brilliant however, and his contribution is a worthy subject for a quote of the day. I thought the creators of Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey were really smart to compare him to a famous athlete like Babe Ruth. Babe Ruth's Called Shot didn't have a profound impact on the world, but Halley's application of Newtonian physics to predict the return of the comet which bears his name really did.