August 6

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Quotes of the day from previous years:

2003
When the weight of the paperwork equals the weight of the plane, the plane will fly. ~ Donald Douglas
2004
Character does count. For too long we have gotten by in a society that says the only thing right is to get by and the only thing wrong is to get caught. Character is doing what's right when nobody is looking... ~ J. C. Watts
2005
The Japanese were ready to surrender, and it wasn't necessary to hit them with that awful thing. ~ Dwight D. Eisenhower
2006
One of the primary tests of the mood of a society at any given time is whether its comfortable people tend to identify, psychologically, with the power and achievements of the very successful or with the needs and sufferings of the underpriviliged. ~ Richard Hofstadter
2007

Flower in the crannied wall,
I pluck you out of the crannies,
I hold you here, root and all, in my hand,
Little flower — but if I could understand
What you are, root and all, and all in all,
I should know what God and man is.

~ Alfred Tennyson ~

2008
I hold it true, whate'er befall;
I feel it, when I sorrow most;
'Tis better to have loved and lost
Than never to have loved at all.

~ Alfred Tennyson, "In Memoriam A.H.H." (born this day)
2009
The fate of all explanation is to close one door only to have another fly wide open. ~ Charles Fort
2010
Men, my brothers, men the workers, ever reaping something new:
That which they have done but earnest of the things that they shall do:

For I dipped into the future, far as human eye could see,
Saw the Vision of the world, and all the wonder that would be;

Saw the heavens fill with commerce, argosies of magic sails,
Pilots of the purple twilight, dropping down with costly bales;

Heard the heavens fill with shouting, and there rained a ghastly dew
From the nations' airy navies grappling in the central blue;

Far along the world-wide whisper of the south-wind rushing warm,
With the standards of the peoples plunging through the thunderstorm;

Till the war-drum throbbed no longer, and the battle-flags were furled
In the Parliament of man, the Federation of the world.

There the common sense of most shall hold a fretful realm in awe,
And the kindly earth shall slumber, lapped in universal law.

~ Alfred Tennyson ~

2011

Like an Aeolian harp that wakes
No certain air, but overtakes
Far thought with music that it makes:

Such seem'd the whisper at my side:
"What is it thou knowest, sweet voice?" I cried.
"A hidden hope," the voice replied:

So heavenly-toned, that in that hour
From out my sullen heart a power
Broke, like the rainbow from the shower,

To feel, altho' no tongue can prove
That every cloud, that spreads above
And veileth love, itself is love.

~ Alfred Tennyson in The Two Voices ~

2012
Nine tithes of times
Face-flatterer and backbiter are the same.
And they, sweet soul, that most impute a crime
Are pronest to it, and impute themselves,
Wanting the mental range; or low desire
Not to feel lowest makes them level all;
Yea, they would pare the mountain to the plain,
To leave an equal baseness; and in this
Are harlots like the crowd, that if they find
Some stain or blemish in a name of note,
Not grieving that their greatest are so small,
Inflate themselves with some insane delight,
And judge all nature from her feet of clay,
Without the will to lift their eyes, and see
Her godlike head crowned with spiritual fire,
And touching other worlds.
~ Alfred Tennyson ~
in
~ Idylls of the King ~
2013
I am part of all that I have met;
Yet all experience is an arch wherethro'
Gleams that untravell'd world, whose margin fades
For ever and for ever when I move.
~ Alfred, Lord Tennyson ~
2014
The Holy Thing is here again
Among us, brother, fast thou too and pray,
And tell thy brother knights to fast and pray,
That so perchance the vision may be seen
By thee and those, and all the world be healed.
~ Alfred, Lord Tennyson ~
in
~ Idylls of the King ~
2015

これはぼくらの叫びです これは私たちの祈りです 世界に平和をきずくための

This is our cry. This is our prayer. Peace in the world.

~ Children's Peace Monument ~
2016
Rain, rain, and sun! a rainbow in the sky!
A young man will be wiser by and by;
An old man's wit may wander ere he die.
Rain, rain, and sun! a rainbow on the lea!
And truth is this to me, and that to thee;
And truth or clothed or naked let it be.
Rain, sun, and rain! and the free blossom blows:
Sun, rain, and sun! and where is he who knows?
From the great deep to the great deep he goes.
~ Alfred Tennyson ~
in
~ Idylls of the King ~
2017
O purblind race of miserable men
How many among us at this very hour
Do forge a life-long trouble for ourselves,
By taking true for false, or false for true;
Here, through the feeble twilight of this world
Groping, how many, until we pass and reach
That other, where we see as we are seen!
~ Alfred Tennyson ~
in
~ Idylls of the King ~
2018
Know ye not then the Riddling of the Bards?
Confusion, and illusion, and relation,
Elusion, and occasion, and evasion?
I mock thee not but as thou mockest me,
And all that see thee, for thou art not who
Thou seemest, but I know thee who thou art.
And now thou goest up to mock the King,
Who cannot brook the shadow of any lie.
~ Alfred, Lord Tennyson ~
in
~ Idylls of the King ~
2019
Who are wise in love
Love most, say least.
~ Alfred, Lord Tennyson ~
in
~ Idylls of the King ~
2020
It is possible that the distinction between moral relativism and moral absolutism has sometimes been blurred because an excessively consistent practice of either leads to the same practical result — ruthlessness in political life.
~ Richard Hofstadter ~
2021
Souls that have toil'd, and wrought, and thought with me —
That ever with a frolic welcome took
The thunder and the sunshine, and opposed
Free hearts, free foreheads — you and I are old;
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 ~
2022
Though much is taken, much abides; and though
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven, that which we are, we are —
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
~ Alfred, Lord Tennyson ~
2023
O living will that shalt endure
When all that seems shall suffer shock,
Rise in the spiritual rock,
Flow through our deeds and make them pure.
That we may lift from out of dust
A voice as unto him that hears,
A cry above the conquered years
To one that with us works, and trust,
With faith that comes of self-control,
The truths that never can be proved
Until we close with all we loved,
And all we flow from, soul in soul.
~ Alfred Tennyson ~
in
~ In Memoriam A.H.H. ~
2024
Rank or add further suggestions…


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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.
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Suggestions[edit]

I don't say we wouldn't get our hair mussed, but I do say no more than ten to twenty million killed, tops!...uh, depending on the breaks. ~ General "Buck" Turgidson, Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (Hiroshima was bombed on 6 August 1945)


The players often mentioned it as an honour to Shakespeare, that in his writing, whatsoever he penned, he never blotted out a line. My answer hath been, "Would he had blotted a thousand". - Ben Jonson died this day


The WWW project merges the techniques of information retrieval and hypertext to make an easy but powerful global information system. The project started with the philosophy that much academic information should be freely available to anyone. It aims to allow information sharing within internationally dispersed teams, and the dissemination of information by support groups. ~ Tim Berners-Lee, Usenet article <6487@cernvax.cern.ch> (the first public announcement of CERN's "WorldWideWeb" system, made this day in 1991)

  • 4 121a0012 03:11, August 2, 2005 (UTC)
  • 3 121a0012 04:11, August 5, 2005 (UTC) (adjusted my vote as next year is the 15th anniversary which would be a better choice)
  • 2 ~ Jeff Q (talk) 13:37, 2 August 2005 (UTC)
  • 2 Kalki 00:23, 8 August 2007 (UTC) but might someday rank it a 3.
  • 1 Zarbon 15:06, 24 April 2008 (UTC)
  • 2 InvisibleSun 18:09, 5 August 2008 (UTC)

Half a league, half a league,
Half a league onward,
All in the valley of Death
   Rode the six hundred.
"Forward, the Light Brigade!
Charge for the guns!" he said:
Into the valley of Death
   Rode the six hundred.

~ Alfred Tennyson, "Charge of the Light Brigade"


The idea of the paranoid style as a force in politics would have little contemporary relevance or historical value if it were applied only to men with profoundly disturbed minds. It is the use of paranoid modes of expression by more or less normal people that makes the phenomenon significant. ~ Richard Hofstadter

  • 2 InvisibleSun 01:29, 1 August 2006 (UTC)
  • 2 Kalki 00:23, 8 August 2007 (UTC) with a lean toward 3.
  • 1 Zarbon 15:06, 24 April 2008 (UTC)

The outrageous is the reasonable, if introduced politely. ~ Charles Fort

  • 2 Zarbon 04:40, 26 May 2008 (UTC)
  • 2 Kalki 17:00, 5 August 2008 (UTC) with a lean toward 3.
  • 2 InvisibleSun 18:09, 5 August 2008 (UTC)
  • 3 Triviaa 04:14, 2 January 2009 (UTC)

I have taken the stand that nobody can be always wrong, but it does seem to me that I have approximated so highly that I am nothing short of a negative genius. ~ Charles Fort


Here's what I advise any young struggling actress today: The important thing is to develop as a woman first, and a performer second. You wouldn't prostitute yourself to get a part, not if you're in the right mind. You won't be happy, whatever you do, unless you're comfortable with your own conscience. ~ Lucille Ball

  • 3 Zarbon 01:10, 7 March 2009 (UTC)
  • 2 Kalki 06:25, 5 August 2009 (UTC)

My ideal of womanhood has always been the pioneer woman who fought and worked at her husband's side. She bore the children, kept the home fires burning; she was the hub of the family, the planner and the dreamer. ~ Lucille Ball

  • 2 Zarbon 01:10, 7 March 2009 (UTC)
  • 2 Kalki 06:25, 5 August 2009 (UTC)

Things said in embarrassment and anger are seldom the truth, but are said to hurt and wound the other person. Once said, they can never be taken back. ~ Lucille Ball

  • 3 with strong lean towards 4. Zarbon 01:10, 7 March 2009 (UTC)
  • 2 Kalki 06:25, 5 August 2009 (UTC)

We're willing to take a lot of punishment, but the minute we hit a little bit of success we are liable to run from it. We're frightened of it and develop all kinds of phobias as a consequence. Outsiders who don't understand think we have a chip on our shoulder, but it's not that at all. We're so used to failure, to being hurt and rebuffed, that we can easily come unhinged by success. ~ Lucille Ball

  • 3 Zarbon 01:10, 7 March 2009 (UTC)
  • 2 Kalki 06:25, 5 August 2009 (UTC)

When you're too mad and too rattled to see straight, you're bound to make mistakes. You can't go on and on for years being miserable about a situation and not have it change you. You get so you can't stand yourself. ~ Lucille Ball

  • 3 Zarbon 01:10, 7 March 2009 (UTC)
  • 2 Kalki 06:25, 5 August 2009 (UTC)

Children internalize their parents' unhappiness. Fortunately, they absorb our contentment just as readily. ~ Lucille Ball

  • 4 Zarbon 01:10, 7 March 2009 (UTC)
  • 2 Kalki 06:25, 5 August 2009 (UTC)

The altar of liberty totters when it is cemented only with blood. ~ Daniel O'Connell

  • 3 Ningauble 13:48, 29 May 2009 (UTC)
  • 2 Kalki 06:25, 5 August 2009 (UTC)

O damsel, be you wise
To call him shamed, who is but overthrown?
Thrown have I been, nor once, but many a time.
Victor from vanquished issues at the last,
And overthrower from being overthrown.

~ Alfred Tennyson in Idylls of the King ~

  • 3 Kalki 08:44, 5 August 2009 (UTC)

Not in vain the distance beacons. Forward, forward let us range.
Let the great world spin for ever down the ringing grooves of change.

~ Alfred Tennyson ~

  • 3 Kalki 08:44, 5 August 2009 (UTC)

I doubt not through the ages one increasing purpose runs,
And the thoughts of men are widened with the process of the suns.

~ Alfred Tennyson ~

  • 3 Kalki 08:44, 5 August 2009 (UTC)

Though from out our bourne of Time and Place
The flood may bear me far,
I hope to see my Pilot face to face
When I have crossed the bar.

~ Alfred Tennyson ~

  • 3 Kalki 08:44, 5 August 2009 (UTC)

Something is or seems,
That touches me with mystic gleams,
Like glimpses of forgotten dreams —

"Of something felt, like something here;
Of something done, I know not where;
Such as no language may declare.

~ Alfred Tennyson in The Two Voices ~

  • 3 Kalki 08:44, 5 August 2009 (UTC) with a strong lean toward 4.

What happiness to reign a lonely king,
Vext — O ye stars that shudder over me,
O earth that soundest hollow under me,
Vext with waste dreams? for saving I be joined
To her that is the fairest under heaven,
I seem as nothing in the mighty world,
And cannot will my will, nor work my work
Wholly, nor make myself in mine own realm
Victor and lord. But were I joined with her,
Then might we live together as one life,
And reigning with one will in everything
Have power on this dark land to lighten it,
And power on this dead world to make it live.

~ Alfred Tennyson in Idylls of the King ~

  • 3 Kalki 08:44, 5 August 2009 (UTC) with a very strong lean toward 4.

Blinder unto holy things
Hope not to make thyself by idle vows,
Being too blind to have desire to see.
But if indeed there came a sign from heaven,
Blessed are Bors, Lancelot and Percivale,
For these have seen according to their sight.
For every fiery prophet in old times,
And all the sacred madness of the bard,
When God made music through them, could but speak
His music by the framework and the chord;
And as ye saw it ye have spoken truth.

~ Alfred Tennyson in Idylls of the King ~

  • 3 Kalki 08:44, 5 August 2009 (UTC) with a strong lean toward 4.

Out of those to whom the vision came
My greatest hardly will believe he saw;
Another hath beheld it afar off,
And leaving human wrongs to right themselves,
Cares but to pass into the silent life.
And one hath had the vision face to face,
And now his chair desires him here in vain,
However they may crown him otherwhere.

~ Alfred Tennyson in Idylls of the King ~

  • 3 Kalki 08:44, 5 August 2009 (UTC)

Some among you held, that if the King
Had seen the sight he would have sworn the vow:
Not easily, seeing that the King must guard
That which he rules, and is but as the hind
To whom a space of land is given to plow.
Who may not wander from the allotted field
Before his work be done; but, being done,
Let visions of the night or of the day
Come, as they will; and many a time they come,
Until this earth he walks on seems not earth,
This light that strikes his eyeball is not light,
This air that smites his forehead is not air
But vision — yea, his very hand and foot —
In moments when he feels he cannot die,
And knows himself no vision to himself,
Nor the high God a vision, nor that One
Who rose again: ye have seen what ye have seen.

~ Alfred Tennyson in Idylls of the King ~

  • 3 Kalki 08:44, 5 August 2009 (UTC) with a strong lean toward 4.

The fire of Heaven has killed the barren cold,
And kindled all the plain and all the wold.
The new leaf ever pushes off the old.
The fire of Heaven is not the flame of Hell.

~ Alfred Tennyson in Idylls of the King ~

  • 3 Kalki 08:44, 5 August 2009 (UTC) with a strong lean toward 4.

There be many rumours on this head:
For there be those who hate him in their hearts,
Call him baseborn, and since his ways are sweet,
And theirs are bestial, hold him less than man:
And there be those who deem him more than man,
And dream he dropt from heaven..

~ Alfred Tennyson in Idylls of the King ~

  • 3 Kalki 08:44, 5 August 2009 (UTC) with a strong lean toward 4.

Take thou the truth as thou hast told it me.
For truly as thou sayest, a Fairy King
And Fairy Queens have built the city, son…
And, as thou sayest, it is enchanted, son,
For there is nothing in it as it seems
Saving the King; though some there be that hold
The King a shadow, and the city real:
Yet take thou heed of him, for, so thou pass
Beneath this archway, then wilt thou become
A thrall to his enchantments, for the King
Will bind thee by such vows, as is a shame
A man should not be bound by, yet the which
No man can keep; but, so thou dread to swear,
Pass not beneath this gateway, but abide
Without, among the cattle of the field.
For an ye heard a music, like enow
They are building still, seeing the city is built
To music, therefore never built at all,
And therefore built for ever.

~ Alfred Tennyson in Idylls of the King ~

  • 3 Kalki 08:44, 5 August 2009 (UTC) with a strong lean toward 4.