February 25

Quotes of the day from previous years:

2004

An amicable divorce is like a ventilated condom; it just doesn't work. ~ Rita Rudner

selected by IP 172.161.111.38

2005

Little darling,
I feel that ice is slowly melting.
Little darling,
It seems like years since it's been clear.
Here comes the sun...
Here comes the sun,
And I say
It's alright.
~ George Harrison ~
(born 25 February 1943, according to death certificate)

selected by Kalki

2006

That so many writers have been prepared to accept a kind of martyrdom is the best tribute that flesh can pay to the living spirit of man as expressed in his literature. One cannot doubt that the martyrdom will continue to be gladly embraced. To some of us, the wresting of beauty out of language is the only thing in the world that matters. ~ Anthony Burgess (born 25 February 1917)

selected by Kalki

2007

I look at the world and I notice it’s turning.
While my guitar gently weeps.
With every mistake we must surely be learning,
Still my guitar gently weeps.
~ George Harrison ~

proposed by Kalki

2008

Every intelligent child is an amateur anthropologist. The first thing such a child notices is that adults don't make sense. ~ John Leonard (born 25 February 1939)

proposed by InvisibleSun

2009

Do what you want to do
And go where you're going to
Think for yourself
'Cause I won't be there with you.
~ George Harrison ~

proposed by Kalki

2010

When the state murders, it assumes an authority I refuse to concede: the authority of perfect knowledge in final things. ~ John Leonard

proposed by InvisibleSun

2011

If there is victory in overcoming the enemy, there is a greater victory when a man overcomes himself. ~ José de San Martín

proposed by Kalki

2012

The scientist, like the magician, possesses secrets. A secret — expertise — is somehow perceived as antidemocratic, and therefore ought to be unnatural. We have come a long way from Prometheus to Faust to Frankenstein. And even Frankenstein's monster is now a joke. ~ John Leonard

proposed by bystander

2013

My best friend is he who rights my wrongs or reproaches my mistakes.

~ José de San Martín ~

proposed by Kalki

2014

The culture as a whole is losing its individual notes, its diversity. And this is… it's not only sad. It's devastating. It's devastating because routine language means routine thought. And it means unquestioning thought.

~ John Leonard ~

proposed by Kalki

2015

From the Hindu perspective, each soul is divine. All religions are branches of one big tree. It doesn't matter what you call Him just as long as you call. Just as cinematic images appear to be real but are only combinations of light and shade, so is the universal variety a delusion. The planetary spheres, with their countless forms of life, are naught but figures in a cosmic motion picture. One's values are profoundly changed when he is finally convinced that creation is only a vast motion picture and that not in, but beyond, lies his own ultimate reality.

~ George Harrison ~

proposed by Kalki

2016

I look at you all — see the love there that's sleeping
While my guitar gently weeps.

~ George Harrison ~

proposed by Kalki

2017

You can be standing right in front of the truth and not necessarily see it, and people only get it when they’re ready to get it.

~ George Harrison ~

proposed by Kalki

2018

I had no ambition when I was a kid other than to play guitar and get in a rock 'n' roll band. I don't really like to be the guy in the white suit at the front. Like in the Beatles, I was the one who kept quiet at the back and let the other egos be at the front.

~ George Harrison ~

proposed by Kalki

2019

More noise occurs from a single man shouting than a hundred thousand who are quiet.

~ José de San Martín ~

proposed by Zarbon

2020

To be capable of embarrassment is the beginning of moral consciousness. Honor grows from qualms.

~ John Leonard ~

proposed by InvisibleSun

2021: 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

War is so terrible that it desperately requires any limits anyone can agree on, any gesture toward dignity, any mitigation suggesting civilized scruple. There isn’t even persuasive evidence that torture makes its victims tell their secrets, instead of saying whatever we want to hear. ~ John Leonard

3 InvisibleSun 15:58, 16 February 2008 (UTC)
3 Kalki 16:09, 24 February 2008 (UTC)
1 Zarbon 22:51, 22 April 2008 (UTC)
3 bystander (talk) 20:39, 16 February 2012 (UTC)

The books we love, love us back. In gratitude, we should promise not to cheat on them — not to pretend we're better than they are; not to use them as target practice, agit-prop, trampolines, photo ops or stalking horses; not to sell out scruple to that scratch-and-sniff info-tainment racket in which we posture in front of experience instead of engaging it. ~ John Leonard

3 InvisibleSun 15:58, 16 February 2008 (UTC)
3 Kalki 16:09, 24 February 2008 (UTC)
1 Zarbon 22:51, 22 April 2008 (UTC)
3 bystander (talk) 20:39, 16 February 2012 (UTC)

A well-fought defeat is worth more than a casual victory. ~ José de San Martín (born February 25)

4 because I love this one. For to lose in style is better than to win without enthralling magnificence. Zarbon 17:12, 22 April 2008 (UTC)
2 Kalki 00:17, 20 February 2009 (UTC)

In God's body shop, each of us was customized. But science came along to substitute statistical inference for free will. We are now a tribe of likelihoods. ~ John Leonard

3 Kalki (talk · contributions) 22:55, 6 February 2010 (UTC)

Granted, religion is wishful thinking, but there is no other kind of thinking. ~ John Leonard

3 Kalki (talk · contributions) 22:55, 6 February 2010 (UTC) with a strong lean toward 4.

The words, the style always reflects a habit of mind. And the habit of mind comes in from a different angle. ~ John Leonard

3 Kalki (talk · contributions) 22:55, 6 February 2010 (UTC) with a lean toward 4.

Everybody is forever saying that the essay is dead. This is always said in essays. ~ John Leonard

3 Kalki (talk · contributions) 22:55, 6 February 2010 (UTC) with a lean toward 4.

There are too many ironies in the fire! ~ John Leonard

3 Kalki (talk · contributions) 22:55, 6 February 2010 (UTC) with a lean toward 4.

Let us be free, the rest matters not. ~ José de San Martín

3 Kalki (talk · contributions) 19:41, 22 February 2011 (UTC) with a lean toward 4.

I only want Lions in my regiment. ~ José de San Martín

3 Kalki (talk · contributions) 19:41, 22 February 2011 (UTC)

You will be what you must be, or else you will be nothing. ~ José de San Martín

3 Kalki (talk · contributions) 19:41, 22 February 2011 (UTC)

My promises to the people for whom I have waged war have been fulfilled — to accomplish their independence and leave the choice of their rulers to their own will. ~ José de San Martín

3 Kalki (talk · contributions) 19:41, 22 February 2011 (UTC) with a strong lean toward 4.

The conscience is the best and most impartial judge that a righteous man has. ~ José de San Martín

3 Kalki (talk · contributions) 19:41, 22 February 2011 (UTC) with a strong lean toward 4.

I don't know why nobody told you how to unfold your love
I don't know how someone controlled you
They bought and sold you.

~ George Harrison ~

3 ♞☤☮♌︎Kalki·⚚⚓︎⊙☳☶⚡ 00:05, 25 February 2015 (UTC)

I don't mind anybody dropping out of anything, but it's the imposition on somebody else I don't like. The moment you start dropping out and then begging off somebody else to help you, then it's no good. It doesn't matter what you are as long as you work. It doesn't matter if you chop wood as long as you chop and keep chopping. Then you get what's coming to you. You don't have to drop out. In fact, if you drop out you put yourself further away from the goal of life than if you were to keep working.

~ George Harrison ~

3 ♞☤☮♌︎Kalki·⚚⚓︎⊙☳☶⚡ 00:05, 25 February 2015 (UTC)

I really want to see you,
Really want to be with you,
Really want to see you lord,
But it takes so long, my lord.

~ George Harrison ~

3 ♞☤☮♌︎Kalki·⚚⚓︎⊙☳☶⚡ 00:05, 25 February 2015 (UTC)

Something in the way she moves
attracts me like no other lover.

~ George Harrison ~

3 ♞☤☮♌︎Kalki·⚚⚓︎⊙☳☶⚡ 00:05, 25 February 2015 (UTC)

Give me love, give me peace on earth,
Give me light, give me life, keep me free from birth,
Give me hope, help me cope, with this heavy load,
Trying to, touch and reach you with, heart and soul.

~ George Harrison ~