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May 26

From Wikiquote

Quotes of the day from previous years:

2004
Everything that is new or uncommon raises a pleasure in the imagination, because it fills the soul with an agreeable surprise, gratifies its curiosity, and gives it an idea of which it was not before possessed. ~ Joseph Addison
2005
It is a wholesome and necessary thing for us to turn again to the earth and in the contemplation of her beauties to know of wonder and humility. ~ Rachel Carson
2006
When you get in situations where you cannot afford to make a mistake, it's very hard to do the right thing. So if you're trying to do the right thing, the right thing might be to eliminate the cost of making a mistake rather than try to guess what's right. ~ Ward Cunningham (born 26 May 1949)
2007
I'm not a fan of classification. It's very difficult to come up with a classification scheme that's useful when what you're most interested in is things that don't fit in, things that you didn't expect. ~ Ward Cunningham
2008
Thunder only happens when it's raining.
Players only love you when they're playing.
Say... Women... they will come and they will go.
When the rain washes you clean... you'll know.
~ Stevie Nicks ~
2009
You have so many things in the background that you're supposed to do, there's no room left to think. I say, forget all that and ask yourself, "What's the simplest thing that could possibly work?" ~ Ward Cunningham
2010
If there must be resolution and explanation, it must be something worth its weight in mystery. Most times, I'd be content with the mystery. ~ Caitlín R. Kiernan (born 26 May 1964)
2011
Over and over, people try to design systems that make tomorrow's work easy. But when tomorrow comes it turns out they didn't quite understand tomorrow's work, and they actually made it harder. ~ Ward Cunningham
2012
Why is it the Mongols of this world always tell us they're defending us against the Mongols?
~ Edward Whittemore ~
2013
I was frustrated that computer hardware was being improved faster than computer software. I wanted to invent some software that was completely different, that would grow and change as it was used. That’s how wiki came about.
~ Ward Cunningham ~
2014
A wiki works best where you're trying to answer a question that you can't easily pose, where there's not a natural structure that's known in advance to what you need to know.
~ Ward Cunningham ~
2015
We erased a problem by not trying to erase the problem, by saying, "This is in the nature of what we do." It's really weird that it could be that simple.
~ Ward Cunningham ~
2016
I can't tell you how much time is spent worrying about decisions that don't matter. To just be able to make a decision and see what happens is tremendously empowering, but that means you have to set up the situation such that when something does go wrong, you can fix it.
~ Ward Cunningham ~
2017
Wikis work best in environments where you're comfortable delegating control to the users of the system.
~ Ward Cunningham ~
2018
I actually enjoy complexity that's empowering. If it challenges me, the complexity is very pleasant.
~ Ward Cunningham ~
2019
A wiki is always in the process of being organized. But for every hour spent organizing, two more hours are spent adding new material. So the status quo for a wiki is always partially organized.
~ Ward Cunningham ~
2020
The world wants oatmeal. It is not my job to give the world oatmeal. It is my job not to be a hack. It is my job to try to make the world chew, lest its lazy jaw muscles atrophy and its collective mandible withers and all its teeth fall out. It is my job, as a writer, to give the world toffee and peanut brittle and tough steak and celery. I write peanut butter sandwiches, not oatmeal. And every time some dolt whines, "I'm confused" or "I don't understand" or "This doesn't make any sense," I should smile and know that I'm doing my job. Not because it is my job to be opaque, but because it is not my job to be transparent.
~ Caitlín R. Kiernan ~
2021
All I have to do is make you see this. This one particular thing here. That's all. And sometimes it's impossible. Sometimes, I know the best odds I can hope for are a thousand to one. You'll see what you see, what your life has conditioned you to see upon encountering that combination of words, not what I want or need you to see. Fiction writing is like making films for the blind.
~ Caitlín R. Kiernan ~
2022
Most Americans support commonsense laws — commonsense gun laws.
I just got off my trip from Asia, meeting with Asian leaders, and I learned of this while I was on the aircraft. And what struck me on that 17-hour flight — what struck me was these kinds of mass shootings rarely happen anywhere else in the world.
Why? They have mental health problems. They have domestic disputes in other countries. They have people who are lost. But these kinds of mass shootings never happen with the kind of frequency that they happen in America. Why?
Why are we willing to live with this carnage? Why do we keep letting this happen? Where in God's name is our backbone — to have the courage to deal with it and stand up to the lobbies?
It's time to turn this pain into action.
For every parent, for every citizen in this country, we have to make it clear to every elected official in this country: It's time to act.
It's time — for those who obstruct or delay or block the commonsense gun laws, we need to let you know that we will not forget.
We can do so much more. We have to do more.
~ Joe Biden ~
  • proposed by Kalki; recent remarks on recent tragedies.
2023
The clouds never expect it
When it rains
But the sea changes color
But the sea does not change
And so with the slow graceful flow of age
I went forth with an age old desire to please
On the edge of seventeen.
~ Stevie Nicks ~
2024
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Suggestions

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Charming to the last. You don't know how hard I found it, signing the order to terminate your life. ~ from Star Wars Grand Moff Tarkin Peter Cushing (born May 26)

  • 3 always strongly loved Tarkin and truly, charming to the last. Zarbon 06:06, 24 April 2008 (UTC)
  • 1 Kalki 22:15, 25 May 2008 (UTC)
  • 1 InvisibleSun 22:50, 25 May 2009 (UTC)
  • 1 J.A.R.N.Y.🗣 18:18, 25 May 2018 (UTC)

Evacuate? In our moment of triumph? I think you overestimate their chances. ~ from Star Wars Grand Moff Tarkin Peter Cushing (born May 26)

I've seen so goddamn much — I've seen so much that there's no reasonable excuse for looking away, because there can't be anything left that's more terrible than what has come before. ~ Caitlín R. Kiernan (born May 26)

  • 3 because to admit to witnessing all which the past has to offer is to accept what the future yet holds. Zarbon 05:49, 17 May 2008 (UTC)
  • 1 Kalki 22:15, 25 May 2008 (UTC)
  • 3 InvisibleSun 22:50, 25 May 2009 (UTC)
  • 1 J.A.R.N.Y.🗣 18:18, 25 May 2018 (UTC)

When you have nothing left to burn, you must set yourself on fire. ~ Dr. Jack Kevorkian (born May 26)

  • 3 because someone who festers and corrupts everything around eventually has no one left to burn but himself, from the built-up anguish and torment that created the heavy burden. This holds a very powerful, enigmatic meaning. Zarbon 22:07, 26 April 2008 (UTC)
  • 1 Kalki 22:15, 25 May 2008 (UTC)
  • 3 J.A.R.N.Y.🗣 18:18, 25 May 2018 (UTC)

First of all, do any of you here think it's a crime to help a suffering human end his agony? ~ Dr. Jack Kevorkian (born May 26)

  • 3 because helping end another's suffering has always been looked at from two different angles, either for it or against it. It brings a very powerful and controversial moral into play. Zarbon 22:07, 26 April 2008 (UTC)
    • Source: FRONTLINE Show #1416 - Air Date: May 14, 1996 on PBS
  • 1 Kalki 22:15, 25 May 2008 (UTC)
  • 1 Yes, yes I do, J.A.R.N.Y.🗣 18:18, 25 May 2018 (UTC)

I failed in securing my options for this choice for myself, but I succeeded in verifying the Dark Age is still with us. ~ Dr. Jack Kevorkian (born May 26)

  • 3 because some fundamental laws are truly flawed in essence, whereas this quote truly brings a moral comparison between the Dark Ages and the governments of today. Zarbon 22:07, 26 April 2008 (UTC)
    • Source: Western Herald - Apr 12, 2004
  • 2 Kalki 22:15, 25 May 2008 (UTC)
  • 1 J.A.R.N.Y.🗣 18:18, 25 May 2018 (UTC)

I will admit, like Socrates and Aristotle and Plato and some other philosophers, that there are instances where the death penalty would seem appropriate. ~ Dr. Jack Kevorkian (born May 26)

  • 3 because as the great philosophers themselves had stated, sometimes death is the only way out. Zarbon 22:07, 26 April 2008 (UTC)
    • Source: Years of Minutes - Page 332 - by Andy Rooney - Performing Arts - 2004
  • 1 Kalki 22:15, 25 May 2008 (UTC)
  • 3 J.A.R.N.Y.🗣 18:18, 25 May 2018 (UTC)

When history looks back, it will prove what I'll die knowing. ~ Dr. Jack Kevorkian (born May 26)

  • 3 because it takes a long time for mankind to understand some things, sometimes hundreds if not thousands of years. But the ability to acknowledge knowing this prior and dying with this knowledge is admirable. Zarbon 22:07, 26 April 2008 (UTC)
    • Source: Between the Dying and the Dead: Dr. Jack Kevorkian's Life and the Battle to Legalize Euthanasia. - Page 247 - by Neal Nicol, Harry Wylie - Biography & Autobiography - 2006
  • 1 Kalki 22:15, 25 May 2008 (UTC)
  • 1 J.A.R.N.Y.🗣 18:18, 25 May 2018 (UTC)

You're going to watch a person suffer in agony while somebody's debating? ~ Dr. Jack Kevorkian (born May 26)

  • 3 because sometimes one person's suffering is horrid, even when law finds it alright. Zarbon 22:07, 26 April 2008 (UTC)
    • Source: Physician-assisted Death - Page 100 - by James M. Humber, Robert F. Almeder, Gregg A. Kasting - Psychology - 1994
  • 1 Kalki 22:15, 25 May 2008 (UTC)
  • 1 J.A.R.N.Y.🗣 18:18, 25 May 2018 (UTC)

The sword is our steel Bible! ~ Sadao Araki

American institutions rest solely on good citizenship. They were created by people who had a background of self-government. New arrivals should be limited to our capacity to absorb them into the ranks of good citizenship. America must be kept American. For this purpose, it is necessary to continue a policy of restricted immigration. It would be well to make such immigration of a selective nature with some inspection at the source, and based either on a prior census or upon the record of naturalization. Either method would insure the admission of those with the largest capacity and best intention of becoming citizens. I am convinced that our present economic and social conditions warrant a limitation of those to be admitted. We should find additional safety in a law requiring the immediate registration of all aliens. Those who do not want to be partakers of the American spirit ought not to settle in America.
~ Calvin Coolidge ~
-Anniversary of Immigration Act of 1924
A good writing day is a day when one has written well, and the word counts be damned. Finishing is not the goal. Doing the job well is the goal.
~ Caitlín R. Kiernan ~
In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man will poke out his eye to fit in.
~ Caitlín R. Kiernan ~
Art is not science. Even when art is about science, it is still art. There cannot be consensus, in the sense that science strives for meaningful consensus. And unlike science, art is not progressive. Personally, I have my doubts that science can be said to be genuinely progressive, but I'm pretty dammed certain that art is not. Which is not to say that it is not accumulative or accretionary. But the belief that sf writers are out there forecasting the future, that they have some social responsibility to do so, that's malarky, if you ask me.
~ Caitlín R. Kiernan ~
Could anything be more inimical to art than a fear of emotion, or a fear of "excessive" emotion, or a reluctance to express emotion around others? No, of course not. Art can even best the weights of utter fucking ignorance and totalitarian repression, but it cannot survive emotional constipation.
I want a T-shirt that says, "Art is Emo." We live in an age where people are more apt to believe a thing if they read it on a T-shirt.
~ Caitlín R. Kiernan ~
Magick may be no more than the willful invocation of awe.
~ Caitlín R. Kiernan ~
I want to build vast machines of light and darkness, intricate mechanisms within mechanisms, a progression of gears and cogs and pistons each working to its own end as well as that of the Greater Device. That's what I see in my head. But, too often, I sense that many readers want nothing more complex or challenging than wind-up toys. It's dispiriting.
~ Caitlín R. Kiernan ~
  • Youth’s bright palace
    Is overthrown,
    With its diamond sceptre
    And golden throne;
    As a time-worn stone
    Its turrets are humbled—
    All hath crumbled
    But grief alone! ~ Denis Florence MacCarthy (birthday)
  • Before the dread journey which needs must be taken
    No man is more mindful than meet is and right
    To ponder, ere hence he departs, what his spirit
    Shall, after the death-day, receive as its portion
    Of good or of evil, by mandate of doom. ~ Bede (deathday)



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