Wikiquote:Quote of the day/May 2010
- May 1
 .jpg)   
|
Nature does nothing without purpose or uselessly. ~ Joseph Addison ~ 
|
 
|
- May 2
  
|
Before abstraction everything is one, but one like chaos; after abstraction everything is united again, but this union is a free binding of autonomous, self-determined beings. Out of a mob a society has developed, chaos has been transformed into a manifold world. ~ Novalis ~ |
 
|
- May 3
|
No enterprise is more likely to succeed than one concealed from the enemy until it is ripe for execution. |
File:Circaflier2.jpg |
- May 4
|
If any man seeks for greatness, let him forget greatness and ask for truth, and he will find both. ~ Horace Mann ~ |
 
|
- May 5
Do not interrupt the flight of your soul; do not distress what is best in you; do not enfeeble your spirit with half wishes and half thoughts. Ask yourself and keep on asking until you find the answer, for one may have known something many times, acknowledged it; one may have willed something many times, attempted it — and yet, only the deep inner motion, only the heart's indescribable emotion, only that will convince you that what you have acknowledged belongs to you, that no power can take it from you — for only the truth that builds up is truth for you. ~ Søren Kierkegaard, in Either/Or ~ |
|
- May 6
|
The voice of the intellect is a soft one, but it does not rest until it has gained a hearing. Ultimately, after endlessly repeated rebuffs, it succeeds. This is one of the few points in which it may be optimistic about the future of mankind, but in itself it signifies not a little. ~ Sigmund Freud ~ |
 
|
- May 7
|
Bigotry tries to keep truth safe in its hand |
|
- May 8
 
|
It is possible for a dictator to govern in a liberal way. And it is also possible for a democracy to govern with a total lack of liberalism. Personally I prefer a liberal dictator to democratic government lacking liberalism. ~ Friedrich Hayek ~ |
|
- May 9
|
It is not enough that we have a guilty defendant. We must have an innocent system as well. - John Ashcroft ~ |
|
- May 10
|
Touch me ~ Bono ~ |
|
- May 11
|
For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for nature cannot be fooled. ~ Richard Feynman ~ |
|
- May 12
|
Happy the man, and happy he alone, ~ John Dryden, based on "Ode XXIX" of Horace ~ |
|
- May 13
Always dying, never dead; ~ Roger Zelazny ~ |
.jpg)
|
- May 14
|
Is it not the interest of the human race, that every one should be so taught and placed, that he would find his highest enjoyment to arise from the continued practice of doing all in his power to promote the well-being, and happiness, of every man, woman, and child, without regard to their class, sect, party, country or colour? ~ Robert Owen ~ |
|
- May 15
|
I have learned to regard fame as a will-o-the-wisp which, when caught, is not worth the possession; but to please a child is a sweet and lovely thing that warms one's heart and brings its own reward. ~ L. Frank Baum ~ |
|
- May 16
I have learned, by some experience, that virtue and patriotism, vice and selfishness, are found in all parties, and that they differ less in their motives than in the policies they pursue. |
|
- May 17
|
There are cloudy moments when one asks himself if men do not deserve all the disasters into which they rush! No — I recover myself — they do not deserve them. But we, instead of saying "I wish" must say "I will." And what we will, we must will to build it, with order, with method, beginning at the beginning, when once we have been as far as that beginning. We must not only open our eyes, but our arms, our wings. ~ Henri Barbusse ~ |
|
- May 18
|
The impartiality which, in contemplation, is the unalloyed desire for truth, is the very same quality of mind which, in action, is justice, and in emotion is that universal love which can be given to all, and not only to those who are judged useful or admirable. Thus contemplation not only enlarges the objects of our thoughts, but also the objects of our actions and our affections: it makes us citizens of the universe, not only of one walled city at war with the rest. In this citizenship of the universe consists man's true freedom, and his liberation from the thralldom of narrow hopes and fears. ~ Bertrand Russell ~ |
|
- May 19
|
I wish to live because life has within it that which is good, that which is beautiful and that which is love. Therefore, since I have known all of these things, I have found them to be reason enough and — I wish to live. Moreover, because this is so, I wish others to live for generations and generations and generations. | 
|
- May 20
.JPG)
|
The only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others. His own good, either physical or moral, is not a sufficient warrant. He cannot rightfully be compelled to do or forbear because it will be better for him to do so, because it will make him happier, because, in the opinions of others, to do so would be wise, or even right. These are good reasons for remonstrating with him, or reasoning with him, or persuading him or entreating him, but not for compelling him, or visiting him with any evil, in case he do otherwise. ~ John Stuart Mill ~ |
|
- May 21
|
All seems Infected that th' Infected spy, ~ Alexander Pope ~ |
|
- May 22
|
The more we progress the more we tend to progress. We advance not in arithmetical but in geometrical progression. We draw compound interest on the whole capital of knowledge and virtue which has been accumulated since the dawning of time. |
|
- May 23
|
Might the simple maxim, that honesty is the best policy be laid to heart! Might a sense of the true aims of life elevate the tone of politics and trade, till public and private honor become identical! ~ Margaret Fuller ~ |
|
- May 24
 
|
How many times must a man look up ~ Bob Dylan ~ |
 
|
- May 25
|
Be an artist superior to tricks of art. Show frankly, as a saint would do, all your experience, your methods, tools, and means. Welcome all comers to the freest use of the same. And out of this superior frankness and charity, you shall learn higher secrets of your nature, which gods will bend and aid you to communicate. |
.jpg)
|
- May 26
|
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. |
|
- May 27
|
I am confirmed in my division of human energies. Ambitious people climb, but faithful people build. ~ Julia Ward Howe ~ |
|
- May 28
|
War of any kind is abhorrent. Remember that since the end of World War II, over 40 million people have been killed by conventional weapons. So, if we should succeed in averting nuclear war, we must not let ourselves be sold the alternative of conventional weapons for killing our fellow men. We must cure ourselves of the habit of war. ~ Patrick White ~ |
|
- May 29
|
The most unfathomable schools and sages have never attained to the gravity which dwells in the eyes of a baby of three months old. It is the gravity of astonishment at the universe, and astonishment at the universe is not mysticism, but a transcendent common-sense. The fascination of children lies in this: that with each of them all things are remade, and the universe is put again upon its trial. ~ G. K. Chesterton ~ |
|
- May 30
|
If I am not in the state of grace, may God put me there; and if I am, may God so keep me. |
|
- May 31
|
It is a beautiful truth that all men contain something of the artist in them. And perhaps it is the case that the greatest artists live and die, the world and themselves alike ignorant what they possess. ... I think of few heroic actions, which cannot be traced to the artistical impulse. He who does great deeds, does them from his innate sensitiveness to moral beauty. ~ Walt Whitman ~ |
|