February 21

      Quotes of the day from previous years:

      2004
      Careful the things you say, children will listen. Guide them along the way, children will see and learn. Children may not obey, but children will look to you for which way to turn; to learn what to be! Careful before you say "Listen to Me." Children will listen. ~ Into the Woods (Sondheim/Lapine)
      • selected by IP 172.134.14.22
      2005
      For the error bred in the bone
      Of each woman and each man
      Craves what it cannot have,
      Not universal love
      But to be loved alone.
      ~ W. H. Auden (born 21 February 1907)
      2006 
      When others asked the truth of me, I was convinced it was not the truth they wanted, but an illusion they could bear to live with. ~ Anaïs Nin (born 21 February 1903)
      2007
      Defenceless under the night
      Our world in stupor lies;
      Yet, dotted everywhere,
      Ironic points of light
      Flash out wherever the Just
      Exchange their messages:
      May I, composed like them
      Of Eros and of dust,
      Beleaguered by the same
      Negation and despair,
      Show an affirming flame.
      ~ W. H. Auden ~
      2008
      Life is a process of becoming, a combination of states we have to go through. Where people fail is that they wish to elect a state and remain in it. This is a kind of death. ~ Anaïs Nin
      2009
      Without Art, we should have no notion of the sacred; without Science, we should always worship false gods. ~ W. H. Auden
      2010
      All I have is a voice
      To undo the folded lie,
      The romantic lie in the brain
      Of the sensual man-in-the-street
      And the lie of Authority
      Whose buildings grope the sky:
      There is no such thing as the State
      And no one exists alone;
      Hunger allows no choice
      To the citizen or the police;
      We must love one another or die.
      ~ W. H. Auden ~
      2011
      We are beginning to see the influence of dream upon reality and reality upon dream. ~ Anaïs Nin
      2012
      I remember thinking how often we look, but never see ... we listen, but never hear ... we exist, but never feel. We take our relationships for granted. A house is only a place. It has no life of its own. It needs human voices, activity and laughter to come alive. ~ Erma Bombeck (born 21 February 1927)
      2013
      Follow, poet, follow right
      To the bottom of the night,
      With your unconstraining voice
      Still persuade us to rejoice;

      With the farming of a verse
      Make a vineyard of the curse,
      Sing of human unsuccess
      In a rapture of distress;

      In the deserts of the heart
      Let the healing fountains start,
      In the prison of his days
      Teach the free man how to praise.
      ~ W. H. Auden ~
      2014 
      Rank or add further suggestions…

      Ranking system:

      4 : Excellent - should definitely be used.
      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.

      Quotes by people born this day, already used as QOTD:

      • Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born. ~ Anaïs Nin
      • There are very few human beings who receive the truth, complete and staggering, by instant illumination. Most of them acquire it fragment by fragment, on a small scale, by successive developments, cellularly, like a laborious mosaic. ~ Anaïs Nin
      • We don't see things as they are, we see things as we are. ~ Anaïs Nin
        • Used 14 September 2004, selected by Kalki [originally this was an unsourced quote, but is now a disputed one, with no definite source as yet found. ~ Kalki 18:58, 20 February 2008 (UTC)]

      Suggestions

      I believe in the brotherhood of man, all men, but I don't believe in brotherhood with anybody who doesn't want brotherhood with me. I believe in treating people right, but I'm not going to waste my time trying to treat somebody right who doesn't know how to return the treatment. ~ Malcolm X (Death Date)

      • Liquidice5 14:24, 15 February 2006 (UTC)
      • 2 Kalki 23:32, 20 February 2006 (UTC) (but might rank it higher on his birth-date)
      • 2 InvisibleSun 20:29, 20 February 2008 (UTC)
      • 1 Zarbon 22:35, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

      I believe in recognizing every human being as a human being, neither white, black, brown nor red. When you are dealing with humanity as one family, there's no question of integration or intermarriage. It's just one human being marrying another human being, or one human being living around and with another human being. ~ Malcolm X (Death Date)

      • Liquidice5 14:24, 15 February 2006 (UTC)
      • 3 Kalki 23:32, 20 February 2006 (UTC) (but even when there are very good quotes available, I generally prefer to use quotes on people's date of birth rather than their date of death).
      • 3 InvisibleSun 20:29, 20 February 2008 (UTC)
      • 1 Zarbon 22:35, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

      The creative personality never remains fixed on the first world it discovers. It never resigns itself to anything. ~ Anaïs Nin

      • 3 Kalki 18:58, 20 February 2008 (UTC) with a VERY strong lean toward 4
      • 3 InvisibleSun 20:29, 20 February 2008 (UTC)
      • 1 Zarbon 22:35, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

      By mourning tongues
      The death of the poet was kept from his poems.
      ~ W. H. Auden

      • 3 InvisibleSun 20:29, 20 February 2008 (UTC)
      • 3 Kalki 20:35, 20 February 2008 (UTC)
      • 2 Zarbon 22:35, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

      When I consider others I can easily believe that their bodies express their personalities and that the two are inseparable. But it is impossible for me not to feel that my body is other than I, that I inhabit it like a house, and that my face is a mask which, with or without my consent, conceals my real nature from others. ~ W. H. Auden

      • 3 InvisibleSun 20:29, 20 February 2008 (UTC)
      • 3 Kalki 20:35, 20 February 2008 (UTC)
      • 2 Zarbon 22:35, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

      The basic stimulus to the intelligence is doubt, a feeling that the meaning of an experience is not self-evident. ~ W. H. Auden

      • 3 InvisibleSun 20:29, 20 February 2008 (UTC)
      • 3 Kalki 20:35, 20 February 2008 (UTC)
      • 1 Zarbon 22:35, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

      Whatever the field under discussion, those who engage in debate must not only believe in each other's good faith, but also in their capacity to arrive at the truth. ~ W. H. Auden

      • 3 InvisibleSun 20:29, 20 February 2008 (UTC)
      • 3 Kalki 20:35, 20 February 2008 (UTC) with a lean toward 4.
      • 1 Zarbon 22:35, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

      Our votes must go together with our guns. After all, any vote we shall have, shall have been the product of the gun. The gun which produces the vote should remain its security officer – its guarantor. The people's votes and the people's guns are always inseparable twins. ~ Robert Mugabe (born February 21)

      • 2 because artillery and weaponry is needed just as much as the people's votes, national unity and national protection go hand in hand. Zarbon 04:48, 27 April 2008 (UTC)
      • 1 Kalki 23:44, 19 February 2009 (UTC)
      • 1 InvisibleSun 23:01, 20 February 2009 (UTC)

      It may be necessary to use methods other than constitutional ones. ~ Robert Mugabe (born February 21)

      • 2 because sometimes drastic situations may call for drastic measures. Zarbon 04:48, 27 April 2008 (UTC)
      • 1 Kalki 23:44, 19 February 2009 (UTC)
      • 1 InvisibleSun 23:01, 20 February 2009 (UTC)
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      Last modified on 8 February 2013, at 18:22