May 29

Quotes of the day from previous years:

2004
A conclusion is the place where you got tired of thinking. ~ Steven Wright
2005
Learn why the world wags and what wags it. That is the only thing which the mind can never exhaust, never alienate, never be tortured by, never fear or distrust, and never dream of regretting. Learning is the only thing for you. Look what a lot of things there are to learn. ~ T. H. White (born 29 May 1906)
2006
It is idle to talk always of the alternative of reason and faith. Reason is itself a matter of faith. It is an act of faith to assert that our thoughts have any relation to reality at all. ~ G. K. Chesterton (born 29 May 1874)
2007
The pessimist is commonly spoken of as the man in revolt. He is not. Firstly, because it requires some cheerfulness to continue in revolt, and secondly, because pessimism appeals to the weaker side of everybody, and the pessimist, therefore, drives as roaring a trade as the publican. The person who is really in revolt is the optimist, who generally lives and dies in a desperate and suicidal effort to persuade all the other people how good they are. It has been proved a hundred times over that if you really wish to enrage people and make them angry, even unto death, the right way to do it is to tell them that they are all the sons of God. ~ G. K. Chesterton
2008
Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable. ~ John F. Kennedy
2009
Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate. ~ John F. Kennedy
2010
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
2011 
Religious and philosophical beliefs are, indeed, as dangerous as fire, and nothing can take from them that beauty of danger. But there is only one way of really guarding ourselves against the excessive danger of them, and that is to be steeped in philosophy and soaked in religion. ~ G. K. Chesterton
2012
I have investigated the dust-heaps of humanity, and found a treasure in all of them. I have found that humanity is not incidentally engaged, but eternally and systematically engaged, in throwing gold into the gutter and diamonds into the sea.
~ G. K. Chesterton ~
2013 
Rank or add further suggestions…

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

  • Our chiefs said 'Done,' and I did not deem it;
    Our seers said 'Peace,' and it was not peace;
    Earth will grow worse till men redeem it,
    And wars more evil, ere all wars cease.
    ~ "A Song of Defeat" by Gilbert Keith Chesterton ~
  • Men do not differ much about what things they will call evils; they differ enormously about what evils they will call excusable. ~ Gilbert Keith Chesterton
  • There is a great man who makes every man feel small. But the real great man is the man who makes every man feel great. ~ Gilbert Keith Chesterton
  • What kind of peace do we seek? Not a Pax Americana enforced on the world by American weapons of war. Not the peace of the grave or the security of the slave. I am talking about genuine peace, the kind of peace that makes life on earth worth living, the kind that enables men and nations to grow and to hope and to build a better life for their children — not merely peace for Americans but peace for all men and women — not merely peace in our time but peace for all time. ~ John F. Kennedy
  • We must face problems which do not lend themselves to easy or quick or permanent solutions. And we must face the fact that the United States is neither omnipotent nor omniscient, that we are only six percent of the world's population, that we cannot impose our will upon the other ninety-four percent of mankind, that we cannot right every wrong or reverse each adversity, and that therefore there cannot be an American solution to every world problem. ~ John F. Kennedy

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.

Suggestions

For fear of the newspapers politicians are dull, and at last they are too dull even for the newspapers. - G. K. Chesterton

When I was a child, I was told anyone can become president. Now, I'm starting to believe it. (Found on a "Good Earth" tea bag)

—This unsigned comment is by 198.236.184.8 (talk • contribs) .
  • 2 Kalki 06:26, 5 June 2007 (UTC) Interesting quote, but no clear author, and no clear relationship to the date.
  • 3 but I wonder who said it Zarbon 05:46, 23 April 2008 (UTC)
  • 0 Unless source found. InvisibleSun 21:35, 28 May 2008 (UTC)
~ Clarence Darrow ~ bystander (talk) 05:39, 21 May 2012 (UTC)

One day the last portrait of Rembrandt and the last bar of Mozart will have ceased to be — though possibly a colored canvas and a sheet of notes will remain — because the last eye and the last ear accessible to their message will have gone. ~ Oswald Spengler

This is our purpose: to make as meaningful as possible this life that has been bestowed upon us; to live in such a way that we may be proud of ourselves; to act in such a way that some part of us lives on. ~ Oswald Spengler

  • 3 Zarbon 04:37, 22 May 2008 (UTC)
  • 3 InvisibleSun 21:35, 28 May 2008 (UTC)
  • 3 Kalki 21:47, 28 May 2008 (UTC) with a very strong lean toward 4.

A man does what he must — in spite of personal consequences, in spite of obstacles and dangers, and pressures — and that is the basis of all human morality. ~ John F. Kennedy

  • 2 Zarbon 04:51, 22 May 2008 (UTC)
  • 3 InvisibleSun 21:35, 28 May 2008 (UTC)
  • 3 Kalki 21:47, 28 May 2008 (UTC) with a very strong lean toward 4.

The great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie — deliberate, contrived and dishonest — but the myth — persistent, persuasive, and unrealistic. ~ John F. Kennedy

  • 2 Zarbon 04:51, 22 May 2008 (UTC)
  • 3 InvisibleSun 21:35, 28 May 2008 (UTC)
  • 3 Kalki 21:47, 28 May 2008 (UTC) with a very strong lean toward 4.

Dante once said that the hottest places in hell are reserved for those who, in a period of moral crisis, maintain their neutrality. ~ John F. Kennedy

Freedom is indivisible, and when one man is enslaved, all are not free. ~ John F. Kennedy

If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich. ~ John F. Kennedy

  • 3 Zarbon 04:51, 22 May 2008 (UTC)
  • 3 InvisibleSun 21:35, 28 May 2008 (UTC)
  • 3 Kalki 21:47, 28 May 2008 (UTC) with a very strong lean toward 4.

It is not funny that anything else should fall down, only that a man should fall down ... Why do we laugh? Because it is a gravely religious matter: it is the Fall of Man. Only man can be absurd: for only man can be dignified. ~ G. K. Chesterton

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Last modified on 10 January 2013, at 14:38