Wikiquote:Quote of the day/January

      QOTD by month + Suggestions for: January - February - March - April - May - June - July - August - September - October - November - December
      Today is Thursday, June 20, 2013; it is now 10:51 (UTC)


      December << January 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 >> February

      This page lists quote of the day proposals specifically for dates in the month of January, and quotes proposed should ideally have some relation to the day, or persons born on it, though sometimes exceptions can be made, usually for notable quotes that relate to recent events, such as the death of prominent individuals. Developing ideas of people or works to quote on specific days can be explored through the Wikipedia page: List of historical anniversaries. The numeric section heading of each date is also a direct link to the Wikipedia list of births, deaths, and other events which occured on that date.

      See also: January 2008 - January 2009 - January 2010 - January 2011 - January 2012 - January 2013

      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.
      2004
      Jackie Biskupski is running for a seat in the Utah Legislature, and she's attracting a lot of attention because she's a lesbian. Her Republican opponent, Dan Alderson, is a staunch Mormon, and is running a negative ad campaign calling her lifestyle abnormal and deviant. His six wives agree. ~ Rick Mercer, on This Hour Has 22 Minutes (12 October 1998)
      • selected by IP 138.88.194.75
      2005
      Ring out false pride in place and blood,
      The civic slander and the spite;
      Ring in the love of truth and right,
      Ring in the common love of good.
      ~ Alfred, Lord Tennyson ~
      2006
      Only connect! That was the whole of her sermon. Only connect the prose and the passion, and both will be exalted, and human love will be seen at its height. Live in fragments no longer. Only connect, and the beast and the monk, robbed of the isolation that is life to either, will die. ~ E. M. Forster (date of birth)
      2007
      I do not believe in Belief. But this is an Age of Faith, and there are so many militant creeds that, in self defence, one has to formulate a creed of one's own. Tolerance, good temper and sympathy are no longer enough in a world where ignorance rules, and Science, which ought to have ruled, plays the pimp. Tolerance, good temper and sympathy — they are what matter really, and if the human race is not to collapse they must come to the front before long. ~ E. M. Forster
      2008
      What is wonderful about great literature is that it transforms the man who reads it towards the condition of the man who wrote, and brings to birth in us also the creative impulse. ~ E. M. Forster
      • proposed by Fys
      2009
      The people I respect most behave as if they were immortal and as if society was eternal. ~ E. M. Forster
      2010
      The true poet has no choice of material. The material plainly chooses him, not he it. ~ J. D. Salinger
      2011
      All we do our whole lives is go from one little piece of Holy Ground to the next. ~ J. D. Salinger
      2012
      Life is a gift horse in my opinion. ~ J. D. Salinger
      2013
      You can transmute love, ignore it, muddle it, but you can never pull it out of you. I know from experience that the poets are right: love is eternal.
      ~ E. M. Forster‎‎ ~
      2014 
      Rank or add further suggestions…
      2004
      Nationalism is an infantile disease. It is the measles of mankind. ~ Albert Einstein
      2005
      We are all in this together. ~ English proverb
      2006
      How often people speak of art and science as though they were two entirely different things, with no interconnection...That is all wrong. The true artist is quite rational as well as imaginative and knows what he is doing; if he does not, his art suffers. The true scientist is quite imaginative as well as rational, and sometimes leaps to solutions where reason can follow only slowly; if he does not, his science suffers. ~ Isaac Asimov (born c. 2 January 1920)
      2007
      Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent. ~ Isaac Asimov
      2008
      When people grow wise in one direction, they are sure to make it easier for themselves to grow wise in other directions as well. On the other hand, when they split up knowledge, concentrate on their own field, and scorn and ignore other fields, they grow less wise — even in their own field. ~ Isaac Asimov
      2009
      It is change, continuing change, inevitable change, that is the dominant factor in society today. No sensible decision can be made any longer without taking into account not only the world as it is, but the world as it will be ... ~ Isaac Asimov
      2010
      I believe in evidence. I believe in observation, measurement, and reasoning, confirmed by independent observers. I'll believe anything, no matter how wild and ridiculous, if there is evidence for it. The wilder and more ridiculous something is, however, the firmer and more solid the evidence will have to be. ~ Isaac Asimov
      2011
      Science fiction writers foresee the inevitable, and although problems and catastrophes may be inevitable, solutions are not. ~ Isaac Asimov
      2012
      It pays to be obvious, especially if you have a reputation for subtlety. ~ Isaac Asimov
      2013
      Those people who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do.
      ~ Isaac Asimov ~
      2014 
      Rank or add further suggestions…
      2004
      Ring out a slowly dying cause,
      And ancient forms of party strife;
      Ring in the nobler modes of life,
      With sweeter manners, purer laws.
      ~ Alfred, Lord Tennyson ~
      2005
      No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friend's or of thine own were. Any man's death diminishes me because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee… ~ John Donne
      2006
      Not to know what happened before you were born is to be a child forever. For what is the time of a man, except it be interwoven with that memory of ancient things of a superior age? ~ Cicero (born 3 January 106 BC)
      2007
      Each comprehended only that part of the mind of Ilúvatar from which he came, and in the understanding of their brethren they grew but slowly. Yet ever as they listened they came to deeper understanding, and increased in unison and harmony. ~ J. R. R. Tolkien in The Silmarillion (Tolkien born 3 January 1892)
      2008
      The rule of no realm is mine, neither of Gondor nor any other, great or small. But all worthy things that are in peril as the world now stands, those are my care. And for my part, I shall not wholly fail of my task, though Gondor should perish, if anything passes through this night that can still grow fair or bear fruit and flower again in days to come. ~ "Gandalf" in The Lord of the Rings : The Return of the King by J. R. R. Tolkien
      2009
      This is an ancient hallow, and ere the kings failed or the Tree withered in the court, a fruit must have been set here. For it is said that, though the fruit of the Tree comes seldom to ripeness, yet the life within may then lie sleeping through many long years, and none can foretell the time in which it will awake. ~ Gandalf in The Return of the King by J. R. R. Tolkien
      2010
      Of the theme that I have declared to you, I will now that ye make in harmony together a Great Music. And since I have kindled you with the Flame Imperishable, ye shall show forth your powers in adorning this theme, each with his own thoughts and devices, if he will. But I will sit and hearken, and be glad that through you great beauty has been wakened into song. ~ J. R. R. Tolkien in The Silmarillion
      2011
      He who looks on a true friend looks, as it were, upon a kind of image of himself: wherefore friends, though absent, are still present; though in poverty, they are rich; though weak, yet in the enjoyment of health; and, what is still more difficult to assert, though dead, they are alive. ~ Cicero
      2012
      The world is changing: I feel it in the water, I feel it in the earth, and I smell it in the air. ~ J. R. R. Tolkien in The Return of the King
      2013
      We must not say every mistake is a foolish one.
      ~ Cicero ~
      2014 
      Rank or add further suggestions…
      2005
      I know this in no way alleviates the enormous amounts of pain and loss experienced by those who have suffered from the tsunami, but I hope it can make a difference. ~ Sandra Bullock on her large donation to tsunami relief efforts of the American Red Cross
      2006
      I do not know what I may appear to the world, but to myself I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the sea-shore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me. ~ Isaac Newton (born 4 January 1643)
      2007
      Men learn little from others' experience. But in the life of one man, never the same time returns. ~ T. S. Eliot, in Murder in the Cathedral (died 4 January 1965)
      2008
      The main Business of natural Philosophy is to argue from Phenomena without feigning Hypotheses, and to deduce Causes from Effects, till we come to the very first Cause, which certainly is not mechanical. ~ Isaac Newton (born 4 January 1643)
      2009
      It’s the end of the world as we know it (and I feel fine).
      ~ R.E.M. ~ (birthday of Michael Stipe, lead singer and major song writer in the band — which divides the credit on all its songs equally)
      2010
      That's me in the corner
      That's me in the spotlight
      Losing my religion
      Trying to keep up with you
      And I don't know if I can do it
      Oh no I've said too much
      I haven't said enough.
      ~ R.E.M. ~
      2011
      The folly of Interpreters has been, to foretell times and things by this Prophecy, as if God designed to make them Prophets. By this rashness they have not only exposed themselves, but brought the Prophecy also into contempt.
      The design of God was much otherwise. He gave this and the Prophecies of the Old Testament, not to gratify mens curiosities by enabling them to foreknow things, but that after they were fulfilled they might be interpreted by the event, and his own Providence, not the Interpreters, be then manifested thereby to the world. For the event of things predicted many ages before will then be a convincing argument that the world is governed by Providence. ~ Isaac Newton
      2012
      When your day is long
      and the night,
      the night is yours alone,
      when you're sure you've had enough
      of this life, well hang on.
      Don't let yourself go,
      'cause everybody cries
      and everybody hurts
      sometimes.
      ~ R.E.M. ~
      2013
      Godliness consists in the knowledge love & worship of God, Humanity in love, righteousness & good offices towards man.
      ~ Isaac Newton ~
      2014 
      Rank or add further suggestions…
      2004
      Skeptical scrutiny is the means, in both science and religion, by which deep thoughts can be winnowed from deep nonsense. ~ Carl Sagan
      2005
      I can not do everything, but I can do something. I must not fail to do the something that I can do. ~ Helen Keller
      2006
      Evil spreads with the wind; truth is capable of speading even against it. ~ Paramahansa Yogananda (born 5 January 1893)
      2007
      All statements are true in some sense, false in some sense, meaningless in some sense, true and false in some sense, true and meaningless in some sense, false and meaningless in some sense, and true and false and meaningless in some sense. ~ Principia Discordia
      • proposed by Kalki (for the anniversary of discovery of the "dwarf planet" Eris, named after the patron goddess of the Discordians)
      2008
      A dreaded society is not a civilized society. The most progressive and powerful society in the civilized sense, is a society which has recognized its ethos, and come to terms with the past and the present, with religion and science, with modernism and mysticism, with materialism and spirituality; a society free of tension, a society rich in culture. Such a society cannot come with hocus-pocus formulas and with fraud. It has to flow from the depth of a divine search. ~ Zulfikar Ali Bhutto (born 5 January 1928)
      2009
      We all live under the same sky, but we don't all have the same horizon. In an instant age, perhaps we must relearn the ancient truth that patience, too, has its victories. ~ Konrad Adenauer (born 5 January 1876)
      2010
      A democratic civilization will save itself only if it makes the language of the image into a stimulus for critical reflection — not an invitation for hypnosis. ~ Umberto Eco
      2011
      In view of the fact that God limited the intelligence of man, it seems unfair that he did not also limit his stupidity. ~ Konrad Adenauer
      2012
      Semiotics is in principle the discipline studying everything which can be used in order to lie. If something cannot be used to tell a lie, conversely it cannot be used to tell the truth: it cannot in fact be used "to tell" at all. ~ Umberto Eco
      2013
      Learning does not consist only of knowing what we must or we can do, but also of knowing what we could do and perhaps should not do.
      ~ Umberto Eco ~
      2014 
      Rank or add further suggestions…
      2004
      All of humanity is in peril of extinction if each one of us does not dare, now and henceforth, always to tell only the truth, and all the truth, and to do so promptly — right now. ~ Buckminster Fuller
      2005
      I know the biggest crime is just to throw up your hands and say "This has nothing to do with me, I just want to live as comfortably as I can." ~ Ani DiFranco
      2006
      In the future days which we seek to make secure, we look forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms. The first is freedom of speech and expression — everywhere in the world. The second is freedom of every person to worship God in his own way — everywhere in the world. The third is freedom from want... everywhere in the world. The fourth is freedom from fear... anywhere in the world. That is no vision of a distant millennium. It is a definite basis for a kind of world attainable in our own time and generation. ~ Franklin Delano Roosevelt
      2007
      History is the present. That's why every generation writes it anew. But what most people think of as history is its end product, myth. ~ E.L. Doctorow (born 6 January 1931)
      2008
      Yesterday we obeyed kings and bent our necks before emperors. But today we kneel only to truth, follow only beauty, and obey only love. ~ Khalil Gibran (born 6 January 1883)
      2009
      Progress lies not in enhancing what is, but in advancing toward what will be. ~ Khalil Gibran
      2010
      To understand the heart and mind of a person, look not at what he has already achieved, but what he aspires to. ~ Khalil Gibran
      2011
      Your thought advocates fame and show. Mine counsels me and implores me to cast aside notoriety and treat it like a grain of sand cast upon the shore of eternity. Your thought instills in your heart arrogance and superiority. Mine plants within me love for peace and the desire for independence. Your thought begets dreams of palaces with furniture of sandalwood studded with jewels, and beds made of twisted silk threads. My thought speaks softly in my ears, "Be clean in body and spirit even if you have nowhere to lay your head." Your thought makes you aspire to titles and offices. Mine exhorts me to humble service. ~ Khalil Gibran
      2012
      Faith lived in the incognito is one which is located outside the criticism coming from society, from politics, from history, for the very reason that it has itself the vocation to be a source of criticism. It is faith (lived in the incognito) which triggers the issues for the others, which causes everything seemingly established to be placed in doubt, which drives a wedge into the world of false assurances. ~ Jacques Ellul
      2013
      When no risk is taken there is no freedom. It is thus that, in an industrial society, the plethora of laws made for our personal safety convert the land into a nursery, and policemen hired to protect us become selfserving busybodies.
      ~ Alan Watts ~
      2014 
      Rank or add further suggestions…
      2004
      Truth alone will endure; all the rest will be swept away before the tide of time. ~ Mohandas Gandhi
      2005
      The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew. ~ Abraham Lincoln
      2006
      There is no first world and third world. There is only one world, for all of us to live and delight in. ~ Gerald Durrell (born 7 January 1925)
      2007
      It does not do harm to the mystery to know a little more about it. For far more marvelous is the truth than any artists of the past imagined it. Why do the poets of the present not speak of it? What men are poets who can speak of Jupiter if he were a man, but if he is an immense spinning sphere of methane and ammonia must be silent? ~ Richard Feynman (speaking of art, reality, and Jupiter, which Galileo Galilei discovered to have moons on this day in 1610)
      2008
      You cannot begin to preserve any species of animal unless you preserve the habitat in which it dwells. Disturb or destroy that habitat and you will exterminate the species as surely as if you had shot it. So conservation means that you have to preserve forest and grassland, river and lake, even the sea itself. This is not only vital for the preservation of animal life generally, but for the future existence of man himself — a point that seems to escape many people. ~ Gerald Durrell (born 7 January 1925)
      2009
      There are years that ask questions and years that answer. ~ Zora Neale Hurston
      2010 
      When I take people round to see my animals, one of the first questions they ask (unless the animal is cute and appealing) is, "what use is it?" by which they mean, "what use is it to them?" To this one can reply "What use is the Acropolis?" Does a creature have to be of direct material use to mankind in order to exist? By and large, by asking the question "what use is it?" you are asking the animal to justify its existence without having justified your own. ~ Gerald Durrell
      2011
      We have inherited an incredibly beautiful and complex garden, but the trouble is that we have been appallingly bad gardeners. We have not bothered to acquaint ourselves with the simplest principles of gardening. By neglecting our garden, we are storing up for ourselves, in the not very distant future, a world catastrophe as bad as any atomic war, and we are doing it with all the bland complacency of an idiot child chopping up a Rembrandt with a pair of scissors. ~ Gerald Durrell
      2012
      Love, I find is like singing. Everybody can do enough to satisfy themselves, though it may not impress the neighbors as being very much. ~ Zora Neale Hurston
      2013
      The whole country is full of enterprise. Our common schools are diffusing intelligence among the people and our industry is fast accumulating the comforts and luxuries of life. ... It is not strange, however much it may be regretted, that such an exuberance of enterprise should cause some individuals to mistake change for progress and the invasion of the rights of others for national prowess and glory.
      ~ Millard Fillmore ~
      2014 
      Rank or add further suggestions…
      2004
      True Love in this differs from gold and clay, That to divide is not to take away. Love is like understanding, that grows bright, Gazing on many truths. ~ Percy Bysshe Shelley
      2005
      The worst sin towards our fellow creatures is not to hate them, but to be indifferent to them: that's the essence of inhumanity. ~ George Bernard Shaw
      2006
      For millions of years mankind lived just like the animals. Then something happened which unleashed the power of our imagination. We learned to talk. ~ Stephen Hawking (born 8 January 1942)
      2007
      Some marry the first information they receive, and turn what comes later into their concubine. Since deceit is always first to arrive, there is no room left for truth. ~ Baltasar Gracián (born 8 January 1601)
      2008
      If you cannot make knowledge your servant, make it your friend. ~ Baltasar Gracián
      2009
      I would rather have a mind opened by wonder than one closed by belief. ~ Gerry Spence
      2010
      My intent is to tell the truth as I know it, realizing that what is true for me may be blasphemy for others. ~ Gerry Spence
      2011
      Some would be sages if they did not believe they were so already. ~ Baltasar Gracián
      2012
      The people of a nation are enslaved when, together, they are helpless to institute effective change, when the people serve the government more than the government serves them. ~ Gerry Spence
      2013
      There is a certain indolence in us, a wish not to be disturbed, which tempts us to think that when things are quiet, all is well. Subconsciously, we tend to give the preference to "social peace," though it be only apparent, because our lives and possessions seem then secure. Actually, human beings acquiesce too easily in evil conditions; they rebel far too little and too seldom. There is nothing noble about acquiescence in a cramped life or mere submission to superior force.
      ~ A. J. Muste ~
      2014 
      Rank or add further suggestions…
      2004
      Shared pain is lessened; shared joy, increased — thus do we refute entropy. ~ Spider Robinson
      2005
      Each time a person stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring, these ripples build a current that can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance. ~ Robert F. Kennedy
      2006
      Life will not perish! It will begin anew with love; it will start out naked and tiny; it will take root in the wilderness, and to it all that we did and built will mean nothing — our towns and factories, our art, our ideas will all mean nothing, and yet life will not perish! Only we have perished. Our houses and machines will be in ruins, our systems will collapse, and the names of our great will fall away like dry leaves. Only you, love, will blossom on this rubbish heap and commit the seed of life to the winds. ~ Karel Čapek (born 9 January 1890)
      2007
      I think it is possible, and that is the most dramatic element in modern civilization, that a human truth is opposed to another human truth no less human, ideal against ideal, positive worth against worth no less positive, instead of the struggle being as we are so often told, one between noble truth and vile selfish error. ~ Karel Čapek (date of birth)
      2008
      One's life has value so long as one attributes value to the life of others, by means of love, friendship, indignation and compassion. ~ Simone de Beauvoir
      2009
      I tore myself away from the safe comfort of certainties through my love for truth — and truth rewarded me. ~ Simone de Beauvoir
      2010
      I am incapable of conceiving infinity, and yet I do not accept finity. I want this adventure that is the context of my life to go on without end. ~ Simone de Beauvoir
      2011
      The individual is defined only by his relationship to the world and to other individuals; he exists only by transcending himself, and his freedom can be achieved only through the freedom of others. ~ Simone de Beauvoir
      2012
      It is for man to establish the reign of liberty in the midst of the world of the given. To gain the supreme victory, it is necessary, for one thing, that by and through their natural differentiation men and women unequivocally affirm their brotherhood. ~ Simone de Beauvoir
      2013
      Science condemns itself to failure when, yielding to the infatuation of the serious, it aspires to attain being, to contain it, and to possess it; but it finds its truth if it considers itself as a free engagement of thought in the given, aiming, at each discovery, not at fusion with the thing, but at the possibility of new discoveries; what the mind then projects is the concrete accomplishment of its freedom.
      ~ Simone de Beauvoir ~
      2014 
      Rank or add further suggestions…
      2005
      The best things in life are nearest: Breath in your nostrils, light in your eyes, flowers at your feet, duties at your hand, the path of right just before you. Then do not grasp at the stars, but do life's plain, common work as it comes, certain that daily duties and daily bread are the sweetest things in life. ~ Robert Louis Stevenson
      2006
      Know that however ugly the parts appear
      the whole remains beautiful...
      ... the wholeness of life and things, the divine beauty
      of the universe. Love that, not man
      Apart from that, or else you will share man's pitiful confusions,
      or drown in despair when his days darken.
      ~ Robinson Jeffers (born 10 January 1887)
      2007
      Science and mathematics
      Run parallel to reality, they symbolize it, they squint at it,
      They never touch it: consider what an explosion
      Would rock the bones of men into little white fragments and unsky the world
      If any mind for a moment touch truth.
      ~ Robinson Jeffers ~
      2008
      I believe that the Universe is one being, all its parts are different expressions of the same energy, and they are all in communication with each other, therefore parts of one organic whole. This whole is in all its parts so beautiful, and is felt by me to be so intensely in earnest, that I am compelled to love it and to think of it as divine. ~ Robinson Jeffers
      2009
      Truth is the only merit that gives dignity and worth to history. ~ John Dalberg-Acton, 1st Baron Acton
      2010
      Corruption never has been compulsory; when the cities lie at the monster's feet there are left the mountains. ~ Robinson Jeffers
      2011
      All power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority: still more when you superadd the tendency or the certainty of corruption by authority. There is no worse heresy than that the office sanctifies the holder of it. ~ John Dalberg-Acton, 1st Baron Acton
      2012
      Reason will not decide at last; the sword will decide.
      The sword: an obsolete instrument of bronze or steel,
      formerly used to kill men, but here
      In the sense of a symbol.
      ~ Robinson Jeffers ~
      2013
      It is bad to be oppressed by a minority, but it is worse to be oppressed by a majority. For there is a reserve of latent power in the masses which, if it is called into play, the minority can seldom resist.
      ~ John Dalberg-Acton, 1st Baron Acton ~
      2014 
      Rank or add further suggestions…
      2005
      If men would consider not so much where they differ, as wherein they agree, there would be far less of uncharitableness and angry feeling in the world. ~ Joseph Addison
      2006
      The sacred rights of mankind are not to be rummaged for among old parchments or musty records. They are written, as with a sunbeam, in the whole volume of human nature, by the hand of the divinity itself; and can never be erased or obscured by mortal power. ~ Alexander Hamilton (born 11 January 1755)
      2007
      Has it been found that bodies of men act with more rectitude or greater disinterestedness than individuals? The contrary of this has been inferred by all accurate observers of the conduct of mankind; and the inference is founded upon obvious reasons. Regard to reputation has a less active influence, when the infamy of a bad action is to be divided among a number than when it is to fall singly upon one. A spirit of faction, which is apt to mingle its poison in the deliberations of all bodies of men, will often hurry the persons of whom they are composed into improprieties and excesses, for which they would blush in a private capacity. ~ Alexander Hamilton
      2008
      I do indeed disbelieve that we or any other mortal men can attain on a given day to absolutely incorrigible and unimprovable truth about such matters of fact as those with which religions deal. But I reject this dogmatic ideal not out of a perverse delight in intellectual instability. I am no lover of disorder and doubt as such. Rather do I fear to lose truth by this pretension to possess it already wholly. ~ William James (born 11 January 1842)
      2009
      Be not afraid of life. Believe that life is worth living, and your belief will help create the fact. ~ William James
      2010
      I should esteem it the extreme of imprudence to prolong the precarious state of our national affairs, and to expose the union to the jeopardy of successive experiments, in the chimerical pursuit of a perfect plan. I never expect to see a perfect work from imperfect man. The result of the deliberations of all collective bodies must necessarily be a compound as well of the errors and prejudices, as of the good sense and wisdom of the individuals of whom they are composed. ~ Alexander Hamilton
      2011
      We are closer to God when we are asking questions than when we think we have the answers. ~ Abraham Joshua Heschel
      2012
      When the sword is once drawn, the passions of men observe no bounds of moderation. ~ Alexander Hamilton
      2013
      We must make the best of those ills which cannot be avoided.
      ~ Alexander Hamilton ~
      2014 
      Rank or add further suggestions…
      2004
      Dignity does not come in possessing honors, but in deserving them. ~ Aristotle
      2005
      Do not think of knocking out another person's brains because he differs in opinion from you. It would be as rational to knock yourself on the head because you differ from yourself ten years ago. ~ Horace Mann
      2006
      Magnanimity in politics is not seldom the truest wisdom; and a great empire and little minds go ill together. ~ Edmund Burke (born 12 January 1729)
      2007
      Society is indeed a contract... it is not a partnership in things subservient only to the gross animal existence of a temporary and perishable nature. It is a partnership in all science; a partnership in all art; a partnership in every virtue, and in all perfection. As the ends of such a partnership cannot be obtained in many generations, it becomes a partnership not only between those who are living, but between those who are to be born. ~ Edmund Burke
      2008
      Whoever undertakes to set himself up as a judge of Truth and Knowledge is shipwrecked by the laughter of the gods. ~ Edmund Burke (born 12 January 1729)
      2009
      We must all obey the great law of change. It is the most powerful law of nature, and the means perhaps of its conservation. ~ Edmund Burke
      2010
      Whenever a separation is made between liberty and justice, neither, in my opinion, is safe. ~ Edmund Burke
      2011
      The use of force alone is but temporary. It may subdue for a moment; but it does not remove the necessity of subduing again: and a nation is not governed, which is perpetually to be conquered. ~ Edmund Burke
      2012
      To succeed, you must have tremendous perseverance, tremendous will. “I will drink the ocean”, says the persevering soul; “at my will mountains will crumble up”. Have that sort of energy, that sort of will; work hard, and you will reach the goal. ~ Swami Vivekananda (born 12 January 1863)
      • proposed by Vivek Sarma R
      2013
      Men are qualified for civil liberty in exact proportion to their disposition to put moral chains upon their own appetites, — in proportion as their love to justice is above their rapacity, — in proportion as their soundness and sobriety of understanding is above their vanity and presumption, — in proportion as they are more disposed to listen to the counsels of the wise and good, in preference to the flattery of knaves. Society cannot exist, unless a controlling power upon will and appetite be placed somewhere; and the less of it there is within, the more there must be without. It is ordained in the eternal constitution of things, that men of intemperate minds cannot be free. Their passions forge their fetters.
      ~ Edmund Burke ~
      2014 
      Rank or add further suggestions…
      2004
      There may be love without jealousy, but there is none without fear. ~ Miguel de Cervantes
      2005
      Wisdom tends to grow in proportion to one's awareness of one's ignorance. ~ Anthony de Mello
      2006
      I have but one passion: to enlighten those who have been kept in the dark, in the name of humanity which has suffered so much and is entitled to happiness. My fiery protest is simply the cry of my very soul. ~ Émile Zola (J'accuse published 13 January 1898)
      2007
      I still feel that sincerity and realism are avant-garde, or can be, just as I did when I started out. ~ Edmund White (born January 13, 1940)
      2008
      The explorers of the past were great men and we should honour them. But let us not forget that their spirit lives on. It is still not hard to find a man who will adventure for the sake of a dream or one who will search, for the pleasure of searching, not for what he may find. ~ Sir Edmund Hillary
      • proposed by Kalki (recent death)
      2009
      All religions speak about death during this life on earth. Death must come before rebirth. But what must die? False confidence in one’s own knowledge, self-love and egoism. Our egoism must be broken. ~ G. I. Gurdjieff
      2010
      Conscious faith is freedom.
      Emotional faith is slavery.
      Mechanical faith is foolishness.
      ~ G. I. Gurdjieff ~
      2011
      Ill can he rule the great, that cannot reach the small. ~ Edmund Spenser
      2012
      LIBERATION LEADS TO LIBERATION.
      These are the first words of truth — not truth in quotation marks but truth in the real meaning of the word; truth which is not merely theoretical, not simply a word, but truth that can be realized in practice. The meaning behind these words may be explained as follows:
      By liberation is meant the liberation which is the aim of all schools, all religions, at all times.
      This liberation can indeed be very great. All men desire it and strive after it. But it cannot be attained without the first liberation, a lesser liberation. The great liberation is liberation from influences outside us. The lesser liberation is liberation from influences within us. ~ G. I. Gurdjieff
      2013
      Knowledge can be acquired by a suitable and complete study, no matter what the starting point is. Only one must know how to "learn." What is nearest to us is man; and you are the nearest of all men to yourself. Begin with the study of yourself; remember the saying "Know thyself." ~ G. I. Gurdjieff
      ~ G. I. Gurdjieff ~
      2014 
      Rank or add further suggestions…
      2004
      Jealousy is a disease, love is a healthy condition. The immature mind often mistakes one for the other, or assumes that the greater the love, the greater the jealousy — in fact, they are almost incompatible; one emotion hardly leaves room for the other. ~ Robert Heinlein in Stranger In A Strange Land
      2005
      Appearances are a glimpse of the unseen. ~ Æschylus
      2006
      Not one of us knows what effect his life produces, and what he gives to others; that is hidden from us and must remain so, though we are often allowed to see some little fraction of it, so that we may not lose courage. ~ Albert Schweitzer (born 14 January 1875)
      2007
      Various medical authorities swarm in and out of here predicting I have between two days and two months to live. I think they are guessing. I remain cheerful and unimpressed. I look forward without dogmatic optimism but without dread. I love you all and I deeply implore you to keep the lasagna flying.
      Please pardon my levity, I don't see how to take death seriously. It seems absurd. ~ Robert Anton Wilson (recent death)
      2008
      At no time are we ever in such complete possession of a journey, down to its last nook and cranny, as when we are busy with preparations for it. After that, there remains only the journey itself, which is nothing but the process through which we lose our ownership of it. ~ Yukio Mishima (born January 14, 1925)
      2009
      In my great tiredness and discouragement, the phrase, Reverence for Life, struck me like a flash. As far as I knew, it was a phrase I had never heard nor ever read. I realized at once that it carried within itself the solution to the problem that had been torturing me. Now I knew that a system of values which concerns itself only with our relationship to other people is incomplete and therefore lacking in power for good. Only by means of reverence for life can we establish a spiritual and humane relationship with both people and all living creatures within our reach. Only in this fashion can we avoid harming others, and, within the limits of our capacity, go to their aid whenever they need us. ~ Albert Schweitzer
      2010
      The great secret of success is to go through life as a man who never gets used up. That is possible for him who never argues and strives with men and facts, but in all experience retires upon himself, and looks for the ultimate cause of things in himself. ~ Albert Schweitzer
      2011
      To relate oneself in the spirit of reverence for life to the multiform manifestations of the will-to-live which together constitute the world is ethical mysticism. All profound world-view is mysticism, the essence of which is just this: that out of my unsophisticated and naïve existence in the world there comes, as a result of thought about self and the world, spiritual self-devotion to the mysterious infinite Will which is continuously manifested in the universe. ~ Albert Schweitzer
      2012
      The only way out of today's misery is for people to become worthy of each other's trust. ~ Albert Schweitzer
      2013
      I do not want to frighten you by telling you about the temptations life will bring. Anyone who is healthy in spirit will overcome them. But there is something I want you to realize. It does not matter so much what you do. What matters is whether your soul is harmed by what you do. If your soul is harmed, something irreparable happens, the extent of which you won't realize until it will be too late.
      ~ Albert Schweitzer ~
      2014 
      Rank or add further suggestions…
      2004
      There is a theory which states that if ever anybody discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. ... There is another theory which states that this has already happened. ~ Douglas Adams
      2005
      The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy. ~ Martin Luther King, Jr. (born 15 January 1929)
      2006
      Imagine a world in which every single person on the planet is given free access to the sum of all human knowledge. That's what we're doing. ~ Jimmy Wales (Wikipedia Day — Wikipedia started 15 January 2001)
      2007
      I build no system. I ask an end to privilege, the abolition of slavery, equality of rights, and the reign of law. Justice, nothing else; that is the alpha and omega of my argument: to others I leave the business of governing the world. ~ Pierre-Joseph Proudhon
      • selected by Kalki (no other proposals existed)
      2008
      I'm concerned about justice. I'm concerned about brotherhood. I'm concerned about truth. And when one is concerned about these, he can never advocate violence. For through violence you may murder a murderer but you can't murder murder. Through violence you may murder a liar but you can't establish truth. Through violence you may murder a hater, but you can't murder hate. Darkness cannot put out darkness. Only light can do that. ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.
      2009
      I know that love is ultimately the only answer to mankind's problems. And I'm going to talk about it everywhere I go. I know it isn't popular to talk about it in some circles today. I'm not talking about emotional bosh when I talk about love, I'm talking about a strong, demanding love. And I have seen too much hate... I have decided to love. If you are seeking the highest good, I think you can find it through love. And the beautiful thing is that we are moving against wrong when we do it, because John was right, God is love. He who hates does not know God, but he who has love has the key that unlocks the door to the meaning of ultimate reality. ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.
      2010
      Men, for years now, have been talking about war and peace. But now, no longer can they just talk about it. It is no longer a choice between violence and nonviolence in this world; it's nonviolence or nonexistence. ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.
      2011
      Those whose conduct gives room for talk
      Are always the first to attack their neighbors.
      ~ Molière (born 15 January 1622)
      2012
      I stand ready to negotiate, but I want no part of laws: I acknowledge none; I protest against every order with which some authority may feel pleased on the basis of some alleged necessity to over-rule my free will. Laws: We know what they are, and what they are worth! They are spider webs for the rich and mighty, steel chains for the poor and weak, fishing nets in the hands of government. ~ Pierre-Joseph Proudhon
      2013
      Man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love.
      ~ Martin Luther King, Jr. ~


      2014 
      Rank or add further suggestions…
      2004
      When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong. ~ Arthur C. Clarke
      2005
      If we win here we will win everywhere. The world is a fine place and worth the fighting for and I hate very much to leave it. ~ Ernest Hemingway
      2006
      What is needed is a realization that power without love is reckless and abusive, and love without power is sentimental and anemic. Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice, and justice at its best is power correcting everything that stands against love... I know that love is ultimately the only answer to mankind's problems. And I'm going to talk about it everywhere I go. ~ Martin Luther King, Jr. (Martin Luther King Day 2006 in U.S.)
      2007
      To me, literature is a calling, even a kind of salvation. It connects me with an enterprise that is over 2,000 years old. What do we have from the past? Art and thought. That's what lasts. That's what continues to feed people and give them an idea of something better. A better state of one's feelings or simply the idea of a silence in one's self that allows one to think or to feel. Which to me is the same. ~ Susan Sontag (born January 16, 1933)
      2008
      I don't want to express alienation. It isn't what I feel. I'm interested in various kinds of passionate engagement. All my work says be serious, be passionate, wake up. ~ Susan Sontag
      2009
      I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it. ~ Evelyn Beatrice Hall
      • proposed by 151.48.89.127
      2010
      Ours is an age which consciously pursues health, and yet only believes in the reality of sickness. The truths we respect are those born of affliction. We measure truth in terms of the cost to the writer in suffering — rather than by the standard of an objective truth to which a writer's words correspond. Each of our truths must have a martyr. ~ Susan Sontag
      2011
      We are told we must choose — the old or the new. In fact, we must choose both. What is a life if not a series of negotiations between the old and the new? It seems to me that one should always be seeking to talk oneself out of these stark oppositions. ~ Susan Sontag
      2012
      One of my oldest crusades is against the distinction between thought and feelings… which is really the basis of all anti-intellectual views: the heart and the head, thinking and feeling, fantasy and judgment. We have more or less the same bodies, but very different kinds of thoughts. I believe that we think much more with the instruments provided by our culture than we do with our bodies, and hence the much greater diversity of thought in the world. Thinking is a form of feeling; feeling is a form of thinking. ~ Susan Sontag
      2013
      We live in a culture in which intelligence is denied relevance altogether, in a search for radical innocence, or is defended as an instrument of authority and repression. In my view, the only intelligence worth defending is critical, dialectical, skeptical, desimplifying.
      ~ Susan Sontag ~
      2014 
      Rank or add further suggestions…
      2005
      The hope of a secure and livable world lies with disciplined nonconformists who are dedicated to justice, peace and brotherhood. ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.
      2006
      Human felicity is produc'd not so much by great pieces of good fortune that seldom happen, as by little advantages that occur every day. ~ Benjamin Franklin (born 17 January 1706)
      2007
      Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety. ~ Benjamin Franklin
      2008
      All true histories contain instruction; though, in some, the treasure may be hard to find, and when found, so trivial in quantity, that the dry, shrivelled kernel scarcely compensates for the trouble of cracking the nut. Whether this be the case with my history or not, I am hardly competent to judge. I sometimes think it might prove useful to some, and entertaining to others; but the world may judge for itself. Shielded by my own obscurity, and by the lapse of years, and a few fictitious names, I do not fear to venture; and will candidly lay before the public what I would not disclose to the most intimate friend. ~ Anne Brontë (born 17 January 1820)
      2009
      We have this window of opportunity; we have a chance to make something real happen. Something possible happen, to live beyond our fear — think about that, and help us. Help lift us up, help us fight this fight to change, — transform — this country in a fundamental way.
      This chance won’t come around again. ~ Michelle Obama
      2010
      I somehow see what's beautiful
      In things that are ephemeral.
      I'm my only friend of mine,
      And love is just a piece of time
      In the world
      In the world.
      And I couldn't help but fall in love again.
      ~ Zooey Deschanel ~
      2011
      I think all the heretics I have known have been virtuous men. They have the virtue of fortitude or they would not venture to own their heresy; and they cannot afford to be deficient in any of the other virtues, as that would give advantage to their many enemies; and they have not like orthodox sinners, such a number of friends to excuse or justify them. Do not, however mistake me. It is not to my good friend's heresy that I impute his honesty. On the contrary, 'tis his honesty that has brought upon him the character of heretic. ~ Benjamin Franklin
      2012
      My goal as an actor is always to be as truthful as possible, and to find the truth in the material I am representing. So I think that it’s the same with performing music. But in a way, performing your own music, it’s easier to find the truth in it, because it’s coming from yourself. There’s no translation needed. ~ Zooey Deschanel
      2013
      Mankind naturally and generally love to be flatter'd: Whatever sooths our Pride, and tends to exalt our Species above the rest of the Creation, we are pleas'd with and easily believe, when ungrateful Truths shall be with the utmost Indignation rejected. "What! bring ourselves down to an Equality with the Beasts of the Field! with the meanest part of the Creation! 'Tis insufferable!" But, (to use a Piece of common Sense) our Geese are but Geese tho' we may think 'em Swans; and Truth will be Truth tho' it sometimes prove mortifying and distasteful.
      ~ Benjamin Franklin ~
      2014 
      Rank or add further suggestions…
      2005
      The danger is not that a particular class is unfit to govern. Every class is unfit to govern. The law of liberty tends to abolish the reign of race over race, of faith over faith, of class over class. ~ Lord Acton
      2006
      There is absolutely nothing that can be taken for granted in this world. ~ Robert Anton Wilson (born 18 January 1932)
      2007
      It's important to abolish the unconscious dogmatism that makes people think their way of looking at reality is the only sane way of viewing the world. My goal is to try to get people into a state of generalized agnosticism, not agnosticism about God alone, but agnosticism about everything. ~ Robert Anton Wilson
      2008
      The success of most things depends upon knowing how long it will take to succeed. ~ Charles de Montesquieu (born 18 January 1689)
      2009
      Beyond a certain point, the whole universe becomes a continuous process of initiation. ~ Robert Anton Wilson
      2010
      I have always observed that to succeed in the world one should appear like a fool but be wise. ~ Charles de Montesquieu
      2011
      "Elohim," the name for the creative power in Genesis, is a female plural, a fact that generations of learned rabbis and Christian theologians have all explained as merely grammatical convention. The King James and most other Bibles translate it as "God," but if you take the grammar literally, it seems to mean "goddesses." Al Shaddai, god of battles, appears later, and YHWH, mispronounced Jehovah, later still. ~ Robert Anton Wilson ~
      2012
      The force that makes the winter grow
      Its feathered hexagons of snow,
      and drives the bee to match at home
      Their calculated honeycomb,
      Is abacus and rose combined.

      An icy sweetness fills my mind,
      A sense that under thing and wing
      Lies, taut yet living, coiled, the spring.
      ~ Jacob Bronowski ~

      2013 
      The worst that can happen under monarchy is rule by a single imbecile, but democracy often means the rule by an assembly of three or four hundred imbeciles.
      ~ Robert Anton Wilson ~
      2014 
      Rank or add further suggestions…
      2004
      Deep in the human unconscious is a pervasive need for a logical universe that makes sense. But the real universe is always one step beyond logic. ~ Frank Herbert in Dune
      2005
      My experience of men has neither disposed me to think worse of them, or indisposed me to serve them; nor in spite of failures, which I lament, of errors which I now see and acknowledge; or of the present aspect of affairs; do I despair of the future.
      The truth is this: The march of Providence is so slow, and our desires so impatient; the work of progress is so immense and our means of aiding it so feeble; the life of humanity is so long, that of the individual so brief, that we often see only the ebb of the advancing wave and are thus discouraged. It is history that teaches us to hope. ~ Robert E. Lee
      2006
      They who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night. ~ Edgar Allan Poe (born 19 January 1809)
      2007
      Whether it's the best of times or the worst of times, it's the only time we've got. ~ Art Buchwald (recent death)
      2008
      From childhood's hour I have not been
      As others were — I have not seen
      As others saw — I could not bring
      My passions from a common spring —
      From the same source I have not taken
      My sorrow — I could not awaken
      My heart to joy at the same tone—
      And all I lov'd— I lov'd alone.
      ~ Edgar Allan Poe ~
      2009
      Thou wouldst be loved? — then let thy heart
      From its present pathway part not!
      Being everything which now thou art,
      Be nothing which thou art not.
      So with the world thy gentle ways,
      Thy grace, thy more than beauty,
      Shall be an endless theme of praise,
      And love — a simple duty.
      ~ Edgar Allan Poe ~
      2010
      Duty is the sublimest word in our language. Do your duty in all things. You cannot do more. You should never wish to do less. ~ Robert E. Lee
      2011
      I cannot consent to place in the control of others one who cannot control himself. ~ Robert E. Lee
      2012
      It is well that war is so terrible — lest we should grow too fond of it. ~ Robert E. Lee
      2013
      By a route obscure and lonely,
      Haunted by ill angels only,
      Where an Eidolon, named NIGHT,
      On a black throne reigns upright,
      I have reached these lands but newly
      From an ultimate dim Thule —
      From a wild weird clime that lieth, sublime,
      Out of SPACE — out of TIME.
      ~ Edgar Allan Poe ~
      2014 
      Rank or add further suggestions…
      2004
      No man can justly censure or condemn another, because indeed no man truly knows another ~ Sir Thomas Browne
      2005
      The survival of liberty in our land increasingly depends on the success of liberty in other lands. The best hope for peace in our world is the expansion of freedom in all the world. ~ George W. Bush
      2006
      I don't understand politics. I don't understand the concept of two sides. And I think that probably there's good on both sides, bad on both sides, and there's a middle ground. But it never seems to come to the middle ground. And it's very frustrating watching it, and seemingly we're not moving forward. ~ David Lynch (born 20 January 1946]
      2007
      What is an artist? A provincial who finds himself somewhere between a physical reality and a metaphysical one.... It’s this in-between that I’m calling a province, this frontier country between the tangible world and the intangible one — which is really the realm of the artist. ~ Federico Fellini (born 20 January 1920)
      2008
      I love child things because there's so much mystery when you're a child. When you're a child, something as simple as a tree doesn't make sense. You see it in the distance and it looks small, but as you go closer, it seems to grow — you haven't got a handle on the rules when you're a child. We think we understand the rules when we become adults but what we really experienced is a narrowing of the imagination. ~ David Lynch
      2009
      There's new energy to harness, new jobs to be created, new schools to build, and threats to meet, alliances to repair. The road ahead will be long. Our climb will be steep. We may not get there in one year or even in one term. But, America, I have never been more hopeful than I am tonight that we will get there. 
I promise you, we as a people will get there. ~ Barack Obama
      2010
      To those who would tear the world down: We will defeat you. To those who seek peace and security: We support you. And to all those who have wondered if America's beacon still burns as bright: Tonight we proved once more that the true strength of our nation comes not from the might of our arms or the scale of our wealth, but from the enduring power of our ideals: democracy, liberty, opportunity and unyielding hope. ~ Barack Obama
      2011
      If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible, who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time, who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer. ... It's the answer spoken by young and old, rich and poor, Democrat and Republican, black, white, Hispanic, Asian, Native American, gay, straight, disabled and not disabled. Americans who sent a message to the world that we have never been just a collection of individuals or a collection of red states and blue states.
      We are, and always will be, the United States of America.
      It's the answer that led those who've been told for so long by so many to be cynical and fearful and doubtful about what we can achieve to put their hands on the arc of history and bend it once more toward the hope of a better day.
      It's been a long time coming, but tonight, because of what we did on this date in this election at this defining moment change has come to America. ~ Barack Obama
      2012
      All art is autobiographical; the pearl is the oyster’s autobiography. ~ Federico Fellini (born 20 January 1920)
      2013
      Lord — Protect my family and me. Forgive me my sins, and help me guard against pride and despair. Give me the wisdom to do what is right and just. And make me an instrument of your will.
      ~ Barack Obama ~
      2014 
      Rank or add further suggestions…
      2004
      Men do not differ much about what things they will call evils; they differ enormously about what evils they will call excusable. ~ G. K. Chesterton
      2005
      An avidity to punish is always dangerous to liberty. It leads men to stretch, to misinterpret, and to misapply even the best of laws. He that would make his own liberty secure must guard even his enemy from oppression; for if he violates this duty he establishes a precedent that will reach to himself. ~ Thomas Paine
      2006
      So far as prejudice, or prepossession of opinion prevails over our minds, in the same proportion, reason is excluded from our theory or practice. Therefore if we would acquire useful knowledge, we must first divest ourselves of those impediments and sincerely endeavor to search out the truth: and draw our conclusions from reason and just argument, which will never conform to our inclination, interest or fancy but we must conform to that if we would judge rightly. ~ Ethan Allen (born 21 January 1738)
      2007
      A revelation, that may be supposed to be really of the institution of God, must also be supposed to be perfectly consistent or uniform, and to be able to stand the test of truth... Reason therefore must be the standard by which we determine the respective claims of revelation; for otherwise we may as well subscribe to the divinity of the one as of the other, or to the whole of them, or to none at all. ~ Ethan Allen
      2008
      If the general government should persist in the measures now threatened, there must be war. It is painful enough to discover with what unconcern they speak of war and threaten it. They do not know its horrors. I have seen enough of it to make me look upon it as the sum of all evils. ~ Stonewall Jackson
      2009
      Was a revelation to be made known to us, it must be accommodated to our external senses, and also to our reason, so that we could come at the perception and understanding of it, the same as we do to that of things in general. We must perceive by our senses, before we can reflect with the mind. ~ Ethan Allen
      2010
      That which is above comprehension we cannot perceive to be contradictory, nor on the other hand can we perceive its rationality or consistency. ~ Ethan Allen
      2011
      The gods of the valley are not the gods of the hills, and you shall understand it. ~ Ethan Allen
      2012
      To suppose that God Almighty has confined his goodness to this world, to the exclusion of all others, is much similar to the idle fancies of some individuals in this world, that they, and those of their communion or faith, are the favorites of heaven exclusively; but these are narrow and bigoted conceptions, which are degrading to a rational nature, and utterly unworthy of God, of whom we should form the most exalted ideas. ~ Ethan Allen
      2013
      We know our time on this Earth is fleeting.
      We know that we will each have our share of pleasure and pain, that even after we chase after some earthly goal, whether it’s wealth or power or fame or just simple comfort, we will, in some fashion, fall short of what we had hoped. We know that, no matter how good our intentions, we’ll all stumble sometimes in some way.
      We’ll make mistakes, we’ll experience hardships and even when we’re trying to do the right thing, we know that much of our time will be spent groping through the darkness, so often unable to discern God’s heavenly plans.
      There’s only one thing we can be sure of, and that is the love that we have for our children, for our families, for each other. The warmth of a small child’s embrace, that is true.
      ~ Barack Obama ~
      2014 
      Rank or add further suggestions…
      2004
      I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by. ~ Douglas Adams
      2005
      Even as the fingers of the two hands are equal, so are human beings equal to one another. No one has any right, nor any preference to claim over another. You are brothers. ~ Muhammad
      2006
      Civilized men are more discourteous than savages because they know they can be impolite without having their skulls split, as a general thing. ~ Robert E. Howard (born 22 January 22 1906)
      2007
      If a man be gracious and courteous to strangers, it shows he is a citizen of the world, and that his heart is no island cut off from other lands, but a continent that joins to them. ~ Francis Bacon (born 22 January 1561)
      2008
      So, we'll go no more a roving
      So late into the night,
      Though the heart be still as loving,
      And the moon be still as bright.

      For the sword outwears its sheath,
      And the soul wears out the breast,
      And the heart must pause to breathe,
      And love itself have rest.
      ~ George Gordon, Lord Byron ~ (born 22 January 1788)

      2009
      Honor is, or should be, the place of virtue and as in nature, things move violently to their place, and calmly in their place, so virtue in ambition is violent, in authority settled and calm. All rising to great place is by a winding stair; and if there be factions, it is good to side a man's self, whilst he is in the rising, and to balance himself when he is placed. ~ Francis Bacon
      2010
      Truth is always strange;
      Stranger than fiction.
      ~ Lord Byron in Don Juan
      2011
      Certainly, in taking revenge, a man is but even with his enemy; but in passing it over, he is superior; for it is a prince's part to pardon. ~ Francis Bacon
      2012
      Near this spot
      Are deposited the Remains of one
      Who possessed Beauty without Vanity,
      Strength without Insolence,
      Courage without Ferocity,
      And all the Virtues of Man without his Vices.
      This Praise, which would be unmeaning Flattery
      If inscribed over human ashes,
      Is but a just tribute to the Memory of
      BOATSWAIN, a DOG
      ~ George Gordon, Lord Byron ~
      2013
      Human knowledge and human power meet in one; for where the cause is not known the effect cannot be produced. Nature to be commanded must be obeyed; and that which in contemplation is as the cause is in operation as the rule.
      ~ Francis Bacon ~
      2014 
      Rank or add further suggestions…
      2004
      All the ill that is in us comes from fear, and all the good from love. ~ Eleanor Farjeon
      2005
      So long as there is death there will be sorrow, and so long as there is sorrow it can be no part of the duty of human beings to increase its amount, in spite of the fact that a few rare spirits know how to transmute it. ~ Bertrand Russell
      2006
      To minimize suffering and to maximize security were natural and proper ends of society and Caesar. But then they became the only ends, somehow, and the only basis of law — a perversion. Inevitably, then, in seeking only them, we found only their opposites: maximum suffering and minimum security. ~ Walter M. Miller, Jr. (born 23 January 1923)
      2007
      Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves. ~ William Pitt the Younger (anniversary of death)
      2008
      Almost all our misfortunes in life come from the wrong notions we have about the things that happen to us. To know men thoroughly, to judge events sanely is, therefore, a great step towards happiness. ~ Stendhal
      2009
      One can acquire everything in solitude — except character. ~ Stendhal
      2010
      Love has always been the most important business in my life, I should say the only one. ~ Stendhal
      2011
      There is no such thing as natural law, the expression is nothing more than a silly anachronism … There is no such thing as right, except when there is a law to forbid a certain thing under pain of punishment. Before law existed, the only natural thing was the strength of the lion, or the need of a creature who was cold or hungry, to put it in one word, need. ~ Stendhal
      • first proposed by InvisibleSun in a more abbreviated form of a different translation: "There is no such thing as "natural law": this expression is nothing but old nonsense. Prior to laws, what is natural is only the strength of the lion, or the need of the creature suffering from hunger or cold, in short, need."
      2012
      O to be a dragon,
      a symbol of the power of Heaven — of silkworm
      size or immense; at times invisible.
      Felicitous phenomenon!
      ~ Marianne Moore ~
      2013
      I no longer find such pleasure in that preeminently good society, of which I was once so fond. It seems to me that beneath a cloak of clever talk it proscribes all energy, all originality. If you are not a copy, people accuse you of being ill-mannered. And besides, good society usurps its privileges. It had in the past the privilege of judging what was proper, but now that it supposes itself to be attacked, it condemns not what is coarse and disagreeable without compensation, but what it thinks harmful to its interest.
      ~ Stendhal ~
      2014 
      Rank or add further suggestions…
      2005
      A hundred times every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life depend on the labors of other men, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give in the same measure as I have received and am still receiving. ~ Albert Einstein
      2006
      Musick has Charms to sooth a savage Breast,
      To soften Rocks, or bend a knotted Oak.
      ~ William Congreve (born 24 January 1670)
      2007
      Everything that's realistic has some sort of ugliness in it. Even a flower is ugly when it wilts, a bird when it seeks its prey, the ocean when it becomes violent. ~ Sharon Tate (born 24 January 1943)
      2008
      Habit is necessary; it is the habit of having habits, of turning a trail into a rut, that must be incessantly fought against if one is to remain alive. ~ Edith Wharton (born 24 January 1862)
      2009
      There are two ways of spreading light: to be
      The candle or the mirror that reflects it.
      ~ Edith Wharton ~
      2010
      True originality consists not in a new manner but in a new vision. ~ Edith Wharton
      2011
      Defer not till tomorrow to be wise,
      Tomorrow's sun to thee may never rise.
      ~ William Congreve ~
      2012
      Uncertainty and expectation are the joys of life. Security is an insipid thing. ~ William Congreve
      2013
      I'm searching for a heart,
      Searching everyone.
      They say love conquers all.
      You can't start it like a car,
      You can't stop it with a gun.
      ~ Warren Zevon ~
      2014 
      Rank or add further suggestions…
      2005
      If I have been able to see further, it was only because I stood on the shoulders of giants. ~ Isaac Newton on his intellectual debt to those who preceded him.
      2006
      While fame impedes and constricts, obscurity wraps about a man like a mist; obscurity is dark, ample, and free; obscurity lets the mind take its way unimpeded. Over the obscure man is poured the merciful suffusion of darkness. None knows where he goes or comes. He may seek the truth and speak it; he alone is free; he alone is truthful, he alone is at peace. ~ Orlando: A Biography, by Virginia Woolf (born 25 January 1882)
      2007
      I do not believe they are right who say that the defects of famous men should be ignored. I think it is better that we should know them. Then, though we are conscious of having faults as glaring as theirs, we can believe that that is no hindrance to our achieving also something of their virtues. ~ W. Somerset Maugham (born 25 January 1874)
      2008
      If forty million people say a foolish thing it does not become a wise one, but the wise man is foolish to give them the lie. ~ W. Somerset Maugham
      2009
      The strongest natures, when they are influenced, submit the most unreservedly; it is perhaps a sign of their strength. ~ Virginia Woolf
      2010
      O, wad some Power the giftie gie us
      To see oursels as others see us!
      It wad frae monie a blunder free us,
      An' foolish notion.
      What airs in dress an' gait wad lea'e us
      An' ev'n Devotion.
      ~ Robert Burns ~
      2011
      Fiction is like a spider's web, attached ever so lightly perhaps, but still attached to life at all four corners. Often the attachment is scarcely perceptible; Shakespeare's plays, for instance, seem to hang there complete by themselves. But when the web is pulled askew, hooked up at the edge, torn in the middle, one remembers that these webs are not spun in midair by incorporeal creatures, but are the work of suffering human beings, and are attached to the grossly material things, like health and money and the houses we live in. ~ Virginia Woolf
      2012
      You will hear people say that poverty is the best spur to the artist. They have never felt the iron of it in their flesh. They do not know how mean it makes you. It exposes you to endless humiliation, it cuts your wings, it eats into your soul like a cancer. It is not wealth one asks for, but just enough to preserve one's dignity, to work unhampered, to be generous, frank and independent. I pity with all my heart the artist, whether he writes or paints, who is entirely dependent for subsistence upon his art. ~ W. Somerset Maugham
      2013
      Ye see yon birkie, ca'd a lord,
      Wha struts, an' stares, an' a' that;
      Tho' hundreds worship at his word,
      He's but a coof for a' that:
      For a' that, an' a' that,
      His ribband, star, an' a' that:
      The man o' independent mind
      He looks an' laughs at a' that.

      A prince can mak a belted knight,
      A marquis, duke, an' a' that;
      But an honest man's abon his might,
      Gude faith, he maunna fa' that!
      For a' that, an' a' that,
      Their dignities an' a' that;
      The pith o' sense, an' pride o' worth,
      Are higher rank than a' that.

      Then let us pray that come it may,
      (As come it will for a' that,)
      That Sense and Worth, o'er a' the earth,
      Shall bear the gree, an' a' that.
      For a' that, an' a' that,
      It's coming yet for a' that,
      That Man to Man, the world o'er,
      Shall brothers be for a' that.
      ~ Robert Burns ~
      2014 
      Rank or add further suggestions…
      2004
      In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer. ~ Albert Camus
      2005
      Give me a place to stand, and I shall move the world. ~ Archimedes
      2006
      I know war as few other men now living know it, and nothing to me is more revolting. I have long advocated its complete abolition, as its very destructiveness on both friend and foe has rendered it useless as a means of settling international disputes... But once war is forced upon us, there is no other alternative than to apply every available means to bring it to a swift end. ~ Douglas MacArthur (born 26 January 1880)
      2007
      The only gold is love,
      A coin that we have minted from the light
      Of others who have cared for us on Earth
      And who have deposited in us the power
      That nerves our nerves to seize the burning stars.
      ~ Philip José Farmer ~
      2008
      Prometheus, I have no Titan's might,
      Yet I, too, must each dusk renew my heart,
      For daytime's vulture talons tear apart
      The tender alcoves built by love at night.
      ~ Philip José Farmer ~
      2009
      I do believe that man is a rope between animal and superman. But the superman I'm thinking of isn't Nietzsche's. The real superhuman, man or woman, is the person who's rid himself of all prejudices, neuroses, and psychoses, who realizes his full potential as a human being, who acts naturally on the basis of gentleness, compassion, and love, who thinks for himself and refuses to follow the herd. That's the genuine dyed-in-the-wool superman. ~ Philip José Farmer
      2010
      If you don't have enemies, you don't have character. ~ Paul Newman
      2011
      Yes, we hope to seed a new, rich earth.
      We hope to breed a race of men whose power
      Dwells in hearts as open as all Space
      Itself, who ask for nothing but the light
      That rinses the heart of hate so that the stars
      Above will be below when man has Love.

      ~ Philip José Farmer ~

      2012
      Could I have but a line a century hence crediting a contribution to the advance of peace, I would gladly yield every honor which has been accorded me in war. ~ Douglas MacArthur
      2013
      Beauty in this Iron Age must turn
      From fluid living rainbow shapes to torn
      And sootened fragments, ashes in an urn
      On whose gray surface runes are traced by a Norn
      Who hopes to wake the Future to arise
      In Phoenix-fashion, and to shine with rays
      To blast the sight of modern men whose dyes
      Of selfishness and lust have stained our days.
      ~ Philip José Farmer ~
      2014 
      Rank or add further suggestions…


      2004
      All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us. ~ J. R. R. Tolkien in The Lord of the Rings : The Fellowship of the Ring
      2005
      Remind yourself that all men assert that wisdom is the greatest good, but that there are few who strenuously seek out that greatest good. ~ Pythagoras
      2006
      If you drink much from a bottle marked "poison" it is almost certain to disagree with you, sooner or later. ~ Lewis Carroll (born 27 January 1832)
      2007
      "When I use a word," Humpty Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, "it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less."
      "The question is," said Alice, "whether you can make words mean so many different things."
      "The question is," said Humpty Dumpty, "which is to be master — that's all."
      ~ Lewis Carroll ~
      2008
      "In that direction," the Cat said, waving its right paw round, "lives a Hatter: and in that direction," waving the other paw, "lives a March Hare. Visit either you like: they're both mad."
      "But I don't want to go among mad people," Alice remarked.
      "Oh, you can't help that," said the Cat: "we're all mad here. I'm mad. You're mad."
      "How do you know I'm mad?" said Alice.
      "You must be," said the Cat, "or you wouldn't have come here."
      ~ Lewis Carroll in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland ~
      2009
      Everything's got a moral, if only you can find it. ~ Lewis Carroll in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
      2010
      Twas brillig and the slithy toves,
      Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
      All mimsy were the borogoves,
      And the mome raths outgrabe.

      "Beware the Jabberwock, my son,
      the jaws that bite and claws that scratch
      Beware the jubjub bird
      and shun the frumious bandersnatch."

      ~ Lewis Carroll in Through the Looking-Glass ~

      2011
      I suppose every child has a world of his own — and every man, too, for the matter of that. I wonder if that's the cause for all the misunderstanding there is in Life? ~ Lewis Carroll
      2012
      I believe it is the duty of each of us to act as if the fate of the world depended on him. Admittedly, one man by himself cannot do the job. However, one man can make a difference... We must live for the future of the human race, and not for our own comfort or success. ~ Hyman G. Rickover
      2013
      Be sure the safest rule is that we should not dare to live in any scene in which we dare not die.
      But, once realise what the true object is in life — that it is not pleasure, not knowledge, not even fame itself, 'that last infirmity of noble minds' — but that it is the development of character, the rising to a higher, nobler, purer standard, the building-up of the perfect Man — and then, so long as we feel that this is going on, and will (we trust) go on for evermore, death has for us no terror; it is not a shadow, but a light; not an end, but a beginning!
      ~ Lewis Carroll ~
      2014 
      Rank or add further suggestions…

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

      2005
      Wise men don't need to prove their point;
      men who need to prove their point aren't wise.
      The Master has no possessions.
      The more he does for others, the happier he is.
      The more he gives to others, the wealthier he is.
      The Tao nourishes by not forcing.
      By not dominating, the Master leads.
      ~ Lao Zi ~
      2006
      Sit down and put down everything that comes into your head and then you're a writer. But an author is one who can judge his own stuff's worth, without pity, and destroy most of it. ~ Colette (born 28 January 1873)
      2007
      Man needs to go outside himself in order to find repose and reveal himself. ~ José Martí
      2008
      For the sincere friend
      Who gives me his frank hand.
      And for the cruel man who pulls out of me
      the heart with which I live,
      I grow neither nettles nor thorns:
      I grow a white rose.
      ~ José Martí ~
      2009
      I love my past. I love my present. I'm not ashamed of what I've had, and I'm not sad because I have it no longer. ~ Colette (born 28 January 1873)
      2010
      Life on earth is a hand-to-hand mortal combat... between the law of love and the law of hate. ~ José Martí
      2011
      Perhaps the only misplaced curiosity is that which persists in trying to find out here, on this side of death, what lies beyond the grave. ~ Colette
      2012
      By means of an image we are often able to hold on to our lost belongings. But it is the desperateness of losing which picks the flowers of memory, binds the bouquet. ~ Colette
      2013
      To a poet, silence is an acceptable response, even a flattering one.
      ~ Colette ~
      2014 
      Rank or add further suggestions…
      2004
      I expect to pass through this world but once. Any good thing, therefore, that I can do or any kindness I can show to any fellow human being let me do it now. Let me not defer nor neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again. ~ Stephen Grellet
      2005
      Time's glory is to command contending kings,
      To unmask falsehood, and bring truth to light.
      ~ William Shakespeare ~
      2006
      Dogs are our link to paradise. They don't know evil or jealousy or discontent. To sit with a dog on a hillside on a glorious afternoon is to be back in Eden, where doing nothing was not boring — it was peace. ~ Milan Kundera
      2007
      I speak an open and disinterested language, dictated by no passion but that of humanity. To me, who have not only refused offers, because I thought them improper, but have declined rewards I might with reputation have accepted, it is no wonder that meanness and imposition appear disgustful. Independence is my happiness, and I view things as they are, without regard to place or person; my country is the world, and my religion is to do good. ~ Thomas Paine
      2008
      The fear of freedom is strong in us. We call it chaos or anarchy, and the words are threatening. We live in a true chaos of contradicting authorities, an age of conformism without community, of proximity without communication. We could only fear chaos if we imagined that it was unknown to us, but in fact we know it very well. ~ Germaine Greer (born 29 January 1939)
      2009
      The refusal to rest content, the willingness to risk excess on behalf of one's obsessions, is what distinguishes artists from entertainers, and what makes some artists adventurers on behalf of us all. ~ John Updike (recent death)
      2010
      Each of us is full of too many wheels, screws and valves to permit us to judge one another on a first impression or by two or three external signs. ~ Anton Chekhov
      2011
      It is never to be expected in a revolution that every man is to change his opinion at the same moment. There never yet was any truth or any principle so irresistibly obvious that all men believed it at once. Time and reason must cooperate with each other to the final establishment of any principle; and therefore those who may happen to be first convinced have not a right to persecute others, on whom conviction operates more slowly. The moral principle of revolutions is to instruct, not to destroy. ~ Thomas Paine
      2012
      Every science has for its basis a system of principles as fixed and unalterable as those by which the universe is regulated and governed. Man cannot make principles, he can only discover them. ~ Thomas Paine
      2013
      Angels never attack, as infernal spirits do. Angels only ward off and defend.
      ~ Emanuel Swedenborg ~
      2014 
      Rank or add further suggestions…
      2005
      Many forms of Government have been tried, and will be tried in this world of sin and woe... No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time. ~ Winston Churchill
      2006
      The only thing we have to fear is fear itself — nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance. ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt (born 30 January 1882)
      2007
      If the fires of freedom and civil liberties burn low in other lands they must be made brighter in our own. If in other lands the press and books and literature of all kinds are censored, we must redouble our efforts here to keep them free. If in other lands the eternal truths of the past are threatened by intolerance we must provide a safe place for their perpetuation. ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt
      2008
      We do not see faith, hope, and charity as unattainable ideals, but we use them as stout supports of a nation fighting the fight for freedom in a modern civilization.
      Faith — in the soundness of democracy in the midst of dictatorships.
      Hope — renewed because we know so well the progress we have made.
      Charity — in the true spirit of that grand old word. For charity literally translated from the original means love, the love that understands, that does not merely share the wealth of the giver, but in true sympathy and wisdom helps men to help themselves. ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt
      2009
      There is a mysterious cycle in human events. To some generations much is given. Of other generations much is expected. This generation of Americans has a rendezvous with destiny. ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt
      2010
      Is there not glory enough in living the days given to us? You should know there is adventure in simply being among those we love and the things we love, and beauty, too. ~ Lloyd Alexander (born 30 January 1924)
      2011
      I have marched in many a battle host, but I have also planted seeds and reaped the harvest with my own hands. And I have learned there is greater honor in a field well plowed than in a field steeped in blood. ~ Lloyd Alexander
      2012
      The test of our progress is not whether we add more to the abundance of those who have much; it is whether we provide enough for those who have too little. ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt
      2013
      Science is like literature, a continuing dialog among diverse and conflicting voices, no one ever wholly right or wholly wrong, but a steady conversation forever provisional and personal and living.
      ~ Gregory Benford ~
      2014 
      Rank or add further suggestions…
      2005
      I have one major rule: everybody is right. More specifically, everybody — including me — has some important pieces of the truth, and all of those pieces need to be honored, cherished, and included in a more gracious, spacious, and compassionate embrace. ~ Ken Wilber
      2006
      Everyone does magic all the time in different ways. 'Life' plus 'significance' = magic. ~ Grant Morrison
      2007
      Science is clearly one of the most profound methods that humans have yet devised for discovering truth, while religion remains the single greatest force for generating meaning. ... if some sort of reconciliation between science and religion is not forthcoming, the future of humanity is, at best, precarious. ~ Ken Wilber
      2008
      At this point in history, the most radical, pervasive, and earth-shaking transformation would occur simply if everybody truly evolved to a mature, rational, and responsible ego, capable of freely participating in the open exchange of mutual self-esteem. There is the "edge of history." There would be a real New Age. ~ Ken Wilber
      2009
      A full-spectrum approach to human consciousness and behavior means that men and women have available to them a spectrum of knowing — a spectrum that includes, at the very least, the eye of flesh, the eye of mind, and the eye of spirit. ~ Ken Wilber
      2010
      Anybody can they say they are being "spiritual" — and they are, because everybody has some type and level of concern. Let us therefore see their actual conception, in thought and action, and see how many perspectives it is in fact concerned with, and how many perspectives it actually takes into account, and how many perspectives it attempts to integrate, and thus let us see how deep and how wide runs that bodhisattva vow to refuse rest until all perspectives whatsoever are liberated into their own primordial nature. ~ Ken Wilber
      2011
      Attunement could occur through any of the great religions, but would be tied exclusively to none of them. A person could be attuned to an "integral spirituality" while still be a practicing Christian, Buddhist, New-Age advocate, or Neopagan. This would be something added to one's religion, not subtracted from it. The only thing it would subtract (and there's no way around this) is the belief that one's own path is the only true path to salvation.~ Ken Wilber
      2012
      Are the mystics and sages insane? Because they all tell variations on the same story, don't they? The story of awakening one morning and discovering you are one with the All, in a timeless and eternal and infinite fashion. Yes, maybe they are crazy, these divine fools. Maybe they are mumbling idiots in the face of the Abyss. Maybe they need a nice, understanding therapist. Yes, I'm sure that would help. But then, I wonder. Maybe the evolutionary sequence really is from matter to body to mind to soul to spirit, each transcending and including, each with a greater depth and greater consciousness and wider embrace. And in the highest reaches of evolution, maybe, just maybe, an individual's consciousness does indeed touch infinity — a total embrace of the entire Kosmos — a Kosmic consciousness that is Spirit awakened to its own true nature. It's at least plausible. And tell me: is that story, sung by mystics and sages the world over, any crazier than the scientific materialism story, which is that the entire sequence is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying absolutely nothing? Listen very carefully: just which of those two stories actually sounds totally insane? ~ Ken Wilber
      2013
      Everything is literally entangled, it can all be communicated with and affected "at a distance" because there is no distance, only a simulation of apparent separation which our limited consciousness feeds us second by second at 11 bits. The "telepathy" which brings people together is no more or less supernatural or unlikely than the "telepathy" which brings two of your fingers together when you think about it. Patience, participation and constant close observation of what's going on, on the inside and on the outside will soon make you a fine sorcerer, if that's what you want to be.
      ~ Grant Morrison ~
      2014 
      Rank or add further suggestions…


      Ranking system:

      4 : Excellent - should definitely be used. (Perhaps, at most, only one quote per day should be ranked thus by any user, as to avoid confusions.)
      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.

      Read in another language

      This page is available in 1 language

      Last modified on 23 December 2012, at 16:00