Wikiquote:Quote of the day/July

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      Today is Tuesday, June 18, 2013; it is now 23:18 (UTC)


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      This page lists quote of the day proposals specifically for dates in the month of July, 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: July 2008 - July 2009 - July 2010 - July 2011 - July 2012

      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
      A mature person is one who does not think only in absolutes, who is able to be objective even when deeply stirred emotionally, who has learned that there is both good and bad in all people and all things, and who walks humbly and deals charitably with the circumstances of life, knowing that in this world no one is all-knowing and therefore all of us need both love and charity. ~ Eleanor Roosevelt
      2005
      We tried to break it up from the outside, but that wouldn't work. Now that we're inside we can make a complete pig's breakfast of the whole thing: set the Germans against the French, the French against the Italians, the Italians against the Dutch. The Foreign Office is terribly pleased, it's just like old times. ~ "Sir Humphrey" on European unity, in the comedy series Yes, Minister
      • celebrating the start of the British EU presidency on July 1, 2005
      • proposed by AllanHainey
      2006
      Perhaps in time the so-called Dark Ages will be thought of as including our own. ~ Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (born 1 July 1742)
      2007
      It is almost impossible to bear the torch of truth through a crowd without singeing somebody’s beard. ~ Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (date of birth)
      2008
      We're on a mission from God. ~ Elwood J. Blues, in The Blues Brothers
      2009
      There are two kinds of truths: those of reasoning and those of fact. The truths of reasoning are necessary and their opposite is impossible; the truths of fact are contingent and their opposites are possible. ~ Gottfried Leibniz (born 1 July 1646)
      2010 
      A person reveals his character by nothing so clearly as the joke he resents. ~ Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
      2011
      The truth is too simple: one must always get there by a complicated route. ~ George Sand
      2012
      One is happy as a result of one's own efforts, once one knows the necessary ingredients of happiness — simple tastes, a certain degree of courage, self denial to a point, love of work, and, above all, a clear conscience.
      ~ George Sand ~
      2013 
      Rank or add further suggestions…
      2004
      With great power comes great responsibility. ~ Stan Lee
      2005
      Wisdom is not communicable. The wisdom which a wise man tries to communicate always sounds foolish... Knowledge can be communicated, but not wisdom. ~ Hermann Hesse (born 2 July 1877)
      2006
      When artists create pictures and thinkers search for laws and formulate thoughts, it is in order to salvage something from the great dance of death, to make something that lasts longer than we do. ~ Hermann Hesse
      2007
      There's no life
      that couldn't be immortal
      if only for a moment.

      Death
      always arrives by that very moment too late.

      In vain it tugs at the knob
      of the invisible door.
      As far as you've come can't be undone.

      ~ Wisława Szymborska ~

      2008
      There are gains for all our losses,
      There are balms for all our pain:
      But when youth, the dream, departs,
      It takes something from our hearts,
      And it never comes again.
      ~ Richard Henry Stoddard ~
      2009
      Words do not express thoughts very well. They always become a little different immediately they are expressed, a little distorted, a little foolish. And yet it also pleases me and seems right that what is of value and wisdom to one man seems nonsense to another. ~ Hermann Hesse
      2010
      Inspiration is not the exclusive privilege of poets or artists. There is, there has been, there will always be a certain group of people whom inspiration visits. It's made up of all those who've consciously chosen their calling and do their job with love and imagination. It may include doctors, teachers, gardeners — I could list a hundred more professions. Their work becomes one continuous adventure as long as they manage to keep discovering new challenges in it. Difficulties and setbacks never quell their curiosity. A swarm of new questions emerges from every problem that they solve. Whatever inspiration is, it's born from a continuous "I don't know." ~ Wisława Szymborska
      2011
      Every symbol and combination of symbols led not hither and yon, not to single examples, experiments, and proofs, but into the center, the mystery and innermost heart of the world, into primal knowledge. Every transition from major to minor in a sonata, every transformation of a myth or a religious cult, every classical or artistic formulation was, I realized in that flashing moment, if seen with a meditative mind, nothing but a direct route into the interior of the cosmic mystery, where in the alternation between inhaling and exhaling, between heaven and earth, between Yin and Yang, holiness is forever being created. ~ Hermann Hesse
      2012
      Every man is more than just himself; he also represents the unique, the very special and always significant and remarkable point at which the world's phenomena intersect, only once in this way and never again. That is why every man's story is important, eternal, sacred; that is why every man, as long as he lives and fulfills the will of nature, is wondrous, and worthy of every consideration. In each individual the spirit has become flesh, in each man the creation suffers, within each one a redeemer is nailed to the cross.
      ~ Hermann Hesse ~
      2013 
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      2004
      You don't understand. I could'a had class. I could'a been a contender. ~ Marlon Brando as "Terry Malloy" in On the Waterfront (recent death)
      2005
      The splendor of life forever lies in wait about each one of us in all its fullness, but veiled from view, deep down, invisible, far off. It is there, though, not hostile, not reluctant, not deaf. If you summon it by the right word, by its right name, it will come. ~ Franz Kafka (born 3 July 1883)
      2006
      I don't think writers are sacred, but words are. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones in the right order, you might nudge the world a little or make a poem that children will speak for you when you are dead. ~ Tom Stoppard (born 3 July 1937)
      2007
      We are sinful not merely because we have eaten of the Tree of Knowledge, but also because we have not yet eaten of the Tree of Life. ~ Franz Kafka
      2008
      Youth is happy because it has the ability to see beauty. Anyone who keeps the ability to see beauty never grows old. ~ Franz Kafka (date of birth)
      2009
      Beyond a certain point there is no return. This point has to be reached. ~ Franz Kafka
      2010
      I will have poetry in my life. And adventure. And love. Love above all. No... not the artful postures of love, not playful and poetical games of love for the amusement of an evening, but love that... overthrows life. Unbiddable, ungovernable — like a riot in the heart, and nothing to be done, come ruin or rapture. Love — like there has never been in a play. ~ Tom Stoppard in Shakespeare in Love
      2011
      You can only be young once but you can be immature forever. ~ Dave Barry
      2012
      An artist is the magician put among men to gratify — capriciously — their urge for immortality. The temples are built and brought down around him, continuously and contiguously, from Troy to the fields of Flanders. If there is any meaning in any of it, it is in what survives as art, yes even in the celebration of tyrants, yes even in the celebration of nonentities. What now of the Trojan War if it had been passed over by the artist's touch? Dust. A forgotten expedition prompted by Greek merchants looking for new markets. A minor redistribution of broken pots. But it is we who stand enriched, by a tale of heroes, of a golden apple, a wooden horse, a face that launched a thousand ships — and above all, of Ulysses, the wanderer, the most human, the most complete of all heroes — husband, father, son, lover, farmer, soldier, pacifist, politician, inventor and adventurer.
      ~ Tom Stoppard ~
      2013 
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      2004
      "...for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the Protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor." ~ closing lines of The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States Of America written primarily by Thomas Jefferson, and approved as an official document of united will and determination, July 4, 1776.
      2005
      We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. ~ United States Declaration of Independence
      2006
      It contributes greatly towards a man's moral and intellectual health, to be brought into habits of companionship with individuals unlike himself, who care little for his pursuits, and whose sphere and abilities he must go out of himself to appreciate. ~ Nathaniel Hawthorne (born 4 July 1804)
      2007
      The world owes all its onward impulses to men ill at ease. The happy man inevitably confines himself within ancient limits. ~ Nathaniel Hawthorne
      2008
      Happiness in this world, when it comes, comes incidentally. Make it the object of pursuit, and it leads us a wild-goose chase, and is never attained. Follow some other object, and very possibly we may find that we have caught happiness without dreaming of it. ~ Nathaniel Hawthorne
      2009
      Every individual has a place to fill in the world, and is important, in some respect, whether he chooses to be so or not. ~ Nathaniel Hawthorne
      2010
      The greatest obstacle to being heroic is the doubt whether one may not be going to prove one's self a fool; the truest heroism is, to resist the doubt; and the profoundest wisdom, to know when it ought to be resisted, and when to be obeyed. ~ Nathaniel Hawthorne
      2011
      Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object, evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. ~ Thomas Jefferson in the US Declaration of Independence
      2012
      So many out-of-the-way things had happened lately, that Alice had begun to think that very few things indeed were really impossible.
      ~ Lewis Carroll ~
      in
      ~ Alice's Adventures in Wonderland ~
      • proposed by Kalki (First version of the story of Alice first told upon 4 July 1862, and first published on 4 July 1865)
      2013 
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      2003
      I don't know anything about music. In my line you don't have to. ~ Elvis Presley
      • chosen by Nanobug, honoring Presley's first commercial hit, "That's All Right (Mama)", recorded on 5 July 1954. (This was not designated as a "Quote of the Day" but it did appear for a time in the earliest logos prior to the first official QOTD on 11 July 2003).
      2004
      "We hold these truths to be sacred & undeniable; that all men are created equal & independent, that from that equal creation they derive rights inherent & inalienable, among which are the preservation of life, & liberty, & the pursuit of happiness." ~ Thomas Jefferson in an early draft of The Declaration of Independence.
      2005
      From time to time the exceptional is necessary. For events as well as for men, the stock company is not enough; geniuses are needed among men, and revolutions among events. Great accidents are the law; the order of things cannot get along without them; and, to see the apparitions of comets, one would be tempted to believe that Heaven itself is in need of star actors. ~ Victor Hugo in Les Misérables (marking the recent success of the Deep Impact space mission to comet Tempel 1)
      2006
      True realism consists in revealing the surprising things which habit keeps covered and prevents us from seeing. ~ Jean Cocteau (born 5 July 1889)
      2007
      There are truths which one can only say after having won the right to say them. ~ Jean Cocteau
      2008
      Take a commonplace, clean it and polish it, light it so that it produces the same effect of youth and freshness and originality and spontaneity as it did originally, and you have done a poet’s job. The rest is literature. ~ Jean Cocteau
      2009
      We shelter an angel within us. We must be the guardians of that angel. ~ Jean Cocteau
      2010
      Life is not theory. It is reality, with inherent duties to everything and everyone. ~ Tivadar Csontváry Kosztka
      2011
      Fight any instinct to be humorless, for humorlessness is the worst of all absurdities. ~ Jean Cocteau
      2012 
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      2004
      "When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume, among the Powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation." ~ Opening statement of The Declaration of Independence of The United States of America, composed primarily by Thomas Jefferson (Third of three from The Declaration of Independence or drafts of it, that were quoted July 4,5, & 6 of 2004)
      2005
      I have not yet begun to fight! ~ John Paul Jones (born 6 July 1747)
      2006
      They thought I was a Surrealist, but I wasn't. I never painted dreams. I painted my own reality. ~ Frida Kahlo (born 6 July 1907)
      2007
      Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them humanity cannot survive. ~ Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama (born 6 July 1935)
      2008
      I wish to have no connection with any ship that does not sail fast; for I intend to go in harm's way. ~ John Paul Jones
      2009
      Peace can only last where human rights are respected, where the people are fed, and where individuals and nations are free. True peace with oneself and with the world around us can only be achieved through the development of mental peace. ~ Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama (date of birth)
      2010
      I believe that at every level of society — familial, tribal, national and international — the key to a happier and more successful world is the growth of compassion. We do not need to become religious, nor do we need to believe in an ideology. All that is necessary is for each of us to develop our good human qualities. ~ Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama
      2011
      We need a little more compassion, and if we cannot have it then no politician or even a magician can save the planet. ~ Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama
      2012 
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      2004
      Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards. ~ Søren Kierkegaard
      2005
      The more you love, the more you can love — and the more intensely you love. Nor is there any limit on how many you can love. If a person had time enough, he could love all of that majority who are decent and just. ~ Robert A. Heinlein (born 7 July 1907)
      2006
      Sin lies only in hurting others unnecessarily. All other 'sins' are invented nonsense. ~ Robert A. Heinlein (born 7 July 1907)
      2007
      Always listen to experts. They'll tell you what can't be done, and why. Then do it. ~ Robert A. Heinlein
      2008
      Do not confuse "duty" with what other people expect of you; they are utterly different. Duty is a debt you owe to yourself to fulfill obligations you have assumed voluntarily. Paying that debt can entail anything from years of patient work to instant willingness to die. Difficult it may be, but the reward is self-respect. ~ Robert A. Heinlein
      2009
      Magic is not science, it is a collection of ways to do things — ways that work but often we don't know why. ~ Robert A. Heinlein in Glory Road
      2010
      I am free, no matter what rules surround me. If I find them tolerable, I tolerate them; if I find them too obnoxious, I break them. I am free because I know that I alone am morally responsible for everything I do. ~ Robert A. Heinlein in The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress
      2011
      Any social organization does well enough if it isn't rigid. The framework doesn't matter as long as there is enough looseness to permit that one man in a multitude to display his genius. Most so-called social scientists seem to think that organization is everything. It is almost nothing — except when it is a straitjacket. It is the incidence of heroes that counts, not the pattern of zeros. ~ Robert A. Heinlein in Glory Road
      2012
      Sin is cruelty and injustice, all else is peccadillo. Oh, a sense of sin comes from violating the customs of your tribe. But breaking custom is not sin even when it feels so; sin is wronging another person.
      ~ Robert A. Heinlein ~
      in
      ~ Glory Road ~
      2013 
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      2004
      Why is all around us here as if some lesser god had made the world, but had not force to shape it as he would, till the High God behold it from beyond, and enter it, and make it beautiful? Or else as if the world were wholly fair, but that these eyes of men are dense and dim, and have not power to see it as it is: perchance, because we see not to the close... ~ Alfred, Lord Tennyson in Idylls of the King
      2005
      Anyone entrusted with power will abuse it if not also animated with the love of truth and virtue, no matter whether he be a prince, or one of the people. ~ Jean de La Fontaine (born 8 July 1621)
      2006
      It is not the end of the physical body that should worry us. Rather, our concern must be to live while we're alive — to release our inner selves from the spiritual death that comes with living behind a facade designed to conform to external definitions of who and what we are. ~ Elisabeth Kübler-Ross (born 8 July 1926)
      2007
      Our destiny is frequently met in the very paths we take to avoid it. ~ Jean de La Fontaine
      2008
      As far as service goes, it can take the form of a million things. To do service, you don't have to be a doctor working in the slums for free, or become a social worker. Your position in life and what you do doesn't matter as much as how you do what you do. ~ Elisabeth Kübler-Ross
      2009
      Man is so made that when anything fires his soul, impossibilities vanish. ~ Jean de La Fontaine
      2010
      There must be understanding between the artist and the people. In the best ages of art that has always been the case. Genius can probably run on ahead and seek out new ways. But the good artists who follow after genius — and I count myself among these — have to restore the lost connection once more. ~ Käthe Kollwitz (born July 8, 1867)
      2011
      People are like stained-glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in, their true beauty is revealed only if there is a light from within. ~ Elisabeth Kübler-Ross (date of birth)
      2012
      By the work one knows the workman.
      ~ Jean de La Fontaine ~
      2013 
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      2004
      Why can't you harness Might so that it works for Right? I know it sounds nonsense, but, I mean, you can't just say there is no such thing. The Might is there, in the bad half of people, and you can't neglect it. You can't cut it out but you might be able to direct it, if you see what I mean, so that it was useful instead of bad. ~ T. H. White in The Once and Future King
      2005
      God never deserted our people. Right through the ages there were Jews. Through the ages they suffered, but it also made us strong. ~ Anne Frank, who went into the infamous attic on 9 July 1942 (Note: Wikipedia's July 9 page earlier claimed that Anne Frank and her family moved to the attic on this date. However, both her diary and the Müller biography state this happened on 6 July 1942.Wikipedia articles for July 9, July 6, and Anne Frank have been updated to reflect this.)
      2006
      I can get excitement watching rain on a puddle. And then I paint it. Now, I admit, there are not too many people who would find that exciting. But I would. And I want life thrilling and rich. And it is. I make sure it is. ~ David Hockney (born 9 July 1937)
      2007
      There lies before us, if we choose, continual progress in happiness, knowledge, and wisdom. Shall we, instead, choose death, because we cannot forget our quarrels? We appeal as human beings to human beings: Remember your humanity, and forget the rest. If you can do so, the way lies open to a new Paradise; if you cannot, there lies before you the risk of universal death. ~ Bertrand Russell (in the Russell-Einstein Manifesto issued on 9 July 1955).
      2008
      Nature is busy creating absolutely unique individuals, whereas culture has invented a single mold to which all must conform. It is grotesque. ~ U. G. Krishnamurti
      2009
      As a child I was taught that to tell the truth was often painful. As an adult I have learned that not to tell the truth is more painful, and that the fear of telling the truth — whatever the truth may be — that fear is the most painful sensation of a moral life. ~ June Jordan
      2010
      We have to learn to think in a new way. We have to learn to ask ourselves, not what steps can be taken to give military victory to whatever group we prefer, for there no longer are such steps; the question we have to ask ourselves is: what steps can be taken to prevent a military contest of which the issue must be disastrous to all parties? ~ Bertrand Russell (in the Russell-Einstein Manifesto issued on 9 July 1955).
      2011
      If they dare to come out in the open field and defend the gold standard as a good thing, we will fight them to the uttermost. Having behind us the producing masses of this nation and the world, supported by the commercial interests, the laboring interests and the toilers everywhere, we will answer their demand for a gold standard by saying to them: You shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns, you shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold. - William Jennings Bryan delivered the "Cross of Gold" speech 9 July 1896.
      2012
      If you have the courage to touch life for the first time, you will never know what hit you. Everything man has thought, felt and experienced is gone, and nothing is put in its place.
      ~ U. G. Krishnamurti ~
      2013 
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      2004
      You can't expect to wield supreme executive power just 'cause some watery tart threw a sword at you! ~ Michael Palin as "Dennis" in Monty Python and the Holy Grail
      2005
      All that was great in the past was ridiculed, condemned, combatted, suppressed — only to emerge all the more powerfully, all the more triumphantly from the struggle. ~ Nikola Tesla (born 10 July 1856)
      2006
      The scientific man does not aim at an immediate result. He does not expect that his advanced ideas will be readily taken up. His work is like that of a planter — for the future. His duty is to lay the foundation of those who are to come and point the way. ~ Nikola Tesla (born 10 July 1856)
      2007
      The only true voyage of discovery, the only fountain of Eternal Youth, would be not to visit strange lands but to possess other eyes, to behold the universe through the eyes of another, of a hundred others, to behold the hundred universes that each of them beholds, that each of them is. ~ Marcel Proust
      2008
      Science is but a perversion of itself unless it has as its ultimate goal the betterment of humanity. ~ Nikola Tesla
      2009
      It is better that ten guilty persons escape, than that one innocent suffer. ~ William Blackstone
      2010
      Universal peace as a result of cumulative effort through centuries past might come into existence quickly — not unlike a crystal that suddenly forms in a solution which has been slowly prepared. ~ Nikola Tesla
      2011
      When from a long-distant past nothing subsists, after the people are dead, after the things are broken and scattered, still, alone, more fragile, but with more vitality, more unsubstantial, more persistent, more faithful, the smell and taste of things remain poised a long time, like souls, ready to remind us, waiting and hoping for their moment, amid the ruins of all the rest; and bear unfaltering, in the tiny and almost impalpable drop of their essence, the vast structure of recollection. ~ Marcel Proust
      2012
      We are healed of a suffering only by experiencing it to the full.
      ~ Marcel Proust ~
      2013 
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      2003
      I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.
      • First "Quote of the Day" at Wikiquote, selected by Nanobug
      2004
      The old order changeth, yielding place to new, and God fulfils himself in many ways lest one good custom should corrupt the world. ~ Alfred, Lord Tennyson in Idylls of the King
      2005
      All men profess honesty as long as they can. To believe all men honest would be folly. To believe none so is something worse. ~ John Quincy Adams (born 11 July 1767)
      2006
      Posterity: you will never know how much it has cost my generation to preserve your freedom. I hope you will make good use of it. ~ John Quincy Adams (born 11 July 1767)
      2007
      I would feel more optimistic about a bright future for man if he spent less time proving that he can outwit Nature and more time tasting her sweetness and respecting her seniority. ~ E. B. White
      2008
      Sailors have an expression about the weather: they say the weather is a great bluffer. I guess the same is true of our human society — things can look dark, then a break shows in the clouds, and all is changed. ~ E. B. White
      2009
      I can never join with my voice in the toast which I see in the papers attributed to one of our gallant naval heroes. I cannot ask of heaven success, even for my country, in a cause where she should be in the wrong. Fiat justitia, pereat coelum. My toast would be, may our country always be successful, but whether successful or otherwise, always right. ~ John Quincy Adams (in response to Stephen Decatur's famous phrase, "our country, right or wrong". The Latin phrase is an ancient one that can be translated as : "Let justice be done though heaven should fall.")
      2010
      Life's meaning has always eluded me and I guess it always will. But I love it just the same. ~ E. B. White
      2011
      "In God We Trust." … It is simple, direct, gracefully phrased: it always sounds well — In God We Trust. I don't believe it would sound any better if it were true. And in a measure it is true — half the nation trusts in Him. That half has decided it. ~ Mark Twain
      2012
      I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It's when you know you're licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what.
      ~ Harper Lee ~
      2013 
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      2003
      It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit. ~ Harry S. Truman
      2004
      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
      2005
      I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody. ~ Bill Cosby, (born 12 July 1937)
      2006
      In the country of the blind the one eyed man is king. ~ Desiderius Erasmus (died 12 July 1536)
      2007
      There will never be a really free and enlightened State until the State comes to recognize the individual as a higher and independent power, from which all its own power and authority are derived, and treats him accordingly. ~ Henry David Thoreau (born 12 July 1817)
      2008
      To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of arts. Every man is tasked to make his life, even in its details, worthy of the contemplation of his most elevated and critical hour. ~ Henry David Thoreau
      2009
      The philosophies of one age have become the absurdities of the next, and the foolishness of yesterday has become the wisdom of tomorrow. ~ William Osler
      2010
      No human being is constituted to know the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth; and even the best of men must be content with fragments, with partial glimpses, never the full fruition. ~ William Osler
      2011
      I have to say, I think that we are in some kind of final examination as to whether human beings now, with this capability to acquire information and to communicate, whether we're really qualified to take on the responsibility we're designed to be entrusted with. And this is not a matter of an examination of the types of governments, nothing to do with politics, nothing to do with economic systems. It has to do with the individual. Does the individual have the courage to really go along with the truth? ~ Buckminster Fuller
      2012
      Dear reader, traditional human power structures and their reign of darkness are about to be rendered obsolete.
      ~ Buckminster Fuller ~
      2013 
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      2004
      Moderate strength is shown in violence, supreme strength is shown in levity. ~ G. K. Chesterton
      2005
      I know that you personally do not fear giving up your own life in order to take others — that is why you are so dangerous. But I know you fear that you may fail in your long-term objective to destroy our free society and I can show you why you will fail. ~ Ken Livingstone, Mayor of London (responding to the subway bombings of 7 July 2005)
      2006
      To-morrow comes, true copy of to-day,
      And empty shadow of what is to be;
      Yet cheated Hope on future still depends,
      And ends but only when our being ends.
      ~ John Clare ~ (born 13 July 1793)
      2007
      Changes in the structure of society are not brought about solely by massive engines of doctrine. The first flash of insight which persuades human beings to change their basic assumptions is usually contained in a few phrases. ~ Kenneth Clark
      2008
      People sometimes tell me that they prefer barbarism to civilisation. I doubt if they have given it a long enough trial. Like the people of Alexandria, they are bored by civilisation; but all the evidence suggests that the boredom of barbarism is infinitely greater. ~ Kenneth Clark
      2009
      O how I feel, just as I pluck the flower
      And stick it to my breast — words can't reveal;
      But there are souls that in this lovely hour
      Know all I mean, and feel whate'er I feel.
      ~ John Clare ~
      2010
      It is lack of confidence, more than anything else, that kills a civilisation. We can destroy ourselves by cynicism and disillusion, just as effectively as by bombs. ~ Kenneth Clark
      2011
      Men willingly believe what they wish. ~ Julius Caesar
      2012
      Alea iacta est.
      The die is cast.
      ~ Julius Caesar ~
      2013 
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      2003
      If we knew what we were doing, it wouldn't be called research, would it? ~ Albert Einstein
      2004
      Laugh, and the world laughs with you;
      Weep, and you weep alone.
      For this brave old earth must borrow its mirth,
      But has trouble enough of its own.
      ~ Ella Wheeler Wilcox ~
      2005
      We walk in circles, so limited by our own anxieties that we can no longer distinguish between true and false, between the gangster's whim and the purest ideal. ~ Ingmar Bergman (born 14 July 1918)
      2006
      Regardless of whether I believe or not, whether I am a Christian or not, I would play my part in the collective building of the cathedral. ~ Ingmar Bergman
      2007
      Nobody living can ever stop me
      As I go walking my freedom highway
      Nobody living can make me turn back
      This land is made for you and me.
      ~ Woody Guthrie ~ (born 14 July 1912)
      2008
      The note of hope is the only note that can help us or save us from falling to the bottom of the heap of evolution, because, largely, about all a human being is, anyway, is just a hoping machine, a working machine ... don't worry — the human race will sing this way as long as there is a human to race. The human race is a pretty old place. ~ Woody Guthrie
      2009
      This land is your land, this land is my land
      From California to the New York Island,
      From the Redwood Forest, to the Gulf stream waters,
      This land was made for you and me.
      ~ Woody Guthrie ~
      2010
      Freedom is not an exchange — it is freedom. ~ André Malraux
      2011
      I have been an anarchist all my life. I hope I have remained one. I should consider it very sad indeed had I to turn to a General and rule men with a military rod. They have come to me voluntarily, they are ready to stake their lives in our antifascist fight. I believe, as I always have, in freedom. The freedom which rests on the sense of responsibility. I consider discipline indispensable, but it must be inner discipline, motivated by a common purpose and a strong feeling of comradeship. ~ Buenaventura Durruti
      2012
      I am out to sing songs that will prove to you that this is your world and that if it has hit you pretty hard and knocked you for a dozen loops, no matter what color, what size you are, how you are built, I am out to sing the songs that make you take pride in yourself and in your work.
      ~ Woody Guthrie ~
      2013 
      Rank or add further suggestions…
      2003
      Most people would rather die than think; in fact, they do so. ~ Bertrand Russell
      2004
      Thar’s only two possibilities: Thar is life out there in the universe which is smarter than we are, or we’re the most intelligent life in the universe. Either way, it’s a mighty sobering thought. ~ Walt Kelly
      2005
      Eternal vigilance must be maintained to guard against those who seek to stifle ideas, establish a narrow orthodoxy, and divide our nation along arbitrary lines of race, ethnicity, and religious belief or non-belief. ~ Jesse Ventura (born 15 July 1951)
      2006
      Patriotism is voluntary. It is a feeling of loyalty and allegiance that is the result of knowledge and belief. A patriot shows their patriotism through their actions, by their choice... No law will make a citizen a patriot. ~ Jesse Ventura
      2007
      Love is the extremely difficult realisation that something other than oneself is real. Love, and so art and morals, is the discovery of reality. ~ Iris Murdoch (born 15 July 1919)
      2008
      Try to put well in practice what you already know; and in so doing, you will in good time, discover the hidden things which you now inquire about. Practice what you know, and it will help to make clear what now you do not know. ~ Rembrandt (born 15 July 1606)
      2009
      Choose only one master — Nature. ~ Rembrandt
      2010
      There is no document of civilization which is not at the same time a document of barbarism. ~ Walter Benjamin
      2011
      It is a curious thing, Harry, but perhaps those who are best suited to power are those who have never sought it. ~ J. K. Rowling in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (opening day of final film in the Harry Potter series 15 July 2011)
      2012
      There's a great need in our government right now for honesty. I speak my mind. You might not always like what you hear, but you're gonna hear it anyway. I call it like I see it; I tell the truth. And if I don't know something, I'll say so. Then I'll try to find the answer.
      ~ Jesse Ventura ~
      2013 
      Rank or add further suggestions…
      2003
      Experience is the name everyone gives to their mistakes. ~ Oscar Wilde
      2004
      When we wish to correct with advantage and to show another that he errs, we must notice from what side he views the matter, for on that side it is usually true, and admit that truth to him, but reveal to him the side on which it is false. He is satisfied with that, for he sees that he was not mistaken and that he only failed to see all sides. ~ Blaise Pascal
      2005
      By the declining day, man is a state of loss, save those who believe and do good works, and exhort one another to truth and exhort one another to endurance. ~ The Qur'an, Surah 103.
      2006
      If you build it, he will come. ~ "The Voice" in Field of Dreams (Shoeless Joe Jackson born 16 July 1888)
      2007
      You'll find that you're not the first person who was ever confused and frightened and even sickened by human behavior. You're by no means alone on that score, you'll be excited and stimulated to know. Many, many men have been just as troubled morally and spiritually as you are right now. Happily, some of them kept records of their troubles. You'll learn from them — if you want to. Just as someday, if you have something to offer, someone will learn something from you. It's a beautiful reciprocal arrangement. And it isn't education. It's history. It's poetry. ~ J. D. Salinger in The Catcher in the Rye
      • proposed by Kalki (date of first publication of The Catcher in the Rye (1951)
      2008
      Ignorance perpetuates itself just as knowledge does. Men write false documents, they preach false doctrine, and those beliefs survive to inspire wickedness in later generations. ... Conversely, some men write and teach about the truth, only to be declared heretic by the wicked. In such cases evil has the advantage, for it will do anything to suppress truth, but the good man limits what he will do to suppress falsehood.
      One might almost make a rule of it: "Whoever declares another heretic is himself a devil. Whoever places a relic or artifact above justice, kindness, mercy, or truth is himself a devil and the thing elevated is a work of evil magic." ~ Sheri S. Tepper
      2009
      I have always lived in a world in which I'm just a spot in history. My life is not the important point. I'm just part of the continuum, and that continuum, to me, is a marvelous thing. The history of life, and the history of the planet, should go on and on and on and on. I cannot conceive of anything in the universe that has more meaning than that. ~ Sheri S. Tepper
      2010
      Nothing limits intelligence more than ignorance; nothing fosters ignorance more than one's own opinions; nothing strengthens opinions more than refusing to look at reality. ~ Sheri S. Tepper
      2011
      What I mean is, lots of time you don't know what interests you most till you start talking about something that doesn't interest you most. I mean you can't help it sometimes. What I think is, you're supposed to leave somebody alone if he's at least being interesting and he's getting all excited about something. I like it when somebody gets excited about something. It's nice. ~ J. D. Salinger in The Catcher in the Rye (60th anniversary of publication date in 1951)
      2012
      The sooner we can separate salvageable skeptics from self-righteous absolutists, the sooner we can move along.
      ~ Sheri S. Tepper ~
      2013 
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      2003
      All animals are equal — but some animals are more equal than others. ~ Animal Farm by George Orwell
      2004
      Of all the creatures that creep, swim or fly,
      Peopling the earth, waters and the sky,
      From Rome to Iceland, Paris to Japan,
      I really think, the greatest fool is man.
      ~ Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux ~
      2005
      Most of the books, music and movies ever released are not available for sale, anywhere in the world. In the brief time that P2P nets have flourished, the ad-hoc masses of the Internet have managed to put just about everything online. What's more, they've done it far cheaper than any other archiving/revival effort ever. ~ Cory Doctorow (born 17 July 1971)
      2006
      Were I so tall to reach the pole,
      Or grasp the ocean with my span,
      I must be measured by my soul;
      The mind's the standard of the man.
      ~ Isaac Watts ~ (born 17 July 1674)
      2007
      Maintain a constant watch at all times against a dogmatical spirit: fix not your assent to any proposition in a firm and unalterable manner, till you have some firm and unalterable ground for it, and till you have arrived at some clear and sure evidence. ~ Isaac Watts
      2008
      Error is a hardy plant; it flourisheth in every soil;
      In the heart of the wise and good, alike with the wicked and foolish;
      For there is no error so crooked, but it hath in it some lines of truth;
      Nor is any poison so deadly, that it serveth not some wholesome use.
      ~ Martin Farquhar Tupper ~
      2009
      They told us not to wish in the first place, not to aspire, not to try; to be quiet, to play nice, to shoot low and aspire not at all. They are always wrong. Follow your dreams. Make your wishes. Create the future. And above all, believe in yourself. ~ J. Michael Straczynski
      2010
      God, from a beautiful necessity, is Love in all he doeth,
      Love, a brilliant fire, to gladden or consume:
      The wicked work their woe by looking upon love, and hating it:
      The righteous find their joys in yearning on its loveliness for ever.
      ~ Martin Farquhar Tupper ~
      2011
      Never give up! it is wiser and better
      Always to hope, than once to despair.
      ~ Martin Farquhar Tupper ~
      2012
      Well-timed silence hath more eloquence than speech.
      ~ Martin Farquhar Tupper ~
      2013 
      Rank or add further suggestions…
      2003
      To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow, creeps in this petty pace from day to day, to the last syllable of recorded time; and all our yesterdays have lighted fools the way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle! Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more; it is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. ~ Macbeth by William Shakespeare
      2004
      Wisdom is the right use of knowledge. To know is not to be wise. Many men know a great deal, and are all the greater fools for it. There is no fool so great a fool as a knowing fool. But to know how to use knowledge is to have wisdom. ~ Charles H. Spurgeon
      2005
      The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall. ~ Nelson Mandela (born 18 July 1918)
      • proposed by Aphaia
      • Very similar statements are attributed to others, but this particular form seems to be sourced to his autobiography.
      2006
      To endure is greater than to dare; to tire out hostile fortune; to be daunted by no difficulty; to keep heart when all have lost it; to go through intrigue spotless; and to forgo even ambition when the end is gained — who can say this is not greatness? ~ William Makepeace Thackeray (born 18 July 1811)
      2007
      The world is a looking-glass, and gives back to every man the reflection of his own face. Frown at it, and it will in turn look sourly upon you; laugh at it and with it, and it is a jolly kind companion; and so let all young persons take their choice. ~ William Makepeace Thackeray
      2008
      When I die, my money's not gonna come with me. My movies will live on for people to judge what I was as a person. I just want to stay curious. - Interview for London's Sunday Telegraph magazine, November 2007 ~ Heath Ledger (release date for his final major movie role as The Joker in The Dark Knight) (FYI, Ledger unexpectedly died earlier this year and this is his last film)
      2009
      It is best to love wisely, no doubt; but to love foolishly is better than not to be able to love at all. ~ William Makepeace Thackeray
      2010
      A man who takes away another man's freedom is a prisoner of hatred, he is locked behind the bars of prejudice and narrow-mindedness. I am not truly free if I am taking away someone else's freedom, just as surely as I am not free when my freedom is taken from me. The oppressed and the oppressor alike are robbed of their humanity.
      When I walked out of prison, that was my mission, to liberate the oppressed and the oppressor both. Some say that has now been achieved. But I know that that is not the case. The truth is that we are not yet free; we have merely achieved the freedom to be free, the right not to be oppressed. We have not taken the final step of our journey, but the first step on a longer and even more difficult road. For to be free is not merely to cast off one's chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others. The true test of our devotion to freedom is just beginning. ~ Nelson Mandela
      2011
      If you want to make peace with your enemy, you have to work with your enemy. Then he becomes your partner. ~ Nelson Mandela
      2012
      There is no easy walk to freedom anywhere, and many of us will have to pass through the valley of the shadow of death again and again before we reach the mountaintop of our desires.
      ~ Nelson Mandela ~
      2013 
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      2004
      It is unwise to be too sure of one's own wisdom. It is healthy to be reminded that the strongest might weaken and the wisest might err. ~ Mahatma Gandhi
      2005
      Anyone who has ever looked into the glazed eyes of a soldier dying on the battlefield will think hard before starting a war. ~ Otto von Bismarck
      2006
      Truth is never ugly when one can find in it what one needs. ~ Edgar Degas (born 19 July 1834)
      2007
      The museums are here to teach the history of art and something more as well, for, if they stimulate in the weak a desire to imitate, they furnish the strong with the means of their emancipation. ~ Edgar Degas
      2008
      Everyone has talent at twenty-five. The difficulty is to have it at fifty. ~ Edgar Degas
      2009
      Old anchormen, you see, don't fade away; they just keep coming back for more. And that's the way it is... ~ Walter Cronkite (recent death)
      2010
      I should like to be famous and unknown. ~ Edgar Degas
      2011
      It is very good to copy what one sees; it is much better to draw what you can't see any more but is in your memory. It is a transformation in which imagination and memory work together. You only reproduce what struck you, that is to say the necessary. ~ Edgar Degas
      2012
      We didn't start the fire —
      It was always burning
      Since the world's been turning.
      We didn't start the fire —
      No we didn't light it
      But we tried to fight it.
      ~ Billy Joel ~
      2013 
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      2003
      I found one day in school a boy of medium size ill-treating a smaller boy. I expostulated, but he replied: 'The bigs hit me, so I hit the babies; that's fair.' In these words he epitomized the history of the human race. ~ Education and the Social Order by Bertrand Russell
      2004
      We come nearest to the great when we are great in humility. ~ Rabindranath Tagore
      2005
      That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind. ~ Neil Armstrong on first stepping onto the surface of the moon, 20th July 1969.
      2006
      You don’t have to be a fantastic hero to do certain things — to compete. You can be just an ordinary chap, sufficiently motivated. ~ Edmund Hillary (born 20 July 1919)
      2007
      People do not decide to become extraordinary. They decide to accomplish extraordinary things. ~ Edmund Hillary (this attribution may be erroneous)
      2008
      Sameness is the mother of disgust, variety the cure. ~ Petrarch
      2009
      Houston: Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed. ~ Neil Armstrong (first words of a human on the moon)
      2010
      Hitherto your eyes have been darkened and you have looked too much, yes, far too much, upon the things of earth. If these so much delight you what shall be your rapture when you lift your gaze to things eternal! ~ Petrarch
      2011
      Books have led some to learning and others to madness, when they swallow more than they can digest. ~ Petrarch
      2012
      Love is the crowning grace of humanity, the holiest right of the soul, the golden link which binds us to duty and truth, the redeeming principle that chiefly reconciles the heart to life, and is prophetic of eternal good.
      ~ Petrarch ~
      2013 
      Rank or add further suggestions…
      2003
      The barge she sat in, like a burnishd throne, burnd on the water; the poop was beaten gold, purple the sails, and so perfumed, that the winds were love-sick with them, the oars were silver, which to the tune of flutes kept stroke, and made the water which they beat to follow faster, as amorous of their strokes. For her own person, it beggard all description ~ "Enobarbus" in Antony and Cleopatra by William Shakespeare
      2004
      Every man is a damn fool for at least five minutes every day; wisdom consists in not exceeding the limit. ~ Elbert Hubbard
      2005
      We've arranged a civilization in which most crucial elements profoundly depend on science and technology. We have also arranged things so that almost no one understands science and technology. This is a prescription for disaster. We might get away with it for awhile, but sooner or later this combustible mixture of ignorance and power is going to blow up in our faces. ~ Carl Sagan
      2006
      The world breaks everyone and afterward many are strong in the broken places. But those that will not break it kills. It kills the very good and the very gentle and the very brave impartially. If you are none of these you can be sure it will kill you too but there will be no special hurry. ~ Ernest Hemingway (born 21 July 1899)
      2007
      If there is one thing Voldemort cannot understand, it is love. ~ J. K. Rowling in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (a quote from the first "Harry Potter" book on the date of release of the 7th and last of the series.)
      2008
      No one thing is true. It's all true. ~ Ernest Hemingway
      2009
      Now I've been happy lately
      Thinking about the good things to come
      And I believe it could be
      Something good has begun.

      Oh, I've been smiling lately
      Dreaming about the world as one
      And I believe it could be
      Someday it's going to come.
      ~ Cat Stevens (Yusuf Islam) ~

      2010
      Today is only one day in all the days that will ever be. But what will happen in all the other days that ever come can depend on what you do today. It's been that way all this year. It's been that way so many times. All of war is that way. ~ Ernest Hemingway
      2011
      Man is not made for defeat. A man can be destroyed but not defeated. ~ Ernest Hemingway
      2012
      You're only given a little spark of madness. You mustn't lose it.
      ~ Robin Williams ~
      2013 
      Rank or add further suggestions…
      2003
      One can no more prevent the mind from returning to an idea than the sea from returning to a shore. In the case of the sailor, this is called a tide; in the case of the guilty, it is called remorse. ~ Les Miserables by Victor Hugo
      2004
      What a folly to dread the thought of throwing away life at once, and yet have no regard to throwing it away by parcels and piecemeal. ~ John Howe
      2005
      Give me your tired, your poor,
      Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
      The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
      Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
      I lift my lamp beside the golden door!
       ~ Emma Lazarus, "The New Colossus" (born 22 July 1849)
      2006
      We thought we were done with these things but we were wrong.
      We thought, because we had power, we had wisdom.
      We thought the long train would run to the end of Time.
      We thought the light would increase.
      Now the long train stands derailed and the bandits loot it.
      Now the boar and the asp have power in our time.
      Now the night rolls back on the West and the night is solid.
      Our fathers and ourselves sowed dragon's teeth.
      Our children know and suffer the armed men.
      ~ Stephen Vincent Benét ~ (born 22 July 1898)
      2007
      Life is not lost by dying! Life is lost
      Minute by minute, day by dragging day,
      In all the thousand, small, uncaring ways,
      The smooth appeasing compromises of time,
      Which are King Herod and King Herod's men,
      Always and always. Life can be
      Lost without vision but not lost by death,
      Lost by not caring, willing, going on
      Beyond the ragged edge of fortitude
      To something more — something no man has ever seen.
      ~ Stephen Vincent Benét ~
      2008
      Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
      A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
      Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
      Mother of Exiles.
      ~ Emma Lazarus ~
      2009
      There was sadness in being a man, but it was a proud thing too. And he showed what the pride of it was till you couldn't help feeling it. Yes, even in hell, if a man was a man, you'd know it. And he wasn't pleading for any one person any more, though his voice rang like an organ. He was telling the story and the failures and the endless journey of mankind. They got tricked and trapped and bamboozled, but it was a great journey. And no demon that was ever foaled could know the inwardness of it — it took a man to do that. ... His voice could search the heart, and that was his gift and his strength. And to one, his voice was like the forest and its secrecy, and to another like the sea and the storms of the sea; and one heard the cry of his lost nation in it, and another saw a little harmless scene he hadn't remembered for years. But each saw something. And when Dan'l Webster finished he didn't know whether or not he'd saved Jabez Stone. But he knew he'd done a miracle. For the glitter was gone from the eyes of the judge and jury, and, for the moment, they were men again, and knew they were men. ~ Stephen Vincent Benét
      2010
      There was no pain when I awoke,
      No pain at all. Rest, like a goad,
      Spurred my eyes open — and light broke
      Upon them like a million swords:
      And she was there. There are no words.

      Heaven is for a moment's span.
      And ever.
      ~ Stephen Vincent Benét ~

      2011
      Do not disturb my circles! ~ Archimedes
      2012
      It is better the truth should come little by little. I have learned that, being a priest. Perhaps, in the old days, they ate knowledge too fast.
      Nevertheless, we make a beginning. It is not for the metal alone we go to the Dead Places now — there are the books and the writings. They are hard to learn. And the magic tools are broken — but we can look at them and wonder. At least, we make a beginning. And, when I am chief priest we shall go beyond the great river. We shall go to the Place of the Gods — the place newyork — not one man but a company. We shall look for the images of the gods and find the god ASHING and the others — the gods Lincoln and Biltmore and Moses. But they were men who built the city, not gods or demons. They were men. I remember the dead man's face. They were men who were here before us. We must build again.
      ~ Stephen Vincent Benét ~
      2013 
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      2003
      I am reminded of the professor who, in his declining hours, was asked by his devoted pupils for his final counsel. He replied, 'Verify your quotations.' ~ Winston Churchill
      2004
      I'll tell you this — No eternal reward will forgive us now for wasting the dawn. ~ Jim Morrison
      2005
      The private detective of fiction is a fantastic creation who acts and speaks like a real man. He can be completely realistic in every sense but one, that one sense being that in life as we know it such a man would not be a private detective. ~ Raymond Chandler (born 23 July 1888)
      2006
      Down these mean streets a man must go who is not himself mean, who is neither tarnished nor afraid. The detective must be a complete man and a common man and yet an unusual man. He must be, to use a rather weathered phrase, a man of honor. He talks as the man of his age talks, that is, with rude wit, a lively sense of the grotesque, a disgust for sham, and a contempt for pettiness. ~ Raymond Chandler (born 23 July 1888)
      2007
      Our system presumes that there are certain principles that are more important than the temper of the times. ~ Anthony Kennedy (born 23 July 1936)
      2008
      Throughout history, it has been the inaction of those who could have acted, the indifference of those who should have known better, the silence of the voice of justice when it mattered most, that has made it possible for evil to triumph. ~ Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia (born 23 July 1892)
      2009
      The preservation of peace and the guaranteeing of man's basic freedoms and rights require courage and eternal vigilance: courage to speak and act — and if necessary, to suffer and die — for truth and justice; eternal vigilance, that the least transgression of international morality shall not go undetected and unremedied. These lessons must be learned anew by each succeeding generation, and that generation is fortunate indeed which learns from other than its own bitter experience. ~ Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia
      2010
      There are two kinds of truth: the truth that lights the way and the truth that warms the heart. The first of these is science, and the second is art. Neither is independent of the other or more important than the other. Without art science would be as useless as a pair of high forceps in the hands of a plumber. Without science art would become a crude mess of folklore and emotional quackery. The truth of art keeps science from becoming inhuman, and the truth of science keeps art from becoming ridiculous. ~ Raymond Chandler
      • last sentence proposed by Ningauble; extension suggested and used by Kalki
      2011
      The First Amendment is often inconvenient. But that is beside the point. Inconvenience does not absolve the government of its obligation to tolerate speech. ~ Anthony Kennedy
      2012
      A good story cannot be devised; it has to be distilled.
      ~ Raymond Chandler ~
      2013 
      Rank or add further suggestions…
      2003
      This country has come to feel the same when Congress is in session as when the baby gets hold of a hammer. ~ Will Rogers
      2004
      Had we but world enough, and time, this coyness, Lady, were no crime. ~ Andrew Marvell
      2005
      Thro' many dangers, toils and snares, I have already come; 'Tis grace has brought me safe thus far, and grace will lead me home. ~ John Newton, in "Amazing Grace"
      2006
      There is one story and one story only.
      Dwell on her graciousness, dwell on her smiling,
      Do not forget what flowers
      The great boar trampled down in ivy time.
      Her brow was creamy as the long ninth wave,
      Her sea-blue eyes were wild.
      But nothing promised that is not performed.
      ~ Robert Graves ~
      2007
      New beginnings and new shoots
      Spring again from hidden roots
      Pull or stab or cut or burn,
      Love must ever yet return.
      ~ Robert Graves ~
      2008
      Many have puzzled themselves about the origin of evil. I am content to observe that there is evil, and that there is a way to escape from it, and with this I begin and end. ~ John Newton
      2009
      The art of victory is learned in defeat. ~ Simón Bolívar
      2010
      The three greatest fools of History have been Jesus Christ, Don Quixote . . . and me! ~ Simón Bolívar
      2011
      God give us men. The time demands
      Strong minds, great hearts, true faith, and willing hands;
      Men whom the lust of office does not kill;
      Men whom the spoils of office cannot buy;
      Men who possess opinions and a will;
      Men who have honor; men who will not lie;
      Men who can stand before a demagogue
      And dam his treacherous flatteries without winking;
      Tall men, sun-crowned, who live above the fog
      In public duty and in private thinking.
      ~ Josiah Gilbert Holland ~
      2012
      Amazing grace! (how sweet the sound)
      That sav'd a wretch like me!
      I once was lost, but now am found,
      Was blind, but now I see.
      ~ John Newton ~
      2013 
      Rank or add further suggestions…
      2003
      The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed. ~ Albert Einstein
      2004
      If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would appear to man as it is: Infinite. For man has closed himself up, till he sees all things thro' narrow chinks of his cavern. ~ William Blake
      2005
      In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
      A stately pleasure-dome decree:
      Where Alph, the sacred river, ran
      Through caverns measureless to man
      Down to a sunless sea.      ~ Samuel Taylor Coleridge (died 25 July 1834)
      2006
      There seem to be magic days once in a while, with some rare quality of light that hold a body spellbound... Then comes the hard part: how to plan a picture so as to give to others what has happened to you. To render in paint an experience, to suggest the sense of light and color, air and space... ~ Maxfield Parrish (born 25 July 1870)
      2007
      To know a person's religion we need not listen to his profession of faith but must find his brand of intolerance. ~ Eric Hoffer (born 25 July 1902)
      2008
      Though ours is a godless age, it is the very opposite of irreligious. The true believer is everywhere on the march, and both by converting and antagonizing he is shaping the world in his own image. ~ Eric Hoffer
      2009
      Good and evil grow up together and are bound in an equilibrium that cannot be sundered. The most we can do is try to tilt the equilibrium toward the good. ~ Eric Hoffer
      2010
      The central task of education is to implant a will and a facility for learning; it should produce not learned but learning people. The truly human society is a learning society, where grandparents, parents, and children are students together.
      In a time of drastic change it is the learners who inherit the future. The learned usually find themselves equipped to live in a world that no longer exists. ~ Eric Hoffer
      2011
      It is the individual only who is timeless. Societies, cultures, and civilizations — past and present — are often incomprehensible to outsiders, but the individual's hunger, anxieties, dreams, and preoccupations have remained unchanged through the millennia. Thus, we are up against the paradox that the individual who is more complex, unpredictable, and mysterious than any communal entity is the one nearest to our understanding; so near that even the interval of millennia cannot weaken our feeling of kinship. If in some manner the voice of an individual reaches us from the remotest distance of time, it is a timeless voice speaking about ourselves. ~ Eric Hoffer
      2012
      Free men are aware of the imperfection inherent in human affairs, and they are willing to fight and die for that which is not perfect. They know that basic human problems can have no final solutions, that our freedom, justice, equality, etc. are far from absolute, and that the good life is compounded of half measures, compromises, lesser evils, and gropings toward the perfect. The rejection of approximations and the insistence on absolutes are the manifestation of a nihilism that loathes freedom, tolerance, and equity.
      ~ Eric Hoffer ~
      2013 
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      2004
      Science is the tool of the Western mind, and with it, more doors can be opened than with bare hands. It is part and parcel of our knowledge and obscures our insight only when it holds that the understanding given by it is the only kind there is. ~ Carl Jung (born 26 July 1875)
      2005
      Art is a kind of innate drive that seizes a human being and makes him its instrument. The artist is not a person endowed with free will who seeks his own ends, but one who allows art to realize its purpose through him. ~ Carl Jung (born 26 July 1875)
      2006
      Pardon him, Theodotus; he is a barbarian, and thinks that the customs of his tribe and island are the laws of nature. ~ George Bernard Shaw (born 26 July 1856)
      2007
      To see ourselves as others see us is a most salutary gift. Hardly less important is the capacity to see others as they see themselves. ~ Aldous Huxley (born July 26, 1894)
      2008
      We should not pretend to understand the world only by the intellect; we apprehend it just as much by feeling. Therefore, the judgment of the intellect is, at best, only the half of truth, and must, if it be honest, also come to an understanding of its inadequacy. ~ Carl Jung
      2009
      I hear you say "Why?" Always "Why?" You see things; and you say "Why?" But I dream things that never were; and I say "Why not?" ~ George Bernard Shaw
      2010
      We are so captivated by and entangled in our subjective consciousness that we have forgotten the age-old fact that God speaks chiefly through dreams and visions. ~ Carl Jung
      2011
      The philosopher is Nature's pilot. And there you have our difference: to be in hell is to drift: to be in heaven is to steer. ~ George Bernard Shaw (date of birth)
      2012
      All great truths begin as blasphemies.
      ~ George Bernard Shaw ~
      2013 
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      2003
      I think all foreigners should stop interfering in the internal affairs of Iraq. ~ Paul Wolfowitz
      2004
      When I was a kid my parents used to tell me: "Don't go near the cellar door, Emo!" One day when they were away, I went to the door and opened it... and I saw birds and trees... ~ Emo Philips
      2005
      From quiet homes and first beginning, Out to the undiscovered ends, There's nothing worth the wear of winning, But laughter and the love of friends. ~ Hilaire Belloc (born 27 July 1870)
      2006
      In soft deluding lies let fools delight. A shadow marks our days, which end in Night. ~ Hilaire Belloc
      2007
      A heart, a heart that hurts, is a heart, a heart that works. ~ Juliana Hatfield (born 27 July 1967)
      2008
      It was my shame, and now it is my boast, That I have loved you rather more than most. ~ Hilaire Belloc
      2009
      When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth. ~ Sherlock Holmes in The Sign of the Four by Arthur Conan Doyle
      2010
      I've been sleeping through my life
      Now I'm waking up
      And I want to stand in the sunshine
      I have never been ecstatic
      Had a flower but it never bloomed
      In the darkness of my wasted youth
      It was hiding in the shadows
      Learning to become invisible
      Uncover me.

      ~ Juliana Hatfield ~

      2011
      I have wandered all my life, and I have also traveled; the difference between the two being this, that we wander for distraction, but we travel for fulfillment. ~ Hilaire Belloc
      2012
      Write as the wind blows and command all words like an army!
      ~ Hilaire Belloc ~
      2013 
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      2004
      Lots of people want to ride with you in the limo, but what you want is someone who will take the bus with you when the limo breaks down. ~ Oprah Winfrey
      2005
      Whenever a theory appears to you as the only possible one, take this as a sign that you have neither understood the theory nor the problem which it was intended to solve. ~ Karl Popper (born 28 July 1902) in Objective Knowledge: An Evolutionary Approach (1972)
      2006
      We are social creatures to the inmost centre of our being. The notion that one can begin anything at all from scratch, free from the past, or unindebted to others, could not conceivably be more wrong. ~ Karl Popper
      2007
      We must plan for freedom, and not only for security, if for no other reason than only freedom can make security more secure. ~ Karl Popper
      2008
      If I could only give three words of advice, they would be, "Tell the Truth." If I got three more words, I'd add, "All the time." ~ Randy Pausch
      2009
      We do not choose political freedom because it promises us this or that. We choose it because it makes possible the only dignified form of human coexistence, the only form in which we can be fully responsible for ourselves. Whether we realize its possibilities depends on all kinds of things — and above all on ourselves. ~ Karl Popper
      2010
      Our knowledge can only be finite, while our ignorance must necessarily be infinite. ~ Karl Popper
      2011
      The World is charged with the grandeur of God.
      It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;
      It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil
      Crushed. Why do men then now not reck his rod?
      Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;
      And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;
      And wears man’s smudge and shares man’s smell: the soil
      Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.

      And for all this, nature is never spent;
      There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;
      And though the last lights off the black West went
      Oh morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs —
      Because the Holy Ghost over the bent
      World broods with the warm breast and with ah! bright wings.
      ~ Gerard Manley Hopkins ~

      2012
      Always remember that it is impossible to speak in such a way that you cannot be misunderstood: there will always be some who misunderstand you.
      ~ Karl Popper ~
      2013 
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      2003
      The law will never make men free; it is men who have got to make the law free. ~ Henry David Thoreau
      2004
      In all people I see myself, none more and not one a barley-corn less, and the good or bad I say of myself I say of them. ~ Walt Whitman in Leaves of Grass
      2005
      All parts should go together without forcing. You must remember that the parts you are reassembling were disassembled by you. Therefore, if you can't get them together again, there must be a reason. By all means, do not use a hammer. ~ IBM maintenance manual, 1925
      • proposed by MosheZadka in honor of ENIAC, the world's first digital computer, being reactivated on 29 July 1947, after a memory upgrade that took the better part of a year
      2006
      No protracted war can fail to endanger the freedom of a democratic country. ~ Alexis de Tocqueville (born 29 July 1805)
      2007
      God does not die on the day when we cease to believe in a personal deity, but we die on the day when our lives cease to be illumined by the steady radiance, renewed daily, of a wonder, the source of which is beyond all reason. ~ Dag Hammarskjöld (date of birth)
      2008
      The Congress hereby declares that it is the policy of the United States that activities in space should be devoted to peaceful purposes for the benefit of all mankind. ~ "National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958" creating NASA (signed by President Dwight Eisenhower on the 29th of July 1958; 50th anniversary of NASA in 2008)
      2009
      For all that has been —
      Thanks.
      For all that shall be —
      Yes.
      ~ Dag Hammarskjöld ~
      2010
      Now I understand what you tried to say to me
      How you suffered for your sanity
      How you tried to set them free —
      They would not listen
      They did not know how,
      Perhaps they'll listen now.

      ~ Don McLean ~
      in
      "Vincent (Starry Starry Night|)"
      (date Vincent Van Gogh died of a gunshot wound to the chest.)

      2011
      Destiny is something not be to desired and not to be avoided. A mystery not contrary to reason, for it implies that the world, and the course of human history, have meaning. ~ Dag Hammarskjöld
      2012
      The isness of things is well worth studying; but it is their whyness that makes life worth living.
      ~ William Beebe ~
      2013  
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      • On two occasions I have been asked [by members of Parliament!], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able rightly to apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question. ~ Charles Babbage
      2004
      I just know that something good is going to happen. I don't know when — but just saying it could even make it happen. ~ Kate Bush (born 30 July 1958)
      2005
      No coward soul is mine,
      No trembler in the world's storm-troubled sphere:
      I see Heaven's glories shine,
      And Faith shines equal, arming me from Fear.
      ~ Emily Brontë ~ (born 30 July 1818)
      2006
      What am I singing?
      A song of seeds
      The food of love.
      Eat the music.
      ~ Kate Bush ~
      2007
      Just being alive
      It can really hurt.
      These moments given
      Are a gift from time.
      Just let us try
      To give these moments back
      To those we love
      To those who will survive.
      ~ Kate Bush ~
      2008
      I don't know you,
      And you don't know me.
      It is this that brings us together.
      ~ Kate Bush ~
      2009
      Moving stranger,
      Does it really matter,
      As long as you're not afraid to feel?

      Touch me, hold me.
      How my open arms ache!
      Try to fall for me.

      ~ Kate Bush ~

      2010
      With wide-embracing love
      Thy Spirit animates eternal years,
      Pervades and broods above,
      Changes, sustains, dissolves, creates, and rears.

      Though earth and moon were gone,
      And suns and universes ceased to be,
      And Thou wert left alone,
      Every existence would exist in Thee.

      There is not room for Death,
      Nor atom that his might could render void:
      Thou —THOU art Being and Breath,
      And what THOU art may never be destroyed.
      ~ Emily Brontë ~

      2011
      I love the whirling of the dervishes.
      I love the beauty of rare innocence.
      You don't need no crystal ball,
      Don't fall for a magic wand.
      We humans got it all, we perform the miracles.
      ~ Kate Bush ~
      2012
      Nobody knows about my man.
      They think he's lost on some horizon.
      And suddenly I find myself
      Listening to a man I've never known before,
      Telling me about the sea,
      All his love, 'til Eternity.
      Ooh, he's here again,
      The man with the child in his eyes.
      ~ Kate Bush ~
      2013 
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      2003
      History would be an excellent thing if only it were true. ~ Leo Tolstoy
      2004
      Blue Moon, now I'm no longer alone, without a dream in my heart, without a love of my own. ~ Lorenz Hart (a Blue moon occurred on 31 July 2004)
      2005
      I think I'd most like to spend a day with Harry. I'd take him out for a meal and apologise for everything I've put him through. ~ J. K. Rowling, (born 31 July 1965)
      2006
      I am in favor of cutting taxes under any circumstances and for any excuse, for any reason, whenever it's possible. ~ Milton Friedman (born 31 July 1912)
      2007
      In order for the wheel to turn, for life to be lived, impurities are needed, and the impurities of impurities in the soil, too, as is known, if it is to be fertile. Dissension, diversity, the grain of salt and mustard are needed: Fascism does not want them, forbids them, and that’s why you’re not a Fascist; it wants everybody to be the same, and you are not. But immaculate virtue does not exist either, or if it exists it is detestable. ~ Primo Levi
      2008
      The future of humanity is uncertain, even in the most prosperous countries, and the quality of life deteriorates; and yet I believe that what is being discovered about the infinitely large and infinitely small is sufficient to absolve this end of the century and millennium. What a very few are acquiring in knowledge of the physical world will perhaps cause this period not to be judged as a pure return of barbarism. ~ Primo Levi
      2009
      I beg the reader not to go in search of messages. It is a term that I detest because it distresses me greatly, for it forces on me clothes that are not mine, which in fact belong to a human type that I distrust; the prophet, the soothsayer, the seer. I am none of these; I'm a normal man with a good memory who fell into a maelstrom and got out of it more by luck than by virtue, and who from that time on has preserved a certain curiosity about maelstroms large and small, metaphorical and actual. ~ Primo Levi
      2010
      Only a crisis — actual or perceived — produces real change. When that crisis occurs, the actions that are taken depend on the ideas that are lying around. That, I believe, is our basic function: to develop alternatives to existing policies, to keep them alive and available until the politically impossible becomes politically inevitable. ~ Milton Friedman
      2011
      The Potter books in general are a prolonged argument for tolerance, a prolonged plea for an end to bigotry, and I think it's one of the reasons that some people don't like the books, but I think that it's a very healthy message to pass on to younger people that you should question authority and you should not assume that the establishment or the press tells you all of the truth. ~ J. K. Rowling
      2012
      In countries and epochs in which communication is impeded, soon all other liberties wither; discussion dies by inanition, ignorance of the opinion of others becomes rampant, imposed opinions triumph. … Intolerance is inclined to censor, and censorship promotes ignorance of the arguments of others and thus intolerance itself: a rigid, vicious circle that is hard to break.
      ~ Primo Levi ~
      2013 
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      Last modified on 1 July 2012, at 01:00