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August 18

day of the year
(Redirected from 18 August)

Quotes of the day from previous years:

2003
It's a thingy! A fiendish thingy! ~ George Harrison in Help!
2004
The best mind-altering drug is the truth. ~ Lily Tomlin
2005
If you continue to hate, you are entering into the same philosophy that began the war. You have to look forward at people and new times. ~ Roman Polański (born 18 August 1933)
2006
When childhood dies, its corpses are called adults and they enter society, one of the politer names of hell. That is why we dread children, even if we love them. They show us the state of our decay. ~ Brian Aldiss (born 18 August 1925)
2007
What we say is the truth is what everybody accepts … Psychiatry: it's the latest religion. We decide what's right and wrong. We decide who's crazy or not. I'm in trouble here. I'm losing my faith. ~ Madeleine Stowe as "Dr. Kathryn Railly" in Twelve Monkeys (born 18 August 1958)
2008
Oh, my Lolita, I have only words to play with! ~ Vladimir Nabokov in Lolita (50th anniversary of its publication in the United States on 18 August 1958)
2009
Tho' the world could turn from you,
This, at least, I learn from you:
Beauty and Truth, tho' never found, are worthy to be sought,
The singer, upward-springing,
Is grander than his singing,
And tranquil self-sufficing joy illumes the dark of thought.
~ Robert Williams Buchanan ~
2010
I saw the starry Tree
Eternity
Put forth the blossom Time.
~ Robert Williams Buchanan ~
2011
I ask no more from mortals
Than your beautiful face implies,—
The beauty the artist beholding
Interprets and sanctifies.
Who says that men have fallen,
That life is wretched and rough?
I say, the world is lovely,
And that loveliness is enough.
~ Robert Williams Buchanan ~
2012
I can't help believing that these things that come from the subconscious mind have a sort of truth to them. It may not be a scientific truth, but it's psychological truth.
~ Brian Aldiss ~
2013

In Balder's hand Christ placed His own,
And it was golden weather,
And on that berg as on a throne
The Brethren stood together!

And countless voices far and wide
Sang sweet beneath the sky —
"All that is beautiful shall abide,
All that is base shall die."

~ Robert Williams Buchanan ~
2014
Whatever creativity is, it is in part a solution to a problem.
~ Brian Aldiss ~
2015
Life was a pleasure; he looked back at its moments, many of them as shrouded in mist as the opposite bank of the Thames. Objectively, many of them held only misery, fear, confusion; but afterward, and even at the time, he had known an exhilaration stronger than the misery, fear, or confusion. A fragment of belief came to him from another epoch: Cogito ergo sum. For him that had not been true; his truth had been: Sentio ergo sum. I feel, so I exist. He enjoyed this fearful, miserable, confused life, and not only because it made more sense than nonlife. He could never explain that to anyone.
~ Brian Aldiss ~
2016
When the first flint, the first shell, was shaped into a weapon, that action shaped man. As he molded and complicated his tools, so they molded and complicated him. He became the first scientific animal. And at last, via information theory and great computers, he gained knowledge of all his parts. He formed the Laws of Integration, which reveal all beings as part of a pattern and show them their part in the pattern. There is only the pattern; the pattern is all the universe, creator and created.
~ Brian Aldiss ~
2017
If we can see our difficulties, there is a way of resolving them, or the hope of a way.
~ Brian Aldiss ~
2018
Perhaps the first fire, the first tool, the first wheel, the first carving in a limestone cave, had each possessed a symbolic rather than a practical value, had each been pressed to serve distortion rather than reality. It was a sort of madness that had driven man from his humble sites on the edges of the woods into towns and cities, into arts and wars, into religious crusades, into martyrdom and prostitution, into dyspepsia and fasting, into love and hatred, into this present cul-de-sac; it had all come about in pursuit of symbols. In the beginning was the symbol, and darkness was over the face of the Earth.
~ Brian Aldiss ~
2019
Part of my lifestyle you should all remember is having fun. Being funny is a big part of it. After all, if one is in tune, funny is the tune to play. Giving laughter is more fun than giving advice. Giving laughter while giving advice is the jackpot.
~ Peter Fonda ~
  • proposed by Kalki, in regard to his recent death.
2020
The true and best way of learning any Art, is not to see a great many Examples done by another Person, but to possess ones seIf first of the Principles of it, and then to make them familiar, by exercising ones self in the Practice. For it is Practice alone, that makes a Man perfect in any thing.
~ Brook Taylor ~
2021
I feel that the end of my days is drawing near; my senses are failing me; my delight and strength in creating songs are gone; he, who was once honored by half of Europe, is forgotten; others have come and are the objects of admiration; one must give place to another. Nothing remains for me but trust in God, and the hope of an unclouded existence in the Land of Peace.
~ Antonio Salieri ~
2022
America has meant so much to so many because we are the best hope of freedom on earth. … Ladies and gentlemen, freedom must not and will not die here.
We must be very clear-eyed about the threat we face and about what is required to defeat it. I have said since January 6, that I will do whatever it takes to make sure Donald Trump is never again anywhere near the Oval Office.
This is a fight for all of us together. I'm a conservative Republican. I believe deeply in the principles and the ideals on which my party was founded. I love its history. And I love what our party has stood for. But I love my country more.
So, I ask you tonight to join me. As we leave here, let us resolve that we will stand together — Republicans, Democrats and independents — against those who would destroy our republic. They are angry and they are determined, but they have not seen anything like the power of Americans united in defense of our Constitution and committed to the cause of freedom. There is no greater power on this earth. And with God's help, we will prevail.
~ Liz Cheney ~
  • proposed by Kalki; recent remarks conceding an election defeat while declaring a firm determination to uphold truth against lies.
2023
Even on the white English crags
A few strong spirits, in a race that binds
Its body in chains and calls them Liberty,
And calls each fresh link Progress, stood erect
With faces pale that hunger'd to the light.
~ Robert Williams Buchanan ~
2024
You have to show violence the way it is. If you don't show it realistically, then that's immoral and harmful. If you don't upset people, then that's obscenity.
~ Roman Polański ~
2025
Rank or add further suggestions…

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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.
An averaging of the rankings provided to each suggestion produces it’s general ranking in considerations for selection of Quote of the Day. The selections made are usually chosen from the top ranked options existing on the page, but the provision of highly ranked late additions, especially in regard to special events (most commonly in regard to the deaths of famous people, or other major social or physical occurrences), always remain an option for final selections.
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Suggestions

edit

The pleasure and joy of man lies in treading down the rebel and conquering the enemy, in tearing him up by the root, in taking from him all that he has. - Genghis Khan, died this day.

  • 3 AllanHainey 12:00, 26 July 2005 (UTC)
  • 3 ~ MosheZadka (Talk) 06:32, 31 July 2005 (UTC)
  • 1 Kalki 12:00, 16 August 2007 (UTC) with a strong lean toward 0.
  • 2 InvisibleSun 23:31, 17 August 2007 (UTC)
  • 3 because the desire to completely dominate exists in mankind and this quote says it perfectly, Khan had the tendency to say it as it was. Zarbon 15:42, 24 April 2008 (UTC)
  • 3 Peace and Passion ("I'm listening....") 05:55, 12 August 2009 (UTC) Not for the content / meaning, but I think it fits well as QOTD.

Ach! I know. If I were to play the Pathetique or the Moonlight Sonata for the high judges, they would let me off. But my defense unfortunately will not be musical. ~ Walther Funk (born August 18)

  • 3 because the sheer thought of a musical defense would be interesting. Zarbon 04:29, 18 April 2008 (UTC)
    • SOURCE: The Nuremberg Interviews by Leon Goldensohn, Robert Gellately - History - 2004 - Page 82
  • 1 Kalki 08:13, 17 August 2008 (UTC)
  • 1 InvisibleSun 21:46, 17 August 2008 (UTC)
  • 3 Peace and Passion ("I'm listening....") 05:55, 12 August 2009 (UTC) I usually do not agree with Zarbon's votes here (and never his reasonings), but there is "something" to this quote.

I can spot a musical type. I can tell by looking at a woman whether she is a contralto or a soprano. ~ Walther Funk (born August 18)

  • 4 because I like both contralto's and soprano's. And I'm sure both types of women would sing well. This is a very nice musical dynamic personification. Zarbon 04:29, 18 April 2008 (UTC)
    • SOURCE: The Nuremberg Interviews by Leon Goldensohn, Robert Gellately - History - 2004 - Page 83
  • 1 Kalki 08:13, 17 August 2008 (UTC)
  • 1 InvisibleSun 21:46, 17 August 2008 (UTC)
  • 1 Peace and Passion ("I'm listening....") 05:55, 12 August 2009 (UTC)

Cassandra in Greek legend, you recall, was condemned to know the future but to be disbelieved when she foretold it. Hence the agony of foreknowledge combined with the impotence to do anything about it.. ~ Madeleine Stowe as "Dr. Kathryn Railly" in Twelve Monkeys

I love the life of an actor because you spend brief amounts of time with other people and then you just leave. I need to be alone a lot, and I need the outdoors. ~ Madeleine Stowe

I'd just love to see a great love story, and nobody makes them anymore. ~ Madeleine Stowe

To disobey a law of the universe was impossible, not insane
~ Brian Aldiss ~
It is generally thought very ridiculous to pretend to write an Heroic Poem, or a fine Discourse upon any Subject, without understanding the Propriety of the Language wrote in; and to me it seems no less ridiculous for one to pretend to make a good Picture without understanding Perspective...
~ Brook Taylor ~


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