Wikiquote

April 4

day of the year

Quotes of the day from previous years:

2004
Where there is great love there are always miracles. ~ Willa Cather
2005
It is possible and imperative that we learn
A brave and startling truth...
When we come to it
We must confess that we are the possible
We are the miraculous, the true wonders of this world
That is when, and only when
We come to it.
~ Maya Angelou (born 4 April 1928)
2006
There must be a beginning of any great matter, but the continuing unto the end until it be thoroughly finished yields the true glory. ~ Sir Francis Drake (knighted 4 April 1581)
2007
He who learns must suffer
And even in our sleep pain that cannot forget
Falls drop by drop upon the heart,
And in our own despite, against our will,
Comes wisdom to us by the awful grace of God.
~ Aeschylus ~ (Quoted, in variant form, by Robert F. Kennedy in a speech, 4 April 1968, after learning of the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., which occurred that day.)
2008
All we are saying is give peace a chance. ~ John Lennon (50th anniversary of the first use of what became the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament logo, and later the "Peace symbol" in a march by the Direct Action Committee Against Nuclear War, 4 April 1958.)
2009
The first peace, which is the most important, is that which comes within the souls of people when they realize their relationship, their oneness, with the universe and all its powers, and when they realize that at the center of the universe dwells Wakan-Tanka, and that this center is really everywhere, it is within each of us. This is the real peace, and the others are but reflections of this. The second peace is that which is made between two individuals, and the third is that which is made between two nations. But above all you should understand that there can never be peace between nations until there is known that true peace, which, as I have often said, is within the souls of men. ~ Black Elk
2010
If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works. Verily I say unto you, There be some standing here, which shall not taste of death, till they see the Son of man coming in his kingdom. ~ Yeshua of Galilee (Jesus Christ) ~ For Easter Sunday 2010, in both Western and Eastern Orthodox calculations
2011
You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I'll rise.
~ Maya Angelou ~
2012
Without music there can be no perfect knowledge, for there is nothing without it. For even the universe itself is said to have been put together with a certain harmony of sounds, and the very heavens revolve under the guidance of harmony. ~ Isidore of Seville
2013
We look forward to the time when the Power of Love will replace the Love of Power. Then will our world know the blessings of peace.
~ William Gladstone ~
2014
We, unaccustomed to courage
exiles from delight
live coiled in shells of loneliness
until love leaves its high holy temple
and comes into our sight
to liberate us into life.
~ Maya Angelou ~
2015
The allotted function of art is not, as is often assumed, to put across ideas, to propagate thoughts, to serve as an example. The aim of art is to prepare a person for death, to plough and harrow his soul, rendering it capable of turning to good.
~ Andrei Tarkovsky ~
2016
Art is realistic when it strives to express an ethical ideal. Realism is striving for truth, and truth is always beautiful.
~ Andrei Tarkovsky ~
2017
We never get anywhere in this world without the forces of history and individual persons in the background helping us to get there. If you have the privilege of a fine education, well, you have it because somebody made it possible. If you have the privilege to gain wealth and a bit of the world’s goods, well, you have it because somebody made it possible. So don’t boast, don’t be arrogant. You, at that moment, rise out of your self-centeredness to the type of living that makes you an integrated personality.
~ Martin Luther King, Jr. ~
2018
Our aim is to persuade. We adopt the means of non-violence because our end is a community at peace with itself. We will try to persuade with our words, but if our words fail, we will try to persuade with our acts. We will always be willing to talk and seek fair compromise, but we are ready to suffer when necessary and even risk our lives to become witnesses to the truth as we see it. … But if physical death is the price that a man must pay to free his children and his white brethren from a permanent death of the spirit, then nothing could be more redemptive. This is the type of soul force that I am convinced will triumph over the physical force of the oppressor.
~ Martin Luther King, Jr. ~
  • proposed by Kalki regarding the 50th anniversary of MLK's death, and the 60th anniversary of the first use of the ☮ Peace sign, in a CND march on this date in 1958.
2019
Freedom is inseparable from conscience. And even if it is true that all the ideas developed by the social consciousness are the product of evolution, conscience at least has nothing to do with the historic process. Conscience, both as a sense and as a concept, is a priori immanent in man, and shakes the very foundations of the society that has emerged from our ill-conceived civilisation.
~ Andrei Tarkovsky ~
2020
⨀

Peace is not an absence of war, it is a virtue, a state of mind, a disposition for benevolence, confidence, justice.

~ Baruch Spinoza ~
2021
Your God still walks in Eden, between the ancient trees,
Where Youth and Love go wading through pools of primroses.
And this is the sign we bring you, before the darkness fall,
That Spring is risen, is risen again,
That Life is risen, is risen again,
That Love is risen, is risen again, and Love is Lord of all.
~ Alfred Noyes ~
2022
We had thought that invasions of other countries, savage street fighting and atomic threats were grim memories of a distant past. However, the icy winds of war, which bring only death, destruction and hatred in their wake, have swept down powerfully upon the lives of many people and affected us all. Once again, some potentate, sadly caught up in anachronistic claims of nationalist interests, is provoking and fomenting conflicts, whereas ordinary people sense the need to build a future that, will either be shared, or not be at all. Now in the night of the war that is fallen upon humanity, please, let us not allow the dream of peace to fade!
~ Pope Francis ~
2023
What is man? … a strange union of matter and mind! A machine for converting material into spiritual force.
~ Benjamin Peirce ~
2024
One day we must come to see that peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek, but that it is a means by which we arrive at that goal. We must pursue peaceful ends through peaceful means.
~ Martin Luther King, Jr. ~
  • proposed by Kalki; in regard of the anniversary of MLK's death, and a peace quote for anniversary of CND "Peace symbol".
2025
Rank or add further suggestions…

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

  • There is nothing so pitiful as a young cynic because he has gone from knowing nothing to believing nothing. ~ Maya Angelou
  • You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. In fact, it may be necessary to encounter the defeats, so you can know who you are, what you can rise from, how you can still come out of it. ~ Maya Angelou
Also for this day have been included suggestions focusing on the theme of Peace, made to commemorate the first public use of what became the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament logo, and later one of the most recognized of the "Peace symbols" in a march by the Direct Action Committee Against Nuclear War, 4 April 1958.)

The Quote of the Day (QOTD) is a prominent feature of the Wikiquote Main Page. Thank you for submitting, reviewing, and ranking suggestions!

Ranking system
4 : Excellent – should definitely be used. (This is the utmost ranking and should be used by any editor for only one quote at a time for each date.)
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.
Thank you for participating!

Suggestions

edit
  Quotes focusing on the theme of Peace to commemorate the first public use of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament logo, in a march by the Direct Action Committee Against Nuclear War (4 April 1958). It afterwards became one of the most widely recognized "Peace symbols", during the 1960s.  
DOB: Maya Angelou · Benjamin Peirce · NATO · Andrei Tarkovsky · Isoroku Yamamoto · Knighted : Francis Drake (DOB unknown) · DOD : Martin Luther King, Jr. assassinated on this date in 1968.

A military man can scarcely pride himself on having "smitten a sleeping enemy"; it is more a matter of shame, simply, for the one smitten. I would rather you made your appraisal after seeing what the enemy does, since it is certain that, angered and outraged, he will soon launch a determined counterattack. ~ Isoroku Yamamoto (born April 4)

  • 3 because it is better to face your enemy head on rather than strike them behind their back. Beautiful quotation. Zarbon 05:55, 22 April 2008 (UTC)
  • 2 Kalki 04:44, 29 March 2009 (UTC) with a lean toward 3 or perhaps a 4, eventually.
  • 2 InvisibleSun 21:43, 3 April 2009 (UTC)

I must have the gentleman to haul and draw with the mariner, and the mariner with the gentleman. What! let us show ourselves to be of a company and let us not give occasion to the enemy to rejoice at our decay and overthrow. ~ Sir Francis Drake

  • 3 Kalki 04:44, 29 March 2009 (UTC) with a lean toward 4.
  • 2 Zarbon 03:26, 31 March 2009 (UTC)
  • 3 InvisibleSun 21:43, 3 April 2009 (UTC)

Without courage we cannot practice any other virtue with consistency. We can't be kind, true, merciful, generous, or honest. ~ Maya Angelou

  • 3 Kalki 04:44, 29 March 2009 (UTC) with a lean toward 4.
  • 2 Zarbon 03:26, 31 March 2009 (UTC)
  • 3 InvisibleSun 21:43, 3 April 2009 (UTC)

People will forget what you said
People will forget what you did
But people will never forget how you made them feel.
~ Maya Angelou ~

It is easier to lead men to combat, stirring up their passion, than to restrain them and direct them toward the patient labors of peace. ~ Andre Gide

  • 3 Kalki 04:44, 29 March 2009 (UTC)
  • 2 although I personally don't think it's "easy" to stir a man's passion for combat. That is a gift in and of itself. A true military tactician would never admit to that as it takes much coordination and practice to convince men to fight with honor. Zarbon 03:26, 31 March 2009 (UTC)

If you want to make peace, you don't talk to your friends. You talk to your enemies. ~ Moshe Dayan

  • 3 Kalki 04:44, 29 March 2009 (UTC)
  • 2 but relation to date? Zarbon 03:26, 31 March 2009 (UTC)

He shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. ~ Isaiah, II:4

  • 3 Kalki 04:44, 29 March 2009 (UTC) with a lean toward an eventual 4.
  • 1 Zarbon 03:26, 31 March 2009 (UTC)
  • 3 InvisibleSun 21:43, 3 April 2009 (UTC)

The goal toward which all history tends is peace, not peace through the medium of war, not peace through a process of universal intimidation, not peace through a program of mutual impoverishment, not peace by any means that leaves the world too weak or too frightened to go on fighting, but peace pure and simple based on that will to peace which has animated the overwhelming majority of mankind through countless ages. This will to peace does not arise out of a cowardly desire to preserve one's life and property, but out of conviction that the fullest development of the highest powers of men can be achieved only in a world of peace. ~ Robert Maynard Hutchins

  • 3 Kalki 04:44, 29 March 2009 (UTC) with a lean toward 4.
  • 1 Zarbon 03:26, 31 March 2009 (UTC)

Peace does not rest in the charters and covenants alone. It lies in the hearts and minds of all people. So let us not rest all our hopes on parchment and on paper, let us strive to build peace, a desire for peace, a willingness to work for peace in the hearts and minds of all of our people. I believe that we can. I believe the problems of human destiny are not beyond the reach of human beings. ~ John F. Kennedy

  • 3 Kalki 04:44, 29 March 2009 (UTC) with a strong lean toward 4.
  • 1 Zarbon 03:26, 31 March 2009 (UTC)

The structure of world peace cannot be the work of one man or one party or one nation. It must be a peace which rests on the cooperative effort of the whole world. ~ Franklin Delano Roosevelt

  • 3 Kalki 04:44, 29 March 2009 (UTC)
  • 2 but relation to date? Zarbon 03:26, 31 March 2009 (UTC)

In the hearts of people today there is a deep longing for peace. When the true spirit of peace is thoroughly dominant, it becomes an inner experience with unlimited possibilities. Only when this really happens — when the spirit of peace awakens and takes possession of men's hearts, can humanity be saved from perishing. ~ Albert Schweitzer

  • 3 Kalki 04:44, 29 March 2009 (UTC) with a lean toward 4.
  • 1 Zarbon 03:26, 31 March 2009 (UTC)

We will not build a peaceful world by following a negative path. It is not enough to say we must not wage war. It is necessary to love peace and sacrifice for it. We must concentrate not merely on the negative expulsion of war but on the positive affirmation of peace. We must see that peace represents a sweeter music, a cosmic melody, that is far superior to the discords of war. Somehow, we must transform the dynamics of the world power struggle from the negative nuclear arms race, which no one can win, to a positive contest to harness humanity's creative genius for the purpose of making peace and prosperity a reality for all the nations of the world. In short, we must shift the arms race into a peace race. If we have a will — and determination — to mount such a peace offensive, we will unlock hitherto tightly sealed doors of hope and transform our imminent cosmic elegy into a psalm of creative fulfillment. ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

  • 3 Kalki 04:44, 29 March 2009 (UTC) with a strong lean toward 4, as a Peace quote and date of death.
  • 1 Zarbon 03:26, 31 March 2009 (UTC)

Letters are signs of things, symbols of words, whose power is so great that without a voice they speak to us the words of the absent; for they introduce words by the eye, not by the ear. ~ Isidore of Seville

It was the men I deceived the most that I loved the most. ~ Marguerite Duras

Accordingly, death is a harbor of peace for the just, but is believed a shipwreck for the wicked. ~ Ambrose

  • 2 Zarbon 03:26, 31 March 2009 (UTC)
  • 2 Kalki 08:00, 31 March 2009 (UTC) but would trim off "Accordingly"
  • 2 InvisibleSun 21:43, 3 April 2009 (UTC)

It is not death therefore that is burdensome, but the fear of death. ~ Ambrose

  • 4 Zarbon 03:26, 31 March 2009 (UTC)
  • 1 Kalki 08:00, 31 March 2009 (UTC) with a lean toward 2 (death remains burdensome, though fear of death can be more so.)
    • But that's exactly what the quote is saying. It's saying that fear of death is oftentimes worse than death itself. - Zarbon 22:16, 3 April 2009 (UTC)
The statement as phrased states "it is not" burdensome — but I don't accept that this is the case for death any more than it is for ignorance or confusion, no matter how little fear one might have of either them or of death. ~ Kalki 23:58, 3 April 2009 (UTC)

Mathematics is the science which draws necessary conclusions. ~ Benjamin Peirce (born 4 April 1809)

  • 3 Kalki 11:07, 16 April 2009 (UTC)

The fiercest serpent may be overcome by a swarm of ants. ~ Isoroku Yamamoto

Modern mass culture, aimed at the 'consumer', the civilisation of prosthetics, is crippling people's souls, setting up barriers between man and the crucial questions of his existence, his consciousness of himself as a spiritual being. ~ Andrei Tarkovsky

  • 3 DanielTom (talk) 04:26, 27 March 2013 (UTC)
  • 3 15:38, 3 April 2014 (UTC) with a lean toward 4. I actually was inclined to use this today, and motivated to devise a few layouts for it and add more by Tarkovsky, some of which I liked better, but in the end preferred to shift my preferences to one by Maya Angelou.
For me the most interesting characters are outwardly static, but inwardly charged by an overriding passion.
~ Andrei Tarkovsky ~
  • 3 15:38, 3 April 2014 (UTC)
Art is born and takes hold wherever there is a timeless and insatiable longing for the spiritual, for the ideal: that longing which draws people to art. Modern art has taken the wrong turn in abandoning the search for the meaning of existence in order to affirm the value of the individual for his own sake.
~ Andrei Tarkovsky ~
  • 3 15:38, 3 April 2014 (UTC) with a lean toward 4.
The artist is always the servant, and is perpetually trying to pay for the gift that has been given to him as if by a miracle. Modern man, however, does not want to make any sacrifice, even though true affirmation of the self can only be expressed in sacrifice. We are gradually forgetting about this, and at the same time, inevitably, losing all sense of human calling
~ Andrei Tarkovsky ~
  • 3 15:38, 3 April 2014 (UTC) with a lean toward 4.
The idea of infinity cannot be expressed in words or even described, but it can be apprehended through art, which makes infinity tangible. The absolute is only attainable through faith and in the creative act.
~ Andrei Tarkovsky ~
  • 3 15:38, 3 April 2014 (UTC) with a lean toward 4.
An artist cannot be partially sincere any more than art can be an approximation of beauty.
~ Andrei Tarkovsky ~
  • 3 15:38, 3 April 2014 (UTC)
What is the essence of the director's work? We could define it as sculpting in time.
~ Andrei Tarkovsky ~
  • 3 15:38, 3 April 2014 (UTC)
Objectivity can only be the author's and therefore subjective, even if he is editing a newsreel.
~ Andrei Tarkovsky ~
  • 3 15:38, 3 April 2014 (UTC) with a lean toward 4.
Never try to convey your idea to the audience — it is a thankless and senseless task. Show them life, and they'll find within themselves the means to assess and appreciate it.
~ Andrei Tarkovsky ~
  • 3 15:38, 3 April 2014 (UTC) with a lean toward 4.
If there are some who talk the same language as myself, then why should I neglect their interests for the sake of some other group of people who are alien and remote? they have their own "gods and idols" and we have nothing in common. … If you try to please audiences, uncritically accepting their tastes, it can only mean that you have no respect for them: that you simply want to collect their money.
~ Andrei Tarkovsky ~
  • 3 15:38, 3 April 2014 (UTC) with a lean toward 4.
A book read by a thousand different people is a thousand different books.
~ Andrei Tarkovsky ~
  • 3 15:38, 3 April 2014 (UTC)
We know perfectly well that neither love nor peace of mind can be bought with any currency.
~ Andrei Tarkovsky ~
  • 3 15:38, 3 April 2014 (UTC)
All of us are infected today with an extraordinary egoism. And that is not freedom; freedom means learning to demand only of oneself, not of life and others, and knowing how to give: sacrifice in the name of love.
~ Andrei Tarkovsky ~
  • 3 15:38, 3 April 2014 (UTC)
One can only be staggered by the hubris of modern artists if we compare them, say, to the humble builders of Chartres Cathedral whose names are not even known. The artist ought to be distinguished by selfless devotion to duty; but we forgot about that a long time ago.
~ Andrei Tarkovsky ~
  • 3 15:38, 3 April 2014 (UTC) with a lean toward 4.
Art must must carry man's craving for the ideal, must be an expression of his reaching out towards it; that art must give man hope and faith. And the more hopeless the world in the artist's version, the more clearly perhaps must we see the ideal that stands in opposition — otherwise life becomes impossible! Art symbolises the meaning of our existence.
~ Andrei Tarkovsky ~
  • 3 15:38, 3 April 2014 (UTC) with a lean toward 4.
My function is to make whoever sees my films aware of his need to love and to give his love, and aware the beauty is summoning him.
~ Andrei Tarkovsky ~
  • 3 15:38, 3 April 2014 (UTC) with a lean toward 4.
No drama, however great, is entirely independent of the stage on which it is given.
~ George Pierce Baker (dob) ~
  • 4 Lisa (talk) 08:15, 31 March 2021 (UTC) very powerful quote
  • 3 ♞☤☮♌︎Kalki ⚚⚓︎⊙☳☶⚡ 23:45, 3 April 2021 (UTC), if sourced, — but this currently needs sourcing.


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