Wikiquote

August 19

day of the year

Quotes of the day from previous years:

2003
There comes a point when a man must refuse to answer to his leader if he is also to answer to his own conscience. ~ Hartley Shawcross
2004
Comedy is simply a funny way of being serious. ~ Peter Ustinov
2005
Truth has such a face and such a mien As to be lov'd needs only to be seen. ~ John Dryden
2006
How are we to survive? Solemnity is not the answer, any more than witless and irresponsible frivolity is. I think our best chance lies in humor, which in this case means a wry acceptance of our predicament. We don't have to like it but we can at least recognize its ridiculous aspects, one of which is ourselves. ~ Ogden Nash
2007
Vast is the field of Science … the more a man knows, the more he will find he has to know. ~ Samuel Richardson
2008
Must I at length the Sword of Justice draw?
Oh curst Effects of necessary Law!
How ill my Fear they by my Mercy scan,
Beware the Fury of a Patient Man.
~ John Dryden ~
2009
Let those find fault whose wit's so very small,
They've need to show that they can think at all;
Errors, like straws, upon the surface flow;
He who would search for pearls, must dive below.
~ John Dryden ~
2010
Those who matter don't mind, and those who mind don't matter. ~ Bernard Baruch (born 19 August 1870)
2011
The person who will bear much shall have much to bear, all the world through. ~ Samuel Richardson
2012
I'm not smart. I try to observe. Millions saw the apple fall but Newton was the one who asked why.
~ Bernard Baruch ~
2013
Vast is the field of Science … the more a man knows, the more he will find he has to know.
~ Samuel Richardson ~
2014
Peace is never long preserved by weight of metal or by an armament race. Peace can be made tranquil and secure only by understanding and agreement fortified by sanctions. We must embrace international cooperation or international disintegration. Science has taught us how to put the atom to work. But to make it work for good instead of for evil lies in the domain dealing with the principles of human dignity. We are now facing a problem more of ethics than of physics.
~ Bernard Baruch ~
2015
Behind the black portent of the new atomic age lies a hope which, seized upon with faith, can work out salvation … Let us not deceive ourselves: we must elect world peace or world destruction.
~ Bernard Baruch ~
2016
The most exciting happiness is the happiness generated by forces beyond your control.
~ Ogden Nash ~
2017
A political leader must keep looking over his shoulder all the time to see if the boys are still there. If they aren’t still there, he’s no longer a political leader.
~ Bernard Baruch ~
2018
We need to create a world that is equitable, that is stable and a world where we bear in mind the needs of others, and not only what we need immediately. We are all in the same boat.
~ Kofi Annan ~
2019
I am forced, as I have often said, to try to make myself laugh, that I may not cry: for one or other I must do.
~ Samuel Richardson ~
2020
I have no desire to get ugly,
But I cannot help mentioning that the door of a bigoted mind opens outwards so that the only result of the pressure of facts upon it is to close it more snugly.
~ Ogden Nash ~
2021
Great wits are sure to madness near allied,
And thin partitions do their bounds divide.
~ John Dryden ~
2022
If we all worked on the assumption that what is accepted as true is really true, there would be little hope of advance.
~ Orville Wright ~
2023
Every man has a right to his own opinion, but no man has a right to be wrong in his facts.
~ Bernard Baruch ~
2024
We dared to hope we had invented something that would bring lasting peace to the earth. But we were wrong ... I don't have any regrets about my part in the invention of the airplane, though no one could deplore more than I do the destruction it has caused. I feel about the airplane much the same as I do in regard to fire. That is, I regret all the terrible damage caused by fire, but I think it is good for the human race that someone discovered how to start fires and that we have learned how to put fire to thousands of important uses.
~ Orville Wright ~
2025
Rank or add further suggestions…

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

  • Happy the man, and happy he alone,
    He who can call today his own;
    He who, secure within, can say,
    Tomorrow, do thy worst, for I have lived today.
    Be fair, or foul, or rain, or shine,
    The joys I have possessed, in spite of fate, are mine.
    Not heaven itself upon the past has power;
    But what has been, has been, and I have had my hour.
    ~ John Dryden, based on "Ode XXIX" of Horace ~
  • The gates of hell are open night and day;
    Smooth the descent, and easy is the way:
    But to return, and view the cheerful skies,
    In this the task and mighty labor lies.
    ~ John Dryden, translation of Virgil, Aeneid, vi, 126 ~

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.
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Suggestions

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At last I've found the secret,
that guarantees success.
To err, and err, and err again,
but less, and less, and less." ~ Ogden Nash (b. August 19, 1902)

  • 3 ~ MosheZadka (Talk) 06:59, 20 July 2005 (UTC)
  • 0 Kalki 20:18, 18 August 2005 (UTC) This seems very likely to be a very recent misattribution, and perhaps a variant translation or alteration of lines by Piet Hein. There appears to be only about a half dozen sites on the internet that attribute this to Ogden Nash, perhaps the earliest appearing in "Heuristics for Iterative Software Development" by Drasko Sotirovski, IEEE Software, vol. 18, no. 3, pp. 66-73, (May/June 2001) where the author states "...as Bob Glass has said, quoting Ogden Nash, "At last I've found the secret that guarantees success: to err, and err, and err again...". If it were truly an Ogden Nash poem it's citations would likely be far more prominent.
  • 0 Zarbon 15:46, 24 April 2008 (UTC)

Those who doubt most, always erred least. ~ Samuel Richardson (born August 19, 1689)

We are always just one successful terrorist attack away from a nuclear disaster. ~ Fred Thompson

O! what a Godlike Power is that of doing Good! — I envy the Rich and the Great for nothing else! ~ Samuel Richardson

  • 3 Kalki 22:10, 18 August 2009 (UTC) with a lean toward 4.
  • 2.5 //Gbern3 (talk) 01:10, 15 August 2013 (UTC)

Nothing can be more wounding to a spirit not ungenerous, than a generous forgiveness. ~ Samuel Richardson

  • 3 Kalki 22:10, 18 August 2009 (UTC)
  • 3 //Gbern3 (talk) 01:10, 15 August 2013 (UTC)

The mind can be but full. It will be as much filled with a small disagreeable occurrence, having no other, as with a large one. ~ Samuel Richardson

  • 3 Kalki 22:10, 18 August 2009 (UTC)
  • 2 //Gbern3 (talk) 01:10, 15 August 2013 (UTC)
Perhaps indeed the possession of wealth is constantly distressing,
But I should be quite willing to assume every curse of wealth if I could at the same time assume every blessing.
The only incurable troubles of the rich are the troubles that money can't cure,
Which is a kind of trouble that is even more troublesome if you are poor.
~ Ogden Nash ~
The weather is so very mild,
That some would call it warm.
Good gracious, aren't we lucky, child?
Here comes a thunderstorm.
~ Ogden Nash ~
Abracadabra, thus we learn
The more you create, the less you earn.
The less you earn, the more you’re given,
The less you lead, the more you’re driven,
The more destroyed, the more they feed,
The more you pay, the more they need,
The more you earn, the less you keep,
And now I lay me down to sleep.
~ Ogden Nash ~
Children aren't happy with nothing to ignore,
And that's what parents were created for.
~ Ogden Nash ~
Learning the secret of flight from a bird was a good deal like learning the secret of magic from a magician. After you once know the trick and know what to look for you see things that you did not notice when you did not know exactly what to look for.
~ Orville Wright ~


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