Wikiquote

August 22

day of the year

Quotes of the day from previous years:

2003
I don't know anything about music. In my line you don't have to. ~ Elvis Presley
2004
The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong. ~ Mahatma Gandhi
2005
By a free country, I mean a country where people are allowed, so long as they do not hurt their neighbours, to do as they like. I do not mean a country where six men may make five men do exactly as they like. ~ Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury (died 22 August 1903)
2006
No lesson seems to be so deeply inculcated by the experience of life as that you should never trust experts. If you believe doctors, nothing is wholesome: if you believe the theologians, nothing is innocent: if you believe the soldiers, nothing is safe. They all require their strong wine diluted by a very large admixture of insipid common sense. ~ Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, Lord Salisbury (died 22 August 1903)
2007
I wish to write down my musical dreams in a spirit of utter self-detachment. I wish to sing of my interior visions with the naïve candour of a child. No doubt, this simple musical grammar will jar on some people. It is bound to offend the partisans of deceit and artifice. I foresee that and rejoice at it. ~ Claude Debussy (born 22 August 1862)
2008
Leadership is a potent combination of strategy and character. But if you must be without one, be without the strategy. ~ Norman Schwarzkopf, Jr.
2009
Works of art make rules but rules do not make works of art. ~ Claude Debussy
2010
A gram of experience is worth a ton of theory. ~ Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, Lord Salisbury (died 22 August 1903)
2011
Parliament is a potent engine, and its enactments must always do something, but they very seldom do what the originators of these enactments meant. - Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury
2012
The picture-story involves a joint operation of the brain, the eye and the heart. The objective of this joint operation is to depict the content of some event which is in the process of unfolding, and to communicate impressions. Sometimes a single event can be so rich in itself and its facets that it is necessary to move all around it in your search for the solution to the problems it poses — for the world is movement, and you cannot be stationary in your attitude toward something that is moving. Sometimes you light upon the picture in seconds; it might also require hours or days. But there is no standard plan, no pattern from which to work.
~ Henri Cartier-Bresson ~
2013
I love music passionately. And because l love it, I try to free it from barren traditions that stifle it.
~ Claude Debussy ~
2014
At the center of religion is love. I love you and I forgive you. I am like you and you are like me. I love all people. I love the world. I love creating. Everything in our life should be based on love.
~ Ray Bradbury ~
2015
There is more than one way to burn a book. And the world is full of people running about with lit matches. Every minority, be it Baptist/Unitarian, Irish/Italian/Octogenarian/Zen Buddhist, Zionist/Seventh-day Adventist, Women's Lib/Republican, Mattachine/FourSquareGospel feels it has the will, the right, the duty to douse the kerosene, light the fuse. Every dimwit editor who sees himself as the source of all dreary blanc-mange plain porridge unleavened literature, licks his guillotine and eyes the neck of any author who dares to speak above a whisper or write above a nursery rhyme.
~ Ray Bradbury ~
2016
We are the miracle of force and matter making itself over into imagination and will. Incredible. The Life Force experimenting with forms. You for one. Me for another. The Universe has shouted itself alive. We are one of the shouts.
~ Ray Bradbury ~
2017
I learned from my dad that when you walk in front of an audience, they are the kings and queens, and you’re but the jester — and if you don’t think that way, you’re going to get very, very conceited.
~ Jerry Lewis ~
2018
And what, you ask, does writing teach us?
First and foremost, it reminds us that we are alive and that it is gift and a privilege, not a right. We must earn life once it has been awarded us. Life asks for rewards back because it has favored us with animation.
So while our art cannot, as we wish it could, save us from wars, privation, envy, greed, old age, or death, it can revitalize us amidst it all.
~ Ray Bradbury ~
2019
Why have you been so blind?
Why have you never seen?
The slave and master in one skin
Is all your history, no more, no less,
Confess! This is what you've been.
~ Ray Bradbury ~
2020
It doesn't take a hero to order men into battle. It takes a hero to be one of those men who goes into battle.
~ Norman Schwarzkopf, Jr. ~
2021
People ask me to predict the future, when all I want to do is prevent it. Better yet, build it. Predicting the future is much too easy, anyway. You look at the people around you, the street you stand on, the visible air you breathe, and predict more of the same. To hell with more. I want better.
~ Ray Bradbury ~
2022
A professional soldier understands that war means killing people, war means maiming people, war means families left without fathers and mothers.
All you have to do is hold your first dying soldier in your arms, and have that terribly futile feeling that his life is flowing out and you can’t do anything about it. Then you understand the horror of war.
Any soldier worth his salt should be anti-war.
And still there are things worth fighting for.
~ Norman Schwarzkopf, Jr. ~
2023
Stuff your eyes with wonder . . . live as if you'd drop dead in ten seconds. See the world. It's more fantastic than any dream made or paid for in factories.
~ Ray Bradbury ~
2024
Kamala Harris, is more than ready for this moment. She is one of the most qualified people ever to seek the office of the presidency. And she is one of the most dignified — a tribute to her mother, to my mother, and to your mother too. The embodiment of the stories we tell ourselves about this country. Her story is your story. It’s my story. It’s the story of the vast majority of Americans trying to build a better life. … Kamala knows, like we do, that regardless of where you come from, what you look like, who you love, how you worship, or what’s in your bank account, we all deserve the opportunity to build a decent life. All of our contributions deserve to be accepted and valued. Because no one has a monopoly on what it means to be an American. No one.
Kamala has shown her allegiance to this nation, not by spewing anger and bitterness, but by living a life of service and always pushing the doors of opportunity open to others. She understands that most of us will never be afforded the grace of failing forward. We will never benefit from the affirmative action of generational wealth. If we bankrupt a business or choke in a crisis, we don’t get a second, third, or fourth chance. If things don’t go our way, we don’t have the luxury of whining or cheating others to get further ahead. No. We don’t get to change the rules so we always win. If we see a mountain in front of us, we don’t expect there to be an escalator waiting to take us to the top. No. We put our heads down. We get to work. In America, we do something.
And throughout her entire life, that’s what we’ve seen from Kamala Harris, the steel of her spine, the steadiness of her upbringing, the honesty of her example, and yes, the joy of her laughter and her light.
~ Michelle Obama ~
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
Battle of Bosworth Field
DOB: Ray Bradbury · Henri Cartier-Bresson · Claude Debussy · Valerie Harper · Scooter Libby · Dorothy Parker · Norman Schwarzkopf, Jr.

I'm never going to accomplish anything; that's perfectly clear to me. I'm never going to be famous. My name will never be writ large on the roster of Those Who Do Things. I don't do anything. Not one single thing. I used to bite my nails, but I don't even do that any more. ~ Dorothy Parker

  • 3 ~ MosheZadka (Talk) 07:08, 20 July 2005 (UTC) (just for the extreme case of irony)
  • 3 I hadn't heard of her anyway but assume she's well known. AllanHainey 12:00, 26 July 2005 (UTC)
  • 1 Kalki 04:31, 21 August 2007 (UTC) I'd prefer something else by her.
  • 1 Zarbon 15:56, 24 April 2008 (UTC)
  • 1 InvisibleSun 18:18, 21 August 2008 (UTC)

You can't teach an old dogma new tricks. ~ Dorothy Parker

  • 3 Kalki 22:48, 21 August 2006 (UTC)
  • 3 InvisibleSun 23:52, 21 August 2007 (UTC)
  • 2 because I strongly dislike dogmatism. Zarbon 15:56, 24 April 2008 (UTC)

The truth of the matter is that you always know the right thing to do. The hard part is doing it. ~ Norman Schwarzkopf, Jr.

Joy is the grace we say to God. ~ Ray Bradbury

We do need knowledge. And perhaps in a thousand years we might pick smaller cliffs to jump off. The books are to remind us what asses and fools we are. ~ Ray Bradbury

We must move into the universe. Mankind must save itself. We must escape the danger of war and politics. We must become astronauts and go out into the universe and discover the God in ourselves. ~ Ray Bradbury

Insanity is relative. It depends on who has who locked in what cage. ~ Ray Bradbury

If you don't want a man unhappy politically, don't give him two sides to a question to worry him; give him one. Better yet, give him none. ~ Ray Bradbury

There was always a minority afraid of something, and a great majority afraid of the dark, afraid of the future, afraid of the past, afraid of the present, afraid of themselves and shadows of themselves. ~ Ray Bradbury

If you hide your ignorance, no one will hit you, and you'll never learn. ~ Ray Bradbury

I'm being ironic. Don't interrupt a man in the midst of being ironic, it's not polite. ~ Ray Bradbury

We never sit anything out. We are cups, constantly and quietly being filled. The trick is knowing how to tip ourselves over and let the beautiful stuff out. ~ Ray Bradbury

Mysteries abound where most we seek for answers. ~ Ray Bradbury

Digression is the soul of wit. Take the philosophic asides away from Dante, Milton or Hamlet's father's ghost and what stays is dry bones. ~ Ray Bradbury

That so much time was wasted in this pain.
Ten thousand years ago he might have let off down
To not return again!
A dreadful laugh at last escapes his lips;
The laughter sets him free.
A Fool lives in the Universe! he cries.
The Fool is me!
And with one final shake of laughter
Breaks his bonds.
The nails fall skittering to marble floors.
And Christ, knelt at the rail, sees miracle
As Man steps down in amiable wisdom
To give himself what no one else can give:
His liberty.
~ Ray Bradbury

Trapped in the blood, athirst for air,
Christ, who once was employed as single Son of God
Now finds Himself among three billion on a billion
Brother sons, their arms thrown wide to grasp and hold
and walk them everywhere
Now weaving this, now weaving that in swoons…
~ Ray Bradbury

I am the dreamer and the doer
I the hearer and the knower
I the giver and the taker
I the sword and the wound of sword.
If this be true, then let sword fall free from hand.
I embrace myself.
I laugh until I weep
And weep until I smile…

Leave off losings, and take on winnings, Erase all mortal ends, give birth to only new beginnings,
In a billion years of morning and a billion years of sleep.
~ Ray Bradbury

  • 3 Kalki (talk · contributions) 00:55, 29 September 2011 (UTC) with a very strong lean toward 4, but with perhaps the last couple lines trimmed off.
True courage is being afraid, and going ahead and doing your job.
~ Norman Schwarzkopf, Jr. ~
A horse! A horse! My kingdom for a horse!
~ William Shakespeare, Richard III ~

We could find much more relevant ones to the ongoing global situation, but anyway it wouldn't be toxic to remember Battle of Bosworth was fought in this day, 1485-08-22. --Aphaia (talk) 16:15, 20 August 2021 (UTC)



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