Wikiquote

December 11

day of the year

Quotes of the day from previous years:

2003
Some mornings it just doesn't seem worth it to gnaw through the leather straps. ~ Emo Phillips
2004
I have never been especially impressed by the heroics of people convinced that they are about to change the world. I am more awed by those who struggle to make one small difference after another. ~ Ellen Goodman
2005
Woe to that nation whose literature is cut short by the intrusion of force. This is not merely interference with freedom of the press but the sealing up of a nation's heart, the excision of its memory. ~ Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (born 11 December 1918)
2006
In all our associations; in all our agreements let us never lose sight of this fundamental maxim — that all power was originally lodged in, and consequently is derived from, the people. ~ George Mason
2007
Let us not forget that violence does not live alone and is not capable of living alone: it is necessarily interwoven with falsehood. Between them lies the most intimate, the deepest of natural bonds. Violence finds its only refuge in falsehood, falsehood its only support in violence. Any man who has once acclaimed violence as his METHOD must inexorably choose falsehood as his PRINCIPLE. ~ Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
2008
The belief that there is only one truth and that oneself is in possession of it, seems to me the deepest root of all that is evil in the world. ~ Max Born (born 11 December 1882)
2009
If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart? ~ Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
2010
Our All is at Stake, and the little Conveniencys and Comforts of Life, when set in Competition with our Liberty, ought to be rejected not with Reluctance but with Pleasure. ~ George Mason
2011
There are metaphysical problems, which cannot be disposed of by declaring them meaningless. For, as I have repeatedly said, they are "beyond physics" indeed and demand an act of faith. We have to accept this fact to be honest. There are two objectionable types of believers: those who believe the incredible and those who believe that "belief" must be discarded and replaced by "the scientific method." ~ Max Born
2012
Existence is a mystery, and one should accept it as a mystery and not pretend to have any explanation. No, explanation is not needed — only exclamation, a wondering heart, awakened, surprised, feeling the mystery of life each moment. Then, and only then, you know what truth is. And truth liberates.
~ Osho ~
2013
We shall not look at caste or religion. All human beings in this land — whether they be those who preach the vedas or who belong to other castes — are one.
~ Subramanya Bharathi ~
2014
Of course God is endlessly multi-dimensional so every religion that exists on earth represents some face, some side of God. One must not have any negative attitude to any religion but nonetheless the depth of understanding God and the depth of applying God's commandments is different in different religions.
~ Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn ~
2015
All men are by nature equally free and independent, and have certain inherent rights, of which, when they enter into a state of society, they cannot by any compact deprive or divest their posterity; namely, the enjoyment of life and liberty, with the means of acquiring and possessing property, and pursuing and obtaining happiness and safety.
~ George Mason ~
2016
The freedom of the press is one of the great bulwarks of liberty, and can never be restrained but by despotic governments.
~ George Mason ~
2017
He who writes poetry is not a poet. He whose poetry has become his life, and who has made his life his poetry — it is he who is a poet.
~ Subramanya Bharathi ~
2018
In different places over the years I have had to prove that socialism, which to many western thinkers is a sort of kingdom of justice, was in fact full of coercion, of bureaucratic greed and corruption and avarice, and consistent within itself that socialism cannot be implemented without the aid of coercion. Communist propaganda would sometimes include statements such as "we include almost all the commandments of the Gospel in our ideology". The difference is that the Gospel asks all this to be achieved through love, through self-limitation, but socialism only uses coercion. This is one point.
Untouched by the breath of God, unrestricted by human conscience, both capitalism and socialism are repulsive.
~ Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn ~
2019
When we are at the summit of a vain ambition, we are also at the depth of real misery. We are placed where time cannot improve, but must impair us; where chance and change cannot befriend, but may betray us; in short, by attaining all we wish, and gaining all we want, we have only reached a pinnacle, where we have nothing to hope, but every thing to fear.
~ Charles Caleb Colton ~
2020
Practised in acts of despotism and cruelty, we become callous to the dictates of humanity and all the finer feelings of the soul. Taught to regard a part of our own Species in the most abject and contemptible Degree below us, we lose that Idea of the dignity of Man which the Hand of Nature had implanted in us, for great and useful purposes.
~ George Mason ~
2021
Fools! Do you argue, that things ancient ought, on that account, to be true and noble! Fallacies and Falsehoods there were from time immemorial, and dare you argue that because these are ancient these should prevail?
In ancient times, do you think that there was not the ignorant, and the shallow minded? And why after all should you embrace so fondly a carcass of dead thoughts. Live in the present and shape the future, do not be casting lingering looks to the distant past for the past has passed away, never again to return.
~ Subramanya Bharathi ~
2022
Can a man who's warm understand one who's freezing?
~ Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn ~
2023
I am of course confident that I will fulfill my tasks as a writer in all circumstances — from my grave even more successfully and more irrefutably than in my lifetime. No one can bar the road to truth, and to advance its cause I am prepared to accept even death. But may it be that repeated lessons will finally teach us not to stop the writer’s pen during his lifetime? At no time has this ennobled our history.
~ Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn ~
2024
There is a Passion natural to the Mind of man, especially a free Man, which renders him impatient of Restraint.
~ George Mason ~
2025
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Suggestions

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Oh, Be A Fine Girl - Kiss Me! ~ Mnemonic for remembering the star classification established by Annie Jump Cannon, born that day

  • 2 ~ UDScott 23:09, 28 November 2005 (UTC)
  • 1 InvisibleSun 22:37, 10 December 2006 (UTC)
  • 1 Kalki 23:35, 10 December 2006 (UTC)
  • 1 Zarbon 16:10, 26 April 2008 (UTC)

Sins are not forgiven to anyone, unless when the priest forgives them he believes they are forgiven. ~ Pope Leo X (born December 11, 1475)

  • 3 Zarbon 05:37, 9 November 2008 (UTC)
  • 1 InvisibleSun 22:44, 10 December 2008 (UTC)
  • 1 Kalki 00:02, 11 December 2008 (UTC)

Nobody can teach you love. Love you have to find yourself, within your being, by raising your consciousness to higher levels. ~ Osho (born December 11, 1931)

  • 2 Zarbon 05:37, 9 November 2008 (UTC)
  • 2 InvisibleSun 22:44, 10 December 2008 (UTC)
  • 3 Kalki 00:02, 11 December 2008 (UTC) with a strong lean toward 4.

How do you ask a man to be the last man to die in Vietnam? How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake? `John Kerry, Testimony before subcommittees of the U.S. Senate, April, 1971 (this is his birthday)

  • 3 Matchups 20:51, 4 December 2008 (UTC)
  • 1 Zarbon 06:08, 6 December 2008 (UTC)
  • 2 InvisibleSun 22:44, 10 December 2008 (UTC)
  • 2 Kalki 00:02, 11 December 2008 (UTC)

Any mundane activity can become meditative. Digging a hole in the garden, planting new roses in the garden — you can do it with such tremendous love and compassion, you can do it with the hands of a buddha. There is no contradiction … I say unto you, your every act should be a ceremony. ~ Osho

  • 3 Kalki 00:02, 11 December 2008 (UTC) with a very strong lean toward 4.
  • 3 Zarbon 05:12, 11 December 2008 (UTC)

Be realistic: Plan for a miracle. ~ Osho

  • 3 Kalki 00:02, 11 December 2008 (UTC) with a lean toward 4.
  • 2 Zarbon 05:12, 11 December 2008 (UTC)
Practised in acts of despotism and cruelty, we become callous to the dictates of humanity and all the finer feelings of the soul. Taught to regard a part of our own Species in the most abject and contemptible Degree below us, we lose that Idea of the dignity of Man which the Hand of Nature had implanted in us, for great and useful purposes. Habituated from our Infancy to trample upon the Rights of Human Nature, every generous, every liberal Sentiment, if not extinguished, is enfeebled in our Minds; and in such an infernal school are to be educated our future legislators and rulers. The laws of impartial Providence may even by such means as these avenge upon our posterity the injury done to a set of wretches whom our injustice hath debased to a level with the brute creation.
~ George Mason ~
Happiness and Prosperity are now within our Reach; but to attain and preserve them must depend upon our own Wisdom and Virtue.
~ George Mason ~
The same causes will generally produce the same effects; and it requires no great degree of penetration to foretell that what has happened may happen again.
~ George Mason ~


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