Wikiquote

December 20

day of the year

Quotes of the day from previous years:

2004
The dark night of the soul comes just before revelation. When everything is lost, and all seems darkness, then comes the new life and all that is needed. ~ Joseph Campbell
2005
For most of human history we have searched for our place in the cosmos. Who are we? What are we? We find that we inhabit an insignificant planet of a hum-drum star lost in a galaxy tucked away in some forgotten corner of a universe in which there are far more galaxies than people. We make our world significant by the courage of our questions, and by the depth of our answers. ~ Carl Sagan (died 20 December 1996)
2006
Learn this lesson, that to be self-contented is to be vile and ignorant, and that to aspire is better than to be blindly and impotently happy. ~ Edwin Abbott Abbott (Born 20 December 1838)
2007
This I believe: that the free, exploring mind of the individual human is the most valuable thing in the world. And this I would fight for: the freedom of the mind to take any direction it wishes, undirected. And this I must fight against: any religion, or government which limits or destroys the individual. This is what I am and what I am about. I can understand why a system built on a pattern must try to destroy the free mind, for it is the one thing which can by inspection destroy such a system. Surely I can understand this, and I hate it and I will fight against it to preserve the one thing that separates us from the uncreative beasts. If the glory can be killed, we are lost. ~ John Steinbeck
2008
I have come to believe that a great teacher is a great artist and that there are as few as there are any other great artists. It might even be the greatest of the arts since the medium is the human mind and spirit. ~ John Steinbeck
2009
Man is his own star, and the soul that can
Render an honest and a perfect man
Commands all light, all influence, all fate.
Nothing to him falls early, or too late.
Our acts our angels are, or good or ill,
Our fatal shadows that walk by us still.
~ John Fletcher (baptized 20 December 1579)
2010
We have reversed the usual classical notion that the independent "elementary parts" of the world are the fundamental reality, and that the various systems are merely particular contingent forms and arrangements of these parts. Rather, we say that inseparable quantum interconnectedness of the whole universe is the fundamental reality, and that relatively independent behaving parts are merely particular and contingent forms within this whole. ~ David Bohm
2011
Men are divided in opinion as to the facts. And even granting the facts, they explain them in different ways. ~ Edwin Abbott Abbott
2012
Individuality is only possible if it unfolds from wholeness.
~ David Bohm ~
2013
You call me a Circle; but in reality I am not a Circle, but an infinite number of Circles... For even a Sphere — which is my proper name in my own country — if he manifest himself at all to an inhabitant of Flatland — must needs manifest himself as a Circle.
~ Edwin Abbott Abbott ~
2014
Why should the thirst for knowledge be aroused, only to be disappointed and punished? My volition shrinks from the painful task of recalling my humiliation; yet, like a second Prometheus, I will endure this and worse, if by any means I may arouse in the interiors of Plane and Solid Humanity a spirit of rebellion against the Conceit which would limit our Dimensions to Two or Three or any number short of Infinity.
~ Edwin Abbott Abbott ~
2015
I see a fulfilment of the great Law of all worlds, that while the wisdom of Man thinks it is working one thing, the wisdom of Nature constrains it to work another, and quite a different and far better thing.
~ Edwin Abbott Abbott ~
2016
Let me tell you something you already know. The world ain't all sunshine and rainbows. It's a very mean and nasty place, and I don't care how tough you are, it will beat you to your knees and keep you there permanently if you let it. You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain't about how hard you hit. It's about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward; how much you can take and keep moving forward. That's how winning is done! Now, if you know what you're worth, then go out and get what you're worth. But you gotta be willing to take the hits, and not pointing fingers saying you ain't where you wanna be because of him, or her, or anybody. Cowards do that and that ain't you. You're better than that!
~ Rocky Balboa ~
2017
בָּרוּךְ אַתָּה ה', אֱ-לֹהֵינוּ מֶלֶךְ הָעוֹלָם, אֲשֶׁר קִדְּשָׁנוּ בְּמִצְוֹתָיו, וְצִוָּנוּ לְהַדְלִיק נֵר חֲנֻכָּה.
Blessed are You, Lord our God, King of the universe, who has sanctified us by His commandments, and has commanded us to kindle the lights of Hanukkah.
~ Traditional blessing in lighting the lights of Hanukkah ~
  • proposed by Kalki for the last day of Hanukkah, 2017.
2018
I exist in the hope that these memoirs, in some manner, I know not how, may find their way to the minds of humanity in Some Dimension, and may stir up a race of rebels who shall refuse to be confined to limited Dimensionality.
That is the hope of my brighter moments.
~ Edwin Abbott Abbott ~
2019
Our enemy really isn't capitalism, it's cynicism. That's one the things I learned from Woody … Not to be cynical … That cynicism … It destroys you, it rots you away from the inside. So that sense of optimism and humanity … which 20 years ago I would have called socialism but now I'll call compassion … You know, that idea is still out there and alive and if you can plug into that and encourage that it makes it all worth while.
~ Billy Bragg ~
2020
If I am right in saying that thought is the ultimate origin or source, it follows that if we don't do anything about thought, we won't get anywhere. We may momentarily relieve the population problem, the ecological problem, and so on, but they will come back in another way.
~ David Bohm ~
2021
To be self-contented is to be vile and ignorant, and that to aspire is better than to be blindly and impotently happy.
~ Edwin Abbott Abbott ~
2022
In a work of art, however modest, the peculiar character of life is always reflected in the fact that it has no parts which keep their qualitative identity in isolation. In the simplest design, the virtual constituents are indivisible, and inalienable from the whole.
~ Susanne Langer ~
2023
The way a question is asked limits and disposes the ways in which any answer to it — right or wrong — may be given.
~ Susanne Langer ~
2024
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Suggestions

edit

There is no jesting with edge tools. ~ John Fletcher

  • 3 Kalki 23:39, 19 December 2006 (UTC) with a very strong lean toward 4.
  • 1 Zarbon 19:48, 26 April 2008 (UTC)
  • 3 InvisibleSun 21:55, 19 December 2008 (UTC)
  • 1 Antiquary 22:47, 19 December 2008 (UTC). The connection with John Fletcher (and hence December 20) is rather loose, since he was only using a long-established proverb. The Oxford Dictionary of English Proverbs records it from 1510.

I looked, and, behold, a new world! There stood before me, visibly incorporate, all that I had before inferred, conjectured, dreamed, of perfect Circular beauty. What seemed the centre of the Stranger's form lay open to my view: yet I could see no heart, nor lungs, nor arteries, only a beautiful harmonious Something — for which I had no words; but you, my Readers in Spaceland, would call it the surface of the Sphere. ~ Edwin Abbott Abbott

  • 3 Kalki 23:39, 19 December 2006 (UTC) with a lean toward 4.
  • 1 Zarbon 19:48, 26 April 2008 (UTC)
  • 3 InvisibleSun 21:55, 19 December 2008 (UTC)
  • 2 Antiquary 22:47, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

The ability to perceive or think differently is more important than the knowledge gained. ~ David Bohm

  • 2 Zarbon 15:32, 7 December 2008 (UTC)
  • 2 Kalki 02:01, 11 December 2008 (UTC) with a lean toward 3 or even 4, now that it is sourced.

This is our culture; fight for it. This is our flag; pick it up. This is our country; take it back. ~ Tom Tancredo

  • 3 Zarbon 15:32, 7 December 2008 (UTC)
  • 1 Kalki 02:01, 11 December 2008 (UTC)
  • 1 InvisibleSun 21:55, 19 December 2008 (UTC)
  • 1 Antiquary 22:47, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

A patriot is someone who cares what happens in their country. ~ Billy Bragg

  • 2 Zarbon 15:32, 7 December 2008 (UTC)
  • 1 Kalki 02:01, 11 December 2008 (UTC)
  • 1 InvisibleSun 21:55, 19 December 2008 (UTC)
  • 2 Antiquary 22:47, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

Art is the objectification of feeling. ~ Susanne Langer

  • 3 or in other words...bringing feelings to life through artwork. Zarbon 15:32, 7 December 2008 (UTC)
  • 2 Kalki 02:01, 11 December 2008 (UTC)
  • 2 InvisibleSun 21:55, 19 December 2008 (UTC)
  • 2 Antiquary 22:47, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

Music is the tonal analogue of emotive life. ~ Susanne Langer

  • 2 Zarbon 15:32, 7 December 2008 (UTC)
  • 2 Kalki 02:01, 11 December 2008 (UTC)
  • 2 InvisibleSun 21:55, 19 December 2008 (UTC)
  • 2 Antiquary 22:47, 19 December 2008 (UTC)

From dreams I proceed to facts. ~ Edwin Abbott Abbott

  • 3 Kalki 02:01, 11 December 2008 (UTC) with a strong lean toward 4.
  • 2 Zarbon 05:31, 11 December 2008 (UTC)
  • 2 InvisibleSun 21:55, 19 December 2008 (UTC)
  • 2 Antiquary 22:47, 19 December 2008 (UTC)
I was rapidly descending; and I knew that return to Flatland was my doom. One glimpse, one last and never-to-be-forgotten glimpse I had of that dull level wilderness — which was now to become my Universe again — spread out before my eye. Then a darkness. Then a final, all-consummating thunder-peal; and, when I came to myself, I was once more a common creeping Square, in my Study at home, listening to the Peace-Cry of my approaching Wife.
~ Edwin Abbott Abbott ~
Besotted Being! You think yourself the perfection of existence, while you are in reality the most imperfect and imbecile. You profess to see, whereas you can see nothing but a Point!
~ Edwin Abbott Abbott ~
My Lord, your own wisdom has taught me to aspire to One even more great, more beautiful, and more closely approximate to Perfection than yourself. As you yourself, superior to all Flatland forms, combine many Circles in One, so doubtless there is One above you who combines many Spheres in One Supreme Existence, surpassing even the Solids of Spaceland. And even as we, who are now in Space, look down on Flatland and see the insides of all things, so of a certainty there is yet above us some higher, purer region, whither thou dost surely purpose to lead me — O Thou Whom I shall always call, everywhere and in all Dimensions, my Priest, Philosopher, and Friend — some yet more spacious Space, some more dimensionable Dimensionality, from the vantage-ground of which we shall look down together upon the revealed insides of Solid things, and where thine own intestines, and those of thy kindred Spheres, will lie exposed to the view of the poor wandering exile from Flatland, to whom so much has already been vouchsafed.
~ Edwin Abbott Abbott ~
It is not for me to classify human faculties according to merit. Yet many of the best and wisest in Spaceland think more of the affections than of the understanding, more of your despised Straight Lines than of your belauded Circles.
~ Edwin Abbott Abbott ~
"I am indeed, in a certain sense a Circle," replied the Voice, "and a more perfect Circle than any in Flatland; but to speak more accurately, I am many Circles in one."
~ Edwin Abbott Abbott ~
Behold yon miserable creature. That Point is a Being like ourselves, but confined to the non-dimensional Gulf. He is himself his own World, his own Universe; of any other than himself he can form no conception; he knows not Length, nor Breadth, nor Height, for he has had no experience of them; he has no cognizance even of the number Two; nor has he a thought of Plurality; for he is himself his One and All, being really Nothing. Yet mark his perfect self-contentment, and hence learn this lesson, that to be self-contented is to be vile and ignorant, and that to aspire is better than to be blindly and impotently happy.
~ Edwin Abbott Abbott ~
If we would have new knowledge, we must get us a whole world of new questions.
~ Susanne Langer ~
Common-sense knowledge is prompt, categorical, and inexact.
~ Susanne Langer ~
Philosophical questions are not by their nature insoluble. They are, indeed, radically different from scientific questions, because they concern the implications and other interrelations of ideas, not the order of physical events; their answers are interpretations instead of factual reports, and their function is to increase not our knowledge of nature, but our understanding of what we know.
~ Susanne Langer ~
It is the historical mind, rather than the scientific (in the physicist's sense), that destroyed the mythical orientation of European culture; the historian, not the mathematician, introduced the "higher criticism," the standard of actual fact. It is he who is the real apostle of the realistic age. Science builds its structure of hypothetical "elements" and laws of their behavior, touching on reality at crucial points. … But the historian does not locate known facts in a hypothetical, general pattern of processes; his aim is to link fact to fact, one unique knowable event to another individual one that begot it.
~ Susanne Langer ~
Tragedy dramatizes human life as potentiality and fulfillment. Its virtual future, or Destiny, is therefore quite different from that created in comedy. Comic Destiny is Fortune—what the world will bring, and the man will take or miss, encounter or escape; tragic Destiny is what the man brings, and the world will demand of him. That is his Fate.
~ Susanne Langer ~
The arts objectify subjective reality, and subjectify outward experience of nature. Art education is the education of feeling, and a society that neglects it gives itself up to formless emotion. Bad art is corruption of feeling.
~ Susanne Langer ~
The primal and perennial work of social organization is not to fix the bounds of behavior as permanent lines, which would make all evolutionary process impossible, but to retrieve the vital balance every time some act, public or private, has upset it.
~ Susanne Langer ~


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