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December 27

day of the year

Quotes of the day from previous years:

2003
The time is always right to do what is right ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.
2004
Shall we make a new rule of life from tonight — always to try to be a little kinder than is necessary? ~ J. M. Barrie (100th Anniversary of first performance of Peter Pan)
2005
Except for the people who were there that one day they discovered the polio vaccine, being part of history is rarely a good idea. History is one war after another with a bunch of murders and natural disasters in between. ~ Sarah Vowell (born 27 December 1969)
2006
I am on the edge of mysteries and the veil is getting thinner and thinner. ~ Louis Pasteur (born 27 December 1822)
2007
I am utterly convinced that Science and Peace will triumph over Ignorance and War, that nations will eventually unite not to destroy but to edify, and that the future will belong to those who have done the most for the sake of suffering humanity. ~ Louis Pasteur
2008
There never is any such thing as one truth to be found in dramatic art. There are many. These truths challenge each other, recoil from each other, reflect each other, ignore each other, tease each other, are blind to each other. Sometimes you feel you have the truth of a moment in your hand, then it slips through your fingers and is lost. ~ Harold Pinter (recent death)
2009
Science knows no country, because knowledge belongs to humanity, and is the torch which illuminates the world. ~ Louis Pasteur
2010
One does not ask of one who suffers: What is your country and what is your religion? One merely says: You suffer, that is enough for me... ~ Louis Pasteur
2011
Let me tell you the secret that has lead me to my goal. My strength lies solely in my tenacity. ~ Louis Pasteur
2012
There is nothing of such force as the power of a person content merely to be himself, nothing so invincible as the power of simple honesty, nothing so successful as the life of one who runs alone.
~ Louis Bromfield ~
2013
What the world needs is more geniuses with humility; there are so few of us left.
~ Oscar Levant ~
2014
Science knows no country, because knowledge belongs to humanity, and is the torch which illuminates the world. Science is the highest personification of the nation because that nation will remain the first which carries the furthest the works of thought and intelligence.
~ Louis Pasteur ~
2015
It is a fallacy to think that carping is the strongest form of criticism: the important work begins after the artist's mistakes have been pointed out, and the reviewer can't put it off indefinitely with sneers, although some neophytes might be tempted to try: "When in doubt, stick out your tongue" is a safe rule that never cost one any readers. But there's nothing strong about it, and it has nothing to do with the real business of criticism, which is to do justice to the best work of one's time, so that nothing gets lost.
~ Wilfrid Sheed ~
2016

If we have faith in each other
Then we can be
Strong, baby

I will be your father figure
Put your tiny hand in mine
I will be your preacher teacher
Anything you have in mind
I will be your father figure
I have had enough of crime
I will be the one who loves you …
'Til the end of time.

~ George Michael ~
2017
He who proclaims the existence of the Infinite, and none can avoid it — accumulates in that affirmation more of the supernatural than is to be found in all the miracles of all the religions; for the notion of the Infinite presents that double character that forces itself upon us and yet is incomprehensible. When this notion seizes upon our understanding we can but kneel ... I see everywhere the inevitable expression of the Infinite in the world; through it the supernatural is at the bottom of every heart. The idea of God is a form of the idea of the Infinite. As long as the mystery of the infinite weighs on human thought, temples will be erected for the worship of the Infinite, whether God is called Brahma, Allah, Jehovah, or Jesus; and on the pavement of these temples, men will be seen kneeling, prostrated, annihilated by the thought of the Infinite.
~ Louis Pasteur ~
2018
The greatness of human actions is measured by the inspiration that it brings. Blessed is he who carries within himself a God, an ideal of beauty and obeys it: an ideal of art, ideal of science, ideal of country, ideal virtues of the Gospel! These are the wellsprings of great thoughts and great actions. All reflections illuminate infinity.
~ Louis Pasteur ~
2019
The Greeks understood the mysterious power of the hidden side of things. They bequeathed to us one of the most beautiful words in our language — the word "enthusiasm" — en theos [Εν Θεος] — a god within. The grandeur of human actions is measured by the inspiration from which they spring. Happy is he who bears a god within and obeys it.
~ Louis Pasteur ~
2020
Owing to this struggle for life, any variation, however slight and from whatever cause proceeding, if it be in any degree profitable to an individual of any species, in its infinitely complex relations to other organic beings and to external nature, will tend to the preservation of that individual, and will generally be inherited by its offspring. The offspring, also, will thus have a better chance of surviving, for, of the many individuals of any species which are periodically born, but a small number can survive. I have called this principle, by which each slight variation, if useful, is preserved, by the term of Natural Selection, in order to mark its relation to man's power of selection.
~ Charles Darwin ~
2021
Mankind has always made too much of its saints and heroes, and how the latter handle the fuss might be called their final test.
~ Louis Pasteur ~
2022
You bring me the deepest joy that can be felt by a man whose invincible belief is that Science and Peace will triumph over Ignorance and War, that nations will unite, not to destroy, but to build, and that the future will belong to those who will have done most for suffering humanity.
~ Louis Pasteur ~
2023
I don't say "Ho-ho-ho", but I do say "Oh-oh-oh" when I look out of the window, where I can see a night, then the evening, and then the night again.
The 20 days of my transportation were pretty exhausting, but I'm still in a good mood, as befits a Santa Claus. … I was transported with such precaution and on such a strange route … I didn't expect anyone to find me here before mid-January. That's why I was very surprised when the cell door was opened yesterday with the words: "A lawyer is here to see you". He told me that you had lost me, and some of you were even worried. Thanks very much for your support!
~ Alexei Navalny ~
  • proposed by Kalki; recent remarks after being located in a northern Russian prison camp.
2024
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Quotes by people born this day, already used as QOTD:

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Suggestions

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Whether or not Big Brother is watching us, we certainly have to watch him, which may be even worse. ~ Wilfrid Sheed (born December 27, 1930)

  • 3 InvisibleSun 17:10, 25 December 2007 (UTC)
  • 3 Kalki 18:06, 25 December 2007 (UTC)
  • 2 Zarbon 20:43, 26 April 2008 (UTC)

The desire not to destroy the palace but to move into it oneself has always been the occupational curse of revolutionaries. ~ Wilfrid Sheed

  • 3 InvisibleSun 17:10, 25 December 2007 (UTC)
  • 2 Kalki (talk · contributions) 20:10, 9 December 2010 (UTC) * 3 Kalki 18:06, 25 December 2007 (UTC) but with a lean toward 3 or even and eventual 4.
  • 3 because this is true. In history, many have abolished and created revolutions only to do the same their predecessors have done or even worse. Well said Sheed. Zarbon 20:43, 26 April 2008 (UTC)

There is a thin line between genius and insanity.
I have erased this line. ~ Oscar Levant

I have no trouble with my enemies. But my god damn friends... they are the ones that keep me walking the floors at night. ~ Oscar Levant

  • 3 Zarbon 04:17, 9 December 2008 (UTC)
  • 2 Kalki 14:15, 25 December 2008 (UTC)

There are two sides to every question: my side and the wrong side. ~ Oscar Levant

  • 3 Zarbon 04:17, 9 December 2008 (UTC)
  • 2 Kalki 14:15, 25 December 2008 (UTC)


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