February 10

day of the year

Quotes of the day from previous years:

2004
Misunderstandings and neglect occasion more mischief in the world than even malice and wickedness. At all events, the two latter are of less frequent occurrence. ~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe in The Sorrows of Young Werther
2005
Be nice to people on your way up, because you're going to meet them all on your way down. ~ Jimmy Durante (born 10 February 1893)
2006
What for centuries raised man above the beast is not the cudgel but the irresistible power of unarmed truth. ~ Boris Pasternak (born 10 February 1890)
2007
I have read descriptions of Paradise that would make any sensible person stop wanting to go there. ~ Charles de Montesquieu (died 10 February 1755)
  • proposed by Fys
2008
Our theater must stimulate a desire for understanding, a delight in changing reality. Our audience must experience not only the ways to free Prometheus, but be schooled in the very desire to free him. Theater must teach all the pleasures and joys of discovery, all the feelings of triumph associated with liberation. ~ Bertolt Brecht (born 10 February 1898)
2009
Don't be afraid of death so much as an inadequate life. ~ Bertolt Brecht
2010
Reason gains all men, by compelling none.
Mercy was always Heaven's distinguished mark:
And he, who bears it not, has no friend there.
~ Aaron Hill ~
  • proposed by Fys
2011
Let nothing be called natural
In an age of bloody confusion,
Ordered disorder, planned caprice,
And dehumanized humanity, lest all things
Be held unalterable!

~ Bertolt Brecht ~
2012
No one can be good for long if goodness is not in demand. ~ Bertolt Brecht
2013
Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.
~ Jesus Christ ~
  • proposed by Kalki as one of the most famous and striking quotes about serpents, for the start of the Chinese Year of the Snake
2014
Society cannot share a common communication system so long as it is split into warring factions.
~ Bertolt Brecht ~
  • proposed by Fys
2015
Don't put no constrictions on da people. Leave 'em ta hell alone.
~ Jimmy Durante ~
2016
Courage is poorly housed that dwells in numbers; the lion never counts the herd that are about him, nor weighs how many flocks he has to scatter.
~ Aaron Hill ~
2017
I think that if the beast who sleeps in man could be held down by threats — any kind of threat, whether of jail or of retribution after death — then the highest emblem of humanity would be the lion tamer in the circus with his whip, not the prophet who sacrificed himself. … What has for centuries raised man above the beast is not the cudgel but an inward music: the irresistible power of unarmed truth, the powerful attraction of its example.
~ Boris Pasternak ~
2018
It has always been assumed that the most important things in the Gospels are the ethical maxims and commandments. But for me the most important thing is that Christ speaks in parables taken from life, that He explains the truth in terms of everyday reality. The idea that underlies this is that communion between mortals is immortal, and that the whole of life is symbolic because it is meaningful.
~ Boris Pasternak ~
2019
The great majority of us are required to live a life of constant duplicity. Your health is bound to be affected if, day after day, you say the opposite of what you feel, if you grovel before what you dislike, and rejoice at what brings you nothing but misfortune. Our nervous system isn't just a fiction, it's part of our physical body, and our souls exists in space and is inside us, like the teeth in the mouth. It can't forever be violated with impunity.
~ Boris Pasternak ~
2020
I believe that cruelty, spite,
The powers of darkness will in time
Be crushed by the spirit of light.
~ Boris Pasternak ~
2021
What is laid down, ordered, factual is never enough to embrace the whole truth: life always spills over the rim of every cup.
~ Boris Pasternak ~
2022
How sickness enlarges the dimensions of a man's self to himself! he is his own exclusive object. Supreme selfishness is inculcated upon him as his only duty.
~ Charles Lamb ~
2023
I knew I was doing things different but at the same time I was doing things that were very natural for me … I wasn’t trying to break any rules. But I wrote the way I heard things.
~ Burt Bacharach ~
  • proposed by Kalki; in regard of his recent death.
2024
Politics is developing more comedians than radio ever did.
~ Jimmy Durante ~
2025
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The man who laughs has simply not yet had the terrible news. ~ Bertolt Brecht.


I love to lose myself in other men's minds. ~ Charles Lamb (born February 10, 1775)

  • 3 InvisibleSun 21:05, 9 February 2007 (UTC)
  • 2 Kalki 23:45, 9 February 2007 (UTC)
  • 1 Zarbon 22:08, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

I am determined my children shall be brought up in their father's religion, if they can find out what it is. - Charles Lamb

  • 3 InvisibleSun 21:05, 9 February 2007 (UTC)
  • 3 Kalki 23:45, 9 February 2007 (UTC)
  • 1 Zarbon 22:08, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

What answer can we give to the families of victims of the Karabakh movement and to those who have become disabled. Why did their sons fight? And about Turkey, we cannot leave the word genocide out of our vocabulary and forget about the 1.5 million victims. ~ Mikael Harutyunyan (born February 10)

  • 3 Zarbon 05:01, 18 April 2008 (UTC)
  • 1 Kalki 23:21, 8 February 2009 (UTC)

Youth is ever apt to judge in haste,
And lose the medium in the wild extreme,
Do not repent, but regulate your passion:
Though love is reason, its excess is rage.
Give me, at least, your promise to reflect,
In cool, impartial solitude, and still.
No last decision till we meet again.

~ Aaron Hill ~


You talk no more of that gay nation now,
Where men adore their wives, and woman's power
Draws reverence from a polished people's softness,
Their husbands' equals, and their lovers' queens;
Free without scandal; wise without restraint;
Their virtue due to nature, not to fear.

~ Aaron Hill ~


Joys, which we do not know, we do not wish. ~ Aaron Hill ~


Tender-handed stroke a nettle,
And it stings you for your pains;
Grasp it like a man of mettle,
And it soft as silk remains.

’Tis the same with common natures:
Use ’em kindly, they rebel;
But be rough as nutmeg-graters,
And the rogues obey you well.

~ Aaron Hill ~


I say on the air all time, "if you take what I say as gospel, you're an idiot." ~ Glenn Beck

  • 3 Kalki (talk · contributions) 05:47, 22 January 2011 (UTC) with a lean toward 4; a statement by Beck which I can fully agree with, and with extreme emphasis.

When you choose the path, you choose the destination. ~ Glenn Beck


Political Correctness doesn't change us, it shuts us up. ~ Glenn Beck


Most times we're so focused on what we think we want that we can't appreciate how happy we already are. It's only when we forget about our problems and help others forget theirs that we realize how good we really have it. ~ Glenn Beck


All men are created equal. It is what you do from there that makes the difference. We are all free agents in life. We make our own decisions. We control our own destiny. ~ Glenn Beck


You cannot take away freedom to protect it, you cannot destroy the free market to save it, and you cannot uphold freedom of speech by silencing those with whom you disagree. To take rights away to defend them or to spend your way out of debt defies common sense. ~ Glenn Beck


Some party hack decreed that the people had lost the government's confidence and could only regain it with redoubled effort. If that is the case, would it not be be simpler, if the government simply dissolved the people and elected another? ~ Bertolt Brecht.


Don't sleep, don't sleep, artist,
Don't give in to sleep.
You are eternity's hostage
A captive of time.
~ Boris Pasternak ~

They don’t ask much of you. They only want you to hate the things you love and to love the things you despise.
~ Boris Pasternak ~