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February 22

day of the year

Quotes of the day from previous years:

2004
The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom. ~ Isaac Asimov
2005
All see, and most admire, the glare which hovers round the external trappings of elevated office. To me there is nothing in it, beyond the lustre which may be reflected from its connection with a power of promoting human felicity. ~ George Washington (born 22 February 1732)
2006
I hold the maxim no less applicable to public than to private affairs, that honesty is always the best policy. ~ George Washington (born 22 February 1732)
2007
Promote... as an object of primary importance, institutions for the general diffusion of knowledge. In proportion as the structure of a government gives force to public opinion, it is essential that public opinion should be enlightened. ~ George Washington
2008
Life is short and truth works far and lives long: let us speak the truth. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer
2009
The Citizens of the United States of America have a right to applaud themselves for giving to Mankind examples of an enlarged and liberal policy: a policy worthy of imitation. All possess alike liberty of conscience and immunities of citizenship. It is now no more that toleration is spoken of, as if it was by the indulgence of one class of people that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural rights. For happily the Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance, requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens in giving it on all occasions their effectual support. ~ George Washington
2010
I honor the man who is willing to sink
Half his present repute for the freedom to think,
And, when he has thought, be his cause strong or weak,
Will risk t'other half for the freedom to speak,
Caring naught for what vengeance the mob has in store,
Let that mob be the upper ten thousand or lower.
~ James Russell Lowell ~ (born 22 February 1819)
2011
The world stands out on either side
No wider than the heart is wide;
Above the world is stretched the sky, —
No higher than the soul is high.
The heart can push the sea and land
Farther away on either hand;
The soul can split the sky in two,
And let the face of God shine through.
But East and West will pinch the heart
That can not keep them pushed apart;
And he whose soul is flat — the sky
Will cave in on him by and by.
~ Edna St. Vincent Millay (born 22 February 1892)
2012
Hatred comes from the heart; contempt from the head; and neither feeling is quite within our control. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer
2013
My candle burns at both ends;
It will not last the night;
But, ah, my foes, and, oh, my friends —
It gives a lovely light.
~ Edna St. Vincent Millay ~
2014
Every man takes the limits of his own field of vision for the limits of the world.
~ Arthur Schopenhauer ~
2015
Of all the animosities which have existed among mankind, those which are caused by difference of sentiments in religion appear to be the most inveterate and distressing, and ought most to be deprecated.
~ George Washington ~
2016
The bosom of America is open to receive not only the Opulent and respectable Stranger, but the oppressed and persecuted of all Nations And Religions; whom we shall wellcome to a participation of all our rights and previleges, if by decency and propriety of conduct they appear to merit the enjoyment.
~ George Washington ~
2017
If Men are to be precluded from offering their sentiments on a matter, which may involve the most serious and alarming consequences, that can invite the consideration of Mankind; reason is of no use to us — the freedom of Speech may be taken away — and, dumb & silent we may be led, like sheep, to the Slaughter.
~ George Washington ~
2018
I hope I shall possess firmness and virtue enough to maintain (what I consider the most enviable of all titles) the character of an honest man.
~ George Washington ~
2019
A slender acquaintance with the world must convince every man, that actions, not words, are the true criterion of the attachment of his friends, and that the most liberal professions of good will are very far from being the surest marks of it. I should be happy that my own experience had afforded fewer examples of the little dependence to be placed upon them.
~ George Washington ~
2020
Arbitrary power is most easily established on the ruins of liberty abused to licentiousness.
~ George Washington ~
2021
Democratical States must always feel before they can see: it is this that makes their Governments slow, but the people will be right at last.
~ George Washington ~
2022
To be prepared for war is one of the most effectual means of preserving peace.
~ George Washington ~
2023
Let us … animate and encourage each other, and show the whole world that a Freeman, contending for liberty on his own ground, is superior to any slavish mercenary on earth.
~ George Washington ~
2024
For the sake of humanity it is devoutly to be wished, that the manly employment of agriculture and the humanizing benefits of commerce, would supersede the waste of war and the rage of conquest; that the swords might be turned into plough-shares, the spears into pruning hooks, and, as the Scripture expresses it, "the nations learn war no more."
~ George Washington ~
2025
The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge, natural to party dissension, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism. But this leads at length to a more formal and permanent despotism. The disorders and miseries, which result, gradually incline the minds of men to seek security and repose in the absolute power of an individual; and sooner or later the chief of some prevailing faction, more able or more fortunate than his competitors, turns this disposition to the purposes of his own elevation, on the ruins of Public Liberty.
Without looking forward to an extremity of this kind, (which nevertheless ought not to be entirely out of sight,) the common and continual mischiefs of the spirit of party are sufficient to make it the interest and duty of a wise people to discourage and restrain it.
~ George Washington ~
2026
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There is no good in arguing with the inevitable. The only argument available with an east wind is to put on your overcoat. ~ James Russell Lowell

  • 3 Kalki 20:02, 21 February 2007 (UTC) with a lean toward 4.
  • 3 InvisibleSun 22:38, 21 February 2007 (UTC)
  • 1 Zarbon 22:38, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

Truth, after all, wears a different face to everybody, and it would be too tedious to wait till all were agreed. She is said to lie at the bottom of a well, for the very reason, perhaps, that whoever looks down in search of her sees his own image at the bottom, and is persuaded not only that he has seen the goddess, but that she is far better looking than he had imagined. ~ James Russell Lowell

  • 3 Kalki 20:02, 21 February 2007 (UTC) with a strong lean toward 4.
  • 3 InvisibleSun 22:38, 21 February 2007 (UTC)
  • 1 Zarbon 22:38, 22 April 2008 (UTC)
  • 3 bystander 08:47, 16 February 2012 (UTC) with a strong lean toward 4.

Who speaks the truth stabs Falsehood to the heart. ~ James Russell Lowell

  • 3 Kalki 20:02, 21 February 2007 (UTC) with a strong lean toward 4.
  • 2 InvisibleSun 22:38, 21 February 2007 (UTC)
  • 2 Zarbon 22:38, 22 April 2008 (UTC)
  • 3 Lyle 15:54, 18 November 2008 (UTC)

Every child is in a way a genius; and every genius is in a way a child. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer

  • 3 Kalki 20:02, 21 February 2007 (UTC) with a very strong lean toward 4.
  • 3 InvisibleSun 22:38, 21 February 2007 (UTC)
  • 2 Zarbon 22:38, 22 April 2008 (UTC)
  • 2 Lyle 15:54, 18 November 2008 (UTC)

Opinion is like a pendulum and obeys the same law. If it goes past the centre of gravity on one side, it must go a like distance on the other; and it is only after a certain time that it finds the true point at which it can remain at rest. ~ Arthur Schopenhauer

  • 3 Lyle 15:51, 18 November 2008 (UTC)
  • 3 Kalki 23:53, 19 February 2009 (UTC) with a VERY strong lean toward 4.
  • 2 nice analogy; opinions change. Zarbon 05:42, 27 February 2009 (UTC)
  • 3 bystander 08:47, 16 February 2012 (UTC)
The United States of America have a right to applaud themselves for giving to Mankind examples of an enlarged and liberal policy: a policy worthy of imitation. All possess alike liberty of conscience and immunities of citizenship. It is now no more that toleration is spoken of, as if it was by the indulgence of one class of people that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural rights. For happily the Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance, requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens.
~ George Washington ~
There is a Destiny which has the control of our actions, not to be resisted by the strongest efforts of Human Nature.
~ George Washington ~
Be courteous to all, but intimate with few, and let those few be well tried before you give them your confidence; true friendship is a plant of slow growth, and must undergo and withstand the shocks of adversity before it is entitled to the appellation.
~ George Washington ~
Religious controversies are always productive of more acrimony and irreconcilable hatreds than those which spring from any other cause; and I was not without hopes that the enlightened and liberal policy of the present age would have put an effectual stop to contentions of this kind.
~ George Washington ~
A free people ought not only to be armed, but disciplined; to which end a uniform and well-digested plan is requisite; and their safety and interest require that they should promote such manufactories as tend to render them independent of others for essential, particularly military, supplies.
~ George Washington ~
Envious of none, I am determined to be pleased with all; and this my dear friend, being the order for my march, I will move gently down the stream of life, until I sleep with my Fathers.
~ George Washington ~
Few men have virtue to withstand the highest bidder.
~ George Washington ~
I will say nothing of war, nor make any animadversions upon the contending powers; otherwise, I might possibly have said that the retreat from it seemed impossible after the explicit declaration of the parties: My first wish is to see this plague to mankind banished from off the Earth, and the sons and Daughters of this world employed in more pleasing and innocent amusements, than in preparing implements and exercising them for the destruction of mankind: rather than quarrel about territory let the poor, the needy and oppressed of the Earth, and those who want Land, resort to the fertile plains of our western country, the second Promise, and there dwell in peace, fulfilling the first and great commandment.
~ George Washington ~
The time is now near at hand which must probably determine whether Americans are to be freemen or slaves; whether they are to have any property they can call their own; whether their houses and farms are to be pillaged and destroyed, and themselves consigned to a state of wretchedness from which no human efforts will deliver them. The fate of unborn millions will now depend, under God, on the courage and conduct of this army. Our cruel and unrelenting enemy leaves us only the choice of brave resistance, or the most abject submission. We have, therefore, to resolve to conquer or die.
~ George Washington ~
To place any dependence upon militia, is, assuredly, resting upon a broken staff. Men just dragged from the tender scenes of domestic life - unaccustomed to the din of arms - totally unacquainted with every kind of military skill, which being followed by a want of confidence in themselves when opposed to troops regularly trained, disciplined, and appointed, superior in knowledge, and superior in arms, makes them timid and ready to fly from their own shadows.
~ George Washington ~
Lest some unlucky event should happen unfavorable to my reputation, I beg it may be remembered by every gentleman in the room that I this day declare with the utmost sincerity, I do not think myself equal to the command I am honored with.
~ George Washington ~
The General hopes and trusts that every officer and man will endeavor to live and act as becomes a Christian soldier defending the dearest rights and liberties of his country.
~ George Washington ~
Altho’ I pretend to no peculiar information respecting commercial affairs, nor any foresight into the scenes of futurity; yet as the member of an infant-empire, as a Philanthropist by character, and (if I may be allowed the expression) as a Citizen of the great republic of humanity at large; I cannot help turning my attention sometimes to this subject. I would be understood to mean, I cannot avoid reflecting with pleasure on the probable influence that commerce may here after have on human manners & society in general. On these occasions I consider how mankind may be connected like one great family in fraternal ties — I endulge a fond, perhaps an enthusiastic idea, that as the world is evidently much less barbarous than it has been, its melioration must still be progressive — that nations are becoming more humanized in their policy — that the subjects of ambition & causes for hostility are daily diminishing—and in fine, that the period is not very remote when the benefits of a liberal & free commerce will, pretty generally, succeed to the devastations & horrors of war.
~ George Washington ~
The story of East Bengal will surely be written as one of the greatest nightmares of modern times.
~ Edward Kennedy ~
  • 3 (about the 1971 Bangladesh genocide) ᘙ (talk) 11:17, 9 December 2022 (UTC)
Social physics never can pretend to discover laws which will verify themselves in every particular, in the case of isolated individuals. The science will have rendered a service sufficiently vast, in giving more precise views upon a host of points, of which vague glimpses only were before possessed.
~ Adolphe Quetelet ~
There is so much that must be done in a civilized barbarism like war.
~ Amelia Earhart ~
  • 1 FPTI (talk) 18:59, 20 February 2024 (UTC)
The basis of our political systems is the right of the people to make and to alter their Constitutions of Government. But the Constitution which at any time exists, till changed by an explicit and authentic act of the whole people, is sacredly obligatory upon all.
~ George Washington ~
If in the opinion of the People, the distribution or modification of the Constitutional powers be in any particular wrong, let it be corrected by an amendment in the way which the Constitution designates. But let there be no change by usurpation; for though this, in one instance, may be the instrument of good, it is the customary weapon by which free governments are destroyed.
~ George Washington ~
The very idea of the power and the right of the people to establish Government presupposes the duty of every individual to obey the established Government. All obstructions to the execution of the Laws, all combinations and associations, under whatever plausible character, with the real design to direct, control, counteract, or awe the regular deliberation and action of the constituted authorities, are destructive of this fundamental principle, and of fatal tendency. They serve to organize faction, to give it an artificial and extraordinary force; to put, in the place of the delegated will of the nation, the will of a party, often a small but artful and enterprising minority of the community; and, according to the alternate triumphs of different parties, to make the public administration the mirror of the ill-concerted and incongruous projects of faction, rather than the organ of consistent and wholesome plans digested by common counsels, and modified by mutual interests. However combinations or associations of the above description may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely, in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people, and to usurp for themselves the reins of government; destroying afterwards the very engines, which have lifted them to unjust dominion.
~ George Washington ~


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