January 2

day of the year

Quotes of the day from previous years:

2004
Nationalism is an infantile disease. It is the measles of mankind. ~ Albert Einstein
2005
We are all in this together. ~ English proverb
2006
How often people speak of art and science as though they were two entirely different things, with no interconnection...That is all wrong. The true artist is quite rational as well as imaginative and knows what he is doing; if he does not, his art suffers. The true scientist is quite imaginative as well as rational, and sometimes leaps to solutions where reason can follow only slowly; if he does not, his science suffers. ~ Isaac Asimov (born c. 2 January 1920)
2007
Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent. ~ Isaac Asimov
2008
When people grow wise in one direction, they are sure to make it easier for themselves to grow wise in other directions as well. On the other hand, when they split up knowledge, concentrate on their own field, and scorn and ignore other fields, they grow less wise — even in their own field. ~ Isaac Asimov
2009
It is change, continuing change, inevitable change, that is the dominant factor in society today. No sensible decision can be made any longer without taking into account not only the world as it is, but the world as it will be … ~ Isaac Asimov
2010
I believe in evidence. I believe in observation, measurement, and reasoning, confirmed by independent observers. I'll believe anything, no matter how wild and ridiculous, if there is evidence for it. The wilder and more ridiculous something is, however, the firmer and more solid the evidence will have to be. ~ Isaac Asimov
2011
Science fiction writers foresee the inevitable, and although problems and catastrophes may be inevitable, solutions are not. ~ Isaac Asimov
2012
It pays to be obvious, especially if you have a reputation for subtlety. ~ Isaac Asimov
2013
Those people who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do.
~ Isaac Asimov ~
2014
There are no happy endings in history, only crisis points that pass.
~ Isaac Asimov ~
2015
If I were not an atheist, I would believe in a God who would choose to save people on the basis of the totality of their lives and not the pattern of their words. I think he would prefer an honest and righteous atheist to a TV preacher whose every word is God, God, God, and whose every deed is foul, foul, foul.
~ Isaac Asimov ~
2016
There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there always has been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that "my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge."
~ Isaac Asimov ~
2017
The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom.
~ Isaac Asimov ~
2018
To succeed, planning alone is insufficient. One must improvise as well.
~ Isaac Asimov ~
2019
It is better to go to defeat with free will than to live in a meaningless security as a cog in a machine.
~ Isaac Asimov ~
2020
All you have to do is take a close look at yourself and you will understand everyone else. We’re in no way different ourselves … You show me someone who can’t understand people and I’ll show you someone who has built up a false image of himself.
~ Isaac Asimov ~
2021
In memory yet green, in joy still felt,
The scenes of life rise sharply into view.
We triumph; Life’s disasters are undealt,
And while all else is old, the world is new.
~ Isaac Asimov ~
2022
It is the invariable lesson to humanity that distance in time, and in space as well, lends focus. It is not recorded, incidentally, that the lesson has ever been permanently learned.
~ Isaac Asimov ~
2023
I can have respect and admiration for famous people, but I have never had a sense of fear or awe.
~ Barbara Walters ~
  • proposed by Kalki; in regard of her recent death.
2024
There is no belief, however foolish, that will not gather its faithful adherents who will defend it to the death.
~ Isaac Asimov ~
2025
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DOB: Isaac Asimov · Philip Morin Freneau · Gilbert Murray


I prefer rationalism to atheism. The question of God and other objects-of-faith are outside reason and play no part in rationalism, thus you don't have to waste your time in either attacking or defending. ~ Isaac Asimov (date of birth)


Then rushed to meet the insulting foe;
They took the spear, but left the shield. ~ Philip Morin Freneau

  • 3 because in the heat of combat, defense is as important as offense, if not more important. Zarbon 05:33, 12 December 2008 (UTC)
  • 2 Kalki 16:55, 1 January 2009 (UTC)
  • 2 InvisibleSun 23:24, 1 January 2009 (UTC)

Never let your sense of morals prevent you from doing what is right.
~ Isaac Asimov ~

My crime is that I have never labored to make myself popular — I admit that much — and I have paid too little attention to fools who are old enough to be senile but young enough to have power.
~ Isaac Asimov ~

When we realize that our lives are one with the great and eternal life of the universe, we are the Buddha. The purpose of Buddhism is to enable all people to come to this realization.
~ Daisaku Ikeda ~

  • An old eagle, a blind eagle, who waits hungry and cold and still;
    He seeks nothing, he fears nothing: he stands lone on a lonely hill. ~ Gilbert Murray