January 24

day of the year

Quotes of the day from previous years:

2005
A hundred times every day I remind myself that my inner and outer life depend on the labors of other men, living and dead, and that I must exert myself in order to give in the same measure as I have received and am still receiving. ~ Albert Einstein
2006
Musick has Charms to sooth a savage Breast,
To soften Rocks, or bend a knotted Oak.

~ William Congreve (born 24 January 1670)
2007
Everything that's realistic has some sort of ugliness in it. Even a flower is ugly when it wilts, a bird when it seeks its prey, the ocean when it becomes violent. ~ Sharon Tate (born 24 January 1943)
2008
Habit is necessary; it is the habit of having habits, of turning a trail into a rut, that must be incessantly fought against if one is to remain alive. ~ Edith Wharton (born 24 January 1862)
2009
There are two ways of spreading light: to be
The candle or the mirror that reflects it.

~ Edith Wharton ~
2010
True originality consists not in a new manner but in a new vision. ~ Edith Wharton
2011
Defer not till tomorrow to be wise,
Tomorrow's sun to thee may never rise.

~ William Congreve ~
2012
Uncertainty and expectation are the joys of life. Security is an insipid thing. ~ William Congreve
2013
I'm searching for a heart,
Searching everyone.
They say love conquers all.
You can't start it like a car,
You can't stop it with a gun.
~ Warren Zevon ~
2014
In spite of illness, in spite even of the archenemy sorrow, one can remain alive long past the usual date of disintegration if one is unafraid of change, insatiable in intellectual curiosity, interested in big things, and happy in small ways.
~ Edith Wharton ~
2015
I warrant you, if he danced till doomsday, he thought I was to pay the piper.
~ William Congreve ~
2016
It was part of her discernment to be aware that life is the only real counselor, that wisdom unfiltered through personal experience does not become a part of the moral tissues.
~ Edith Wharton ~
2017
We contemplate eternity
Beneath the vast indifference of heaven.
~ Warren Zevon ~
2018
Light is the left hand of darkness
and darkness the right hand of light.
Two are one, life and death, lying
together like lovers in kemmer,
like hands joined together,
like the end and the way.
~ Ursula K. Le Guin ~
2019
When I was young, times were hard.
When I got older it was worse.
~ Warren Zevon ~
2020
If we don’t have an informed electorate we don’t have a democracy. So I don’t care how people get the information, as long as they get it. I’m just doing it my particular way and I feel lucky I can do it the way I want to do it.
~ Jim Lehrer ~
  • proposed by Kalki, in regard to his recent death.
2021
If you have passion, a chip on the shoulder, a sense of humor, and you can explain what you do very well, it doesn't matter if you're a plumber or a singer or a politician. If you have those four things, you are interesting.
~ Larry King ~
  • proposed by Kalki, in regard to his recent death.
2022
I turned on the news to the Third World War,
Opened up the paper to World War IV.
Just when I thought it was safe to be bored,
Trouble waiting to happen.
~ Warren Zevon ~
2023
Let us be very strange and well-bred:
Let us be as strange as if we had been married a great while;
And as well-bred as if we were not married at all.
~ William Congreve ~
2024
If you don't want to be replaced by a machine, don't try to act like one!
~ Arno Allan Penzias ~
  • proposed by Kalki; in regard of his recent death.
2025
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Suggestions

edit
Claudius becomes emperor of Rome (41) · Discovery of Gold that starts the California Gold Rush (1848)
DOB: William Congreve · Frederick the Great · Hadrian · Oral Roberts · Yakov Smirnoff · Sharon Tate · Edith Wharton · Christian Wolff · Warren Zevon

Well, first of all, let me say that I might have made a tactical error in not going to a physician for 20 years. It was one of those phobias that really didn’t pay off. — (Warren Zevon b. 1/24/47 - d. 9/7/03 interview on "Late Show with David Letterman")

  • - Naglem 17:44, 23 January 2007 (UTC)
  • 2 InvisibleSun 18:16, 23 January 2007 (UTC)
  • 3 Kalki 20:17, 23 January 2007 (UTC) But cut down to begin with "I might have made a tactical error..."
  • 1 Zarbon 18:40, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

When people ask for time, it's always for time to say no. ~ Edith Wharton

  • 3 InvisibleSun 18:16, 23 January 2007 (UTC)
  • 2 Kalki 20:17, 23 January 2007 (UTC)
  • 1 Zarbon 18:40, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

After all, one knows one's weak points so well, that it's rather bewildering to have the critics overlook them & invent others that (one is fairly sure) don't exist — or exist in a less measure. ~ Edith Wharton

  • 3 InvisibleSun 18:16, 23 January 2007 (UTC)
  • 3 Kalki 20:17, 23 January 2007 (UTC)
  • 1 Zarbon 18:40, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

Enjoy every sandwich. ~ Warren Zevon

  • 3 Kalki 20:17, 23 January 2007 (UTC) with a strong lean toward 4, but perhaps extended to:
I really always enjoyed myself. But it's more valuable now. You're reminded to enjoy every sandwich, and every minute of playing with the guys, and being with the kids and everything.

I honestly don't understand the big fuss made over nudity and sex in films. It's silly. On TV, the children can watch people murdering each other, which is a very unnatural thing, but they can't watch two people in the very natural process of making love. Now, really, that doesn't make any sense, does it?
~ Sharon Tate ~

Now will I, in my old way, discover the whole and real truth of the matter to him, that he may not suspect one word on’t.

No mask like open truth to cover lies,
As to go naked is the best disguise.

~ William Congreve ~

Thou art a retailer of phrases, and dost deal in remnants of remnants, like a maker of pincushions; thou art in truth (metaphorically speaking) a speaker of shorthand.
~ William Congreve ~

No insect hangs its nest on threads as frail as those which will sustain the weight of human vanity.
~ Edith Wharton ~

The worst of doing one's duty was that it apparently unfitted one for doing anything else.
~ Edith Wharton ~

Life'll kill ya,
That's what I said.
Life'll kill ya,
Then you'll be dead.
Life'll find ya
Wherever you go.
Requiescat in pace
That's all she wrote.
~ Warren Zevon ~

I write songs about things that I'm simultaneously trying to not think about.
~ Warren Zevon ~

Except in dreams, you're never really free.
~ Warren Zevon ~

I wrote my songs despite the fact that I was a drunk, not because of it.
~ Warren Zevon ~

We made mad love:
Shadow love,
Random love,
And abandoned love.
Accidentally like a martyr.
The hurt gets worse and the heart gets harder
~ Warren Zevon ~

Well, I went home with the waitress
The way I always do
How was I to know
She was with the Russians, too
~ Warren Zevon ~

I'm the innocent bystander
Somehow I got stuck
Between the rock and the hard place
And I'm down on my luck
~ Warren Zevon ~