January 26

day of the year

Quotes of the day from previous years:

2004
In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer. ~ Albert Camus
2005
Give me a place to stand, and I shall move the world. ~ Archimedes
2006
I know war as few other men now living know it, and nothing to me is more revolting. I have long advocated its complete abolition, as its very destructiveness on both friend and foe has rendered it useless as a means of settling international disputes... But once war is forced upon us, there is no other alternative than to apply every available means to bring it to a swift end. ~ Douglas MacArthur (born 26 January 1880)
2007
The only gold is love,
A coin that we have minted from the light
Of others who have cared for us on Earth
And who have deposited in us the power
That nerves our nerves to seize the burning stars.

~ Philip José Farmer ~
2008
Prometheus, I have no Titan's might,
Yet I, too, must each dusk renew my heart,
For daytime's vulture talons tear apart
The tender alcoves built by love at night.

~ Philip José Farmer ~
2009
I do believe that man is a rope between animal and superman. But the superman I'm thinking of isn't Nietzsche's. The real superhuman, man or woman, is the person who's rid himself of all prejudices, neuroses, and psychoses, who realizes his full potential as a human being, who acts naturally on the basis of gentleness, compassion, and love, who thinks for himself and refuses to follow the herd. That's the genuine dyed-in-the-wool superman. ~ Philip José Farmer
2010
If you don't have enemies, you don't have character. ~ Paul Newman
2011

Yes, we hope to seed a new, rich earth.
We hope to breed a race of men whose power
Dwells in hearts as open as all Space
Itself, who ask for nothing but the light
That rinses the heart of hate so that the stars
Above will be below when man has Love.

~ Philip José Farmer ~

2012
Could I have but a line a century hence crediting a contribution to the advance of peace, I would gladly yield every honor which has been accorded me in war. ~ Douglas MacArthur
2013
Beauty in this Iron Age must turn
From fluid living rainbow shapes to torn
And sootened fragments, ashes in an urn
On whose gray surface runes are traced by a Norn
Who hopes to wake the Future to arise
In Phoenix-fashion, and to shine with rays
To blast the sight of modern men whose dyes
Of selfishness and lust have stained our days.
~ Philip José Farmer ~
2014
Let's give this entity which you call soul another name. Soul has too many incorrect meanings for humans, too many verbal reverberations, too many contrary definitions.
Speak the word soul, and unbelievers will automatically become deaf to what follows. Those who believe in souls will always hear you through the mental constructs that they formed on Earth. Let us call this nonmatter twin the... ah... ka
~ Philip José Farmer ~
2015
India was the motherland of our race, and Sanskrit the mother of Europe's languages: she was the mother of our philosophy; mother, through the Arabs, of much of our mathematics; mother, through the Buddha, of the ideals embodied in Christianity; mother, through the village community, of self-government and democracy. Mother India is in many ways the mother of us all.
~ Will Durant ~
2016
Everybody should fear only one person, and that person should be himself.
~ Philip José Farmer ~
2017
Whatever it is, it’s OK because it’s what it is. Don’t be looking for perfection. Don’t be short-tempered with yourself. And you’ll be a whole lot nicer to be around with everyone else.
~ Mary Tyler Moore ~
  • proposed by Kalki in regard to her recent death.
2018
Men since the beginning of time have sought peace. Various methods through the ages have been attempted to devise an international process to prevent or settle disputes between nations. From the very start workable methods were found in so far as individual citizens were concerned, but the mechanics of an instrumentality of larger international scope have never been successful. Military alliances, balances of power, Leagues of Nations, all in turn failed, leaving the only path to be by way of the crucible of war. The utter destructiveness of war now blocks out this alternative. We have had our last chance. If we will not devise some greater and more equitable system, Armageddon will be at our door.
~ Douglas MacArthur ~
2019
I shall set my course to the end that no man need fear to speak the truth. I could not do less, for the opportunities for service my country has given me and the honors it has conferred upon me have imposed an obligation which is not discharged by the termination of public service.
Much that I have seen since my return to my native land after an absence of many years has filled me with immeasurable satisfaction and pride. Our material progress has been little short of phenomenal.
It has established an eminence in material strength so far in advance of any other nation or combination of nations that talk of imminent threat to our national security through the application of external force is pure nonsense.
It is not of any external threat that I concern myself but rather of insidious forces working from within which have already so drastically altered the character of our free institutions — those institutions which formerly we hailed as something beyond question or challenge — those institutions we proudly called the American way of life.
~ Douglas MacArthur ~
2020
I'd like to be remembered as a guy who tried — tried to be part of his times, tried to help people communicate with one another, tried to find some decency in his own life, tried to extend himself as a human being. Someone who isn't complacent, who doesn't cop out.
~ Paul Newman ~
2021
Today, freedom is on the offensive, democracy is on the march.
~ Douglas MacArthur ~
2022
Twenty-five years ago I couldn't walk down the street without being recognized. Now I can put a cap on, walk anywhere and no one pays me any attention. They don't ask me about my movies and they don't ask me about my salad dressing because they don't know who I am. Am I happy about this? You bet.
~ Paul Newman ~
2023
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has increased the risk of nuclear weapons use, raised the specter of biological and chemical weapons use, hamstrung the world’s response to climate change, and hampered international efforts to deal with other global concerns. The invasion and annexation of Ukrainian territory have also violated international norms in ways that may embolden others to take actions that challenge previous understandings and threaten stability.
~ Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists ~
  • proposed by Kalki; recent remarks on current events.
2024
This is a political issue and the concept that a person who has a lot holds his hand out to someone who has less, or someone who isn't hurting holds his hand out to someone who is, is simply a human trait that has nothing to do with celebrity. I am confounded at the stinginess of some institutions and some people. I'm bewildered by it. You can only put away so much stuff in your closet. In 1987, the average CEO against someone who was working in his factory was 70 times. It's now 410 times. … I don't think that there's anything exceptional or noble in being philanthropic. It's the other attitude that confuses me.
~ Paul Newman ~
2025
Rank or add further suggestions…


Quotes by people born this day, already used as QOTD:

  • Duty, Honor, Country — those three hallowed words reverently dictate what you ought to be, what you can be, what you will be. They are your rallying point to build courage when courage seems to fail, to regain faith when there seems to be little cause for faith, to create hope when hope becomes forlorn. ~ Douglas MacArthur

The Quote of the Day (QOTD) is a prominent feature of the Wikiquote Main Page. Thank you for submitting, reviewing, and ranking suggestions!

Ranking system
4 : Excellent – should definitely be used. (This is the utmost ranking and should be used by any editor for only one quote at a time for each date.)
3 : Very Good – strong desire to see it used.
2 : Good – some desire to see it used.
1 : Acceptable – but with no particular desire to see it used.
0 : Not acceptable – not appropriate for use as a quote of the day.
An averaging of the rankings provided to each suggestion produces it’s general ranking in considerations for selection of Quote of the Day. The selections made are usually chosen from the top ranked options existing on the page, but the provision of highly ranked late additions, especially in regard to special events (most commonly in regard to the deaths of famous people, or other major social or physical occurrences), always remain an option for final selections.
Thank you for participating!


Suggestions

edit

Money won is twice as sweet as money earned. ~ Paul Newman

  • 2 Zarbon 15:27, 27 September 2008 (UTC)
  • 0 This quote isn't on his page. - InvisibleSun 17:29, 27 September 2008 (UTC)
    • 2 InvisibleSun 23:02, 25 January 2009 (UTC)
    • The quote has now been sourced - Zarbon 05:13, 28 September 2008 (UTC)
  • 1 Kalki 23:49, 20 January 2009 (UTC)

Just when things look darkest, they go black. ~ Paul Newman

  • 3 Zarbon 15:27, 27 September 2008 (UTC)
  • 0 This quote isn't on his page. - InvisibleSun 17:29, 27 September 2008 (UTC)
    • 2 InvisibleSun 23:02, 25 January 2009 (UTC)
    • The quote has now been sourced. - Zarbon 05:13, 28 September 2008 (UTC)
  • 1 Kalki 23:49, 20 January 2009 (UTC)

People stay married because they want to, not because the doors are locked. ~ Paul Newman

  • 2 Zarbon 15:27, 27 September 2008 (UTC)
  • 0 This quote isn't on his page. - InvisibleSun 17:29, 27 September 2008 (UTC)
    • 2 InvisibleSun 23:02, 25 January 2009 (UTC)
    • The quote has now been sourced. - Zarbon 05:13, 28 September 2008 (UTC)
  • 1 Kalki 23:49, 20 January 2009 (UTC)

Men experience many passions in a lifetime. One passion drives away the one before it. ~ Paul Newman

  • 2 Zarbon 15:29, 27 September 2008 (UTC)
  • 3 InvisibleSun 17:29, 27 September 2008 (UTC)
  • 2 Kalki 22:52, 27 September 2008 (UTC)

It is part of the general pattern of misguided policy that our country is now geared to an arms economy which was bred in an artificially induced psychosis of war hysteria and nurtured upon an incessant propaganda of fear. While such an economy may produce a sense of seeming prosperity for the moment, it rests on an illusionary foundation of complete unreliability and renders among our political leaders almost a greater fear of peace than is their fear of war. ~ Douglas MacArthur


We have known the bitterness of defeat and the exultation of triumph, and from both we have learned there can be no turning back. We must go forward to preserve in peace what we won in war. ~ Douglas MacArthur


I have returned. ~ Douglas MacArthur


Resurrection, like politics, makes strange bedfellows. ~ Philip José Farmer


The universe is a big place, perhaps the biggest. ~ Philip José Farmer


Drowned idols swirl like seeds in chaos' wine. ~ Philip José Farmer


Let those who think the soul is shallow rail,
They must be warned before they dare to leap
They'll plunge into the twilight depths where sweep
In ceaseless thirst great teeth too swift to fail.

~ Philip José Farmer


How strange and unforeseeable! The world had been saved, not by great rulers and statesmen, not by mystics and saints and prophets and messiahs, not by any of the holy scriptures, but by an introverted eccentric writer of mathematical texts and children's books and by the child who'd inspired him.
The little girl become a woman, dream-ridden Alice, had inspired the nonsense not really nonsense, and this in circuitous and spiralling fashion had inspired her to do what all others had failed to do, to save eighteen billion souls and the world. ~ Philip José Farmer


India is the guru of the nations, the physician of the human soul in its profounder maladies; she is destined once more to remould the life of the world and restore the peace of the human spirit. But Swaraj is the necessary condition of her work and before she can do the work , she must fulfil the condition.


A man is only a mature boy. The theater widens as he ascends. ~ David Jewett Waller, Sr.

  • Comment from proposer: January 26, 2015 is Waller's 200th birthday. --Jakob (talk) 01:08, 24 May 2014 (UTC)
  • 3, Waller is not very famous these days, but it's a nice quote and on a highly relevant day. --Jakob (talk) 01:19, 24 May 2014 (UTC)

We only become what we are by the radical and deep-seated refusal of that which others have made of us. ~ Jean-Paul_Sartre


I've been accused of being aloof. I'm not. I'm just wary.
~ Paul Newman ~

The first time I remember women reacting to me was when we were filming Hud in Texas. Women were literally trying to climb through the transoms at the motel where I stayed. At first, it's flattering to the ego. At first. Then you realize that they're mixing me up with the roles I play — characters created by writers who have nothing to do with who I am.
~ Paul Newman ~

Being on President Nixon's enemies list was the highest single honor I've ever received.
~ Paul Newman ~

Study your craft and know who you are and what's special about you. Find out what everyone does on a film set, ask questions and listen. Make sure you live life, which means don't do things where you court celebrity, and give something positive back to our society.
~ Paul Newman ~

To that extent that you can sustain and maintain that childlike part of your personality is probably the best part of acting.
~ Paul Newman ~