Quotes of the day from previous years:

2003
I don't know anything about music. In my line you don't have to. ~ Elvis Presley
  • chosen by Nanobug, honoring Presley's first commercial hit, "That's All Right (Mama)", recorded on 5 July 1954. (This was not designated as a "Quote of the Day" but it did appear for a time in the earliest logos prior to the first official QOTD on 11 July 2003).
2004
"We hold these truths to be sacred & undeniable; that all men are created equal & independent, that from that equal creation they derive rights inherent & inalienable, among which are the preservation of life, & liberty, & the pursuit of happiness." ~ Thomas Jefferson in an early draft of The Declaration of Independence.
2005
From time to time the exceptional is necessary. For events as well as for men, the stock company is not enough; geniuses are needed among men, and revolutions among events. Great accidents are the law; the order of things cannot get along without them; and, to see the apparitions of comets, one would be tempted to believe that Heaven itself is in need of star actors. ~ Victor Hugo in Les Misérables (marking the recent success of the Deep Impact space mission to comet Tempel 1)
2006
True realism consists in revealing the surprising things which habit keeps covered and prevents us from seeing. ~ Jean Cocteau (born 5 July 1889)
2007
There are truths which one can only say after having won the right to say them. ~ Jean Cocteau
2008
Take a commonplace, clean it and polish it, light it so that it produces the same effect of youth and freshness and originality and spontaneity as it did originally, and you have done a poet’s job. The rest is literature. ~ Jean Cocteau
2009
We shelter an angel within us. We must be the guardians of that angel. ~ Jean Cocteau
2010
Life is not theory. It is reality, with inherent duties to everything and everyone. ~ Tivadar Csontváry Kosztka
2011
Fight any instinct to be humorless, for humorlessness is the worst of all absurdities. ~ Jean Cocteau
2012
One is either judge or accused. The judge sits, the accused stands. Live on your feet.
~ Jean Cocteau ~
2013
Beauty is always the result of an accident. Of a violent lapse between acquired habits and those yet to be acquired. It baffles and disgusts. It may even horrify. Once the new habit has been acquired, the accident ceases to be an accident. It becomes classical and loses its shock value.
~ Jean Cocteau ~
2014
The desire for wealth is nearly universal, and none can say it is not laudable, provided the possessor of it accepts its responsibilities, and uses it as a friend to humanity.
~ P. T. Barnum ~
2015
Art produces ugly things which frequently become more beautiful with time. Fashion, on the other hand, produces beautiful things which always become ugly with time.
~ Jean Cocteau ~
  • selected by Kalki, to replace another which had been proposed by Kalki, and initially used for a few minutes, but which had already been used in 2006.
2016
Politeness and civility are the best capital ever invested in business.
~ P. T. Barnum ~
2017
Money is in some respects like fire; it is a very excellent servant but a terrible master.
~ P. T. Barnum ~
2018
Mystery has its own mysteries, and there are gods above gods. We have ours, they have theirs. That is what’s known as infinity.
~ Jean Cocteau ~
2019
To every action there is always opposed an equal reaction; or, the mutual actions of two bodies upon each other are always equal, and directed to contrary parts.
~ Isaac Newton ~
  • proposed by Jeff Q, the third law of motion, on the anniversary of the publication of Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica (5 July 1687)
2020
The plan of "counting the chickens before they are hatched" is an error of ancient date, but it does not seem to improve by age.
~ P. T. Barnum ~
2021
The instinct of nearly all societies is to lock up anybody who is truly free. First, society begins by trying to beat you up. If this fails, they try to poison you. If this fails too, they finish by loading honors on your head.
~ Jean Cocteau ~
2022
I am a showman by profession … and all the gilding shall make nothing else of me.
~ P. T. Barnum ~
2023
Establishing the full truth about the crimes of the occupiers on our independent Ukrainian land is a fundamental prerequisite for bringing Russia to full accountability for its aggression and terror. We must do everything for justice, and I am grateful to those of you who are bringing this day closer, this time — the time of justice.
~ Volodymyr Zelenskyy ~
2024
If it has to choose who is to be crucified, the crowd will always save Barabbas.
~ Jean Cocteau ~
2025
Rank or add further suggestions…

Ranking system:

4 : Excellent - should definitely be used.
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.


Suggestions

edit

News is not at all an easy thing to do on television. A good many of the main news items are not easily made visual — therefore we have the problem of giving news with the same standards that the corporation has built up in sound. ~ BBC director General Sir Ian Jacob

  • The televised BBC News was launched on 5 July 1954.
  • 1 Jeff Q (talk) 12:59, 3 July 2006 (UTC)
  • 2 InvisibleSun 21:26, 4 July 2007 (UTC)
  • 1 Kalki 19:46, 9 July 2007 (UTC)
  • 1 Zarbon 05:01, 24 April 2008 (UTC)
  • 1 Lyle 18:40, 11 December 2008 (UTC)
  • 1 //Gbern3 (talk) 01:40, 1 July 2013 (UTC)

Eternal Salvation or TRIPLE Your Money Back! ~ Church of the SubGenius "guarantee"

  • "X-Day", the day the world was supposedly destroyed, occurred 5 July 1998.
  • 1 Jeff Q (talk) 13:03, 3 July 2006 (UTC)
  • 2 InvisibleSun 21:26, 4 July 2007 (UTC)
  • 1 Kalki 19:46, 9 July 2007 (UTC)
  • 1 Zarbon 05:01, 24 April 2008 (UTC)
  • 0 Lyle 18:40, 11 December 2008 (UTC)
  • 1 //Gbern3 (talk) 01:40, 1 July 2013 (UTC)

If I had know it was harmless, I would have killed it myself. ~ Philip K. Dick, A Scanner Darkly

—This unsigned comment is by 209.112.207.90 (talkcontribs) .
  • 1 Kalki 17:27, 4 July 2007 (UTC) No clear relation to the date.
  • 1 InvisibleSun 21:26, 4 July 2007 (UTC)
  • 3 but on a more relevant date. Zarbon 05:01, 24 April 2008 (UTC)
  • 1 Lyle 18:40, 11 December 2008 (UTC)
  • 1 //Gbern3 (talk) 01:40, 1 July 2013 (UTC) lacks context.

The world is nearly all parcelled out, and what there is left of it is being divided up, conquered and colonised. To think of these stars that you see overhead at night, these vast worlds which we can never reach. I would annex the planets if I could; I often think of that. It makes me sad to see them so clear and yet so far. ~ Cecil Rhodes

  • 3 Zarbon 14:03, 3 July 2008 (UTC)
  • 3 InvisibleSun 23:46, 4 July 2008 (UTC)
  • 3 Lyle 18:40, 11 December 2008 (UTC)
  • 2 Kalki 08:58, 7 January 2009 (UTC)
  • 2 //Gbern3 (talk) 01:40, 1 July 2013 (UTC)

The world may end up under a Sword of Damocles...on a tightrope over the abyss. ~ Andrei Gromyko

  • 2 Zarbon 14:03, 3 July 2008 (UTC)
  • 2 InvisibleSun 23:46, 4 July 2008 (UTC)
  • 2 Lyle 18:40, 11 December 2008 (UTC)
  • 2 Kalki 08:58, 7 January 2009 (UTC) with a lean toward 3.
  • 1 //Gbern3 (talk) 01:40, 1 July 2013 (UTC)

So long, Pop! I'm off to check my tiger trap! ~ Bill Watterson (born July 5, 1958) - First line in the Calvin and Hobbes comic series

  • 4 Lyle 18:40, 11 December 2008 (UTC)
  • 2 Kalki 08:58, 7 January 2009 (UTC) with a lean toward 3.
  • 1 Zarbon 04:56, 3 July 2009 (UTC)
  • 2 InvisibleSun 22:20, 4 July 2009 (UTC)
  • 1 //Gbern3 (talk) 01:40, 1 July 2013 (UTC)