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June 21

day of the year

Quotes of the day from previous years:

2004
With most men, unbelief in one thing springs from blind belief in another. ~ Georg Christoph Lichtenberg
2005
Life has no meaning a priori...It is up to you to give it a meaning, and value is nothing but the meaning that you choose. ~ Jean-Paul Sartre (born 21 June 1905)
2006
Liberty, as it is conceived by current opinion, has nothing inherent about it; it is a sort of gift or trust bestowed on the individual by the state pending good behavior. ~ Mary McCarthy (born 21 June 1912)
2007
Give me the splendid silent sun with all his beams full-dazzling… ~ Walt Whitman in Leaves of Grass (Solstice date 2007)
2008
Every natural fact is a symbol of some spiritual fact. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
2009
God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change,
the courage to change the things I can,
and the wisdom to know the difference.
~ Reinhold Niebuhr ~ (born 21 June 1892)
2010
There is a property in the horizon which no man has but he whose eye can integrate all the parts, that is, the poet. … To speak truly, few adult persons can see nature. Most persons do not see the sun. At least they have a very superficial seeing. The sun illuminates only the eye of the man, but shines into the eye and the heart of the child. The lover of nature is he whose inward and outward senses are still truly adjusted to each other; who has retained the spirit of infancy even into the era of manhood. His intercourse with heaven and earth, becomes part of his daily food. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
2011
Nothing worth doing is completed in our lifetime; therefore, we are saved by hope. Nothing true or beautiful or good makes complete sense in any immediate context of history; therefore, we are saved by faith. Nothing we do, however virtuous, can be accomplished alone; therefore, we are saved by love. No virtuous act is quite as virtuous from the standpoint of our friend or foe as from our own; therefore, we are saved by the final form of love, which is forgiveness. ~ Reinhold Niebuhr
2012
Man's capacity for justice makes democracy possible, but man's inclination to injustice makes democracy necessary.
~ Reinhold Niebuhr ~
2013
Cause, Principle, and One eternal
From whom being, life, and movement are suspended,
And which extends itself in length, breadth, and depth,
To whatever is in Heaven, on Earth, and Hell;
With sense, with reason, with mind, I discern,
That there is no act, measure, nor calculation, which can comprehend
That force, that vastness and that number,
Which exceeds whatever is inferior, middle, and highest;
Blind error, avaricious time, adverse fortune,
Deaf envy, vile madness, jealous iniquity,
Crude heart, perverse spirit, insane audacity,
Will not be sufficient to obscure the air for me,
Will not place the veil before my eyes,
Will never bring it about that I shall not
Contemplate my beautiful Sun.
~ Giordano Bruno ~
2014
Aion is a child at play, gambling; a child’s is the kingship. Telesphorus traverses the dark places of the world, like a star flashing from the deep, leading the way to the gates of the sun and the land of dreams.
~ Bollingen Tower inscription ~
by Carl Jung, quoting
~ Heraclitus & Homer ~
2015
One of the fundamental points about religious humility is you say you don't know about the ultimate judgment. It's beyond your judgment. And if you equate God's judgment with your judgment, you have a wrong religion.
~ Reinhold Niebuhr ~
2016
Human existence is obviously distinguished from animal life by its qualified participation in creation. Within limits it breaks the forms of nature and creates new configurations of vitality. Its transcendence over natural process offers it the opportunity of interfering with the established forms and unities of vitality as nature knows them.
~ Reinhold Niebuhr ~
2017
Calling someone a monster does not make him more guilty; it makes him less so by classing him with beasts and devils.
~ Mary McCarthy ~
2018
My personal attitude toward atheists is the same attitude that I have toward Christians, and would be governed by a very orthodox text: "By their fruits shall ye know them." I wouldn't judge a man by the presuppositions of his life, but only by the fruits of his life. And the fruits — the relevant fruits — are, I'd say, a sense of charity, a sense of proportion, a sense of justice. And whether the man is an atheist or a Christian, I would judge him by his fruits, and I have therefore many agnostic friends.
~ Reinhold Niebuhr ~
2019
Our dreams of bringing the whole of human history under the control of the human will are ironically refuted by the fact that no group of idealists can easily move the pattern of history toward the desired goal of peace and justice. The recalcitrant forces in the historical drama have a power and persistence beyond our reckoning.
~ Reinhold Niebuhr ~
2020
Reason is not the sole basis of moral virtue in man. His social impulses are more deeply rooted than his rational life. Reason may extend and stabilise, but it does not create, the capacity to affirm other life than his own.
~ Reinhold Niebuhr ~
2021
Nothing which is true or beautiful or good makes complete sense in any immediate context of history; therefore we must be saved by faith. Nothing we do, however virtuous, can be accomplished alone; therefore we are saved by love. No virtuous act is quite as virtuous from the standpoint of our friend or foe as it is from our standpoint. Therefore we must be saved by the final form of love which is forgiveness.
~ Reinhold Niebuhr ~
2022
O great wide beautiful wonderful World
With the wonderful waters around you curled
And the beautiful grass upon your breast
O World you are beautifully dressed.
~ John Crowley ~
2023
As individuals, men believe they ought to love and serve each other and establish justice between each other. As racial, economic and national groups they take for themselves, whatever their power can command.
~ Reinhold Niebuhr ~
2024
I wasn't the best hitter, Ted Williams was. I wasn't the best fielder, Roberto Clemente was. I wasn't the best base stealer, Maury Wills was. But I was among the best in everything.
~ Willie Mays ~
  • proposed by Kalki; in regard of his recent death.
2025
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This date is usually that of the Summer solstice for most locations in the Northern Hemisphere, the Winter solstice in the Southern, and thus quotes on the sun, summer, the seasons or solstices are invited.

If someone tells you he is going to make "a realistic decision", you immediately understand that he is going to do something bad. ~ Mary McCarthy

To be disesteemed by people you don’t have much respect for is not the worst fate. ~ Mary McCarthy

The individual or the group which organizes any society, however social its intentions or pretensions, arrogates an inordinate portion of social privilege to itself. ~ Reinhold Niebuhr

It were better that Ten Suspected Witches should escape, than that one Innocent Person should be Condemned. ~ Increase Mather

The more complex the world situation becomes, the more scientific and rational analysis you have to have, the less you can do with simple good will and sentiment.
~ Reinhold Niebuhr ~
It is significant that it is as difficult to get charity out of piety as to get reasonableness out of rationalism.
~ Reinhold Niebuhr ~
Yoga is like music. The rhythm of the body, the melody of the mind and the harmony of the soul creates the symphony of life.
~ BKS Iyengar (June 21 is International Yoga Day) ~


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