Wikiquote

May 1

day of the year

Quotes of the day from previous years:

2004
The month of May was come, when every lusty heart beginneth to blossom, and to bring forth fruit; for like as herbs and trees bring forth fruit and flourish in May, in likewise every lusty heart that is in any manner a lover, springeth and flourisheth in lusty deeds. For it giveth unto all lovers courage, that lusty month of May. ~ Sir Thomas Malory
2005
"DON'T PANIC"
~ Douglas Adams in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
2006
I react pragmatically. Where the market works, I'm for that. Where the government is necessary, I'm for that. I'm deeply suspicious of somebody who says, "I'm in favor of privatization," or, "I'm deeply in favor of public ownership." I'm in favor of whatever works in the particular case. ~ John Kenneth Galbraith (recent death)
2007
A man must be excessively stupid, as well as uncharitable, who believes that there is no virtue but on his own side, and that there are not men as honest as himself who may differ from him in political principles. ~ Joseph Addison (born 1 May 1672)
2008
What sculpture is to a block of marble, education is to the human soul. ~ Joseph Addison
2009
When an angel by divine command
With rising tempests shakes a guilty land,
Such as of late o'er pale Britannia past,
Calm and serene he drives the furious blast;
And, pleas'd th' Almighty's orders to perform,
Rides in the whirlwind, and directs the storm.
~ Joseph Addison ~
2010
Nature does nothing without purpose or uselessly. ~ Joseph Addison
2011
I shall endeavor to enliven morality with wit, and to temper wit with morality. ~ Joseph Addison
2012
Since once again, O Lord, in the steppes of Asia, I have no bread, no wine, no altar, I will raise myself above those symbols to the pure majesty of reality, and I will offer to you, I, your priest, upon the altar of the entire earth, the labor and the suffering of the world. ~ Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
  • proposed by N6n
2013
Gǣð ā Wyrd swā hīo scel!
Fate goes ever as it must.
~ Beowulf ~
2014
We are not human beings having a spiritual experience; we are spiritual beings having a human experience.
~ Pierre Teilhard de Chardin ~
2015
All the business of war, and indeed all the business of life, is to endeavour to find out what you don't know by what you do; that's what I called "guessing what was at the other side of the hill."
~ Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington ~
2016
We only have to look around us to see how complexity and psychic temperature are still rising: and rising no longer on the scale of the individual but now on that of the planet. This indication is so familiar to us that we cannot but recognize the objective, experiential, reality of a transformation of the planet as a whole.
~ Pierre Teilhard de Chardin ~
2017
Everyone in my book accuses everyone else of being crazy. Frankly, I think the whole society is nuts — and the question is: What does a sane man do in an insane society?
~ Joseph Heller ~
2018
Under oak, ash and thorn
My soul was born.
Under thorn, oak and ash
My body bent to the lash.
~ Elinor Wylie ~
2019
There was only one catch and that was Catch-22, which specified that a concern for one's own safety in the face of dangers that were real and immediate was the process of a rational mind. Orr was crazy and could be grounded. All he had to do was ask; and as soon as he did, he would no longer be crazy and would have to fly more missions. Orr would be crazy to fly more missions and sane if he didn't, but if he was sane, he had to fly them. If he flew them, he was crazy and didn't have to; but if he didn't want to, he was sane and had to. Yossarian was moved very deeply by the absolute simplicity of this clause of Catch-22 and let out a respectful whistle.
"That's some catch, that Catch-22," he observed.
~ Joseph Heller ~
in
~ Catch-22 ~
2020
It was miraculous. It was almost no trick at all, he saw, to turn vice into virtue and slander into truth, impotence into abstinence, arrogance into humility, plunder into philanthropy, thievery into honor, blasphemy into wisdom, brutality into patriotism, and sadism into justice. Anybody could do it; it required no brains at all. It merely required no character.
~ Joseph Heller ~
in
~ Catch-22 ~
2021
Love alone is capable of uniting living beings in such a way as to complete and fulfill them, for it alone takes them and joins them by what is deepest in themselves. All we need is to imagine our ability to love developing until it embraces the totality of men and the earth.
~ Pierre Teilhard de Chardin ~
2022
We are doing everything to return normal life to the de-occupied part of our Ukraine. … Of course, there is still a lot of work ahead. The occupiers are still on our land and still do not recognize the apparent failure of their so-called operation. We still need to fight and direct all efforts to drive the occupiers out. And we will do it. Ukraine will be free. … The Ukrainian flag will return wherever it should be by right.
~ Volodymyr Zelenskyy ~
2023
Good nature is more agreeable in conversation than wit, and gives a certain air to the countenance which is more amiable than beauty.
~ Joseph Addison ~
2024
  The man who will live above his present circumstances is in great danger of living in a little time much beneath them; or as the Italian proverb runs, "The man who lives by hope, will die by hunger."
~ Joseph Addison ~
2025
Rank or add further suggestions…

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

  • The day will come when, after harnessing space, the winds, the tides, gravitation, we shall harness for God the energies of love. And, on that day, for the second time in the history of the world, man will have discovered fire. ~ Pierre Teilhard de Chardin
  • The history of a battle, is not unlike the history of a ball. Some individuals may recollect all the little events of which the great result is the battle won or lost, but no individual can recollect the order in which, or the exact moment at which, they occurred, which makes all the difference as to their value or importance. ~ Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington

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
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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.
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Suggestions

edit

A little nonsense now and then is relished by the wisest men. ~ Joseph Addison Anonymous

  • 3 Kalki 14:00, 30 April 2007 (UTC) with a strong lean toward 4. but this seems to be an anonymous proverb, and thus not attributed to Addison.
  • 3 InvisibleSun 18:22, 30 April 2007 (UTC)
  • 3 Aphaia 19:24, 30 April 2007 (UTC)
  • 2 Zarbon 04:50, 23 April 2008 (UTC)

A man's first care should be to avoid the reproaches of his own heart, his next to escape the censures of the world. ~ Joseph Addison

  • 3 Kalki 14:00, 30 April 2007 (UTC) with a lean toward 4.
  • 3 InvisibleSun 18:22, 30 April 2007 (UTC)
  • 3 Aphaia 19:24, 30 April 2007 (UTC)
  • 1 Zarbon 04:50, 23 April 2008 (UTC)

On you, my lord, with anxious fear I wait,
And from your judgment must expect my fate.
~ Joseph Addison (born May 1, 1672)

  • 3 because as the main agenda of Greek philosophy has always been, one can not escape from one's own fate, especially when one does not know one's own fate to begin with. Beautiful. Zarbon 15:08, 28 April 2008 (UTC)
  • 2 InvisibleSun 20:03, 30 April 2008 (UTC)
  • 2 Kalki 20:38, 30 April 2009 (UTC)

Arguments out of a pretty mouth are unanswerable. ~ Joseph Addison (born May 1, 1672)

  • 2 because sometimes it is truly hard to reply to a woman of sheer beauty. Zarbon 15:08, 28 April 2008 (UTC)
  • 2 InvisibleSun 20:03, 30 April 2008 (UTC)
  • 2 Kalki 20:38, 30 April 2009 (UTC)

Better to die ten thousand deaths,
Than wound my honour.
~ Joseph Addison (born May 1, 1672)

  • 4 because dying is nothing compared to destroying or tainting one's honor, and moreso reputation. Zarbon 15:08, 28 April 2008 (UTC)
  • 3 InvisibleSun 20:03, 30 April 2008 (UTC)
  • 2 Kalki 20:38, 30 April 2009 (UTC) with a lean toward 3 — but this can be interpreted with both noble and ignoble senses of the word "honour"

How beautiful is death, when earn'd by virtue!
Who would not be that youth? What pity is it
That we can die but once to serve our country!
~ Joseph Addison (born May 1, 1672)

  • 3 because true virtue and loyalty comes from service to one's country. Zarbon 15:08, 28 April 2008 (UTC)
  • 3 InvisibleSun 20:03, 30 April 2008 (UTC)
  • 2 Kalki 20:38, 30 April 2009 (UTC) with a lean toward 3.

In doing what we ought we deserve no praise,
Because it is our duty.
~ Joseph Addison (born May 1, 1672)

  • 3 because this is very true. It is a gift in itself to do one's duty, and rightly so. Zarbon 15:08, 28 April 2008 (UTC)
  • 3 InvisibleSun 20:03, 30 April 2008 (UTC)
  • 2 Kalki 20:38, 30 April 2009 (UTC) with a lean toward 3.

My death and life,
My bane and antidote, are both before me.
~ Joseph Addison (born May 1, 1672)

  • 3 because in some instances, everything flashes before one's eyes, life and death alike, before the end. The comparison of bane and suffering to that of life and the antidote expressed in the form of death is also magnificent. Zarbon 15:08, 28 April 2008 (UTC)
  • 3 InvisibleSun 20:03, 30 April 2008 (UTC)
  • 2 Kalki 20:38, 30 April 2009 (UTC) but could use more context.

My heart is broken by the terrible loss I have sustained in my old friends and companions and my poor soldiers. Believe me, nothing except a battle lost can be half so melancholy as a battle won. ~ Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington

  • 3 and lean toward 4. Zarbon 22:55, 30 April 2009 (UTC)
  • 3 InvisibleSun 23:02, 30 April 2009 (UTC)
  • 2 Kalki 23:53, 30 April 2009 (UTC) I would rank this higher, but the last part of it was already used, on 18 June 2008

I believe I forgot to tell you I was made a Duke. ~ Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington

There is no mistake; there has been no mistake; and there shall be no mistake. ~ Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington

  • 3 and lean toward 4. Zarbon 22:55, 30 April 2009 (UTC)
  • 2 InvisibleSun 23:02, 30 April 2009 (UTC)
  • 2 Kalki 23:53, 30 April 2009 (UTC)

The only wisdom I think I've attained is the wisdom to be skeptical of other people's ideology and other people's arguments. I tend to be a skeptic, I don't like dogmatic approaches by anybody. I don't like intolerance and a dogmatic person is intolerant of other people. It's one of the reasons I keep a distance from all religious beliefs. ~ Joseph Heller

Morale was deteriorating and it was all Yossarian's fault. The country was in peril; he was jeopardizing his traditional rights of freedom and independence by daring to exercise them. ~ Joseph Heller

"Reason conquers all." (Ratio omnia vincit.) ~ Marcus Manilius

  • 3 (May 1 will be 2014's National Day of Reason.) DanielTom (talk) 11:47, 7 January 2014 (UTC)
  • 3 ♞☤☮♌︎Kalki ⚚⚓︎⊙☳☶⚡ 12:12, 7 January 2014 (UTC) but with slight lean toward 2 — Reason is valuable — but reliances upon one's own impressions in its name is often just as blinding as those in name of passion. To see beyond names and passions often requires more than the shallowest forms of reason — which all too often people believe suffices.
“Catch-22,” the old woman repeated, rocking her head up and down. “Catch-22. Catch-22 says they have a right to do anything we can’t stop them from doing.”
“What the hell are you talking about?” Yossarian shouted at her in bewildered, furious protest. “How did you know it was Catch-22? Who the hell told you it was Catch-22?”
“The soldiers with the hard white hats and clubs. The girls were crying. ‘Did we do anything wrong?’ they said. The men said no and pushed them away out the door with the ends of their clubs. ‘Then why are you chasing us out?’ the girls said. ‘Catch-22,’ the men said. ‘What right do you have?’ the girls said. ‘Catch-22,’ the men said. All they kept saying was ‘Catch-22, Catch-22.’ What does it mean, Catch-22? What is Catch-22?”
“Didn’t they show it to you?” Yossarian demanded, stamping about in anger and distress. “Didn’t you even make them read it?”
"They don’t have to show us Catch-22,” the old woman answered. “The law says they don’t have to.”
“What law says they don’t have to?”
“Catch-22.”
~ Joseph Heller ~
in
~ Catch-22 ~
  • We cannot help but believe that were every law, every title deed, every court, and every police officer or soldier abolished tomorrow with one sweep, we would be better off than now. ~ Lucy Parsons

Capitalism without competition isn’t capitalism; it’s exploitation. ~ Joe Biden

  • Traverse not the globe for lore! The sternest
    But the surest teacher is the heart;
    Studying that and that alone, thou learnest
    Best and soonest whence and what thou art. ...
    Moor, Chinese, Egyptian, Russian, Roman,
    Tread one common down-hill path of doom;
    Everywhere the names are man and woman,
    Everywhere the old sad sins find room.
    Evil angels tempt us in all places.
    What but sands or snows hath earth to give?
    Dream not, friend, of deserts and oases;
    But look inwards, and begin to live. ~ James Clarence Mangan (dob)


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