May 21

day of the year

Quotes of the day from previous years:

2004
The road to wisdom? — Well, it's plain and simple to express: Err and err and err again but less and less and less. ~ Piet Hein
2005
May the Force be with you. ~ Jedi saying; used in all Star Wars episodes.
2006
A man should never be ashamed to own he has been in the wrong, which is but saying, in other words, that he is wiser today than he was yesterday. ~ Alexander Pope (born 21 May 1688)
2007
Life — a culmination of the past, an awareness of the present, an indication of a future beyond knowledge, the quality that gives a touch of divinity to matter. ~ Charles Lindbergh (80th anniversary of his solo flight across the Atlantic.)
2008
The flying Rumours gather'd as they roll'd,
Scarce any Tale was sooner heard than told;
And all who told it, added something new,
And all who heard it, made Enlargements too,
In ev'ry Ear it spread, on ev'ry Tongue it grew.

~ Alexander Pope ~
2009
Some Figures monstrous and mis-shap'd appear,
Consider'd singly, or beheld too near,
Which, but proportion'd to their Light, or Place,
Due Distance reconciles to Form and Grace.
A prudent Chief not always must display
His Pow'rs in equal Ranks, and fair Array,
But with th' Occasion and the Place comply,
Conceal his Force, nay seem sometimes to Fly.
Those oft are Stratagems which Errors seem,
Nor is it Homer Nods, but We that Dream.

~ Alexander Pope ~
2010
All seems Infected that th' Infected spy,
As all looks yellow to the Jaundic'd Eye.

~ Alexander Pope ~
2011
Blessed is he who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed. ~ Alexander Pope
2012
Trust not your self; but your Defects to know,
Make use of ev'ry Friend — and ev'ry Foe.
~ Alexander Pope ~
2013
Nature and Nature's laws lay hid in night:
God said, "Let Newton be!" and all was light.
~ Alexander Pope ~
2014
The environment of human life has changed more rapidly and more extensively in recent years than it has ever changed before. When environment changes, there must be a corresponding change in life. That change must be so great that it is not likely to be completed in a decade or in a generation.
~ Charles Lindbergh ~
2015
I have come to believe … that the stage may do more than teach, that much of our current moral instruction will not endure the test of being cast into a lifelike mold, and when presented in dramatic form will reveal itself as platitudinous and effete. That which may have sounded like righteous teaching when it was remote and wordy, will be challenged afresh when it is obliged to simulate life itself.
~ Jane Addams ~
2016
Some people will never learn anything, for this reason, because they understand everything too soon.
~ Alexander Pope ~
2017
In the United States of America, satire is protected speech, even if the object of the satire doesn’t get it.
~ Al Franken ~
2018
He who tells a lie, is not sensible how great a task he undertakes; for he must be forced to invent twenty more to maintain that one.
~ Alexander Pope ~
2019
Some old men, by continually praising the time of their youth, would almost persuade us that there were no fools in those days; but unluckily they are left themselves for examples.
~ Alexander Pope ~
2020
Teach me to feel another's woe,
To right the fault I see;
That mercy I to others show,
That mercy show to me.
~ Alexander Pope ~
2021
What after all, has maintained the human race on this old globe despite all the calamities of nature and all the tragic failings of mankind, if not faith in new possibilities, and courage to advocate them.
~ Jane Addams ~
2022
In his own way each man must struggle, lest the moral law become a far-off abstraction utterly separated from his active life.
~ Jane Addams ~
2023
We fatuously hoped that we might pluck from the human tragedy itself a consciousness of a common destiny which should bring its own healing, that we might extract from life’s very misfortunes a power of cooperation which should be effective against them.
~ Jane Addams ~
2024
What do we mean when we say that first of all we seek liberty? I often wonder whether we do not rest our hopes too much upon constitutions, upon laws and upon courts. These are false hopes; believe me, these are false hopes. Liberty lies in the hearts of men and women; when it dies there, no constitution, no law, no court can save it; no constitution, no law, no court can even do much to help it. ... It is not the ruthless, the unbridled will; it is not the freedom to do as one likes. That is the denial of liberty and leads straight to its overthrow. A society in which men recognize no check on their freedom soon becomes a society where freedom is the possession of only a savage few.
~ Learned Hand ~
2025
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I've said that net neutrality is the most important free speech issue of our time. It's true. If Republicans have their way, large corporations won't just have the loudest voices in the room. They'll be able to effectively silence everyone else. Every small business they'd prefer not to compete with. Every blogger who publishes something they don't like. We have to stop them. ~ Al Franken (date of birth)


O happiness! our being's end and aim! ~ Alexander Pope