Wikiquote

May 25

date

Quotes of the day from previous years:

2004
I got some new underwear the other day. Well, new to me. ~ Emo Philips
2005
If the stars should appear one night in a thousand years, how would men believe and adore; and preserve for many generations the remembrance of the city of God which had been shown! But every night come out these envoys of beauty, and light the universe with their admonishing smile. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson (born 25 May 1803)
2006
They reckon ill who leave me out;
When me they fly, I am the wings;
I am the doubter and the doubt,
And I the hymn the Brahmin sings.
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson (born 25 May 1803)
2007

Is pain a promise? I was schooled in pain,
And found out what I could of all desire;
I weep for what I'm like when I'm alone
In the deep center of the voice and fire.

I know the motion of the deepest stone.
Each one's himself, yet each one's everyone.
~ Theodore Roethke ~

2008
Any man who can hitch the length and breadth of the galaxy, rough it, slum it, struggle against terrible odds, win through, and still knows where his towel is, is clearly a man to be reckoned with. ~ Douglas Adams in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. May 25th is Towel Day
2009
You will hear every day the maxims of a low prudence. You will hear, that the first duty is to get land and money, place and name. "What is this Truth you seek? What is this Beauty?" men will ask, with derision. If, nevertheless, God have called any of you to explore truth and beauty, be bold, be firm, be true. When you shall say, "As others do, so will I. I renounce, I am sorry for it, my early visions; I must eat the good of the land, and let learning and romantic expectations go, until a more convenient season." — then dies the man in you; then once more perish the buds of art, and poetry, and science, as they have died already in a thousand thousand men. The hour of that choice is the crisis of your history; and see that you hold yourself fast by the intellect. … Bend to the persuasion which is flowing to you from every object in Nature, to be its tongue to the heart of man, and to show the besotted world how passing fair is wisdom. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
2010
Be an artist superior to tricks of art. Show frankly, as a saint would do, all your experience, your methods, tools, and means. Welcome all comers to the freest use of the same. And out of this superior frankness and charity, you shall learn higher secrets of your nature, which gods will bend and aid you to communicate. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
2011
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
I feel my fate in what I cannot fear.
I learn by going where I have to go.
~ Theodore Roethke ~
2012
The less government we have, the better, — the fewer laws, and the less confided power. The antidote to this abuse of formal Government, is, the influence of private character, the growth of the Individual.
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson ~
2013
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 ~
2014
The stars awaken a certain reverence, because though always present, they are inaccessible; but all natural objects make a kindred impression, when the mind is open to their influence. Nature never wears a mean appearance. Neither does the wisest man extort her secret, and lose his curiosity by finding out all her perfection. Nature never became a toy to a wise spirit. The flowers, the animals, the mountains, reflected the wisdom of his best hour, as much as they had delighted the simplicity of his childhood.
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson ~
2015
I've always believed in numbers. In the equations and logics that lead to reason. But after a lifetime of such pursuits, I ask, what truly is logic? Who decides reason? My quest has taken me through the physical, the metaphysical, the delusional, and back — and I have made the most important discovery of my career — the most important discovery of my life: It is only in the mysterious equations of love that any logic or reasons can be found.
~ John Forbes Nash, Jr. ~
as portrayed in
~ A Beautiful Mind ~
  • proposed by DanielTom, in response to the recent death of Nash and his wife in a traffic accident.
2016
I have been writing & speaking what were once called novelties, for twenty five or thirty year, & have not now one disciple. Why? Not that what I said was not true; not that it has not found intelligent receivers but because it did not go from any wish in me to bring men to me, but to themselves.
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson ~
2017
This must be Thursday... I never could get the hang of Thursdays.
~ Douglas Adams ~
in
~ The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy ~
2018
It will never make any difference to a hero what the laws are. His greatness will shine and accomplish itself unto the end, whether they second him or not. If he have earned his bread by drudgery, and in the narrow and crooked ways which were all an evil law had left him, he will make it at least honorable by his expenditure. Of the past he will take no heed; for its wrongs he will not hold himself responsible: he will say, All the meanness of my progenitors shall not bereave me of the power to make this hour and company fair and fortunate. Whatsoever streams of power and commodity flow to me, shall of me acquire healing virtue, and become fountains of safety. Cannot I too descend a Redeemer into nature? Whosoever hereafter shall name my name, shall not record a malefactor, but a benefactor in the earth. If there be power in good intention, in fidelity, and in toil, the north wind shall be purer, the stars in heaven shall glow with a kindlier beam, that I have lived. I am primarily engaged to myself to be a public servant of all the gods, to demonstrate to all men that there is intelligence and good will at the heart of things, and ever higher and yet higher leadings. These are my engagements; how can your law further or hinder me in what I shall do to men? On the other hand, these dispositions establish their relations to me. Wherever there is worth, I shall be greeted. Wherever there are men, are the objects of my study and love. Sooner of later all men will be my friends, and will testify in all methods the energy of their regard. I cannot thank your law for my protection. I protect it. It is not in its power to protect me. It is my business to make myself revered. I depend on my honor, my labor, and my dispositions for my place in the affections of mankind, and not on any conventions or parchments of yours.
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson ~
2019
I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth. No single space project in this period will be more impressive to mankind, or more important for the long-range exploration of space; and none will be so difficult or expensive to accomplish. We propose to accelerate the development of the appropriate lunar space craft. We propose to develop alternate liquid and solid fuel boosters, much larger than any now being developed, until certain which is superior. We propose additional funds for other engine development and for unmanned explorations — explorations which are particularly important for one purpose which this nation will never overlook: the survival of the man who first makes this daring flight. But in a very real sense, it will not be one man going to the moon — if we make this judgment affirmatively, it will be an entire nation. For all of us must work to put him there.
~ John F. Kennedy ~
2020
To live content with small means; to seek elegance rather than luxury, and refinement rather than fashion: to he worthy, not respectable; and wealthy, not rich; to study hard, think quietly, talk gently, act frankly; to have an oratory in my own heart, and present spotless sacrifices of dignified kindness in the temple of humanity; to spread no opinions glaringly out like show-plants, and yet leave the garden gate ever open for the chosen friend and the chance acquaintance: to make no pretenses to greatness; to seek no notoriety; to attempt no wide influence; to have no ambitious projects; to let my writings be the daily bubbling spring flowing through constancy, swelled by experiences, into the full, deep river of wisdom; to listen to stars and buds, to babes and sages, with open heart; to bear all cheerfully, do all bravely, await occasions, hurry never; … in a word, to let the spiritual, unbidden and unconscious, grow up through the common. This is to be my symphony.
~ William Henry Channing ~
2021
The real and lasting victories are those of peace, and not of war.
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson ~
2022
Voice, come out of the silence.
Say something.
Appear in the form of a spider
Or a moth beating the curtain.

Tell me:
Which is the way I take;
Out of what door` do I go,
Where and to whom?

Dark hollows said, lee to the wind,
The moon said, back of an eel,
The salt said, look by the sea,
Your tears are not enough praise,
You will find no comfort here,
In the kingdom of bang and blab.
~ Theodore Roethke ~
2023
We are all born with a mission, a purpose, that only we can fulfill.
When you live with a joyful sense of purpose, when you infuse your life with a greater purpose beyond your individual self, every aspect of your karma can become a brilliant facet of your mission. You can transform sorrow and adversity of any sort into joy, stability, health, and prosperity. By changing poison into medicine and accomplishing your inner revolution, you can use every experience of karma to encourage others who suffer from the same problems that you overcame.
You can become an ambassador of hope, an essential and radiant treasure of humanity, in which you recognize that all who have ever lived are members of your extended family.
As you continue to spread light in this way, actively doing good in the world, that energy will come back to you in abundant positivity. When you refuse to perpetuate any bad that has been done to you, you can free yourself from the chains of negativity.
~ Tina Turner ~
2024
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Suggestions

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Remember, the Force will be with you, always. ~ Obi-Wan Kenobi, Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, released on May 25, 1977.

  • 3 Aphaia 23:43, 12 May 2007 (UTC)
  • 3 ~ Kalki 06:31, 24 May 2007 (UTC) (but a variant of this has already been used
    • 2 I changed my vote to avoid feeling of duplication. --Aphaia 10:10, 24 May 2007 (UTC)
  • 3 InvisibleSun 10:04, 24 May 2007 (UTC)
  • 2 Herby talk thyme 14:13, 24 May 2007 (UTC)
  • 1 If only it were as compelling as something Darth Sidious said in Episode III Zarbon 05:39, 23 April 2008 (UTC)
  • 3 Lyle 14:45, 21 November 2008 (UTC)
  • 2 J.A.R.N.Y.🗣 01:05, 24 May 2018 (UTC)
  • 3 dibbydib⌐■_■ (barate me) 03:28, 21 May 2020 (UTC)

Death was not. I lived in a simple drowse:
Hands and hair moved through a dream of wakening blossoms.
Rain sweetened the cave and the dove still called;
The flowers leaned on themselves, the flowers in hollows;
And love, love sang toward.
~ Theodore Roethke (born May 25, 1908)

  • I'll seek my own meekness.
    What grace I have is enough.
    The lost have their own pace.
    The stalks ask something else.
    What the grave says,
    The nest denies.
    ~ Theodore Roethke
  • 3 InvisibleSun 10:04, 24 May 2007 (UTC)
  • 3 Aphaia 10:10, 24 May 2007 (UTC)
  • 3 Herby talk thyme 14:13, 24 May 2007 (UTC)
  • 3 Kalki 22:52, 24 May 2007 (UTC)
  • 1 Zarbon 05:39, 23 April 2008 (UTC)
  • 1 J.A.R.N.Y.🗣 01:12, 24 May 2018 (UTC)

The moon draws back its waters from the shore.
By the lake's edge, I see a silver swan,
And she is what I would. In this light air,
Lost opposites bend down —
Sing of that nothing of which all is made,
Or listen into silence, like a god.
~ Theodore Roethke

I have gone into the waste lonely places
Behind the eye.
~ Theodore Roethke

God bless the roots! — Body and soul are one!
The small become the great, the great the small;
The right thing happens to the happy man.
~ Theodore Roethke

Try not. Do, or do not, there is no try. ~Master Yoda, as played by Frank Oz (born May 25, 1944) Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back

  • 4 Lyle 14:45, 21 November 2008 (UTC)
  • 0 this was already used on October 17, 2004. Zarbon 05:02, 22 November 2008 (UTC)

Don't put your trust in revolutions. They always come around again. That's why they're called revolutions. People die, and nothing changes. ~ Terry Pratchett, Night Watch, for Lilac Day

Ninety per cent of most magic merely consists of knowing one extra fact. ~ Terry Pratchett, Night Watch

People on the side of The People always ended up disappointed, in any case. They found that The People tended not to be grateful or appreciative or forward-thinking or obedient. The People tended to be small-minded and conservative and not very clever and were even distrustful of cleverness. And so the children of the revolution were faced with the age-old problem: it wasn't that you had the wrong kind of government, which was obvious, but that you had the wrong kind of people.
As soon as you saw people as things to be measured, they didn't measure up... ~ Terry Pratchett, Night Watch

To believe your own thought, to believe that what is true for you in your private heart is true for all men, — that is genius. Speak your latent conviction, and it shall be the universal sense; for the inmost in due time becomes the outmost, — and our first thought is rendered back to us by the trumpets of the Last Judgment. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

I dance with William Blake
For love, for Love's sake;

And everything comes to One,
As we dance on, dance on, dance on

~ Theodore Roethke ~
I'll seek my own meekness.
What grace I have is enough.
The lost have their own pace.
The stalks ask something else.
What the grave says,
The nest denies.
~ Theodore Roethke ~
Bless me and the maze I'm in!
Hello, thingy spirit.
~ Theodore Roethke ~
There's time enough.
Behold, in the lout's eye, love.
~ Theodore Roethke ~
Poetry is not a mere shuffling of dead words or even a corralling of live ones.
~ Theodore Roethke ~
The poem, even a short time after being written, seems no miracle; unwritten, it seems something beyond the capacity of the gods.
~ Theodore Roethke ~
Let others probe the mystery if they can.
Time-harried prisoners of Shall and Will —
The right thing happens to the happy man.
~ Theodore Roethke ~
Art is the means we have of undoing the damage of haste. It's what everything else isn't.
~ Theodore Roethke ~
A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do. He may as well concern himself with his shadow on the wall. Speak what you think now in hard words, and to-morrow speak what to-morrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict every thing you said to-day.—'Ah, so you shall be sure to be misunderstood.'—Is it so bad, then, to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood.
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson ~
I always swing at the ball with all my might. I hit or miss big and when I miss I know it long before the umpire calls a strike on me, for every muscle in my back, shoulders and arms is groaning, "You missed it."
~ Babe Ruth ~

-Anniversary of Babe Ruth's last homerun.

If you are unhappy with anything—your mother, your father, your husband, your wife, your job, your boss, your car—whatever is bringing you down, get rid of it. Because you'll find that when you're free, your true creativity, your true self comes out.
~ Tina Turner ~
  • 4 bystander (talk) On her recent death 16:58, 24 May 2023
  • 2 ♞☤☮♌︎Kalki ⚚⚓︎⊙☳☶⚡ 00:02, 25 May 2023 (UTC), with a lean toward 3; I had considered using this, but found several others I believe to be better.


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