Wikiquote

November 26

day of the year

Quotes of the day from previous years:

2004
When a person doesn't have gratitude, something is missing in his or her humanity. A person can almost be defined by his or her attitude toward gratitude. ~ Elie Wiesel
2005
If I were to be given the opportunity to present a gift to the next generation, it would be the ability for each individual to learn to laugh at himself. ~ Charles M. Schulz (born 26 November 1922)
2006
"Sometimes I lie awake at night and I ask, Why me?" And the voice says, "Nothing personal your name just happened to come up." ~ Charles M. Schulz (born 26 November 1922)
2007
It is not earthly rank, nor birth, nor nationality, nor religious privilege, which proves that we are members of the family of God; it is love, a love that embraces all humanity. ~ Ellen G. White (born 26 November 1827)
2008
Knowledge is proud that he has learned so much;
Wisdom is humble that he knows no more.
~ William Cowper ~
2009
I believe that what separates us all from one another is simply society itself, or, if you like, politics. This is what raises barriers between men, this is what creates misunderstanding.
If I may be allowed to express myself paradoxically, I should say that the truest society, the authentic human community, is extra-social — a wider, deeper society, that which is revealed by our common anxieties, our desires, our secret nostalgias. The whole history of the world has been governed by nostalgias and anxieties, which political action does no more than reflect and interpret, very imperfectly. No society has been able to abolish human sadness, no political system can deliver us from the pain of living, from our fear of death, our thirst for the absolute. It is the human condition that directs the social condition, not vice versa. ~ Eugène Ionesco
2010
Blind unbelief is sure to err,
And scan his work in vain;
God is his own interpreter,
And he will make it plain.
~ William Cowper ~
2011
Ideologies separate us. Dreams and anguish bring us together. ~ Eugène Ionesco
2012
I know nothing of man's rights, or woman's rights; human rights are all that I recognise.
~ Sarah Grimké ~
2013
Why do people always expect authors to answer questions? I am an author because I want to ask questions. If I had answers, I'd be a politician.
~ Eugène Ionesco ~
2014
I thought that it was strange to assume that it was abnormal for anyone to be forever asking questions about the nature of the universe, about what the human condition really was, my condition, what I was doing here, if there was really something to do. It seemed to me on the contrary that it was abnormal for people not to think about it, for them to allow themselves to live, as it were, unconsciously. Perhaps it's because everyone, all the others, are convinced in some unformulated, irrational way that one day everything will be made clear. Perhaps there will be a morning of grace for humanity. Perhaps there will be a morning of grace for me.
~ Eugène Ionesco ~
2015
Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consciousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom. No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens.
~ Abraham Lincoln ~
  • proposed by Kalki, for the US Thanksgiving Day 2015, which was established by Lincoln as a national holiday for the last Thursday in November in 1863.
2016
Dreams are reality at its most profound, and what you invent is truth because invention, by its nature, can’t be a lie. Writers who try to prove something are unattractive to me, because there is nothing to prove and everything to imagine. So I let words and images emerge from within. If you do that, you might prove something in the process.
~ Eugène Ionesco ~
2017
People always try to find base motives behind every good action. We are afraid of pure goodness and of pure evil.
~ Eugène Ionesco ~
2018
The French Revolution liberated people from the power of the aristocrats. But the bourgeoisie that took over represented the exploitation of man by man, and had to be destroyed — as in the Russian Revolution, which then degenerated into totalitarianism, Stalinism, and genocide. The more you make revolutions, the worse it gets. Man is driven by evil instincts that are often stronger than moral laws … there is a higher order, but man can separate himself from it because he is free — which is what we have done. We have lost the sense of this higher order, and things will get worse and worse, culminating perhaps in a nuclear holocaust — the destruction predicted in the Apocalyptic texts. Only our apocalypse will be absurd and ridiculous because it will not be related to any transcendence. Modern man is a puppet, a jumping jack.
~ Eugène Ionesco ~
2019
To introduce people to a different world, to encounter the miracle of being, that is important.
~ Eugène Ionesco ~
2020
Be at peace among yourselves.
Now we exhort you, brethren, warn those who are unruly, comfort the fainthearted, uphold the weak, be patient with all. See that no one renders evil for evil to anyone, but always pursue what is good both for yourselves and for all.
Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
Do not quench the Spirit. Do not despise prophecies. Test all things; hold fast what is good. Abstain from every form of evil.
~ Paul of Tarsus ~
in
~ First Epistle to the Thessalonians ~
  • proposed by Kalki, in regard to the US Thanksgiving Day.
2021
How sweet, how passing sweet, is solitude!
But grant me still a friend in my retreat
Whom I may whisper — solitude is sweet.
~ William Cowper ~
2022
His purposes will ripen fast,
Unfolding every hour;
The bud may have a bitter taste,
But sweet will be the flower.
~ William Cowper ~
2023
We must not think, "Well, we have all the truth, we understand the main pillars of our faith, and we may rest on this knowledge." The truth is an advancing truth, and we must walk in the increasing light.
~ Ellen G. White ~
2024
You know, the Cathars believed that the world was not created by God but by a demon who had stolen a few technological secrets from Him and made this world — which is why it doesn’t work. I don’t share this heresy. I’m too afraid! But I put it in a play called This Extraordinary Brothel, in which the protagonist doesn’t talk at all. There is a revolution, everybody kills everybody else, and he doesn’t understand. But at the very end, he speaks for the first time. He points his finger towards the sky and shakes it at God, saying, “You rogue! You little rogue!” and he bursts out laughing. He understands that the world is an enormous farce, a canular played by God against man, and that he has to play God’s game and laugh about it.
~ Eugène Ionesco ~
2025
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Quotes by people born this day, already used as QOTD:

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Suggestions

edit

You always have a tendency to add. But one must be able to subtract too. It's not enough to integrate, you must also disintegrate. That's the way life is. ~ Eugène Ionesco

  • 3 Zarbon 03:33, 25 October 2008 (UTC)
  • 2 Kalki 14:48, 23 November 2008 (UTC) with a lean toward 3.
  • 2 Antiquary 20:56, 25 November 2008 (UTC)
  • 2 InvisibleSun 21:56, 25 November 2008 (UTC)

God is dead. Marx is dead. And I don't feel so well myself. ~ Eugène Ionesco

  • 3 Zarbon 03:33, 25 October 2008 (UTC)
  • 2 Kalki 14:48, 23 November 2008 (UTC)
  • 1 Antiquary 20:56, 25 November 2008 (UTC)
  • 2 InvisibleSun 21:56, 25 November 2008 (UTC)

Nature is my friend. Life is my philosopher. History is my guide. ~ Velupillai Prabhakaran

  • 2 Zarbon 04:06, 25 October 2008 (UTC)
  • 2 Kalki 14:48, 23 November 2008 (UTC)

Fear is the outcome of weakness, a coward’s friend, an enemy of firmness. Fear of death is the cause of all human fears. One who wins the fear of death wins himself. He is the one who wins the freedom. From his mental prison. ~ Velupillai Prabhakaran

  • 2 Zarbon 04:06, 25 October 2008 (UTC)
  • 2 Kalki 14:48, 23 November 2008 (UTC)

My comrades whom I loved as my life, my generals who have been fighting along with me shoulder to shoulder, my fighters whom I fostered for several years, When they fall in the battle field my heart bursts. Yet in that grief I do not languish. All these losses add strength to my will towards my ideal. ~ Velupillai Prabhakaran

  • 4 Zarbon 04:06, 25 October 2008 (UTC)
  • 1 Kalki 14:48, 23 November 2008 (UTC)
Good men make good rhinoceroses, unfortunately.
~ Eugène Ionesco ~
Everything that has been will be, everything that will be is, everything that will be has been.
~ Eugène Ionesco ~
I remember one day there was a military parade. A lieutenant was marching in front of the palace guards. I can still see him carrying the flag. I was standing beside a peasant with a big fur hat who was watching the parade, absolutely wide-eyed. Suddenly the lieutenant broke rank, rushed toward us, and slapped the peasant, saying, “Take off your hat when you see the flag!” I was horrified. My thoughts were not yet organized or coherent at that age, but I had feelings, a certain nascent humanism, and I found these things inadmissible. The worst thing of all, for an adolescent, was to be different from everyone else. Could I be right and the whole country wrong?
~ Eugène Ionesco ~
You can stay in society and be alone, as long as you can be detached from the world. This is why I don’t think I have ever gone for the easy option or done things that were expected of me.
~ Eugène Ionesco ~
The theater chose me. As I said, I started with poetry, and I also wrote criticism and dialogue. But I realized that I was most successful at dialogue. Perhaps I abandoned criticism because I am full of contradictions, and when you write an essay you are not supposed to contradict yourself. But in the theater, by inventing various characters, you can. My characters are contradictory not only in their language, but in their behavior as well.
~ Eugène Ionesco ~
The most implacable enemies of culture — Rimbaud, Lautréamont, dadaism, surrealism — end up being assimilated and absorbed by it. They all wanted to destroy culture, at least organized culture, and now they’re part of our heritage. It’s culture and not the bourgeoisie, as has been alleged, that is capable of absorbing everything for its own nourishment.
~ Eugène Ionesco ~
You need clear, energetic minds, in order to appreciate the exalted character of the truth, to value the atonement, and to place the right estimate upon eternal things.
~ Ellen G. White ~
I wish that we had much more of the Spirit of Christ and a great deal less self, and less of human opinions. If we err, let it be on the side of mercy rather than on the side of condemnation and harsh dealing.
~ Ellen G. White ~


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