Wikiquote

October 15

date

Quotes of the day from previous years:

2004
Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. ~ Margaret Mead
2005
Behold the believers of all beliefs! Whom do they hate most? Him who breaketh up their tables of values, the breaker, the law-breaker — he, however, is the creator. Companions, the creator seeketh, not corpses — and not herds or believers either. Fellow-creators the creator seeketh — those who grave new values on new tables. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche (born 15 October 1844)
2006
In all life one should comfort the afflicted, but verily, also, one should afflict the comfortable, and especially when they are comfortably, contentedly, even happily wrong. ~ John Kenneth Galbraith (born 15 October 1908)
2007
Without art we would be nothing but foreground and live entirely in the spell of that perspective which makes what is closest at hand and most vulgar appear as if it were vast, and reality itself. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche
2008
A nuclear war does not defend a country and it does not defend a system. I've put it the same way many times; not even the most accomplished ideologue will be able to tell the difference between the ashes of capitalism and the ashes of communism. ~ John Kenneth Galbraith
2009
All of the great leaders have had one characteristic in common: it was the willingness to confront unequivocally the major anxiety of their people in their time. This, and not much else, is the essence of leadership. ~ John Kenneth Galbraith
2010
When the modern corporation acquires power over markets, power in the community, power over the state and power over belief, it is a political instrument, different in degree but not in kind from the state itself. To hold otherwise — to deny the political character of the modern corporation — is not merely to avoid the reality. It is to disguise the reality. The victims of that disguise are the students who instruct in error. Let there be no question: economics, so long as it is thus taught, becomes, however unconsciously, a part of the arrangement by which the citizen or student is kept from seeing how he or she is, or will be, governed. ~ John Kenneth Galbraith
2011
The secret for harvesting from existence the greatest fruitfulness and the greatest enjoyment is — to live dangerously! ~ Friedrich Nietzsche
2012
There are no facts, only interpretations.
~ Friedrich Nietzsche ~
2013

Facilis descensus Averni:
noctes atque dies patet atri ianua Ditis;
sed revocare gradum superasque evadere ad auras.
hoc opus, hic labor est.

The gates of hell are open night and day;
Smooth the descent, and easy is the way:
But to return, and view the cheerful skies,
In this the task and mighty labor lies.

~ Virgil ~
with translation by
~ John Dryden ~
2014
Omnia vincit Amor et nos cedamus Amori.
Love conquers all and we must yield to Love.
~ Virgil ~
2015
I wonder why some people tend to see science as something which takes man away from God. As I look at it, the path of science can always wind through the heart. For me, science has always been the path to spiritual enrichment and self-realisation.
~ A. P. J. Abdul Kalam ~
2016
This is my belief: that through difficulties and problems God gives us the opportunity to grow. So when your hopes and dreams and goals are dashed, search among the wreckage, you may find a golden opportunity hidden in the ruins.
~ A. P. J. Abdul Kalam ~
2017
Politics is not the art of the possible. It consists in choosing between the disastrous and the unpalatable.
~ John Kenneth Galbraith ~
2018
Money is a singular thing. It ranks with love as man's greatest source of joy. And with death as his greatest source of anxiety. Over all history it has oppressed nearly all people in one of two ways: either it has been abundant and very unreliable, or reliable and very scarce.
~ John Kenneth Galbraith ~
2019
Wealth, in even the most improbable cases, manages to convey the aspect of intelligence.
~ John Kenneth Galbraith ~
2020
People of privilege will always risk their complete destruction rather than surrender any material part of their advantage. Intellectual myopia, often called stupidity, is no doubt a reason. But the privileged also feel that their privileges, however egregious they may seem to others, are a solemn, basic, God-given right.
~ John Kenneth Galbraith ~
2021
The best way to win was to not need to win. The best performances are accomplished when you are relaxed and free of doubt.
~ Abdul Kalam ~
2022
People are the common denominator of progress … no improvement is possible with unimproved people, and advance is certain when people are liberated and educated.
~ John Kenneth Galbraith ~
2023
Few things in life can be so appalling as the difference between a dry antiseptic statement of a principle by a well spoken man in a quiet office, and what happens to people when that principle is put into practice.
~ John Kenneth Galbraith ~
2024
The man who is admired for the ingenuity of his larceny is almost always rediscovering some earlier form of fraud. The basic forms are all known, have all been practiced. The manners of capitalism improve. The morals may not.
~ John Kenneth Galbraith ~
2025
Rank or add further suggestions…

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

  • 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

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
4 : Excellent – should definitely be used. (This is the utmost ranking and should be used by any editor for only one quote at a time for each date.)
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.
Thank you for participating!

Suggestions

edit

God is dead! God stays dead! And we killed him. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche (date of birth)

  • 3 (Another famous [or infamous] quote) ~ MosheZadka (Talk) 07:26, 9 October 2005 (UTC)
  • 2 Kalki 17:01, 14 October 2006 (UTC) but might possibly rank this higher if expanded for context.
  • 2 InvisibleSun 19:39, 14 October 2007 (UTC)
  • 2 Zarbon 04:49, 25 April 2008 (UTC)

So long as thou feelest the stars as an "above thee," thou lackest the eye of the discerning one. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche (date of birth)

  • 3 Kalki 23:59, 14 October 2005 (UTC) with a lean toward 4.
  • 3 InvisibleSun 17:14, 12 October 2006 (UTC)
  • 1 Zarbon 04:49, 25 April 2008 (UTC)

Pardon me, my friends, I have ventured to paint my happiness on the wall. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

  • 3 InvisibleSun 17:14, 12 October 2006 (UTC)
  • 2 Kalki 22:28, 13 October 2006 (UTC)
  • 1 Zarbon 04:49, 25 April 2008 (UTC)

The mother of excess is not joy but joylessness. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

  • 3 InvisibleSun 17:14, 12 October 2006 (UTC)
  • 3 Kalki 22:28, 13 October 2006 (UTC)
  • 1 Zarbon 04:49, 25 April 2008 (UTC)

When people put their ballots in the boxes, they are, by that act, inoculated against the feeling that the government is not theirs. They then accept, in some measure, that its errors are their errors, its aberrations their aberrations, that any revolt will be against them. It's a remarkably shrewd and rather conservative arrangement when one thinks of it. ~ John Kenneth Galbraith

  • 3 InvisibleSun 17:14, 12 October 2006 (UTC)
  • 3 Kalki 22:28, 13 October 2006 (UTC) with a lean toward 4.
  • 1 Zarbon 04:49, 25 April 2008 (UTC)
  • 3 bystander (talk) 04:59, 15 October 2012 (UTC)

All successful revolutions are the kicking in of a rotten door. The violence of revolutions is the violence of men who charge into a vacuum. ~ John Kenneth Galbraith (born 15 October 1908)

  • 3 Kalki 22:28, 13 October 2006 (UTC) with a strong lean toward 4.
  • 3 InvisibleSun 19:35, 14 October 2006 (UTC)
  • 1 Zarbon 04:49, 25 April 2008 (UTC)

Everything I do, I do in order that it may be of use. ~ Michel Foucault

  • 2 Zarbon 05:56, 3 July 2008 (UTC)
  • 3 Kalki 14:42, 14 October 2008 (UTC) with a lean toward 4.
  • 3 InvisibleSun 20:03, 14 October 2008 (UTC)

The most defenseless tenderness and the bloodiest of powers have a similar need of confession. Western man has become a confessing animal. ~ Michel Foucault

Confession frees, but power reduces one to silence; truth does not belong to the order of power, but shares an original affinity with freedom. ~ Michel Foucault

It is a good rule in life never to apologize. The right sort of people do not want apologies, and the wrong sort take a mean advantage of them. ~ P. G. Wodehouse

  • 2 Zarbon 05:56, 3 July 2008 (UTC)
  • 2 Kalki 14:42, 14 October 2008 (UTC) with a lean toward 3.
  • 2 InvisibleSun 20:03, 14 October 2008 (UTC)

Love has had a lot of press-agenting from the oldest times; but there are higher, nobler things than love. ~ P. G. Wodehouse

I'd always thought her half-baked, but now I think they didn't even put her in the oven. ~ P. G. Wodehouse

To say that his conscience was clear would be inaccurate, for he did not have a conscience, but he had what was much better, an alibi. ~ P. G. Wodehouse

...half the world doesn't know how the other three quarters live. ~ P. G. Wodehouse

Total commitment is the common denominator among all successful men and women. ~ Abdul Kalam

O tyrant love, to what do you not drive the hearts of men. ~ Virgil

If I can not bend Heaven, I shall move Hell. ~ Virgil

Cities, like dreams, are made of desires and fears. ~ Italo Calvino (born October 15, 1923)

  • 3 Ningauble 00:55, 6 October 2008 (UTC) ~ I am also agreeable to the longer passage, if it is not too much. The short form is a little rarefied. ~ Ningauble 18:31, 12 October 2008 (UTC)
  • 2 for the full version only: "With cities, it is as with dreams: everything imaginable can be dreamed, but even the most unexpected dream is a rebus that conceals a desire or, its reverse, a fear. Cities, like dreams, are made of desires and fears, even if the thread of their discourse is secret, their rules are absurd, their perspectives deceitful, and everything conceals something else." - Zarbon 14:20, 11 October 2008 (UTC)
  • 3 Kalki 14:42, 14 October 2008 (UTC) for the expanded version.
  • 3 for the expanded version. - InvisibleSun 20:03, 14 October 2008 (UTC)

The study of money, above all other fields in economics, is one in which complexity is used to disguise truth or to evade truth, not to reveal it. ~ John Kenneth Galbraith

  • 3 Kalki 00:29, 15 October 2009 (UTC)

Few can believe that suffering, especially by others, is in vain. Anything that is disagreeable must surely have beneficial economic effects. ~ John Kenneth Galbraith

  • 3 Kalki 00:29, 15 October 2009 (UTC) with a lean toward 4.

In any great organization it is far, far safer to be wrong with the majority than to be right alone. ~ John Kenneth Galbraith

  • 3 Kalki 00:29, 15 October 2009 (UTC) with a lean toward 4.

The enemy of the conventional wisdom is not ideas but the march of events. ~ John Kenneth Galbraith

  • 3 Kalki 00:29, 15 October 2009 (UTC) with a strong lean toward 4.

Once upon a time, in some out of the way corner of that universe which is dispersed into numberless twinkling solar systems, there was a star upon which clever beasts invented knowing. That was the most arrogant and mendacious minute of "world history," but nevertheless, it was only a minute. After nature had drawn a few breaths, the star cooled and congealed, and the clever beasts had to die. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

Whereas the man of action binds his life to reason and its concepts so that he will not be swept away and lost, the scientific investigator builds his hut right next to the tower of science so that he will be able to work on it and to find shelter for himself beneath those bulwarks which presently exist. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche

Possunt, quia posse videntur.
They can because they think they can. ~ Virgil

Audentes fortuna iuvat.
Fortune favors the bold. ~ Virgil

Arma virumque cano, Troiae qui primus ab oris
Italiam fato profugus Laviniaque venit
Litora, multum ille et terris iactatus et alto
Vi superum, saevae memorem Iunonis ob iram.

Arms, and the man I sing, who, forced by Fate,
And haughty Juno's unrelenting hate,
Expelled and exiled, left the Trojan shore.

Long labours both by sea and land he bore.

~ Virgil, opening lines of the Aeneid (as translated by John Dryden)

Sunt lacrimae rerum et mentem mortalia tangunt.
The world is a world of tears and the burdens of mortality touch the heart.

~ Virgil, Aeneid 1.462 (trans. Robert Fagles)

Equo ne credite, Teucri.
quidquid id est, timeo Danaos et dona ferentes.
Do not trust the horse, Trojans.
Whatever it is, I fear the Greeks even when they bring gifts. ~ Virgil

Every man's last day is fixed.
Lifetimes are brief and not to be regained,
For all mankind. But by their deeds to make
Their fame last: that is labor for the brave. ~ Virgil

In one way or another, are we not all looking for our cow?
~ Terry Pratchett ~

3 per 🐄. Cremastra (talk) 20:19, 11 October 2024 (UTC)


Retrieved from "https://en.wikiquote.org/w/index.php?title=October_15&oldid=3597626"