Quotes of the day from previous years:

2004
We're just being ourselves and having fun playing baseball. The biggest thing is when people look at our team, they can see that we're having a lot of fun. ~ Johnny Damon
2005
Life is an error-making and an error-correcting process, and nature in marking man's papers will grade him for wisdom as measured both by survival and by the quality of life of those who survive. ~ Jonas Salk (born 28 October 1914)
2006
The human mind is inspired enough when it comes to inventing horrors; it is when it tries to invent a Heaven that it shows itself cloddish. ~ Evelyn Waugh (born 28 October 1903)
2007
I have dreams, and I have nightmares. I overcame the nightmares because of my dreams. ~ Jonas Salk (date of birth)
2008
Walk a single path, becoming neither cocky with victory nor broken with defeat, without forgetting caution when all is quiet or becoming frightened when danger threatens. ~ Jigoro Kano
2009
The reward for work well done is the opportunity to do more. ~ Jonas Salk (date of birth)
2010
Paradoxically, the man who has failed and one who is at the peak of success are in exactly the same position. Each must decide what he will do next, choose the course that will lead him to the future. ~ Jigoro Kano
2011
My attitude was always to keep open, to keep scanning. I think that's how things work in nature. Many people are close-minded, rigid, and that's not my inclination. ~ Jonas Salk
2012
Neither wisdom nor good will is now dominant. Hope lies in dreams, in imagination and in the courage of those who dare to make dreams into reality.
~ Jonas Salk ~
2013
I see the triumph of good over evil as a manifestation of the error-correcting process of evolution.
~ Jonas Salk ~
2014
I do what I feel impelled to do, as an artist would. Scientists function in the same way. I see all these as creative activities, as all part of the process of discovery. Perhaps that's one of the characteristics of what I call the evolvers, any subset of the population who keep things moving in a positive, creative, constructive way, revealing the truth and beauty that exists in life and in nature.
~ Jonas Salk ~
2015
Aesthetic value is often the by-product of the artist striving to do something else.
~ Evelyn Waugh ~
2016
Apply just the right amount of force — never too much, never too little. All of us know of people who have failed to accomplish what they set out to do because of not properly gauging the amount of effort required. At one extreme, they fall short of the mark; at the other, they do not know when to stop.
~ Jigoro Kano ~
2017
You made me cry,
when you said goodbye
Ain't that a shame
My tears fell like rain
Ain't that a shame
You're the one to blame
~ Fats Domino ~
  • proposed by Kalki, in regard to his recent death.
2018
Some people might look at something and let it go by, because they don't recognize the pattern and the significance. It's the sensitivity to pattern recognition that seems to me to be of great importance. It's a matter of being able to find meaning, whether it's positive or negative, in whatever you encounter. It's like a journey. It's like finding the paths that will allow you to go forward, or that path that has a block that tells you to start over again or do something else.
~ Jonas Salk ~
2019
Last night, the United States brought the world's number one terrorist leader to justice. Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is dead. He was the founder and leader of ISIS, the most ruthless and violent terror organization in the World. The United States has been searching for Baghdadi for many years. Capturing or killing Baghdadi has been the top national security priority of my Administration. U.S. Special Operations forces executed a dangerous and daring nighttime raid into Northwestern Syria to accomplish this mission.
~ Donald Trump ~
  • proposed by Kalki, in regard to the recent special forces operation against ISIL.
2020
When I was a kid, the disaster we worried about most was a nuclear war. That’s why we had a barrel … down in our basement, filled with cans of food and water. When the nuclear attack came, we were supposed to go downstairs, hunker down, and eat out of that barrel. Today, the greatest risk of global catastrophe doesn’t look like this. … If anything kills over 10 million people in the next few decades, it’s most likely to be a highly infectious virus rather than a war. Not missiles, but microbes.
~ Bill Gates ~
2021
Carefully observe oneself and one's situation, carefully observe others, and carefully observe one's environment,
Seize the initiative in whatever you undertake,
Consider fully, act decisively,
Know when to stop,
Keep to the middle.
~ Kanō Jigorō ~
2022
I feel ever so strongly that an artist must be nourished by his passions and his despairs. These things alter an artist whether for the good or the better or the worse. It must alter him. The feelings of desperation and unhappiness are more useful to an artist than the feeling of contentment, because desperation and unhappiness stretch your whole sensibility.
~ Francis Bacon ~
2023
Some people are constructive … Others are destructive. It's this diversity in humankind that results in some making positive contributions and some negative contributions. It's necessary to have enough who make positive contributions to overcome the problems of each age.
~ Jonas Salk ~
2024
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Suggestions edit


The obvious mathematical breakthrough would be development of an easy way to factor large prime numbers. ~ Bill Gates, born that day

If at first you don't succeed, maybe losing is your style. Chris Lang October 28th 2008


To know and love another human being is the root of all wisdom. ~ Evelyn Waugh (date of birth)

  • 3 Kalki 18:52, 27 October 2005 (UTC)
  • 1 Zarbon 05:45, 25 April 2008 (UTC)
  • 3 ~ UDScott 12:30, 27 October 2008 (UTC)
  • 0 (unsourced) Ningauble 16:14, 27 October 2008 (UTC)
  • 0. I can't find this quote on the Waugh page. - InvisibleSun 19:48, 27 October 2008 (UTC)
This is a line from Brideshead Revisited, which has now been added to the page. ~ Kalki 22:12, 27 October 2008 (UTC)

To ask may be but a moment's shame, not to ask and remain ignorant is a lifelong shame. ~ Jigoro Kano

  • 3 Zarbon 05:39, 5 July 2008 (UTC)

1 * 3 Kalki 15:52, 18 October 2008 (UTC) This seems to be a general Japanese proverb; I found no published mention of Jigoro Kano as its author. ~ Kalki 19:01, 27 October 2008 (UTC)

  • 3 ~ UDScott 12:30, 27 October 2008 (UTC)
  • 0 (unsourced) Ningauble 16:14, 27 October 2008 (UTC)
  • 0 because it is unsourced to Kano. - InvisibleSun 19:48, 27 October 2008 (UTC)
    • Comment: actually, this quote is attributed heavily to Jigoro Kano and Judo training. I located many books that have the quote, but I'm having trouble locating the exact source crediting Kano as the sole author. I'm pretty sure he did say it though. Zarbon 23:12, 27 October 2008 (UTC)

Success is a lousy teacher. It seduces smart people into thinking they can't lose. ~ Bill Gates

  • 3 Zarbon 05:39, 5 July 2008 (UTC)
  • 2 Kalki 15:52, 18 October 2008 (UTC)
  • 2 ~ UDScott 12:30, 27 October 2008 (UTC)
  • 2 Ningauble 16:14, 27 October 2008 (UTC)
  • 2 InvisibleSun 19:48, 27 October 2008 (UTC)

Punctuality is the virtue of the bored. ~ Evelyn Waugh

  • 3 Kalki 06:01, 19 October 2009 (UTC)

I came to the conclusion many years ago that almost all crime is due to the repressed desire for aesthetic expression. ~ Evelyn Waugh

  • 3 Kalki 06:01, 19 October 2009 (UTC) with a lean toward 4.

Judo teaches us to look for the best possible course of action, whatever the individual circumstances, and helps us to understand that worry is a waste of energy. ~ Jigoro Kano

  • 3 Kalki 06:23, 19 October 2009 (UTC)

We have sunk the Africans and their descendants below the standard of humanity, and almost rendered them incapable of that blessing which equal heaven bestowed upon us all.
~ John Laurens ~
  • 3.25. October 28, because that is the man's birthday. Statement condemning the enslavement of African people. Spelling has been modernized from the 18th century one. – Illegitimate Barrister 21:14, 4 August 2015 (UTC)

Reason alone will not serve. Intuition alone can be improved by reason, but reason alone without intuition can easily lead the wrong way. They both are necessary. The way I like to put it is that when I have an intuition about something, I send it over to the reason department. Then after I've checked it out in the reason department, I send it back to the intuition department to make sure that it's still all right. That's how my mind works, and that's how I work. That's why I think that there is both an art and a science to what we do. The art of science is as important as so-called technical science. You need both. It's this combination that must be recognized and acknowledged and valued.
~ Jonas Salk ~

I have come to associate a kind of success that we are referring to, to individuals who have a combination of attributes that are often associated with creativity. In a way they are mutants, they are different from others. And they follow their own drummer. We know what that means. And are we all like that? We are not like that. If you are, then it would be well to recognize that there were others before you. And, people like that are not very happy or content, until they are allowed to express, or they can express what's in them to express. It's that driving force that I think is like the process of evolution working on us, and in us, and with us, and through us. That's how we continue on, and will improve our lot in life, solve the problems that arise. Partly out of necessity, partly out of this drive to improve.
~ Jonas Salk ~

You can have a team of unconventional thinkers, as well as conventional thinkers. If you don't have the support of others you cannot achieve anything altogether on your own. It's like a cry in the wilderness. In each instance there were others who could see the same thing, and there were others who could not. It's an obvious difference we see in those who you might say have a bird's eye view, and those who have a worm's eye view. I've come to realize that we all have a different mind set, we all see things differently, and that's what the human condition is really all about.
~ Jonas Salk ~

What you see in living systems, and in genetic systems, is that the genes are already there, having arisen in the course of time, and when they are needed they become activated. If they had to be invented, the time would be too late. By the same token, I think that the people who are needed to help guide the future already exist. They simply need to recognize this in themselves, react to the opportunities that prevail, and also be valued and be encouraged. It's that very large, and as yet amorphous, rung that is of interest to me. I hope to articulate this, and see to what extent it makes sense to others as well.
~ Jonas Salk ~

I speak about universal evolution and teleological evolution, because I think the process of evolution reflects the wisdom of nature. I see the need for wisdom to become operative. We need to try to put all of these things together in what I call an evolutionary philosophy of our time.
~ Jonas Salk ~

The idea of being constructive, creative, positive, in trying to bring out the best in one's own self and the best in others follows from what I've just been saying. Again, I repeat my belief in us, in ourselves, as the product of the process of evolution, and part of the process itself. I think of evolution as an error-making and error-correcting process, and we are constantly learning from experience.
~ Jonas Salk ~

Our greatest responsibility is to be good ancestors.
~ Jonas Salk ~