Wikiquote:Quote of the day/August 2024

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Today is Monday, September 16, 2024; it is now 19:38 (UTC)

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August 1

O Nature, and O soul of man! how far beyond all utterance are your linked analogies; not the smallest atom stirs or lives on matter, but has its cunning duplicate in mind.

~ Herman Melville ~
in
~ Moby-Dick ~

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August 2

Today is a powerful example of why it’s vital to have friends in this world — friends you can trust, work with, and depend upon, especially on matters of great consequence and sensitivity like this.
Our alliances make our people safer, and we began to see that again today.
Let me say this. It says a lot about the United States that we work relentlessly to free Americans who are unjustly held around the world. It also says a lot about us that this deal includes the release of Russian political prisoners.
They stood up for democracy and human rights. Their own leaders threw them in prison. The United States helped secure their release as well. That’s who we are in the United States.
We stand for freedom, for liberty, for justice — not only for our own people but for others as well. And that’s why all Americans can take pride in what we’ve achieved today.

~ Joe Biden ~

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August 3

I should not proceed by land to the East, as is customary, but by a Westerly route, in which direction we have hitherto no certain evidence that any one has gone.

~ Christopher Columbus ~

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August 4

We've been warned against offering the people of this nation false hope. But in the unlikely story that is America, there has never been anything false about hope. For when we have faced down impossible odds; when we've been told that we're not ready, or that we shouldn't try, or that we can't, generations of Americans have responded with a simple creed that sums up the spirit of a people: Yes we can.

~ Barack Obama ~

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August 5

A century hence, 2000 may be viewed as quite a primitive period in human history. It's something to hope for. ... I am, and ever will be, a white-socks, pocket-protector, nerdy engineer — born under the second law of thermodynamics, steeped in the steam tables, in love with free-body diagrams, transformed by Laplace, and propelled by compressible flow. As an engineer, I take a substantial amount of pride in the accomplishments of my profession.

~ Neil Armstrong ~

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August 6

Not in vain the distance beacons. Forward, forward let us range.
Let the great world spin for ever down the ringing grooves of change.

~ Alfred, Lord Tennyson ~
in
~ Locksley Hall ~

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August 7

Thank you, Madam Vice-President, for the trust we have put in me — but maybe more so, thank you for bringing back the joy.

~ Tim Walz ~

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August 8

The ultimate notion of right is that which tends to the universal good; and when one's acting in a certain manner has this tendency, he has a right thus to act.

~ Francis Hutcheson ~

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August 9

The relations between parents and children are certainly not only those of constraint. There is spontaneous mutual affection, which from the first prompts the child to acts of generosity and even of self-sacrifice, to very touching demonstrations which are in no way prescribed. And here no doubt is the starting point for that morality of good which we shall see developing alongside of the morality of right or duty, and which in some persons completely replaces it.

~ Jean Piaget ~

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August 10

Being a politician is a poor profession. Being a public servant is a noble one.

~ Herbert Hoover ~

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August 11

In my writing, as much as I could, I tried to find the good, and praise it.

~ Alex Haley ~

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August 12

We know that the Olympic Games cannot create peace. But the Olympic Games can create a culture of peace that inspires the world. This is why I call on everyone who shares this Olympic spirit: let us live this culture of peace every single day.

~ Thomas Bach ~

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August 13

Perfection does not reveal itself to us as existent in the beginning; but as something that ought to be, something new which we are to help create. Somehow the secret of the universe is hidden in our breast. Somehow the destinies of the universe depend upon our exertions.

~ Felix Adler ~

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August 14

Truth, to the human consciousness at least, is but that vitally just relation of part to whole which is the very condition of life itself. And the task before the imaginative writer, whether at the end of the last century or all these aeons later, is the presentation of a vision which to eye and ear and mind has the implicit proportions of Truth.

~ John Galsworthy ~

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August 15

Do not be afraid of obstacles in your path, it does not matter how great the forces are that stand in your way … Do not think that anything is impossible when miracles are being worked on every side. If you are true to yourself there is nothing to be afraid of. There is nothing unattainable by truth, love and faith.

~ Sri Aurobindo ~

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August 16

Outward simplicity befits ordinary men, like a garment made to measure for them; but it serves as an adornment to those who have filled their lives with great deeds: they might be compared to some beauty carelessly dressed and thereby all the more attractive.

~ Jean de La Bruyère ~
in
~ Les Caractères ~

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August 17

We are expanding the area of active operations. … Hundreds of Russian servicemen have already surrendered, and all of them will receive humane treatment — they did not experience such treatment even in their own Russian army. … And now all of us in Ukraine should act as unitedly and efficiently as we did in the first weeks and months of this war, when Ukraine took the initiative and began to turn the situation to the benefit of our state. … we have proven once again that we, Ukrainians, are capable of achieving our goals in any situation — capable of defending our interests and our independence. And we must make full use of our achievements. And we will. … Special attention is paid to the Kursk region, and thus to the protection of all our border communities nearby. The more the Russian military presence in the border area is destroyed, the closer peace and real security will be for our country. The Russian state must be held accountable for what it has done. And it is.

~ Volodymyr Zelenskyy ~

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August 18

You have to show violence the way it is. If you don't show it realistically, then that's immoral and harmful. If you don't upset people, then that's obscenity.

~ Roman Polański ~

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August 19

We dared to hope we had invented something that would bring lasting peace to the earth. But we were wrong ... I don't have any regrets about my part in the invention of the airplane, though no one could deplore more than I do the destruction it has caused. I feel about the airplane much the same as I do in regard to fire. That is, I regret all the terrible damage caused by fire, but I think it is good for the human race that someone discovered how to start fires and that we have learned how to put fire to thousands of important uses.

~ Orville Wright ~

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August 20

Our task is to serve the logos out of the depths of our new kairos, a kairos that is now emerging in the crises and catastrophes of our day. Hence, the more deeply we understand fate — our own personal fate and that of our society — the more our intellectual work will have power and truth.

~ Paul Tillich ~

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August 21

Folks, all of us carry a special obligation. Independents, Republicans, Democrats. We saved democracy in 2020, and now we must save it again in 2024. The vote that each of us cast this year will determine whether democracy and freedom will prevail. It’s that simple. It’s that serious. And the power is literally in your hands. History’s in your hands. Not hyperbole. It’s in your hands. America’s future’s in your hands.

~ Joe Biden ~

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August 22

Kamala Harris, is more than ready for this moment. She is one of the most qualified people ever to seek the office of the presidency. And she is one of the most dignified — a tribute to her mother, to my mother, and to your mother too. The embodiment of the stories we tell ourselves about this country. Her story is your story. It’s my story. It’s the story of the vast majority of Americans trying to build a better life. … Kamala knows, like we do, that regardless of where you come from, what you look like, who you love, how you worship, or what’s in your bank account, we all deserve the opportunity to build a decent life. All of our contributions deserve to be accepted and valued. Because no one has a monopoly on what it means to be an American. No one.
Kamala has shown her allegiance to this nation, not by spewing anger and bitterness, but by living a life of service and always pushing the doors of opportunity open to others. She understands that most of us will never be afforded the grace of failing forward. We will never benefit from the affirmative action of generational wealth. If we bankrupt a business or choke in a crisis, we don’t get a second, third, or fourth chance. If things don’t go our way, we don’t have the luxury of whining or cheating others to get further ahead. No. We don’t get to change the rules so we always win. If we see a mountain in front of us, we don’t expect there to be an escalator waiting to take us to the top. No. We put our heads down. We get to work. In America, we do something.
And throughout her entire life, that’s what we’ve seen from Kamala Harris, the steel of her spine, the steadiness of her upbringing, the honesty of her example, and yes, the joy of her laughter and her light.

~ Michelle Obama ~

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August 23

This election isn’t about "us and them". It’s about you and me and what we want our futures to look like. There are choices to be made when we cast our ballot. Now, there’s a certain candidate that says, if we just go to the polls this one time, then we’ll never have to do it again. Well, you know what? You’re looking at a registered independent who’s proud to vote again and again and again. Because I’m an American, and that’s what Americans do.
Voting is the best of America. And I have always, since I was eligible to vote, I’ve always voted my values. And that is what is needed in this election, now more than ever. So I’m calling on all you independents and all you undecideds. You know this is true. You know I’m telling you the truth: that values and character matter most of all, in leadership and in life. And more than anything — you know this is true — that decency and respect are on the ballot in 2024.
And just plain common sense.

~ Oprah Winfrey ~

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August 24

We are the heirs to the greatest democracy in the history of the world. And on behalf of our children and our grandchildren and all those who sacrificed so dearly for our freedom and liberty, we must be worthy of this moment.
It is now our turn to do what generations before us have done, guided by optimism and faith: to fight for this country we love, to fight for the ideals we cherish, and to uphold the awesome responsibility that comes with the greatest privilege on Earth — the privilege and pride of being an American.
So, let’s get out there, let’s fight for it. Let’s get out there, let’s vote for it. And together, let us write the next great chapter in the most extraordinary story ever told.
Thank you. God bless you. And may God bless the United States of America.

~ Kamala Harris ~

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August 25

Oh some are fond of Spanish wine, and some are fond of French,
And some’ll swallow tay and stuff fit only for a wench;
But I’m for right Jamaica till I roll beneath the bench,
Says the old bold mate of Henry Morgan.

~ John Masefield ~

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August 26

Knowledge is the only power — now as ever. A little mechanical device will wreck your navies. A new chemical combination will upset every rule of war. It is the same with our commerce. One or two minute changes might sink Britain to the level of Ecuador, or give China the key of the world's wealth. And yet we never dream that these things are possible. We think our castles of sand are the ramparts of the universe.

~ John Buchan ~

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August 27

What is it in man that for a long while lies unknown and unseen only one day to emerge and push him into a new land of the eye, a new region of the mind, a place he has never dreamed of? Maybe it's like the force in spores lying quietly under asphalt until the day they push a soft, bulbous mushroom head right through the pavement. There's nothing you can do to stop it.

~ William Least Heat-Moon ~

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August 28

Nothing is more frightful than to see ignorance in action.

~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe ~

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August 29

I’d like to see our politics begin to return to the purposes and practices that distinguish our history from the history of other nations. I would like to see us recover our sense that we are more alike than different. We are citizens of a republic made of shared ideals forged in a new world to replace the tribal enmities that tormented the old one. Even in times of political turmoil such as these, we share that awesome heritage and the responsibility to embrace it. Whether we think each other right or wrong in our views on the issues of the day, we owe each other our respect, as long as our character merits respect, and as long as we share, for all our differences, for all the rancorous debates that enliven and sometimes demean our politics, a mutual devotion to the ideals our nation was conceived to uphold, that all are created equal, and liberty and equal justice are the natural rights of all. Those rights inhabit the human heart, and from there, though they may be assailed, they can never be wrenched. I want to urge Americans, for as long as I can, to remember that this shared devotion to human rights is our truest heritage and our most important loyalty.

~ John McCain ~

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August 30

Can you really explain to a fish what it's like to walk on land? One day on land is worth a thousand years of talking about it, and one day running a business has exactly the same kind of value.

~ Warren Buffett ~

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August 31

Wars, for us, are either inevitable, or created. Whatever they are, they should not wholly vitiate art. What art needs is greater men, and what politics needs is better men.

~ William Saroyan ~

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Today is Monday, September 16, 2024; it is now 19:38 (UTC)