Wikiquote:Quote of the day/February 2018

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February 1

Revolution is everywhere, in everything. It is infinite. There is no final revolution, no final number. The social revolution is only one of an infinite number of numbers: the law of revolution is not a social law, but an immeasurably greater one. It is a cosmic, universal law — like the laws of the conservation of energy and of the dissipation of energy (entropy).

~ Yevgeny Zamyatin ~

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February 2

All things are inconstant except the faith in the soul, which changes all things and fills their inconstancy with light, but though I seem to be driven out of my country as a misbeliever I have found no man yet with a faith like mine.

~ James Joyce ~

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February 3

It is the aim of public life to arrange that all forms of power are entrusted, so far as possible, to men who effectively consent to be bound by the obligation towards all human beings which lies upon everyone, and who understand the obligation.
Law is the quality of the permanent provisions for making this aim effective.

~ Simone Weil ~

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February 4

The war might stop this winter, but that is improbable. It may go on for fifty years or more. That also is improbable. The elements are too conflicting and confused to form any accurate judgment of its length. There may be a series of wars, one after another, going on indefinitely.
Possibly the world will come to its senses sooner than I expect. But, as I have often said, the environment of human life has changed more rapidly and more extensively in recent years than it has ever changed before. When environment changes, there must be a corresponding change in life. That change must be so great that it is not likely to be completed in a decade or in a generation.

~ Charles Lindbergh ~

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February 5

The strange alchemy of time has somehow converted the Democrats into the truly conservative party of this country — the party dedicated to conserving all that is best, and building solidly and safely on these foundations. The Republicans, by contrast, are behaving like the radical party — the party of the reckless and the embittered, bent on dismantling institutions which have been built solidly into our social fabric.

~ Adlai Stevenson ~

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February 6

Politics is supposed to be the second oldest profession. I have come to realize that it bears a very close resemblance to the first.

~ Ronald Reagan ~

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February 7

When men are about to commit, or sanction the commission of some injustice, it is not uncommon for them to express pity for the object either of that or some parallel proceeding, and to feel themselves, at the time, quite virtuous and moral, and immensely superior to those who express no pity at all. This is a kind of upholding of faith above works, and is very comfortable.

~ Charles Dickens ~
in
~ The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby ~

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February 8

I do not accept any absolute formulas for living. No preconceived code can see ahead to everything that can happen in a man's life. As we live, we grow and our beliefs change. They must change. So I think we should live with this constant discovery. We should be open to this adventure in heightened awareness of living. We should stake our whole existence on our willingness to explore and experience.

~ Martin Buber ~

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February 9

My time coming, any day, don't worry about me, no
Been so long I felt this way, I'm in no hurry, no.
Rainbows end down that highway where ocean breezes blow
My time coming, voices saying, they tell me where to go.
Don't worry 'bout me, no no, don't worry 'bout me, no
And I'm in no hurry, no no no, I know where to go.

California, preaching on the burning shore
California, I'll be knocking on the golden door
Like an angel, standing in a shaft of light
Rising up to paradise, I know I'm going to shine.

~ John Perry Barlow ~

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February 10

It has always been assumed that the most important things in the Gospels are the ethical maxims and commandments. But for me the most important thing is that Christ speaks in parables taken from life, that He explains the truth in terms of everyday reality. The idea that underlies this is that communion between mortals is immortal, and that the whole of life is symbolic because it is meaningful.

~ Boris Pasternak ~

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February 11

Suppose Germany had developed two bombs before we had any bombs. And suppose Germany had dropped one bomb, say, on Rochester and the other on Buffalo, and then having run out of bombs she would have lost the war. Can anyone doubt that we would then have defined the dropping of atomic bombs on cities as a war crime, and that we would have sentenced the Germans who were guilty of this crime to death at Nuremberg and hanged them?
But, again, don't misunderstand me. The only conclusion we can draw is that governments acting in a crisis are guided by questions of expediency, and moral considerations are given very little weight, and that America is no different from any other nation in this respect.

~ Leó Szilárd ~

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February 12

Fondly do we hope, fervently do we pray, that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue, until all the wealth piled by the bondman's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said "the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether."

~ Abraham Lincoln ~

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February 13

If we can cultivate in the world the idea that aggressive war-making is the way to the prisoner's dock rather than the way to honors, we will have accomplished something toward making the peace more secure.

~ Robert H. Jackson ~

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February 14

Love all, trust a few,
Do wrong to none.

~ William Shakespeare ~
in
~ All's Well That Ends Well ~

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February 15

One half of the people of this Nation today are utterly powerless to blot from the statute books an unjust law, or to write there a new and just one.

~ Susan B. Anthony ~

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February 16

What counts is not necessarily the size of the dog in the fight — it's the size of the fight in the dog.

~ Dwight D. Eisenhower ~

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February 17

Diverse living things represent diverse divinities and diverse powers, which, besides the absolute being they possess, obtain the being communicated to all things according to their capacity and measure. Whence all of God is in all things (although not totally, but in some more abundantly and in others less) … Just as Divinity descends in a certain manner, to the extent that one communicates with Nature, so one ascends to Divinity through Nature, just as by means of a life resplendent in natural things one rises to the life that presides over them.

~ Giordano Bruno ~

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February 18

The essence of our God is obscure. It ripens continuously; perhaps victory is strenghened with our every valorous deed, but perhaps even all these agonizing struggles toward deliverance and victory are inferior to the nature of divinity.
Whatever it might be, we fight on without certainty, and our virtue, uncertain of any rewards, acquires a profound nobility.

~ Nikos Kazantzakis ~

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February 19

So vast, without any question, is the divine handiwork of the most excellent Almighty.

~ Nicolaus Copernicus ~

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February 20

You just never know. You drift along, year after year, presuming certain values to be fixed; like being able to drive on a public thoroughfare without somebody trying to murder you. You came to depend on that sort of thing. Then something occurs and all bets are off. One shocking incident and all the years of logic and acceptance are displaced and, suddenly, the jungle is in front of you again. Man, part animal, part angel.

~ Richard Matheson ~

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February 21

I belong to no nation, no civilization, no society, no race, but to the Divine. I obey no master, no rules, no law, no social convention, but the Divine. To Him I have surrendered all, will, life and self; for Him I am ready to give all my blood, drop by drop, if such is His will, with complete joy, and nothing in his service can be sacrifice, for all is perfect delight.

~ Mirra Alfassa ~

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February 22

I hope I shall possess firmness and virtue enough to maintain (what I consider the most enviable of all titles) the character of an honest man.

~ George Washington ~

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February 23

"What is the greatest surprise you have found about life?” a university student asked me several years ago.
"Its brevity" I replied without hesitation. … Time moves so quickly, and no matter who we are or what we have done, the time will come when our lives will be over. As Jesus said, "As long as it is day, we must do the work of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work" . … Life is short, and every day is a gift from God.

~ Billy Graham ~

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February 24

Man is innately a creature of love … love is the most powerful force in the universe, and eventually — it's a very slow process — it will conquer.

~ Dennis Weaver ~

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February 25

I had no ambition when I was a kid other than to play guitar and get in a rock 'n' roll band. I don't really like to be the guy in the white suit at the front. Like in the Beatles, I was the one who kept quiet at the back and let the other egos be at the front.

~ George Harrison ~

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February 26

Great perils have this beauty, that they bring to light the fraternity of strangers.

~ Victor Hugo ~
in
~ Les Misérables ~

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February 27

No one wants advice, only corroboration.

~ John Steinbeck ~

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February 28

The way of the world is to make laws, but follow customs.

~ Michel de Montaigne ~

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