Wikiquote:Quote of the day/January 2016

QOTD by month + Suggestions for: January - February - March - April - May - June - July - August - September - October - November - December
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Today is Thursday, November 14, 2024; it is now 17:35 (UTC)

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January 1

I believe in aristocracy … — if that is the right word, and if a democrat may use it. Not an aristocracy of power, based upon rank and influence, but an aristocracy of the sensitive, the considerate and the plucky. Its members are to be found in all nations and classes, and all through the ages, and there is a secret understanding between them when they meet. They represent the true human tradition, the one permanent victory of our queer race over cruelty and chaos. Thousands of them perish in obscurity, a few are great names. They are sensitive for others as well as for themselves, they are considerate without being fussy, their pluck is not swankiness but the power to endure, and they can take a joke. ~ E. M. Forster‎‎ ~

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January 2

There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there always has been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that "my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge." ~ Isaac Asimov ~

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January 3

The world is indeed full of peril, and in it there are many dark places; but still there is much that is fair, and though in all lands love is now mingled with grief, it grows perhaps the greater. ~ J. R. R. Tolkien ~ in ~ The Fellowship of the Ring ~

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January 4

If your language lacks poetry and paradox, it’s unequal to the task of accounting for actuality. Otherwise anything radically new is literally unspeakable. ~ Bob Black ~

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January 5

The real hero is always a hero by mistake; he dreams of being an honest coward like everybody else. If it had been possible he would have settled the matter otherwise, and without bloodshed. He doesn't boast of his own death or of others'. But he does not repent. He suffers and keeps his mouth shut; if anything, others then exploit him, making him a myth, while he, the man worthy of esteem, was only a poor creature who reacted with dignity and courage in an event bigger than he was. ~ Umberto Eco ~

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January 6

It must be obvious... that there is a contradiction in wanting to be perfectly secure in a universe whose very nature is momentariness and fluidity. ~ Alan Watts ~

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January 7

We now stand so aloof from nature that we think we are God. This has always been a dangerous supposition. ~ Gerald Durrell ~

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January 8

Virtue alone is for real; all else is sham. Talent and greatness depend on virtue, not on fortune. Only virtue is sufficient unto herself. She makes us love the living and remember the dead. ~ Baltasar Gracián ~

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January 9

You don't get to choose how you're going to die. Or when. You can only decide how you're going to live. Now. ~ Joan Baez ~

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January 10

No obstacle has been so constant, or so difficult to overcome, as uncertainty and confusion touching the nature of true liberty. If hostile interests have wrought much injury, false ideas have wrought still more; and its advance is recorded in the increase of knowledge, as much as in the improvement of laws. ~ John Dalberg-Acton, 1st Baron Acton ~

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January 11

Men often oppose a thing, merely because they have had no agency in planning it, or because it may have been planned by those whom they dislike. But if they have been consulted, and have happened to disapprove, opposition then becomes, in their estimation, an indispensable duty of self-love. They seem to think themselves bound in honor, and by all the motives of personal infallibility, to defeat the success of what has been resolved upon contrary to their sentiments. ~ Alexander Hamilton ~

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January 12

Look up here, I’m in heaven I’ve got scars that can’t be seen I’ve got drama, can’t be stolen Everybody knows me now Look up here, man, I’m in danger I’ve got nothing left to lose I’m so high it makes my brain whirl Dropped my cell phone down below Ain’t that just like me ~ David Bowie ~

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January 13

It is the greatest mistake to think that man is always one and the same. A man is never the same for long. He is continually changing. He seldom remains the same even for half an hour. ~ G. I. Gurdjieff ~

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January 14

Let me give you a definition of ethics: It is good to maintain and further life — it is bad to damage and destroy life. And this ethic, profound and universal, has the significance of a religion. It is religion. ~ Albert Schweitzer ~

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January 15

I must say that I recognized at once that we had never understood the meaning of these words, so common and yet so sacred: Justice, Equity, Liberty; that concerning each of these principles our ideas have been utterly obscure; and, in fact, that this ignorance was the sole cause, both of the poverty that devours us, and of all the calamities that have ever afflicted the human race. ~ Pierre-Joseph Proudhon ~

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January 16

One cannot condemn tendencies in art; one can only condemn works of art. To be categorically against a current art tendency or style means, in effect, to pronounce on works of art not yet created and not yet seen. It means inquiring into the motives of artists instead of into results. Yet we all know — or are supposed to know — that results are all that count in art. ~ Clement Greenberg ~

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January 17

As we enjoy great Advantages from the Inventions of Others, we should be glad of an Opportunity to serve others by any Invention of ours, and this we should do freely and generously. ~ Benjamin Franklin ~

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January 18

You simply cannot invent any conspiracy theory so ridiculous and obviously satirical that some people somewhere don't already believe it. ~ Robert Anton Wilson ~

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January 19

Man, no doubt, owes many other moral duties to his fellow men; such as to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, shelter the homeless, care for the sick, protect the defenceless, assist the weak, and enlighten the ignorant. But these are simply moral duties, of which each man must be his own judge, in each particular case, as to whether, and how, and how far, he can, or will, perform them. But of his legal duty — that is, of his duty to live honestly towards his fellow men — his fellow men not only may judge, but, for their own protection, must judge. And, if need be, they may rightfully compel him to perform it. They may do this, acting singly, or in concert. They may do it on the instant, as the necessity arises, or deliberately and systematically, if they prefer to do so, and the exigency will admit of it. ~ Lysander Spooner ~

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January 20

There is no conflict in the absolute universe, but there is conflict in the relative world. ~ Koichi Tohei ~

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January 21

I yield to no man in sympathy for the gallant men under my command; but I am obliged to sweat them tonight, so that I may save their blood tomorrow. ~ Stonewall Jackson ~

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January 22

Man, whence is he? Too bad to be the work of a god, too good for the work of chance. ~ Gotthold Ephraim Lessing ~

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January 23

I see but one rule: to be clear. If I am not clear, all my world crumbles to nothing. ~ Stendhal ~

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January 24

It was part of her discernment to be aware that life is the only real counselor, that wisdom unfiltered through personal experience does not become a part of the moral tissues. ~ Edith Wharton ~

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January 25

Once you begin to take yourself seriously as a leader or as a follower, as a modern or as a conservative, then you become a self-conscious, biting, and scratching little animal whose work is not of the slightest value or importance to anybody. ~ Virginia Woolf ~

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January 26

Everybody should fear only one person, and that person should be himself. ~ Philip José Farmer ~

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January 27

It is said that a wise man who stands firm is a statesman, and a foolish man who stands firm is a catastrophe. ~ Hyman G. Rickover ~

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January 28

Everything that divides men, everything that specified, separates or pens them, is a sin against humanity. ~ José Martí ~

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January 29

Anarchism is founded on the observation that since few men are wise enough to rule themselves, even fewer are wise enough to rule others. ~ Edward Abbey ~

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January 30

We must scrupulously guard the civil rights and civil liberties of all our citizens, whatever their background. We must remember that any oppression, any injustice, any hatred, is a wedge designed to attack our civilization. ~ Franklin D. Roosevelt ~

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January 31

The cynic says "blessed is he who expecteth nothing, for he shall not be disappointed." I say "blessed is he who expecteth everything, for he can't always be disappointed. ~ Tallulah Bankhead ~

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Today is Thursday, November 14, 2024; it is now 17:35 (UTC)

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