Quote of the day/April
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We are still developing procedures for selecting quotes of the day. This page is for quote of the day proposals specifically for dates in the month of April, and quotes proposed should ideally have some relation to the day, or persons born on it, though sometimes exceptions can be made for quotes that relate to notable current events. Developing ideas of people or works to quote on specific days can be explored through the Wikipedia page: List of historical anniversaries. The numeric section heading of each date is also a direct link to the Wikipedia list of births, deaths, and other events which occured on that date.
Ranking system:
- 4 : Excellent - should definitely be used. (Perhaps, at most, only one quote per day should be ranked thus by any user, as to avoid confusions)
- 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.
1
2004 : Years ago my mother used to say to me... 'In this world, Elwood, you must be Oh-so-smart, or Oh-so-pleasant.' Well, for years I was smart — I recommend pleasant. You may quote me. ~ Jimmy Stewart as Elwood P. Dowd in the film Harvey
2005 : When you want to fool the world, tell the truth. ~ Otto von Bismarck (date of birth, and All Fools Day)
2006 : The first of April is the day we remember what we are the other 364 days of the year. ~ Mark Twain (All Fool's Day/April Fool's Day)
2
2004 : In three words I can sum up everything I've learned about life — It goes on. ~ Robert Frost
2005 : To be an artist is a blessing and a privilege. Artists must never betray their true hearts. Artists must look beneath the surface and show that there is more to this world than what meets the eye. ~ Marvin Gaye (date of birth)
2006 : Whether it is happy or unhappy, a man's life is the only treasure he can ever possess. ~ Giacomo Casanova (date of birth)
3
2004 : Man is the only animal that laughs and weeps, for he is the only animal that is struck with the difference between what things are, and what they might have been. ~ William Hazlitt
2005 : Not all are called to be artists in the specific sense of the term. Yet, as Genesis has it, all men and women are entrusted with the task of crafting their own life: in a certain sense, they are to make of it a work of art, a masterpiece. ~ Pope John Paul II (recent death)
2006 : There is a certain relief in change, even though it be from bad to worse; as I have found in travelling in a stage-coach, that it is often a comfort to shift one’s position and be bruised in a new place. ~ Washington Irving (date of birth)
4
2004 : Where there is great love there are always miracles. ~ Willa Cather
2005 : It is possible and imperative that we learn
A brave and startling truth...
When we come to it
We must confess that we are the possible
We are the miraculous, the true wonders of this world
That is when, and only when
We come to it.
~ Maya Angelou ~ (date of birth)
2006 : There must be a beginning of any great matter, but the continuing unto the end until it be thoroughly finished yields the true glory. ~ Sir Francis Drake (date of knighthood)
5
2004 : Life is too deep for words, so don't try to describe it, just live it. ~ C.S. Lewis
2005 : Words are wise men's counters, they do but reckon by them; but they are the money of fools. ~ Thomas Hobbes (date of birth)
2006 : Do not that to another, which thou wouldest not have done to thy selfe. ~ Thomas Hobbes (date of birth)
6
2004 : There is no sincerer love than the love of food. ~ George Bernard Shaw
- chosen by Poor Yorick
2005 : See, I write jokes for a living, man. I sit in my hotel at night and think of something that's funny and then I go get a pen and write 'em down. Or, if the pen's too far away, I have to convince myself that what I thought of ain't funny. ~ Mitch Hedberg (recent death)
2006 : Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent. ~ Isaac Asimov (date of death)
7
2004 : The danger already exists that mathematicians have made a covenant with the devil to darken the spirit and confine man in the bonds of hell. ~ Saint Augustine
- chosen by Poor Yorick
2005 : Out of the struggle at the center has come an immense, painful longing for a broader, more flexible, fuller, more coherent, more comprehensive account of what we human beings are, who we are, and what this life is for. At the center humankind struggles with collective powers for its freedom, the individual struggles with dehumanization for the possession of his soul. ~ Saul Bellow (date of birth)
2006 : Thanks to the human heart by which we live,
Thanks to its tenderness, its joys, and fears,
To me the meanest flower that blows can give
Thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears.
~ William Wordsworth ~ (date of birth)
8
2004 : Great wisdom is generous; petty wisdom is contentious. Great speech is impassioned, small speech cantankerous. ~ Zhuang Zi
2005 : Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense. ~ Gautama Buddha (Hanamatsuri, celebrated by many Buddhists as Prince Siddhartha's date of birth)
2006 : Hatred does not cease by hatred, but only by love. This is the eternal rule. ~ Gautama Buddha (Traditional date of birth of Prince Siddhartha for many Buddhists)
- Only an idiot fights a war on two fronts. Only the heir to the throne of the kingdom of idiots would fight a war on twelve fronts. ~ Londo Mollari, Babylon 5, "Ceremonies of Light and Dark"; first broadcast 8 April 1996
9
2004 : The soul would have no rainbow had the eyes no tears. ~ John Vance Cheney
2005 : Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts. ~ Richard Feynman
2006 : I'm sure we all agree that we ought to love one another, and I know there are people in the world who do not love their fellow human beings — and I hate people like that! ~ Tom Lehrer (date of birth)
10
2004 : Three things in human life are important. The first is to be kind. The second is to be kind. And the third is to be kind. ~ Henry James
2005 : The love of liberty is the love of others; the love of power is the love of ourselves. ~ William Hazlitt (date of birth)
2006 : Any relations in a social order will endure if there is infused into them some of that spirit of human sympathy, which qualifies life for immortality. ~ George William Russell (date of birth)
11
2004 : A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another. ~ Yeshua of Galilee (Jesus Christ) (Easter Sunday 2004)
2005 : Our institutions were not devised to bring about uniformity of opinion; if they had we might well abandon hope. It is important to remember, as has well been said, 'the essential characteristic of true liberty is that under its shelter many different types of life and character and opinion and belief can develop unmolested and unobstructed'. ~ Charles Evans Hughes (date of birth)
2006 : A writer writes not because he is educated but because he is driven by the need to communicate. Behind the need to communicate is the need to share. Behind the need to share is the need to be understood. The writer wants to be understood much more than he wants to be respected or praised or even loved. And that perhaps, is what makes him different from others. ~ Leo Rosten (date of birth)
12
2004 : Living next to you is in some ways like sleeping with an elephant. No matter how friendly and even-tempered the beast, one is affected by every twitch and grunt. ~ Pierre Trudeau (on Canadian relations with the US)
- chosen by Poor Yorick
2005 : A living body is not merely an integration of limbs and flesh but it is the abode of the soul which potentially has perfect perception, perfect knowledge, perfect power, and perfect bliss. ~ Mahavira (date of birth)
2006 : Man is a creature of hope and invention, both of which belie the idea that things cannot be changed. ~ Tom Clancy (date of birth)
13
2004 : Distrust all in whom the impulse to punish is powerful. ~ Friedrich Nietzsche
2005 : Rightful liberty is unobstructed action according to our will within limits drawn around us by the equal rights of others. I do not add "within the limits of the law" because law is often but the tyrant's will, and always so when it violates the rights of the individual. ~ Thomas Jefferson (date of birth)
2006 : I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it." ~ Thomas Jefferson (date of birth)
14
2004 : We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be. ~ Kurt Vonnegut
2005 : The optimist proclaims that we live in the best of all possible worlds; and the pessimist fears this is true. ~ James Branch Cabell (date of birth)
2006 : Unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more. ~ Yeshua (Jesus Christ) (Good Friday 2006)
15
2004 : The income tax has made more liars out of the American people than golf has. Even when you make a tax form out on the level, you don't know when it's through if you are a crook or a martyr. ~ Will Rogers (US Income Tax filing deadline)
2005 : Here forms, here colours, here the character of every part of the universe are concentrated to a point; and that point is so marvellous a thing ... Oh! marvellous, O stupendous Necessity — by thy laws thou dost compel every effect to be the direct result of its cause, by the shortest path. These are miracles... ~ Leonardo da Vinci (date of birth)
2006 : Although to penetrate into the intimate mysteries of nature and thence to learn the true causes of phenomena is not allowed to us, nevertheless it can happen that a certain fictive hypothesis may suffice for explaining many phenomena. ~ Leonhard Euler (date of birth)
16
2004 : Curse on all laws but those which love has made! ~ Alexander Pope
2005 : In this world there is room for everyone. And the good earth is rich and can provide for everyone. The way of life can be free and beautiful, but we have lost the way. Greed has poisoned men’s souls, has barricaded the world with hate, has goose-stepped us into misery and bloodshed. We have developed speed, but we have shut ourselves in. Machinery that gives abundance has left us in want. Our knowledge has made us cynical. Our cleverness, hard and unkind. We think too much and feel too little. More than machinery we need humanity. More than cleverness we need kindness and gentleness. Without these qualities, life will be violent and all will be lost. ~ Charlie Chaplin in The Great Dictator (date of birth)
2006 : The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you. ~ Yeshua (Jesus Christ) (Easter Sunday 2006)
17
2004 : The real question is not whether machines think but whether men do. ~ B. F. Skinner
2005 : We ourselves shall be loved for a while and forgotten. But the love will have been enough; all those impulses of love return to the love that made them. Even memory is not necessary for love. There is a land of the living and a land of the dead and the bridge is love, the only survival, the only meaning. ~ Thornton Wilder (date of birth)
2006 : Where the storyteller is loyal, eternally and unswervingly loyal to the story, there, in the end, silence will speak. Where the story has been betrayed, silence is but emptiness. But we, the faithful, when we have spoken our last word, will hear the voice of silence." ~ Karen Blixen (date of birth)
18
2004 : The eyes of fear want you to put bigger locks on your doors, buy guns, close yourself off. The eyes of love, instead, see all of us as one. ~ Bill Hicks
2005 : Music can be all things to all persons. It is like a great dynamic sun in the center of a solar system which sends out its rays and inspiration in every direction.... Music makes us feel that the heavens open and a divine voice calls. Something in our souls responds and understands. ~ Leopold Stokowski (date of birth)
2006 : I do not consider it an insult, but rather a compliment to be called an agnostic. I do not pretend to know where many ignorant men are sure — that is all that agnosticism means. ~ Clarence Darrow (date of birth)
19
2004 : Materialists and madmen never have doubts. ~ G. K. Chesterton
2005 : Patience is a necessary ingredient of genius. ~ Benjamin Disraeli (date of death)
2006 : By the rude bridge that arched the flood,
Their flag to April's breeze unfurled;
Here once the embattled farmers stood;
And fired the shot heard round the world.
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson ~ (date of the Battles of Lexington and Concord)
War may sometimes be a necessary evil. But no matter how necessary, it is always an evil, never a good. We will not learn how to live together in peace by killing each other's children. ~ Jimmy Carter
- suggested for 2006 by Yorktown1776
- 3 ~ Kalki but no strong tie-in for this date is clear (with the format originally presented, I had not even noticed that there was a suggestion here in my quick scan of the page earlier, prior to selecting the Emerson quote above).
20
2004 : Genius may have its limitations, but stupidity is not thus handicapped. ~ Elbert Hubbard
2005 : Dear brothers and sisters, after the great Pope, John Paul II, the cardinals have elected me, a simple and humble worker in the Lord's vineyard. The fact that the Lord can work and act even with insufficient means consoles me, and above all I entrust myself to your prayers. ~ Pope Benedict XVI (recent papal election)
2006 : Oh, the comfort — the inexpressible comfort of feeling safe with a person — having neither to weigh thoughts nor measure words, but pouring them all right out, just as they are, chaff and grain together; certain that a faithful hand will take and sift them, keep what is worth keeping, and then with the breath of kindness blow the rest away. ~ Dinah Craik (date of birth)
21
2004 : It is not only for what we do that we are held responsible, but also for what we do not do. ~ Molière
2005 : When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe. ~ John Muir (date of birth)
2006 : This grand show is eternal. It is always sunrise somewhere; the dew is never all dried at once; a shower is forever falling; vapor ever rising. Eternal sunrise, eternal sunset, eternal dawn and gloaming, on seas and continents and islands, each in its turn, as the round earth rolls. ~ John Muir (date of birth)
22
2004 : I still believe, in spite of everything, that people are truly good at heart. ~ Anne Frank
2005 : Act only on that maxim which you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law. ~ Immanuel Kant (date of birth)
2006 : I know more than I can express in words, and the little I can express would not have been expressed, had I not known more. ~ Vladimir Nabokov (date of birth)
23
2004 : The greater part of our happiness or misery depends on our dispositions, and not on our circumstances. We carry the seeds of the one or the other about with us in our minds wherever we go. ~ Martha Washington
2005 : We are such stuff as dreams are made on; and our little life is rounded with a sleep. ~ "Prospero" in The Tempest by William Shakespeare (known date of death, likely date of birth)
2006 : The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool. ~ William Shakespeare in As You Like It (known date of death, likely date of birth)
24
2004 : In war, you win or lose, live or die — and the difference is just an eyelash. ~ Douglas MacArthur
2005 : Everything seems an echo of something else. ~ Robert Penn Warren (date of birth)
2006 : The end of man is knowledge but there's one thing he can't know. He can't know whether knowledge will save him or kill him. He will be killed, all right, but he can't know whether he is killed because of the knowledge which he has got or because of the knowledge which he hasn't got and which if he had it would save him. ~ Robert Penn Warren (date of birth)
There can only be peace when they will start to love their children more than they hate us. ~ Golda Meir
- 3. Nominated for Israel Independence Day (Yom Ha'atzma'ut) 2007. LordAmeth 18:46, 23 May 2006 (UTC)
25
2004 : Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared. ~ Gautama Buddha
2005 : Everyone is a prisoner of his own experiences. No one can eliminate prejudices — just recognize them. ~ Edward R. Murrow (date of birth)
2006 : The speed of communications is wondrous to behold. It is also true that speed can multiply the distribution of information that we know to be untrue. ~ Edward R. Murrow (date of birth)
- 4. This is a quote every Wikiquotian (and Wikipedian) should be familiar with. Jeff Q (talk) 16:57, 13 April 2006 (UTC)
26
2004 : Nothing is better than the unintended humor of reality. ~ Steve Allen
2005 : If people did not sometimes do silly things, nothing intelligent would ever get done. ~ Ludwig Wittgenstein (date of birth)
2006 : Search men's governing principles, and consider the wise, what they shun and what they cleave to. ~ Marcus Aurelius (date of birth)
When you are outraged by somebody's impudence, ask yourself at once, "Can the world exist without impudent people?" It cannot; so do not ask for impossibilities. ~ Marcus Aurelius
- 3 Kalki 00:22, 26 April 2006 (UTC) (date of birth)
Constantly regard the universe as one living being, having one substance and one soul; and observe how all things have reference to one perception, the perception of this one living being; and how all things act with one movement; and how all things are the cooperating causes of all things which exist; observe too the continuous spinning of the thread and the contexture of the web. ~ Marcus Aurelius
- 3 Kalki 00:22, 26 April 2006 (UTC) (date of birth)
27
2004 : When a thing has been said, and said well, have no scruple. Take it and copy it. ~ Anatole France
2005 : Independence I have long considered as the grand blessing of life, the basis of every virtue; and independence I will ever secure by contracting my wants, though I were to live on a barren heath. ~ Mary Wollstonecraft (date of birth)
2006 : The winds and waves are always on the side of the ablest navigators. ~ Edward Gibbon (date of birth)
28
2004 : The greatest good you can do for another is not just to share your riches, but to reveal to him his own. ~ Benjamin Disraeli
2005 : It is well known that a vital ingredient of success is not knowing that what you're attempting can't be done. ~ Terry Pratchett (date of birth)
2006 : War: first, one hopes to win; then one expects the enemy to lose; then, one is satisfied that he too is suffering; in the end, one is surprised that everyone has lost. ~ Karl Kraus (date of birth)
29
2004 : Prejudice comes from being in the dark; sunlight disinfects it. ~ Muhammad Ali
2005 : Sometimes the road less traveled is less traveled for a reason. ~ Jerry Seinfeld (date of birth)
2006 : Despite the best that has been done by everyone — the gallant fighting of the military and naval forces, the diligence and assiduity of Our servants of the State, and the devoted service of Our one hundred million people — the war situation has developed not necessarily to Japan's advantage, while the general trends of the world have all turned against her interest. ~ Hirohito (date of birth)
30
2004 : Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity. ~ Robert J. Hanlon
2005 : It is not knowledge, but the act of learning, not possession but the act of getting there, which grants the greatest enjoyment. When I have clarified and exhausted a subject, then I turn away from it, in order to go into darkness again. ~ Carl Friedrich Gauss (date of birth)
2006 : You know that I write slowly. This is chiefly because I am never satisfied until I have said as much as possible in a few words, and writing briefly takes far more time than writing at length. ~ Carl Friedrich Gauss (date of birth)
Ranking system:
- 4 : Excellent - should definitely be used. (Perhaps, at most, only one quote per day should be ranked thus by any user, as to avoid confusions)
- 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.
