Quote of the day/August

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July << August 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 >> September

We are still developing the new procedures for selecting quotes of the day. This page is for quote of the day proposals specifically for dates in the month of August, 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.

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.
[edit]

1

  • A man to thrive must keep alive.
    • 0 (no source, no anon, no relevance) ~ MosheZadka (Talk) 04:43, 20 July 2005 (UTC)
  • "They took the credit for your second symphony.//Rewritten by machine and new technology,//and now I understand the problems you can see." -- The Buggles, first song played on MTV, 1 August 1981

Genius, all over the world, stands hand in hand, and one shock of recognition runs the whole circle round. ~ Herman Melville (date of birth)

  • 3 Kalki 23:33, 31 July 2005 (UTC)

All visible objects, man, are but as pasteboard masks. But in each event—in the living act, the undoubted deed —there, some unknown but still reasoning thing puts forth the mouldings of its features from behind the unreasoning mask. ~ Herman Melville (date of birth)

  • 3 Kalki 23:33, 31 July 2005 (UTC)

Are there no Moravians in the Moon, that not a missionary has yet visited this poor pagan planet of ours, to civilise civilisation and christianise Christendom? ~ Herman Melville (date of birth)

  • 3 Kalki 23:33, 31 July 2005 (UTC)

2005: From without, no wonderful effect is wrought within ourselves, unless some interior, responding wonder meets it. That the starry vault shall surcharge the heart with all rapturous marvelings, is only because we ourselves are greater miracles, and superber trophies than all the stars in universal space. ~ Herman Melville (date of birth)

  • 4 Kalki 23:33, 31 July 2005 (UTC)
[edit]

2

  • There is no toy called easy joy.
    • 0 (no source, no anon, no relevance) ~ MosheZadka (Talk) 04:43, 20 July 2005 (UTC)

2005: "When are you people going to learn? It's not about who's right or wrong. No denomination's nailed it yet, and they never will because they're all too self-righteous to realize that it doesn't matter what you have faith in, just that you have faith. Your hearts are in the right place, but your brains need to wake up. I have issues with anyone who treats faith as a burden instead of a blessing. You people don't celebrate your faith; you mourn it." ~ "Serendipity" in Dogma, by Kevin Smith

As initially proposed:

  • "It's not about who's right or wrong. No denomination's nailed it yet, because they're all too self-righteous to realize that it doesn't matter what you have faith in - just that you have faith." - Serendipity, from Dogma, one of Kevin Smith's films (Kevin Smith was born on Aug 2)
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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." 3 August 1493 1492 diary entry by Christopher Columbus, starting his journey to what will become known as America.

There is a plan, it seems to me, that reaches out of the electron to the rim of the universe and what this plan may be or how it came about is beyond my feeble intellect. But if we are looking for something on which to pin our faith—and, indeed, our hope—the plan might well be it. I think we have thought too small and have been too afraid. ~ Clifford D. Simak (date of birth)

  • 3 Kalki 16:03, 2 August 2005 (UTC)

2005: When I talk of the purpose of life, I am thinking not only of human life, but of all life on Earth and of the life which must exist upon other planets throughout the universe. It is only of life on Earth, however, that one can speak with any certainty. It seems to me that all life on Earth, the sum total of life upon the Earth, has purpose. ~ Clifford D. Simak (date of birth)

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4

  • "Entitle us to the Liberty of proving the Truth of the Papers, which in the Information are called false, malicious, seditious and scandalous." ~ John Peter Zenger, acquitted 4 August 1735 of slander on the grounds that what he published was true.

I am the daughter of Earth and Water,
And the nursling of the Sky;
I pass through the pores of the ocean and shores;
I change, but I cannot die.
~ Percy Bysshe Shelley ~ (date of birth)

If you divide suffering and dross, you may
Diminish till it is consumed away;
If you divide pleasure and love and thought,
Each part exceeds the whole; and we know not
How much, while any yet remains unshared...
~ Percy Bysshe Shelley ~ (date of birth)

2005: "My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!"
Nothing beside remains: round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
The lone and level sands stretch far away.
~ Percy Bysshe Shelley

As originally proposed:

  • I met a traveller from an antique land
    Who said:—Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
    Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,
    Half sunk, a shatter'd visage lies, whose frown
    And wrinkled lip and sneer of cold command
    Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
    Which yet survive, stamp'd on these lifeless things,
    The hand that mock'd them and the heart that fed.
    And on the pedestal these words appear:
    "My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
    Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!"
    Nothing beside remains: round the decay
    Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,
    The lone and level sands stretch far away.
    ~ Percy Bysshe Shelley, "Ozymandias" (born on this day in 1792)
    • 2 121a0012 02:55, August 2, 2005 (UTC) (perhaps a bit too long; my favorite from Shelley is "Ode to the West Wind", but that would be more appropriate for December than August)
    • 3 AllanHainey 07:50, 2 August 2005 (UTC)
    • 1 ~ Jeff Q (talk) 13:21, 2 August 2005 (UTC)
    • 1 ~ Kalki 16:41, 2 August 2005 (UTC) (too long)
  • "My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
    Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!" ~ Percy Bysshe Shelley, Ozymandias
    • 3 ~ MosheZadka (Talk) 08:37, 2 August 2005 (UTC)
    • 4 ~ Jeff Q (talk) 13:21, 2 August 2005 (UTC)
    • Comment: Extracted my favourite part, above seems a bit long to me ~ MosheZadka (Talk) 08:37, 2 August 2005 (UTC)
    • 3 ~ Kalki 16:41, 2 August 2005 (UTC) (this leads the rankings, but I would like to include the final lines as well as these)
      • I support finishing the poem by including the last 3 lines. ~ Jeff Q (talk) 16:57, 2 August 2005 (UTC)
      • I do not object to adding to the last 3 lines ~ MosheZadka (Talk) 09:48, 3 August 2005 (UTC)
[edit]

5

  • "Blond hair and breasts, that's how I got started. I couldn't act. All I had was blond hair and a body men liked. The reason I got ahead is that I was lucky and met the right men." ~ Marilyn Monroe, found dead in her apartment that day

Separate we come, and separate we go, and this be it known, is all that we know. ~ Conrad Aiken (date of birth)

  • 3 Kalki 21:22, 4 August 2005 (UTC)

Music I heard with you was more than music, and bread I broke with you was more than bread... ~ Conrad Aiken (date of birth)

  • 3 Kalki 21:22, 4 August 2005 (UTC)

There is only one good thing in life, and that is love. ~ Guy de Maupassant (date of birth)

  • 3 Kalki 21:22, 4 August 2005 (UTC)

If I could reach from pole to pole
or grasp the ocean with a span,
I would be measured by the soul
The mind's the standard of the Man. ~ Isaac Watts (poem used by Joseph Merrick, "The Elephant Man", who was born this day)

  • 3 Kalki 21:22, 4 August 2005 (UTC)

2005: Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever. ~ Mohandas Gandhi

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6

  • "The players often mentioned it as an honour to Shakespeare, that in his writing, whatsoever he penned, he never blotted out a line. My answer hath been, 'Would he had blotted a thousand'." - Ben Jonson died this day
  • "The WWW project merges the techniques of information retrieval and hypertext to make an easy but powerful global information system. The project started with the philosophy that much academic information should be freely available to anyone. It aims to allow information sharing within internationally dispersed teams, and the dissemination of information by support groups." ~ Tim Berners-Lee, Usenet article <6487@cernvax.cern.ch> (the first public announcement of CERN's "WorldWideWeb" system, made this day in 1991)
    • 4 121a0012 03:11, August 2, 2005 (UTC)
    • 3 121a0012 04:11, August 5, 2005 (UTC) (adjusted my vote as next year is the 15th anniversary which would be a better choice)
    • 2 ~ Jeff Q (talk) 13:37, 2 August 2005 (UTC)

I hold it true, whate'er befall;
I feel it, when I sorrow most;
'Tis better to have loved and lost
Than never to have loved at all.
~ Alfred Tennyson, "In Memoriam A.H.H." (born this day)

  • 3 121a0012 03:19, August 2, 2005 (UTC) (would have given it a four except that I've already given one to TimBL)
  • 1 (prefer it on a less-crowded day) ~ Jeff Q (talk) 13:37, 2 August 2005 (UTC)
This could also be used for September 15, as A.H.H. (Arthur Hallam) died that day. The famous couplet appears twice in the poem.

Half a league, half a league,
Half a league onward,
All in the valley of Death
   Rode the six hundred.
"Forward, the Light Brigade!
Charge for the guns!" he said:
Into the valley of Death
   Rode the six hundred.
~ Alfred Tennyson, "Charge of the Light Brigade"

"TCP implementations will follow a general principle of robustness: be conservative in what you do, be liberal in what you accept from others." ~ Jonathan B. Postel, RFC 793, entire text of section 2.10 (born this day in 1943)

  • 3 121a0012 03:35, August 2, 2005 (UTC) (this one would also be worth a four if I had more than one to give)
  • 4 121a0012 04:11, August 5, 2005 (UTC)
  • 4 ~ MosheZadka (Talk) 04:42, 2 August 2005 (UTC) (hell, I'll give it a four -- it is the founding principle of the internet, at the lowest layers as well as at the human layer)
  • 3 ~ Jeff Q (talk) 13:37, 2 August 2005 (UTC)
  • 3 Kalki 22:05, 5 August 2005 (UTC)

After a bit of controversy over selecting a very late entry over this one, this quotation was used for August 9th 2005. ~ Kalki 13:00, 9 August 2005 (UTC)

2005: The Japanese were ready to surrender, and it wasn't necessary to hit them with that awful thing. ~ Dwight D. Eisenhower August 6th 2005 is 60th anniversary of the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. (Controversial selection)

  • 4 Kalki 22:05, 5 August 2005 (UTC)
[edit]

7

  • "When someone just writes 'fuck, fuck, fuck', we just fix it, laugh and move on. But the difficult social issues are the borderline cases - people who do some good work, but who are also a pain in the neck." - Jimmy Wales (born that day) "Who knows?", The Guardian, Tuesday, October 26, 2004
  • "Going to church no more makes you a Christian than standing in a garage makes you a car." ~ Garrison Keillor (born this day)
    • 2 121a0012 03:52, August 2, 2005 (UTC)
    • 4 14:56, 4 August 2005 (UTC)

"Imagine a world in which every single person on the planet is given free access to the sum of all human knowledge. That's what we're doing." ~ Jimmy Wales (date of birth)

  • 3 Kalki 22:34, 5 August 2005

2005: "Intelligence is like four-wheel drive. It only allows you to get stuck in more remote places." ~ Garrison Keillor

    • 3 121a0012 03:52, August 2, 2005 (UTC)
    • 4 Kalki 22:34, 5 August 2005 (UTC)
[edit]

8

  • "To leave office before my term is completed is opposed to every instinct in my body. But as President I must put the interests of America first. America needs a full-time President and a full-time Congress, particularly at this time with problems we face at home and abroad." ~ Richard Nixon, Resignation Speech, August 8, 1974

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 (date of birth)

  • 3 Kalki 11:18, 7 August 2005 (UTC)

That Action is best which procures the greatest Happiness for the greatest Numbers; and that worst, which, in like manner, occasions misery. ~ Francis Hutcheson (date of birth)

  • 3 Kalki 11:18, 7 August 2005 (UTC)

I prefer to die standing than to live forever on my knees. ~ Emiliano Zapata (date of birth)

  • 3 Kalki 11:18, 7 August 2005 (UTC)

2005: It seems that if one is working from the point of view of getting beauty in one's equations, and if one has really a sound insight, one is on a sure line of progress. ~ Paul Dirac (born this day)

    • 3 121a0012 03:57, August 2, 2005 (UTC) (but I'd probably use the Nixon quote first)
    • 4 Kalki 11:18, 7 August 2005 (UTC)
[edit]

9

  • "I am acutely aware that you have not elected me as your president by your ballots, so I ask you to confirm me with your prayers." ~ Gerald Ford, became president on 9 August after Nixon's resignation.
    • 3 ~ MosheZadka (Talk) 11:31, 20 July 2005 (UTC)
    • 1 don't want to use this if we use Nixon on 8th AllanHainey 12:00, 26 July 2005 (UTC)
  • "Genius is one per cent inspiration and ninety-nine per cent perspiration." - Thomas Edison got telegraph patent today
  • "If you are not ready, and did not know what to do, it could hurt you in different ways. It could knock you down, hard, or throw you against a tree or a wall. It is such a big explosion, it can smash in buildings and knock signboards over, and break windows all over town, but if you duck and cover, like Bert [the Turtle], you will be much safer." ~ Duck and Cover (1951), about protecting yourself from an atomic explosion; the last-ever nuclear attack (so far) occurred on this date

The following quotation was not selected on the 6th, which caused some controversy. I am placing it here, as the leading candidate on this date prior to this deals with nuclear weapons, which relates to the quote which I judged more topical on that date. As JeffQ has already made the point that tying quotes to events upon dates should not be taken as an absolute, a point with which I agree, I am placing it here, to hopefully compensate for what some have taken to have been an improper action on my part. ~ Kalki 12:38, 7 August 2005 (UTC) - This was used for 2005. ~ Kalki 12:56, 9 August 2005 (UTC)

2005: TCP implementations will follow a general principle of robustness: be conservative in what you do, be liberal in what you accept from others. ~ Jonathan B. Postel, RFC 793, entire text of section 2.10

PREVIOUS RANKINGS: FOR THE 6th:

  • 3 121a0012 03:35, August 2, 2005 (UTC) (this one would also be worth a four if I had more than one to give)
  • 4 121a0012 04:11, August 5, 2005 (UTC)
  • 4 ~ MosheZadka (Talk) 04:42, 2 August 2005 (UTC) (hell, I'll give it a four -- it is the founding principle of the internet, at the lowest layers as well as at the human layer)
  • 3 ~ Jeff Q (talk) 13:37, 2 August 2005 (UTC)
  • 3 Kalki 22:05, 5 August 2005 (UTC)

RANKINGS FOR THE 9th: (if people want to register any changes in their rankings)

  • 4 Kalki 12:38, 7 August 2005 (UTC) I believe that it is an EXCELLENT quote, and was an excellent proposal for the 6th, "In general, an implementation must be conservative in its sending behavior, and liberal in its receiving behavior." is another similar statement by Postel that I agree with; applying such ideas in general to life, but not necessarily as absolutes is a very wise policy, and I believe it wiser to be nearly always be liberal in "accepting" things than to nearly always be conservative in "doing" things.
[edit]

10

Older men declare war. But it is youth that must fight and die. ~ Herbert Hoover (date of birth)

  • 3 Kalki 05:26, 8 August 2005 (UTC)

Being a politician is a poor profession. Being a public servant is a noble one. ~ Herbert Hoover (date of birth)

  • 3 Kalki 05:26, 8 August 2005 (UTC)

Words without actions are the assassins of idealism. ~ Herbert Hoover (date of birth)

  • 3 Kalki 05:26, 8 August 2005 (UTC)

2005: There's a whole industry of conservatives saying, "Ah, it's those damn liberals," and a whole group of liberals saying, "It's all those damn conservatives." ~ Peter Jennings (recent death)

  • 4 Kalki 12:52, 9 August 2005 (UTC) A good tribute to Peter Jennings, and an excellent follow up to yesterday's "be conservative in what you do, be liberal in what you accept from others."
[edit]

11

  • "The only real game— I think— in the world is baseball." ~ Babe Ruth, in honour of his 500th homerun, scored that day
    • 3 ~ MosheZadka (Talk) 05:58, 20 July 2005 (UTC)
    • 2 significant for USA but not really for anyone else AllanHainey 12:00, 26 July 2005 (UTC)
      • For the record, the first voter is not from the US (unless you count Israel as the 51st state). ~ MosheZadka (Talk) 16:04, 26 July 2005 (UTC)
    • 3 121a0012 00:29, August 7, 2005 (UTC)
    • 2 Kalki 20:44, 10 August 2005 (UTC)
  • "Surplus wealth is a sacred trust which its possessor is bound to administer in his lifetime for the good of the community" - Andrew Carnegie, died this day
  • I have made up my mind that if there is a God, he will be merciful to the merciful. Upon that rock I stand. ~ Robert G. Ingersoll (date of birth)
  • 2 Kalki 12:05, 7 August 2005 (UTC)

If the world ever advances beyond what it is today, it must be led by men who express their real opinions. ~ Robert G. Ingersoll (date of birth)

  • 3 Kalki 12:05, 7 August 2005 (UTC)

Love is the magician, the enchanter, that changes worthless things to Joy, and makes royal kings and queens of common clay. It is the perfume of that wondrous flower, the heart, and without that sacred passion, that divine swoon, we are less than beasts; but with it, earth is heaven, and we are gods. ~ Robert G. Ingersoll (date of birth)

  • 3 Kalki 12:05, 7 August 2005 (UTC)

2005: I do not believe that the tendency is to make men and women brave and glorious when you tell them that there are certain ideas upon certain subjects that they must never express; that they must go through life with a pretence as a shield; that their neighbors will think much more of them if they will only keep still; and that above all is a God who despises one who honestly expresses what he believes. ~ Robert G. Ingersoll (date of birth)

  • 4 Kalki 12:05, 7 August 2005 (UTC) I think this quote fits in best with the general flow of recent QotD themes ("liberal" vs "conservative" and such...)
[edit]

12

  • <math> H(t) \left| \psi (t) \right\rangle = i \hbar {\partial\over\partial t} \left| \psi (t) \right\rangle</math> ~ Erwin Schrödinger, born that day.
    • 3 ~ MosheZadka (Talk) 06:08, 20 July 2005 (UTC)
    • 1 121a0012 02:51, July 21, 2005 (UTC) (much too obscure)
    • 1 likewise too obscure
      • Unsigned vote! Also: too obscure? Schrödinger's equation is how the world works :) ~ MosheZadka (Talk) 16:06, 26 July 2005 (UTC)
      • Sorry unsigned was mine, it might well be how the world works but, like all equations, without a definition of notation & terms it is essentially a meaningless arrangement of letters & symbols AllanHainey 07:27, 27 July 2005 (UTC)
    • 4 - Amar 15:43, 1 August 2005 (UTC)
    • 0 Kalki 17:33, 10 August 2005 (UTC) Great equation, but totally indecipherable for most people.
  • "People can have the Model T in any color - so long as it's black." - Henry Ford. Model T built this day.
  • "If one has left this entire system to itself for an hour, one would say that the cat still lives if meanwhile no atom has decayed. The psi-function of the entire system would express this by having in it the living and dead cat (pardon the expression) mixed or smeared out in equal parts." ~ Erwin Schrödinger
    • 3 ~ MosheZadka (Talk) 04:53, 2 August 2005 (UTC)
    • Comment: hopefully this is less scary. Yay cats :) ~ MosheZadka (Talk) 04:53, 2 August 2005 (UTC)
    • 3 AllanHainey 07:50, 2 August 2005 (UTC)
    • 1 acceptable, but still a bit obscure for most. Psi-functions and the context of the "dead cat" are not very plain.

How can we escape from the trap that the terrorists have set us. Only by recognizing that the war on terrorism cannot be won by waging war. We must, of course, protect our security; but we must also correct the grievances on which terrorism feeds....Crime requires police work, not military action. ~ George Soros (date of birth)

  • 3 Kalki 17:33, 10 August 2005 (UTC)

Markets reduce everything, including human beings and nature, to commodities. ~ George Soros (date of birth)

  • 3 Kalki 17:33, 10 August 2005 (UTC)

The plurality that we perceive is only an appearance; it is not real. Vedantic philosophy... has sought to clarify it by a number of analogies, one of the most attractive being the many-faceted crystal which, while showing hundreds of little pictures of what is in reality a single existent object, does not really multiply that object. ~ Erwin Schrödinger (date of birth)

  • 3 Kalki 17:33, 10 August 2005 (UTC)

Multiplicity is only apparent, in truth, there is only one mind. ~ Erwin Schrödinger (date of birth)

  • 3 Kalki 17:33, 10 August 2005 (UTC)

The recognition ATMAN = BRAHMAN (the personal self equals the omnipresent, all-comprehending eternal self) was in Indian thought considered, far from being blasphemous, to represent the quintessence of deepest insight into the happenings of the world. ~ Erwin Schrödinger (date of birth)

  • 3 Kalki 17:33, 10 August 2005 (UTC)

2005 : Once we realize that imperfect understanding is the human condition there is no shame in being wrong, only in failing to correct our mistakes. ~ George Soros (date of birth)

  • 4 Kalki 17:33, 10 August 2005 (UTC)
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13

Too much has already been said and written about "women's sphere". Leave women, then, to find their sphere. ~ Lucy Stone (date of birth)

  • 3 Kalki 09:09, 11 August 2005 (UTC)

Make the world better. ~ Lucy Stone (date of birth)

  • 3 Kalki 09:09, 11 August 2005 (UTC)

2005: I think, with never-ending gratitude, that the young women of today do not and can never know at what price their right to free speech and to speak at all in public has been earned. ~ Lucy Stone (date of birth)

  • 4 Kalki 09:09, 11 August 2005 (UTC)
[edit]

14

All of a sudden I had to remember some words that Marlowe had told me over fifteen years ago: 'Dead men don't wear plaid.' Hmm... Dead men don't wear plaid. I still don't know what it means. ~ Steve Martin as "Rigby Reardon" in Dead Men Don't Wear Plaid (date of birth)

  • 3 Kalki 10:26, 15 August 2005 (UTC)

The new phone book's here! The new phone book's here! This is the kind of spontaneous publicity I need. My name in print. That really makes somebody. Things are going to start happening to me now! ~ Steve Martin as "Navin R. Johnson" in The Jerk (date of birth)

  • 3 Kalki 10:26, 15 August 2005 (UTC)

You kill me and I'll see that you never work in this town again. ~ Steve Martin as "Dr. Michael Hfuhruhurr" in 
The Man with Two Brains (date of birth)

  • 3 Kalki 10:26, 15 August 2005 (UTC)
  • It's so hard to believe in anything anymore. If it weren't for my lucky astrology mood watch, I wouldn't believe in anything.. ~ Steve Martin (date of birth)
  • 3 Kalki 10:26, 15 August 2005 (UTC)

2005 : There is a road from the eye to the heart that does not go through the intellect." ~ Gilbert Keith Chesterton, in honor of the first beauty contest held on this day in 1908

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15

  • "India is, the cradle of the human race, the birthplace of human speech, the mother of history, the grandmother of legend, and the great grand mother of tradition. Our most valuable and most instructive materials in the history of man are treasured up in India only." ~ Mark Twain in honour of the India independence day

The aggressive and quite illogical idea of a single religion for all mankind, a religion universal by the very force of its narrowness, one set of dogmas, one cult, one system of ceremonies, one ecclesiastical ordinance, one array of prohibitions and injunctions which all minds must accept on peril of persecution by men and spiritual rejection or eternal punishment by God, that grotesque creation of human unreason which has been the parent of so much intolerance, cruelty and obscurantism and aggressive fanaticism, has never been able to take firm hold of the Indian mentality. ~ Sri Aurobindo (date of birth, and the Independence day of India)

  • 3 Kalki 18:48, 11 August 2005 (UTC)

2005: To listen to some devout people, one would imagine that God never laughs. ~ Sri Aurobindo (date of birth, and the Independence day of India)

  • 4 Kalki 18:48, 11 August 2005 (UTC)
[edit]

16

2005: All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dream with open eyes, to make it possible. ~ T. E. Lawrence (date of birth)

  • 4 Kalki 09:19, 15 August 2005 (UTC)
[edit]

17

  • "I have discovered a truly remarkable proof of this theorem that the margin of this page is too small to contain." ~ Pierre de Fermat (b. August 17, 1601)

2005: Be sure that you are right, and then go ahead. ~ Davy Crockett

  • 4 Kalki 09:22, 15 August 2005 (UTC)
[edit]

18

  • "Oh, my Lolita, I have only words to play with!" ~ Vladimir Nabokov, Lolita, published in the United States on 18 August 1958
  • "The pleasure and joy of man lies in treading down the rebel and conquering the enemy, in tearing him up by the root, in taking from him all that he has." - Genghis Khan, died this day.

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 (date of birth)

  • 3 Kalki 12:12, 16 August 2005 (UTC)

Cassandra in Greek legend, you recall, was condemned to know the future but to be disbelieved when she foretold it. Hence the agony of foreknowledge combined with the impotence to do anything about it. ~ Madeleine Stowe as "Dr. Kathryn Railly" in Twelve Monkeys (date of birth)

  • 3 Kalki 12:12, 16 August 2005 (UTC)

What we say is the truth is what everybody accepts. Right, Owen? I mean, psychiatry: it's the latest religion. We decide what's right and wrong. We decide who's crazy or not. I'm in trouble here. I'm losing my faith. ~ Madeleine Stowe as "Dr. Kathryn Railly" in Twelve Monkeys (date of birth)

  • 3 Kalki 12:12, 16 August 2005 (UTC)

When childhood dies, its corpses are called adults and they enter society, one of the politer names of hell. That is why we dread children, even if we love them. They show us the state of our decay. ~ Brian Aldiss (date of birth)

  • 3 Kalki 12:12, 16 August 2005 (UTC)

I can't help believing that these things that come from the subconscious mind have a sort of truth to them. It may not be a scientific truth, but it's psychological truth. ~ Brian Aldiss (date of birth)

  • 3 Kalki 12:12, 16 August 2005 (UTC)

Whatever creativity is, it is in part a solution to a problem. ~ Brian Aldiss (date of birth)

  • 3 Kalki 12:12, 16 August 2005 (UTC)

2005: If you continue to hate, you are entering into the same philosophy that began the war. You have to look forward at people and new times. ~ Roman Polański (date of birth)

  • 4 Kalki 12:12, 16 August 2005 (UTC)
[edit]

19

  • "At last I've found the secret,
    that guarantees success.
    To err, and err, and err again,
    but less, and less, and less." ~ Ogden Nash (b. August 19, 1902)
    • 3 ~ MosheZadka (Talk) 06:59, 20 July 2005 (UTC)
    • 0 Kalki 20:18, 18 August 2005 (UTC) This seems very likely to be a very recent misattribution, and perhaps a variant translation or alteration of lines by Piet Hein. There appears to be only about a half dozen sites on the internet that attribute this to Ogden Nash, perhaps the earliest appearing in "Heuristics for Iterative Software Development" by Drasko Sotirovski, IEEE Software, vol. 18,  no. 3,  pp. 66-73,  (May/June  2001) where the author states "...as Bob Glass has said, quoting Ogden Nash, "At last I've found the secret that guarantees success: to err, and err, and err again...". If it were truly an Ogden Nash poem it's citations would likely be far more prominent.

I cannot help mentioning that the door of a bigoted mind opens outwards so that the only result of the pressure of facts upon it is to close it more snugly. ~ Ogden Nash (date of birth)

  • 3 Kalki 20:18, 18 August 2005 (UTC)

Errors, like straws, upon the surface flow; He who would search for pearls, must dive below. ~ John Dryden (date of birth)

  • 3 Kalki 20:18, 18 August 2005 (UTC)

Beware the fury of a patient man. ~ John Dryden (date of birth)

  • 3 Kalki 20:18, 18 August 2005 (UTC)

2005: Truth has such a face and such a mien As to be lov'd needs only to be seen. ~ John Dryden (date of birth)

  • 4 Kalki 20:18, 18 August 2005 (UTC)
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20

2005: The Government of the State of Israel and the Palestinian team representing the Palestinian people agree that it is time to put an end to decades of confrontation and conflict, recognize their mutual legitimate and political rights, and strive to live in peaceful coexistence and mutual dignity and security to achieve a just, lasting and comprehensive peace settlement and historic reconciliation through the agreed political process." ~ Oslo Accords, finalized in Oslo, Norway by August 20, 1993.

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21

  • "Until the Yom Kippur War, in 1973, until then Israel didn't have a chance but to fight for her life. We were attacked five times, outgunned, outnumbered, on a small piece of land, and our main challenge was to remain alive." ~ Shimon Peres (b. August 21, 1923)
    • 3 ~ MosheZadka (Talk) 07:04, 20 July 2005 (UTC)
    • Comment: It's not my fault Peres's birthday is one day after the finalization of the Oslo Accords! :) ~ MosheZadka (Talk) 07:04, 20 July 2005 (UTC)
    • 3, but I'd say use 1 or the other but not both, we shouldn't have 2 days relating to Israel v Palestine.
  • "Socialism needs democracy like the human body needs oxygen." - Leon Trotsky, died this day.
  • "Let a man find himself, in distinction from others, on top of two wheels with a chain—at least in a poor country like Russia—and his vanity begins to swell out like his tires. In America it takes an automobile to produce this effect." - Trotsky
  • "Hawaii has always been a very pivotal role in the Pacific. It is in the Pacific. It is a part of the United States that is an island that is right here." ~ Vice President Dan Quayle; Hawaii became the 50th U.S. state on 21 August 1959
    • 4 Sveden 13:22, 3 August 2005 (UTC)

2005:
If you want the world to know
We won't let hatred grow
Put a little love in your heart.
~ Jackie DeShannon ~ (date of birth)

  • 4 Kalki 20:10, 19 August 2005 (UTC)
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22

  • "I'm never going to accomplish anything; that's perfectly clear to me. I'm never going to be famous. My name will never be writ large on the roster of Those Who Do Things. I don't do anything. Not one single thing. I used to bite my nails, but I don't even do that any more." ~ Dorothy Parker
    • 3 ~ MosheZadka (Talk) 07:08, 20 July 2005 (UTC) (just for the extreme case of irony)
    • 3 I hadn't heard of her anyway but assume she's well known.AllanHainey 12:00, 26 July 2005 (UTC)

2005: By a free country, I mean a country where people are allowed, so long as they do not hurt their neighbours, to do as they like. I do not mean a country where six men may make five men do exactly as they like. Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury who died this day.

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23

  • "Whenever I hear anyone arguing for slavery, I feel a strong impulse to see it tried on him personally." ~ Abraham Lincoln, in honor of abolishment of slavery in the British colonies.
    • 3 ~ MosheZadka (Talk) 11:34, 20 July 2005 (UTC)
    • 2 If we're going to have something about abolition of slavery then something by William Wilberforce might be more suited.AllanHainey 10:43, 26 July 2005 (UTC)
    • COMMENT - There is some uncertainty as to whether slavery in British Empire/colonies was repealed today or on 1 Aug see relevant dates talk pages. AllanHainey 12:00, 26 July 2005 (UTC)
  • "Sons of Scotland! I am William Wallace...
    • 0 121a0012 02:55, July 21, 2005 (UTC) (too long, misformatted dialogue, inadequate attribution)
    • 0 User:Warrior-Poet Fair enough, I could put the Scots Gaelic line in there 21 July, 2005 8:06 (CST)
    • 0AllanHainey 10:43, 26 July 2005 (UTC)
  • "I have brought you to the ring. Dance if ye can."- Wallace before the Battle of Stirling Bridge

2005: I could not be a traitor to Edward, for I was never his subject. ~ William Wallace at his trial (executed this day)

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24

  • "I come bearing an olive branch in one hand, and the freedom fighter's gun in the other. Do not let the olive branch fall from my hand." ~ Yasser Arafat (b. August 24. 1929 according to Egyptian birth certificate)
  • "Welcome to the human race. Nobody controls his own life, Ender. The best you can do is choose to be controlled by good people, by people who love you." Orson Scott Card born August 24, 1951)

It is clear that there is no classification of the Universe that is not arbitrary and full of conjectures. The reason for this is very simple: we do not know what kind of thing the universe is. ~ Jorge Luis Borges (date of birth)

  • 3 Kalki 16:09, 23 August 2005 (UTC)

Do you want to see what human eyes have never seen? Look at the moon. Do you want to hear what ears have never heard? Listen to the bird's cry. Do you want to touch what hands have never touched? Touch the earth. Verily I say that God is about to create the world. ~ Jorge Luis Borges (date of birth)

  • 3 Kalki 16:09, 23 August 2005 (UTC)

No one is anyone, one single immortal man is all men. Like Cornelius Agrippa, I am god, I am hero, I am philosopher, I am demon and I am world, which is a tedious way of saying that I do not exist. ~ Jorge Luis Borges (date of birth)

  • 3 Kalki 16:09, 23 August 2005 (UTC)

2005: Time is the substance from which I am made. Time is a river which carries me along, but I am the river; it is a tiger that devours me, but I am the tiger; it is a fire that consumes me, but I am the fire. ~ Jorge Luis Borges (date of birth)

  • 4 Kalki 16:09, 23 August 2005 (UTC)
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25

  • "I'm doing a (free) operating system (just a hobby, won't be big and professional like gnu) for 386(486) AT clones." ~ Linus Torvalds announcing Linux in a post dated 25 Aug 91 20:57:08 GMT

Traces of nobility, gentleness and courage persist in all people, do what we will to stamp out the trend. So, too, do those characteristics which are ugly. ~ Walt Kelly (date of birth)

  • 3 Kalki 14:21, 24 August 2005 (UTC)

2005: We have met the enemy and he is us. ~ Walt Kelly (date of birth)

  • 4 Kalki 14:21, 24 August 2005 (UTC)
  • 3 121a0012 00:20, August 25, 2005 (UTC)
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26

  • "If those lessons are truly learned, then Columbiaʼs crew will have made an indelible contribution to the endeavor each one valued so greatly." ~ CAIB report volume I, released 26 August 2003

We can pay our debts to the past by putting the future in debt to ourselves. ~ John Buchan (date of birth)

  • 3 Kalki 23:06, 24 August 2005 (UTC)

2005: You think that a wall as solid as the earth separates civilization from barbarism. I tell you the division is a thread, a sheet of glass. A touch here, a push there, and you bring back the reign of Saturn. ~ John Buchan (date of birth)

  • 4 Kalki 23:06, 24 August 2005 (UTC)
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27

  • "A young man should serve his parents at home and be respectful to elders outside his home. He should be earnest and truthful, loving all, but become intimate with humaneness. After doing this, if he has energy to spare, he can study literature and the arts." ~ Confucius (b. August 27, 551 BC)

2005: The superior man, when resting in safety, does not forget that danger may come. When in a state of security he does not forget the possibility of ruin. When all is orderly, he does not forget that disorder may come. Thus his person is not endangered, and his States and all their clans are preserved. ~ Confucius

  • 4 Kalki 22:28, 26 August 2005 (UTC) The Wikipedia article states a September birth-date as "traditional" for Confucius, but as the Chinese Lunar calendar can vary greatly from the western Gregorian, and since there is as yet a paucity of quotes from the Oriental philosophers here, I feel this day is probably as good as any to quote Confucius; but I had a bit of time to do some searching and came up with several I prefer to the above. I am in a bit of a rush now though, and won't have time to do as much work as I would like on the Confucius article. Among the best of the quotes I found was this. There were many other good ones, but this fits in well with yesterday's selection by John Buchan.
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28

  • "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character." ~ Martin Luther King, Jr., "I have a dream" Speech (August 28, 1963)

I extended this so it is not a mere replication of the first time it was used, as the very first quote of the day, here at Wikiquote ~ Kalki 22:52, 27 August 2005 (UTC)

2005: I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood... I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today... ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

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29

  • "On August 29th, 1997, it's gonna feel pretty fucking real to you too. Anybody not wearing 2 million sunblock is gonna have a real bad day. Get it?" ~ Sarah Connor in Terminator 2: Judgment Day
    • 3 ~ MosheZadka (Talk) 08:25, 20 July 2005 (UTC)
    • 0 121a0012 00:13, August 25, 2005 (UTC) (best to avoid profanity on main page)
    • 0 Kalki 23:48, 28 August 2005 (UTC) agree with above statement.

There is reason to think, that, if men were better instructed themselves, they would be less imposing on others. ~ John Locke (date of birth)

  • 3 Kalki 23:48, 28 August 2005 (UTC)

Religion, which should most distinguish us from the beasts, and ought most particularly elevate us, as rational creatures, above brutes, is that wherein men often appear most irrational, and more senseless than beasts. ~ John Locke (date of birth)

  • 3 Kalki 23:48, 28 August 2005 (UTC)

New opinions are always suspected, and usually opposed, without any other reason but because they are not already common. ~ John Locke (date of birth)

  • 3 Kalki 23:48, 28 August 2005 (UTC)

2005: I find that the great thing in this world is not so much where we stand as in what direction we are moving: To reach the port of heaven, we must sail sometimes with the wind and sometimes against it— but we must sail, and not drift, nor lie at anchor. ~ Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (date of birth)

  • 4 Kalki 23:48, 28 August 2005 (UTC)
  • 4 --LuisFelipe 11:46, 29 August 2005 (UTC)
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30

  • "The animals of the Burgess Shale are holy objects…. We do not place them on pedestals and worship from afar. We climb mountains and dynamite hillsides to find them. We quarry them, split them, carve them, draw them, and dissect them, struggling to wrest their secrets. … They are grubby little creatures of a sea floor 530 million years old, but we greet them with awe because they are the Old Ones, and they are trying to tell us something." Stephen Jay Gould, Wonderful Life
    (The Burgess Shale fossils were discovered by Charles Doolittle Walcott on August 30, 1909.)
  • 2 Kalki 16:45, 30 August 2005 (UTC) The quote is about an important subject, and might be selected in coming years, perhaps on the centennial of this important discovery. It points to notable facts, familiar to many students of Life's history, but it is also to some extent flawed as a presentation of scientific perspectives. One can agree that "The animals of the Burgess Shale are holy objects..." and they indeed have lessons for us that we should be trying to learn, but they are not "trying to tell us" anything. They simply are forever what they are, within the complex patterns of Eternity and Time, manifestations of the patterns of Life's awareness and being, which we might seek to be ever more aware and appreciative of— but, in keeping with both scientific and rational principles, we should avoid implying purposes or intentions on the part of specimens or of their fossils that are not likely to exist. I have added 4 quotes by this author which I believe superior to this one to the suggestions for the author's birthdate. If this one eventually is used I would prefer to use the entire quote, without ellipses:
The animals of the Burgess Shale are holy objects—in the unconventional sense that this word conveys in some cultures. We do not place them on pedestals and worship from afar. We climb mountains and dynamite hillsides to find them. We quarry them, split them, carve them, draw them, and dissect them, struggling to wrest their secrets. We vilify and curse them for their damnable intransigence. They are grubby little creatures of a sea floor 530 million years old, but we greet them with awe because they are the Old Ones, and they are trying to tell us something.

We are unfashioned creatures, but half made up, if one wiser, better, dearer than ourselves—such a friend ought to be—do not lend his aid to perfectionate our weak and faulty natures.. ~ Mary Shelley (date of birth)

  • 3 Kalki 23:58, 29 August 2005 (UTC)

My mind was filled with one thought, one conception, one purpose. So much has been done, exclaimed the soul of Frankenstein—more, far more, will I achieve; treading in the steps already marked, I will pioneer a new way, explore unknown powers, and unfold to the world the deepest mysteries of creation. ~ Mary Shelley (date of birth)

  • 3 Kalki 23:58, 29 August 2005 (UTC)

2005: No one can conceive the variety of feelings which bore me onwards, like a hurricane, in the first enthusiasm of success. Life and death appeared to me ideal bounds, which I should first break through, and pour a torrent of light into our dark world. ~ Mary Shelley (date of birth)

  • 4 Kalki 23:58, 29 August 2005 (UTC) This ties in well to today's landfall of Hurricane Katrina as well as Shelley's date of birth.
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31

  • "And that is the story of Alma,//Who knew how to receive and to give.//The body that reached her embalma'//Was one that had known how to live." ~ Alma, Tom Lehrer, dedicated to Alma Mahler (b. August 31, 1879)

The writer is a spiritual anarchist, as in the depth of his soul every man is. He is discontented with everything and everybody. The writer is everybody's best friend and only true enemy— the good and great enemy. He neither walks with the multitude nor cheers with them. The writer who is a writer is a rebel who never stops. ~ William Saroyan

  • 3 Kalki 16:52, 30 August 2005 (UTC)

Try to learn to breathe deeply, really to taste food when you eat, and when you sleep really to sleep. Try as much as possible to be wholly alive with all your might, and when you laugh, laugh like hell. And when you get angry, get good and angry. Try to be alive. You will be dead soon enough. ~ William Saroyan

  • 3 Kalki 16:52, 30 August 2005 (UTC)

Have no shame in being kindly and gentle, but if the time comes in the time of your life to kill, kill and have no regret. In the time of your life, live—so that in that wondrous time you shall not add to the misery and sorrow of the world, but shall smile to the infinite delight and mystery of it. ~ William Saroyan

  • 3 Kalki 16:52, 30 August 2005 (UTC)

2005: Seek goodness everywhere, and when it is found, bring it out of its hiding-place and let it be free and unashamed. Place in matter and in flesh the least of the values, for these are things that hold death and must pass away. Discover in all things that which shines and is beyond corruption. Encourage virtue in whatever heart it may have been driven into secrecy and sorrow by the shame and terror of the world. ~ William Saroyan

  • 4 Kalki 16:52, 30 August 2005 (UTC)

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.
Retrieved from "http://www.billionquotes.com/index.php/Quote_of_the_day/August"
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