Quote of the day/December

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November << December 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 >> January

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 December, 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

  • That's essentially how I feel about life... full of loneliness, misery, suffering, and unhappiness - and it's all over much too quickly. ~ Woody Allen (date of birth)
    • 2 ~ UDScott 23:09, 28 November 2005 (UTC)
    • 3 ~ Kalki 21:29, 30 November 2005 (UTC)
  • If an expert says it can't be done, get another expert. ~ David Ben-Gurion (date of death)
    • 3 ~ UDScott 23:09, 28 November 2005 (UTC)
  • If only God would give me some clear sign! Like making a large deposit in my name in a Swiss bank. ~ Woody Allen (date of birth)
    • 3 Kalki 21:29, 30 November 2005 (UTC)
    • 3 ~ UDScott 21:31, 30 November 2005 (UTC)
    • 3 ~ --Viridis 05:42, 27 March 2006 (UTC)

2005 : The important thing, I think, is not to be bitter... if it turns about that there is a God, I don't think that he is evil. I think that the worst thing you could say is that he is, basically, an under-achiever. ~ Woody Allen (date of birth)

  • 4 Kalki 21:29, 30 November 2005 (UTC)
  • 3 ~ UDScott 21:31, 30 November 2005 (UTC)
[edit]

2

  • At all times, in every century, every age, there has been such a connection between despotism and religion that it is infinitely apparent and demonstrated a thousand times over, that in destroying one, the other must be undermined, for the simple reason that the first will always put the law into the service of the second. ~ Marquis de Sade (date of death)
    • 3 ~ UDScott 23:09, 28 November 2005 (UTC)

I do think that if I had to choose one word to which hope can be tied it is "hospitality". ~ Ivan Illich (date of death)

  • 3 Kalki 23:28, 1 December 2005 (UTC)

Learned and leisured hospitality is the only antidote to the stance of deadly cleverness that is acquired in the professional pursuit of objectively secured knowledge. I remain certain that the quest for truth cannot thrive outside the nourishment of mutual trust flowering into a commitment to friendship. Therefore, I have tried to identify the climate that fosters and the "conditioned" air that hinders the growth of friendship ~ Ivan Illich (date of death)

  • 3 Kalki 23:28, 1 December 2005 (UTC)

2005 : I do not believe that friendship today can flower out — can come out — of political life. I do believe that if there is something like a political life-to-be — to remain for us, in this world of technology — then it begins with friendship. ~ Ivan Illich (date of death)

  • 4 Kalki 23:28, 1 December 2005 (UTC)
[edit]

3

  • Our business in this world is not to succeed, but to continue to fail, in good spirits. ~ Robert Louis Stevenson (date of death)
    • 2 ~ UDScott 23:09, 28 November 2005 (UTC)
  • Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap, but by the seeds you plant. ~ Robert Louis Stevenson (date of death)
    • 3 ~ UDScott 23:09, 28 November 2005 (UTC)
This one was used in July 2004 ~ Kalki 00:17, 4 December 2005 (UTC)

2005 : All idealization makes life poorer. To beautify it is to take away its character of complexity - it is to destroy it. ~ Joseph Conrad in The Secret Agent (date of birth)

  • 3 ~ UDScott 23:09, 28 November 2005 (UTC)
  • 3 ~ Kalki 00:08, 2 December 2005 (UTC)
[edit]

4

  • Have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language. Don't search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, someday far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer. ~ Rainer Maria Rilke (date of birth)
    • 4 ~ UDScott 23:09, 28 November 2005 (UTC)
This one has already been used, in August 2004 ~ Kalki 00:08, 2 December 2005 (UTC)
  • That there should one Man die ignorant who had capacity for Knowledge, this I call a tragedy. ~ Thomas Carlyle (date of birth)
    • 3 ~ UDScott 23:09, 28 November 2005 (UTC)
    • 3 ~ Kalki 00:08, 2 December 2005 (UTC)
  • What we become depends on what we read after all of the professors have finished with us. The greatest university of all is a collection of books. ~ Thomas Carlyle (date of birth)
    • 3 ~ UDScott 23:09, 28 November 2005 (UTC)
    • 3 ~ Kalki 00:08, 2 December 2005 (UTC)
  • There is more stupidity than hydrogen in the universe, and it has a longer shelf life. ~ Frank Zappa (date of death)
    • 2 ~ UDScott 23:09, 28 November 2005 (UTC)

No sadder proof can be given by a man of his own littleness than disbelief in great men. ~ Thomas Carlyle (date of birth)

  • 4 Kalki 00:17, 4 December 2005 (UTC)

2005 : Make your ego porous. Will is of little importance, complaining is nothing, fame is nothing. Openness, patience, receptivity, solitude is everything. ~ Rainer Maria Rilke (date of birth)

First suggested in the form: Openness, patience, receptivity, solitude is everything.
  • 3 ~ UDScott 23:09, 28 November 2005 (UTC)
  • 3 ~ Kalki 00:17, 4 December 2005 (UTC) (with extended portion)
[edit]

5

Leadership means that a group, large or small, is willing to entrust authority to a person who has shown judgement, wisdom, personal appeal, and proven competence. ~ Walt Disney (date of birth)

  • 3 ~ UDScott 23:09, 28 November 2005 (UTC)

2005 : If you can dream it, you can do it. Always remember that this whole thing was started with a dream and a mouse." ~ Walt Disney (date of birth)

First suggested in the form: "You can dream it, you can do it."
  • 3 ~ UDScott 23:09, 28 November 2005 (UTC)
  • 3 ~ Kalki 23:34, 4 December 2005 (UTC) (in the expanded form)
[edit]

6

  • There is no royal road to learning; no short cut to the acquirement of any art. ~ Anthony Trollope in Barchester Towers (date of death)
    • 3 ~ UDScott 23:09, 28 November 2005 (UTC)
  • Book love... is your pass to the greatest, the purest, and the most perfect pleasure that God has prepared for His creatures. ~ Anthony Trollope (date of death)
    • 3 ~ UDScott 23:09, 28 November 2005 (UTC)
  • Never think that you're not good enough. A man should never think that. People will take you very much at your own reckoning. ~ Anthony Trollope (date of death)
    • 3 ~ UDScott 23:09, 28 November 2005 (UTC)

They shall not live who have not tasted death. They only sing who are struck dumb by God. ~ Joyce Kilmer (date of birth)

  • 3 Kalki 21:10, 5 December 2005 (UTC)

Is Freedom only a Will-o'-the-wisp
To cheat a poet's eye?
Be it phantom or fact, it's a noble cause
In which to sing and to die!
~ Joyce Kilmer ~ (date of birth)

  • 3 Kalki 21:10, 5 December 2005 (UTC)

It is stern work, it is perilous work, to thrust your hand in the sun and pull out a spark of immortal flame to warm the hearts of men: but Prometheus, torn by the claws and beaks whose task is never done, would be tortured another eternity to go stealing fire again. ~ Joyce Kilmer (date of birth)

  • 3 Kalki 21:10, 5 December 2005 (UTC)

2005 : Love is made out of ecstasy and wonder;
Love is a poignant and accustomed pain.
It is a burst of Heaven-shaking thunder;
It is a linnet's fluting after rain.
~ Joyce Kilmer ~ (date of birth)

  • 3 Kalki 21:10, 5 December 2005 (UTC)
[edit]

7

Where there is great love there are always miracles. ~ Willa Cather (date of birth)

  • 3 ~ UDScott 23:09, 28 November 2005 (UTC)
This has already been used (and actually is the one quote that was mistakenly used twice, due to an omission in my record-keeping. I had thought I had used it, but did not realize that I had failed to record it's use until afterwards.)
  • My advice to you is not to inquire why or whither, but just enjoy your ice cream while it's on your plate— that's my philosophy. ~ Thornton Wilder in The Skin of Our Teeth (date of death)
    • 3 ~ UDScott 23:09, 28 November 2005 (UTC)
  • I know that every good and excellent thing in the world stands moment by moment on the razor-edge of danger and must be fought for. ~ Thornton Wilder (date of death)
    • 3 ~ UDScott 23:09, 28 November 2005 (UTC)
  • Providence has nothing good or high in store for one who does not resolutely aim at something high or good. A purpose is the eternal condition of success. ~ Thornton Wilder (date of death)
    • 3 ~ UDScott 23:09, 28 November 2005 (UTC)
  • Seek the lofty by reading, hearing and seeing great work at some moment every day. ~ Thornton Wilder (date of death)
    • 3 ~ UDScott 23:09, 28 November 2005 (UTC)

2005 : That is happiness; to be dissolved into something complete and great. ~ Willa Cather (date of birth)

    • 3 ~ UDScott 23:09, 28 November 2005 (UTC)
    • 4 ~ Kalki 21:47, 5 December 2005 (UTC)
[edit]

8

  • You can check out any time you like
    But you can never leave ~ Hotel California, The Eagles (from the Hotel California album, released that day 1976
    • 2 ~ UDScott 23:09, 28 November 2005 (UTC)
  • A hero is someone who rebels or seems to rebel against the facts of existence and seems to conquer them. Obviously that can only work at moments. It can't be a lasting thing. That's not saying that people shouldn't keep trying to rebel against the facts of existence. Someday, who knows, we might conquer death, disease and war. ~ Jim Morrison (date of birth)
    • 3 ~ UDScott 23:09, 28 November 2005 (UTC)

2005 : It is better to ask some of the questions than to know all the answers. ~ James Thurber (date of birth)

  • 3 ~ UDScott 23:09, 28 November 2005 (UTC)
[edit]

9

  • It's fun to stay at the Y-M-C-A
    It's fun to stay at the Y-M-C-A
    They have everything for you men to enjoy,
    You can hang out with all the boys ~ Y-M-C-A, The Village People in honor of the first YMCA established in North America, this day on 1851
    • 2 ~ UDScott 23:09, 28 November 2005 (UTC)
  • The mind is its own place, and in itself
    Can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven. ~ John Milton, from Paradise Lost (date of birth)
    • 3 ~ UDScott 23:09, 28 November 2005 (UTC)

This has already been used ~ Kalki 23:50, 8 December 2005 (UTC)

  • Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according to my conscience, above all liberties. ~ John Milton (date of birth)
    • 3 ~ UDScott 23:09, 28 November 2005 (UTC)
    • 3 ~ Kalki 23:50, 8 December 2005 (UTC) Good, but Milton was used just a couple weeks ago.

2005 : We take men for what they are worth — and that is why we hate the government of man by man, and that we work with all our might — perhaps not strong enough — to put an end to it. ~ Peter Kropotkin

  • 4 ~ Kalki 23:50, 8 December 2005 (UTC)
[edit]

10

  • We despise and abhor the bully, the brawler, the oppressor, whether in private or public life, but we despise no less the coward and the voluptuary. No man is worth calling a man who will not fight rather than submit to infamy or see those that are dear to him suffer wrong. ~ Theodore Roosevelt, from his Nobel prize speech, the prize was awarded to him this day on 1906
    • 3 ~ UDScott 23:09, 28 November 2005 (UTC)
  • A person is a person because he recognizes others as persons. ~ Desmond Tutu, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on this day in 1984.
    • 3 ~ UDScott 23:09, 28 November 2005 (UTC)
  • If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality. ~ Desmond Tutu, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on this day in 1984.
    • 3 ~ UDScott 23:09, 28 November 2005 (UTC)
  • The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference. The opposite of art is not ugliness, it's indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it's indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, it's indifference. ~ Elie Wiesel, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on this date in 1986.
    • 3 ~ UDScott 23:09, 28 November 2005 (UTC)
  • It's better to light one candle than to curse the darkness. ~ Emily Dickinson (date of birth)
    • 3 ~ UDScott 23:09, 28 November 2005 (UTC)
This is a statement that is the motto of the "The Christophers", which they state is derived from a Chinese proverb (which has sometimes been attributed to Confucius); it has also sometimes been rendered as "It is better to light one small candle than to curse the darkness" or "Don't curse the darkness — light a candle." It was added to the Dickinson page by an anonymous editor some time ago, but it does not seem to be commonly attributed to her, so I am removing it from there. ~ Kalki 21:02, 9 December 2005 (UTC)
  • Hey, what's up with the Weasel? She's locked herself in the bathroom singing, 'On the first day of Christmas, I murdered Santa Claus.' ~ Eric Matthews from A Boy Meets World (episode with quote aired first today in 1993)

Dreams — are well — but Waking's better,
If One wake at morn —
If One wake at Midnight — better —
Dreaming — of the Dawn —
~ Emily Dickinson ~

  • 3 Kalki 21:02, 9 December 2005 (UTC)

2005 Tell all the Truth but tell it slant —
Success in Circuit lies
Too bright for our infirm Delight
The Truth's superb surprise
As Lightning to the Children eased
With explanation kind
The Truth must dazzle gradually
Or every man be blind —
~ Emily Dickinson ~

  • 3 Kalki 21:02, 9 December 2005 (UTC)
[edit]

11

  • "Oh, Be A Fine Girl - Kiss Me!" ~ Mnemonic for remembering the star classification established by Annie Jump Cannon, born that day
    • 2 ~ UDScott 23:09, 28 November 2005 (UTC)

2005: Woe to that nation whose literature is cut short by the intrusion of force. This is not merely interference with freedom of the press but the sealing up of a nation's heart, the excision of its memory. ~ Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (Date of birth)

    • 3 ~ UDScott 23:09, 28 November 2005 (UTC)
[edit]

12

  • I feel sorry for people who don't drink. When they wake up in the morning, that's as good as they're going to feel all day. ~ Frank Sinatra, born that day
    • 2 ~ UDScott 23:09, 28 November 2005 (UTC)
  • The most glorious moments in your life are not the so-called days of success, but rather those days when out of dejection and despair you feel rise in you a challenge to life, and the promise of future accomplishments. ~ Gustave Flaubert (Date of birth)
    • 3 ~ UDScott 23:09, 28 November 2005 (UTC)
  • The critical ingredient is getting off your butt and doing something. It's as simple as that. A lot of people have ideas, but there are few who decide to do something about them now. Not tomorrow. Not next week. But today. The true entrepreneur is a doer, not a dreamer. ~ Robert Browning (Date of death)
    • 4 ~ UDScott 23:09, 28 November 2005 (UTC)
  • This is a mis-attribution... it is widely attributed to Nolan Bushnell (Founder of Atari), not to Browning.

It's been a struggle for me because I had a chance to be white and refused. ~ Richard Pryor (recent death)

  • 2 Kalki 22:32, 11 December 2005 (UTC)

2005 : I had some great things and I had some bad things. The best and the worst... In other words, I had a life. ~ Richard Pryor (recent death)

  • 3 Kalki 22:32, 11 December 2005 (UTC)
[edit]

13

  • We may have different religions, different languages, different colored skin, but we all belong to one human race. ~ Kofi Annan, elected Secretary General of the United Nations on this date, in 1996.
    • 4 ~ UDScott 23:09, 28 November 2005 (UTC)
  • Talking and eloquence are not the same: to speak and to speak well are two things. A fool may talk, but a wise man speaks. ~ Heinrich Heine (Date of birth)
    • 3 ~ UDScott 23:09, 28 November 2005 (UTC)
  • All the performances of human art, at which we look with praise or wonder, are instances of the resistless force of perseverance; it is by this that the quarry becomes a pyramid, and that distant countries are united with canals. If a man was to compare the single stroke of the pickaxe, or of one impression of the spade, with the general design and the last result, he would be overwhelmed by the sense of their disproportion; yet those petty operations, incessantly continued, in time surmount the greatest difficulties, and mountains are leveled and oceans bounded by the slender force of human beings. ~ Samuel Johnson (Date of death)
    • 3 ~ UDScott 23:09, 28 November 2005 (UTC)

As long as the differences and diversities of mankind exist, democracy must allow for compromise, for accommodation, and for the recognition of differences. ~ Eugene McCarthy (recent death)

  • 3 ~ Kalki 23:58, 12 December 2005 (UTC)

2005 : The maple tree that night
Without a wind or rain
Let go its leaves
Because its time had come.
~ Eugene McCarthy ~ (recent death)

  • 4 ~ Kalki 23:58, 12 December 2005 (UTC)
[edit]

14

  • Associate yourself with men of good quality if you esteem your own reputation; for 'tis better to be alone than in bad company. ~ George Washington (Date of death)
    • 3 ~ UDScott 23:09, 28 November 2005 (UTC)

I think that it is high time that we remembered that the Constitution, as amended, speaks not only of the freedom of speech but also of trial by jury instead of trial by accusation. ~ Margaret Chase Smith (date of birth)

  • 3 Kalki 22:54, 13 December 2005 (UTC)

2005 : My creed is that public service must be more than doing a job efficiently and honestly. It must be a complete dedication to the people and to the nation with full recognition that every human being is entitled to courtesy and consideration, that constructive criticism is not only to be expected but sought, that smears are not only to be expected but fought, that honor is to be earned but not bought. ~ Margaret Chase Smith (date of birth)

  • 3 Kalki 22:54, 13 December 2005 (UTC)
[edit]

15

  • It's kind of fun to do the impossible. ~ Walt Disney (Date of death)
    • 3 ~ UDScott 23:09, 28 November 2005 (UTC)
  • The deepest pleasure in science comes from finding an instantiation, a home, for some deeply felt, deeply held image. ~ Wolfgang Pauli (Date of death)
    • 3 ~ UDScott 23:09, 28 November 2005 (UTC)

To talk about the end of science is just as foolish as to talk about the end of religion. Science and religion are both still close to their beginnings, with no ends in sight. ~ Freeman Dyson (date of birth)

  • 3 Kalki 18:54, 14 December 2005 (UTC)

It appears that mind, as manifested by the capacity to make choices, is to some extent inherent in every atom. The universe as a whole is also weird, with laws of nature that make it hospitable to the growth of mind. I do not make any clear distinction between mind and God. God is what mind becomes when it has passed beyond the scale of our comprehension. ~ Freeman Dyson (date of birth)

  • 3 Kalki 18:54, 14 December 2005 (UTC)

We stand, in a manner of speaking, midway between the unpredictability of atoms and the unpredictability of God. ~ Freeman Dyson (date of birth)

  • 3 Kalki 18:54, 14 December 2005 (UTC)

2005 : Trouble arises when either science or religion claims universal jurisdiction, when either religious dogma or scientific dogma claims to be infallible. Religious creationists and scientific materialists are equally dogmatic and insensitive. By their arrogance they bring both science and religion into disrepute. ~ Freeman Dyson (date of birth)

  • 4 Kalki 18:54, 14 December 2005 (UTC)
[edit]

16

  • Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun. ~ Mao Zedong in the Little Red Book, published in Beijing that day.
    • 2 ~ UDScott 23:09, 28 November 2005 (UTC)
  • Nothing is more intolerable than to have to admit to yourself your own errors. ~ Ludwig van Beethoven (Date of birth)
    • 3 ~ UDScott 23:09, 28 November 2005 (UTC)
  • The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible. ~ Arthur C. Clarke (Date of birth)
    • 3 ~ UDScott 23:09, 28 November 2005 (UTC)
  • An unfortunate thing about this world is that the good habits are much easier to give up than the bad ones. ~ William Somerset Maugham (Date of death)
    • 3 ~ UDScott 23:09, 28 November 2005 (UTC)

2005 : Fear... can make you do more wrong than hate or jealousy. If you're afraid you don't commit yourself to life completely; fear makes you always, always hold something back. ~ Philip K. Dick (Date of birth)

    • 3 ~ UDScott 23:09, 28 November 2005 (UTC)
[edit]

17

  • I don't mean to say that I know, of my own knowledge, what there is particularly dead about a door-nail. I might have been inclined, myself, to regard a coffin-nail as the deadest piece of ironmongery in the trade. ~ Charles Dickens in A Christmas Carol, published that day.
    • 2 ~ UDScott 23:09, 28 November 2005 (UTC)
    • 1 - --Mister Six 11:10, 16 December 2005 (UTC)

2005 : I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future. The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me. I will not shut out the lessons that they teach. ~ Charles Dickens in A Christmas Carol, published that day.

    • 3 ~ UDScott 23:09, 28 November 2005 (UTC)
    • 3 - --Mister Six 11:10, 16 December 2005 (UTC)
[edit]

18

2005 : It is better to die for an idea that will live, than to live for an idea that will die. ~ Steve Biko (Date of birth)

  • 3 ~ UDScott 23:09, 28 November 2005 (UTC)
  • 3 - --Mister Six 11:10, 16 December 2005 (UTC)
[edit]

19

  • A person who has not done one half his day's work by ten o clock, runs a chance of leaving the other half undone. ~ Emily Brontë (Date of death)
    • 3 ~ UDScott 23:09, 28 November 2005 (UTC)
    • 2 - --Mister Six 11:10, 16 December 2005 (UTC)

2005 : The tyrant grinds down his slaves and they don't turn against him, they crush those beneath them. ~ Emily Brontë (Date of death)

    • 3 ~ UDScott 23:09, 28 November 2005 (UTC)
    • 4 - --Mister Six 11:10, 16 December 2005 (UTC)
[edit]

20

  • I have come to believe that a great teacher is a great artist and that there are as few as there are any other great artists. Teaching might even be the greatest of the arts since the medium is the human mind and spirit. ~ John Steinbeck (Date of death)
    • 3 ~ UDScott 23:09, 28 November 2005 (UTC)
    • 2 - --Mister Six 11:10, 16 December 2005 (UTC)
  • Widespread intellectual and moral docility may be convenient for leaders in the short term, but it is suicidal for nations in the long term. One of the criteria for national leadership should therefore be a talent for understanding, encouraging, and making constructive use of vigorous criticism. ~ Carl Sagan (Date of death)
    • 3 ~ UDScott 23:09, 28 November 2005 (UTC)
    • 2 - --Mister Six 11:10, 16 December 2005 (UTC)

2005 : For most of human history we have searched for our place in the cosmos. Who are we? What are we? We find that we inhabit an insignificant planet of a hum-drum star lost in a galaxy tucked away in some forgotten corner of a universe in which there are far more galaxies than people. We make our world significant by the courage of our questions, and by the depth of our answers. ~ Carl Sagan (Date of death)

    • 3 ~ UDScott 23:09, 28 November 2005 (UTC)
    • 4 - --Mister Six 11:10, 16 December 2005 (UTC)
[edit]

21

  • Once one is caught up into the material world, not one person in ten thousand finds the time to form literary taste, to examine the validity of philosophic concepts for himself, or to form what, for lack of a better phrase, I might call the wise and tragic sense of life. ~ F. Scott Fitzgerald (Date of death)
    • 3 ~ UDScott 23:09, 28 November 2005 (UTC)
    • 2 - --Mister Six 11:10, 16 December 2005 (UTC)
  • There are no days in life so memorable as those which vibrated to some stroke of the imagination. ~ F. Scott Fitzgerald (Date of death)
    • 3 ~ UDScott 23:09, 28 November 2005 (UTC)
    • 2 - --Mister Six 11:10, 16 December 2005 (UTC)

I feel no shame in asserting that this whole region engirdled by the moon, and the center of the earth, traverse this grand circle amid the rest of the planets in an annual revolution around the sun. ~ Nicolaus Copernicus

  • 3 Kalki 17:04, 20 December 2005 (UTC) (Date of the solstice, and Yule, or Jul celebrations)

Finally we shall place the Sun himself at the center of the Universe. All this is suggested by the systematic procession of events and the harmony of the whole Universe, if only we face the facts, as they say, 'with both eyes open'. ~ Nicolaus Copernicus

  • 3 Kalki 17:04, 20 December 2005 (UTC) (Date of the solstice, and Yule, or Jul celebrations)

The tide has turned!
The light will come again!
In a new dawn, in a new day,
The sun is rising!
Io! Evohe! Blessed Be!
~ Starhawk

  • 3 Kalki 17:04, 20 December 2005 (UTC) (Date of the solstice, and Yule, or Jul celebrations)

This is the stillness behind motion, when time itself stops; the center is also the circumference of all. We are awake in the night. We turn the Wheel to bring the light. We call the sun from the womb of night. Blessed Be! ~ Starhawk

  • 4 Kalki 17:04, 20 December 2005 (UTC) (Date of the solstice, and Yule, or Jul celebrations)

2005 : I don't measure a man's success by how high he climbs but how high he bounces when he hits bottom. ~ George S. Patton (Date of death)

    • 3 ~ UDScott 23:09, 28 November 2005 (UTC)
    • 4 - --Mister Six 11:10, 16 December 2005 (UTC)
[edit]

22

2005 : My own experience and development deepen every day my conviction that our moral progress may be measured by the degree in which we sympathize with individual suffering and individual joy. ~ George Eliot (Date of death)

    • 3 ~ UDScott 23:09, 28 November 2005 (UTC)
    • 3 - --Mister Six 11:10, 16 December 2005 (UTC)
[edit]

23

  • 'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house
    Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse;
    The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
    In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there. ~ from A Visit from St. Nicholas (a.k.a. Twas the Night Before Christmas), published on this date in 1823
    • 3 ~ UDScott 21:51, 30 November 2005 (UTC)
    • 3 (4 if you shifted it to 24 December, irrespective of published date) - --Mister Six 11:10, 16 December 2005 (UTC)
    • USED for the 24th December 2005 ~ Kalki 22:35, 23 December 2005 (UTC)

2005 : Many Christmases ago, I went to buy a doll for my son. I reached for the last one they had, but so did another man. As I rained blows upon him, I realized there had to be another way . . . out of that a new holiday was born . . . a Festivus for the rest of us! ~ Jerry Stiller as "Frank Costanza" in Seinfeld, on the origins of Festivus.

  • First suggested as "Out of that, a new holiday was born ...Festivus for the rest of us!" ~ Frank Costanza on Seinfeld, celebrating this "holiday" on this date.
    • 2 ~ UDScott 21:51, 30 November 2005 (UTC)
    • 2 (4 if you precede it with "Many Christmases ago, I went to buy a doll for my son. I reached for the last one they had, but so did another man. As I rained blows upon him, I realized there had to be another way...") - --Mister Six 11:10, 16 December 2005 (UTC)
[edit]

24

  • A few minutes ago every tree was excited, bowing to the roaring storm, waving, swirling, tossing their branches in glorious enthusiasm like worship. But though to the outer ear these trees are now silent, their songs never cease. Every hidden cell is throbbing with music and life, every fiber thrilling like harp strings, while incense is ever flowing from the balsam bells and leaves. No wonder the hills and groves were God's first temples, and the more they are cut down and hewn into cathedrals and churches, the farther off and dimmer seems the Lord himself. ~ John Muir (Date of death)
    • 3 ~ UDScott 23:09, 28 November 2005 (UTC)
    • 4 - --Mister Six 11:10, 16 December 2005 (UTC)
  • Nature is ever at work building and pulling down, creating and destroying, keeping everything whirling and flowing, allowing no rest but in rhythmical motion, chasing everything in endless song out of one beautiful form into another. ~ John Muir (Date of death)
    • 3 ~ UDScott 23:09, 28 November 2005 (UTC)
    • 3 - --Mister Six 11:10, 16 December 2005 (UTC)
  • People become really quite remarkable when they start thinking that they can do things. When they believe in themselves they have the first secret of success. ~ Norman Vincent Peale (Date of death)
    • 3 ~ UDScott 23:09, 28 November 2005 (UTC)
    • 3 - --Mister Six 11:10, 16 December 2005 (UTC)

2005 : 'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse;
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there.
~ "A Visit from St. Nicholas" ~

  • First suggested for the 23rd.
[edit]

25

  • Christmas is not a time nor a season, but a state of mind. To cherish peace and goodwill, to be plenteous in mercy, is to have the real spirit of Christmas. ~ Calvin Coolidge
  • Christmas is an awfulness that compares favorably with the great London plague and fire of 1665-66. No one escapes the feelings of mortal dejection, inadequacy, frustration, loneliness, guilt and pity. No one escapes feeling used by society, by religion, by friends and relatives, by the utterly artifical responsiblities of extending false greetings, sending banal cards, reciprocating unsolicated gifts, going to dull parties, putting up with acquaintances and family one avoids all the rest of the year...in short, of being brutalized by a 'holiday' that has lost virtually all of its original meanings and has become a merchandising ploy for color tv set manufacturers and ravagers of the woodlands. ~ Harlan Ellison
    • 4 - --Mister Six 11:10, 16 December 2005 (UTC)
    • 1 ~ Kalki 22:35, 23 December 2005 (UTC) (Ellison is an interesting writer and personality, but on this I am inclined to say: "Bah, Humbug to you too, you old fart!")

2005 : My idea of Christmas, whether old-fashioned or modern, is very simple: loving others. Come to think of it, why do we have to wait for Christmas to do that? ~ Bob Hope

[edit]

26

  • It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit. ~ Harry S. Truman (Date of death)
    • 3 ~ UDScott 23:09, 28 November 2005 (UTC)
    • 3 - --Mister Six 11:10, 16 December 2005 (UTC)
This was already used, as the second Wikiquote quote of the day, on 12 July 2003 ~ Kalki 23:53, 25 December 2005 (UTC)

Every nation sincerely desires peace; and all nations pursue courses which if persisted in, must make peace impossible. ~ Norman Angell (date of birth)

  • 3 Kalki 23:53, 25 December 2005 (UTC)

Let us face squarely the paradox that the world which goes to war is a world, usually, genuinely desiring peace. War is the outcome, not mainly of evil intentions, but on the whole, of good intentions which miscarry or are frustrated. It is made, not usually by evil men knowing themselves to be wrong, but is the outcome of policies pursued by good men usually passionately convinced that they are right. ~ Norman Angell (date of birth)

  • 3 Kalki 23:53, 25 December 2005 (UTC)

2005 : It is not the facts which guide the conduct of men, but their opinions about facts; which may be entirely wrong. We can only make them right by discussion. ~ Norman Angell (date of birth)

  • 3 Kalki 23:53, 25 December 2005 (UTC)
[edit]

27

  • In the fields of observation chance favors only the prepared mind. ~ Louis Pasteur (Date of birth)
    • 3 ~ UDScott 14:53, 14 December 2005 (UTC)
    • 2 - --Mister Six 11:10, 16 December 2005 (UTC)
This has already been used. ~ Kalki

2005 : Except for the people who were there that one day they discovered the polio vaccine, being part of history is rarely a good idea. History is one war after another with a bunch of murders and natural disasters in between. ~ Sarah Vowell, born that day

    • 3 ~ UDScott 14:53, 14 December 2005 (UTC)
    • 4 - --Mister Six 11:10, 16 December 2005 (UTC)
[edit]

28

  • I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to The Republic for which it stands, one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. ~ Pledge of Allegience, officially recognized by the U.S. Congress on this date in 1945
    • 3 ~ UDScott 15:03, 14 December 2005 (UTC)
    • 0 (not everyone is American) - --Mister Six 11:10, 16 December 2005 (UTC)
  • Nothing is so galling to a people not broken in from the birth as a paternal, or, in other words, a meddling government, a government which tells them what to read, and say, and eat, and drink and wear. ~ Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay (Date of death)
    • 4 ~ UDScott 15:03, 14 December 2005 (UTC)
    • 3 - --Mister Six 11:10, 16 December 2005 (UTC)

2005 : No nation is fit to sit in judgement upon any other nation. ~ Woodrow Wilson, born that day

  • 3 ~ UDScott 15:03, 14 December 2005 (UTC)
  • 4 - --Mister Six 11:10, 16 December 2005 (UTC)
[edit]

29

  • If I am shot at, I want no man to be in the way of the bullet. ~ Andrew Johnson, born that day
    • 2 ~ UDScott 15:09, 14 December 2005 (UTC)
    • 3 - --inhuman14 11:03, 29 January 2006 (UTC)
    • 4 - --Mister Six 11:10, 16 December 2005 (UTC)
  • If your daily life seems poor, do not blame it; blame yourself, tell yourself that you are not poet enough to call forth its riches. ~ Rainer Maria Rilke (Date of death)
    • 3 ~ UDScott 15:09, 14 December 2005 (UTC)
    • 2 - --inhuman14 11:03, 29 January 2006 (UTC)
    • 2 - --Mister Six 11:10, 16 December 2005 (UTC)
[edit]

30

  • For the strength of the pack is the wolf, and the strength of the wolf is the pack. ~ Rudyard Kipling, born that day
    • 2 ~ UDScott 15:16, 14 December 2005 (UTC)
    • 2 - --Mister Six 11:10, 16 December 2005 (UTC)
  • If you can keep your head when all about you
    Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
    If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
    But make allowance for their doubting too.
    ...
    Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
    And — which is more — you'll be a Man, my son!
    ~ Rudyard Kipling (Date of birth)
    • 3 ~ UDScott 15:16, 14 December 2005 (UTC)
    • 3 - --Mister Six 11:10, 16 December 2005 (UTC)
    • 4 ~ Kalki 23:33, 29 December 2005 (UTC) (with a few more lines...)
  • The greatest book is not the one whose message engraves itself on the brain - but the one whose vital impact opens up other viewpoints, and from writer to reader spreads the fire that is fed by the various essences, until it becomes a vast conflagration leaping from forest to forest. ~ Romain Rolland (Date of death)
    • 3 ~ UDScott 15:16, 14 December 2005 (UTC)
    • 4 - --Mister Six 11:10, 16 December 2005 (UTC)
[edit]

31

  • When a thing is done, it's done. Don't look back. Look forward to your next objective. ~ George Marshall (Date of birth)
    • 3 ~ UDScott 15:22, 14 December 2005 (UTC)
    • 1 - --Mister Six 11:10, 16 December 2005 (UTC)
  • For auld lang syne, my dear,
    For auld lang syne,
    We'll take a cup of kindness yet,
    For auld lang syne!
    ~ Robert Burns ~ (Traditional New Year's Eve song)

4 ~ Kalki 23:33, 29 December 2005 (UTC)

  • Let me explain something to you. Um, I am not "Mr. Lebowski". You're Mr. Lebowski. I'm the Dude. So that's what you call me. You know, that or, uh, His Dudeness, or uh, Duder, or El Duderino if you're not into the whole brevity thing. - Jeff Bridges, The Big Lebowski
  • Stop throwing the constituion in my face - it's just a god-damned piece of paper - George W. Bush
  • Göring: "Why, of course, the people don't want war. Why would some poor slob on a farm want to risk his life in a war when the best that he can get out of it is to come back to his farm in one piece. Naturally, the common people don't want war; neither in Russia nor in England nor in America, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy or a fascist dictatorship or a Parliament or a Communist dictatorship."
  • Gilbert: "There is one difference. In a democracy, the people have some say in the matter through their elected representatives, and in the United States only Congress can declare wars."
  • Göring: "Oh, that is all well and good, but, voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country." - Hermann Göring founder of the Nazi Gestapo
  • "Those who desire to give up freedom in order to gain security, will not have, nor do they deserve, either one." – Benjamin Franklin

This is actually a misquotation (of what might possibly be a mis-attribution): "Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."

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/December"
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