April 17
2004
- The real question is not whether machines think but whether men do. ~ B. F. Skinner
- selected by Kalki
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 (born 17 April 1897)
- selected by Kalki
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 (born 17 April 1885)
- selected by Kalki
2007
- Man is not an end but a beginning. We are at the beginning of the second week. We are children of the eighth day. ~ Thornton Wilder
- proposed by Kalki
2008
- I am not a novelist, really not even a writer; I am a storyteller. One of my friends said about me that I think all sorrows can be borne if you put them into a story or tell a story about them, and perhaps this is not entirely untrue. To me, the explanation of life seems to be its melody, its pattern. And I feel in life such an infinite, truly inconceivable fantasy. ~ Karen Blixen
- proposed by Kalki
2009
- The real glory of dreams lies in their atmosphere of unlimited freedom. It is not the freedom of the dictator, who enforces his own will on the world, but the freedom of the artist, who has no will, who is free of will. ~ Karen Blixen
- proposed by Kalki
2010
Quotes by people born on this day, already used as QOTD:
- We can only be said to be alive in those moments when our hearts are conscious of our treasures. ~ Thornton Wilder
- Used 23 November 2006, proposed by Kalki
- 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
- Used 7 December 2006, proposed by UDScott
Suggestions
Love is an energy which exists of itself. It is its own value. ~ Thornton Wilder- 3 Kalki 20:47, 15 April 2007 (UTC)
- 3 InvisibleSun 22:33, 15 April 2007 (UTC)
- 1 Zarbon 23:52, 22 April 2008 (UTC)
----
It is only in appearance that time is a river. It is rather a vast landscape and it is the eye of the beholder that moves. ~ Thornton Wilder
- 3 Kalki 20:47, 15 April 2007 (UTC)
- 3 InvisibleSun 22:33, 15 April 2007 (UTC)
- 1 Zarbon 23:52, 22 April 2008 (UTC)
----
A dramatist is one who believes that the pure event, an action involving human beings, is more arresting than any comment that can be made upon it. ~ Thornton Wilder
- 3 Kalki 20:47, 15 April 2007 (UTC)
- 3 InvisibleSun 22:33, 15 April 2007 (UTC)
- 1 Zarbon 23:52, 22 April 2008 (UTC)
----
The best of my nature reveals itself in play, and play is sacred. ~ Karen Blixen
- 3 Kalki 04:09, 19 April 2007 (UTC)
- 3 InvisibleSun 22:02, 16 April 2008 (UTC)
- 1 Zarbon 23:52, 22 April 2008 (UTC)
----
Africa, amongst the continents, will teach it to you: that God and the Devil are one, the majesty coeternal, not two uncreated but one uncreated, and the Natives neither confounded the persons nor divided the substance. ~ Karen Blixen
- 3 Kalki 04:09, 19 April 2007 (UTC)
- 3 InvisibleSun 22:02, 16 April 2008 (UTC)
- 1 Zarbon 23:52, 22 April 2008 (UTC)
----
Terrorism has no motherland and terrorists have no nationality. ~ Karen Demirchyan (born April 17)
- 3 because it is very true. Those who terrorize for no reason have commitment to absolutely no ideals and belong to no race, religion, or land. They serve no one. - Zarbon 04:13, 18 April 2008 (UTC)
- SOURCE: BBC Archive - NewsBank - Oct 20, 1999
- 2 InvisibleSun 02:34, 16 April 2009 (UTC)
----
In Beauty's dwelling all things fair,
And rich, to win her sweet smiles strove;
But still young Beauty's only care
Was, to watch o'er the lamp of Love.
~ Eliza Acton
- 2 Zarbon 19:18, 10 April 2009 (UTC)
- 2 InvisibleSun 02:34, 16 April 2009 (UTC)
----
But tir'd at length poor Beauty slept,
And while she rested, wearied quite,
Indifference to the dear lamp crept,
And quench'd its warm, and splendid light.
~ Eliza Acton
- 2 Zarbon 19:18, 10 April 2009 (UTC)
- 2 InvisibleSun 02:34, 16 April 2009 (UTC)
----
It's better to live one day as a lion, than one hundred years as a worm. ~ Željko Ražnatović
- 3 Zarbon 19:18, 10 April 2009 (UTC)
----
If somebody wants to kill me, he will - no matter what stands in his way. ~ Željko Ražnatović
- 2 Zarbon 19:18, 10 April 2009 (UTC)
----
They are all gone into the world of light!
And I alone sit lingering here;
Their very memory is fair and bright,
And my sad thoughts doth clear.
~ Henry Vaughan
- 3 Zarbon 19:18, 10 April 2009 (UTC)
- 3 InvisibleSun 02:34, 16 April 2009 (UTC)
- 2 Kalki 15:05, 16 April 2009 (UTC)
----
I see them walking in an air of glory
Whose light doth trample on my days,
My days, which are at best but dull and hoary,
Mere glimmering and decays.
~ Henry Vaughan
- 3 and lean toward 4. Zarbon 19:18, 10 April 2009 (UTC)
- 2 InvisibleSun 02:34, 16 April 2009 (UTC)
- 2 Kalki 15:05, 16 April 2009 (UTC)
----
Dear, beauteous death, the jewel of the just!
Shining nowhere but in the dark;
What mysteries do lie beyond thy dust,
Could man outlook that mark!
~ Henry Vaughan
- 3 Zarbon 19:18, 10 April 2009 (UTC)
- 2 InvisibleSun 02:34, 16 April 2009 (UTC)
- 2 Kalki 15:05, 16 April 2009 (UTC)
----
Product and capital are essentially different things; the former belongs to individuals, the latter to society. ~ Benjamin Tucker
- 3 Zarbon 00:48, 11 April 2009 (UTC)
- 2 InvisibleSun 02:34, 16 April 2009 (UTC)
----
All freedom of trade must disappear. Competition must be utterly wiped out. All industrial and commercial activity must be centered in one vast, enormous, all-inclusive monopoly. The remedy for monopolies is monopoly. ~ Benjamin Tucker
- 3 Zarbon 00:48, 11 April 2009 (UTC)
- 2 InvisibleSun 02:34, 16 April 2009 (UTC)
----
What other applications this principle of Authority, once adopted in the economic sphere, will develop is very evident. It means the absolute control by the majority of all individual conduct. The right of such control is already admitted by the State Socialists, though they maintain that, as a matter of fact, the individual would be allowed a much larger liberty than he now enjoys. But he would only be allowed it; he could not claim it as his own. There would be no foundation of society upon a guaranteed equality of the largest possible liberty. Such liberty as might exist would exist by sufferance and could be taken away at any moment. Constitutional guarantees would be of no avail. There would be but one article in the constitution of a State Socialistic country: "The right of the majority is absolute." ~ Benjamin Tucker
- 2 Zarbon 00:48, 11 April 2009 (UTC)
- 3 InvisibleSun 02:34, 16 April 2009 (UTC)
----
Laissez Faire was very good sauce for the goose, labor, but was very poor sauce for the gander, capital. ~ Benjamin Tucker
- 3 Zarbon 00:48, 11 April 2009 (UTC)
- 2 InvisibleSun 02:34, 16 April 2009 (UTC)
----
The nurse and the teacher, like the doctor and the preacher, must be selected voluntarily, and their services must be paid for by those who patronize them. Parental rights must not be taken away, and parental responsibilities must not be foisted upon others. ~ Benjamin Tucker
- 3 Zarbon 00:48, 11 April 2009 (UTC)
- 2 InvisibleSun 02:34, 16 April 2009 (UTC)
----
We designate by the term "State" institutions that embody absolutism in its extreme form and institutions that temper it with more or less liberality. We apply the word alike to institutions that do nothing but aggress and to institutions that, besides aggressing, to some extent protect and defend. But which is the State's essential function, aggression or defence, few seem to know or care. ~ Benjamin Tucker
- 3 Zarbon 00:48, 11 April 2009 (UTC)
- 3 InvisibleSun 02:34, 16 April 2009 (UTC)
----
The Anarchists never have claimed that liberty will bring perfection; they simply say that its results are vastly preferable to those that follow authority. ~ Benjamin Tucker
- 3 Zarbon 00:48, 11 April 2009 (UTC)
- 3 InvisibleSun 02:34, 16 April 2009 (UTC)
- 3 Kalki 15:05, 16 April 2009 (UTC) with a strong lean toward 4.
----
Once for all, then, we are not opposed to the punishment of thieves and murderers; we are opposed to their manufacture. ~ Benjamin Tucker
- 3 Zarbon 00:48, 11 April 2009 (UTC)
- 2 InvisibleSun 02:34, 16 April 2009 (UTC)
- 2 Kalki 15:05, 16 April 2009 (UTC)
----
I have also seen it stated that Capital punishment is murder in its worst form. I should like to know upon what principle of human society these assertions are based and justified. ~ Benjamin Tucker
- 3 Zarbon 00:48, 11 April 2009 (UTC)
- 2 InvisibleSun 02:34, 16 April 2009 (UTC)
- 2 Kalki 15:05, 16 April 2009 (UTC)
----
But this is not to say that the society which inflicts capital punishment commits murder. Murder is an offensive act. The term cannot be applied legitimately to any defensive act. And capital punishment, however ineffective it may be and through whatever ignorance it may be resorted to, is a strictly defensive act, - at least in theory. ~ Benjamin Tucker
- 3 Zarbon 00:48, 11 April 2009 (UTC)
- 2 InvisibleSun 02:34, 16 April 2009 (UTC)
- 2 Kalki 15:05, 16 April 2009 (UTC)
----
I insist that there is nothing sacred in the life of an invader, and there is no valid principle of human society that forbids the invaded to protect themselves in whatever way they can. ~ Benjamin Tucker
- 3 and lean toward 4. Zarbon 00:48, 11 April 2009 (UTC)
- 2 InvisibleSun 02:34, 16 April 2009 (UTC)
- 2 Kalki 15:05, 16 April 2009 (UTC)
----
It is not wise warfare to throw your ammunition to the enemy unless you throw it from the cannon's mouth. But if you can compel the enemy to waste his ammunition by drawing his fire on some thoroughly protected spot; if you can, by annoying and goading and harassing him in all possible ways, drive him to the last resort of stripping bare his tyrannous and invasive purposes and put him in the attitude of a designing villain assailing honest men for purposes of plunder; there is no better strategy. ~ Benjamin Tucker
- 3 Zarbon 00:48, 11 April 2009 (UTC)
- 3 InvisibleSun 02:34, 16 April 2009 (UTC)
- 3 Kalki 15:05, 16 April 2009 (UTC)
----
"Passive resistance," said Ferdinand Lassalle, with an obtuseness thoroughly German, "is the resistance which does not resist." Never was there a greater mistake. It is the only resistance which in these days of military discipline resists with any result. There is not a tyrant in the civilized world today who would not do anything in his power to precipitate a bloody revolution rather than see himself confronted by any large fraction of his subjects determined not to obey. An insurrection is easily quelled; but no army is willing or able to train its guns on inoffensive people who do not even gather in the streets but stay at home and stand back on their rights. Neither the ballot nor the bayonet is to play any great part in the coming struggle; passive resistance is the instrument by which the revolutionary force is destined to secure in the last great conflict the people's rights forever. ~ Benjamin Tucker
- 2 Zarbon 00:48, 11 April 2009 (UTC)
- 3 InvisibleSun 02:34, 16 April 2009 (UTC)
- 3 Kalki 15:05, 16 April 2009 (UTC)
----
Commanded love of all men indiscriminately is an obliteration of distinction between love and hate, and therefore is not love at all. ~ Benjamin Tucker
- 3 Zarbon 00:48, 11 April 2009 (UTC)
- 2 InvisibleSun 02:34, 16 April 2009 (UTC)
- 2 Kalki 15:05, 16 April 2009 (UTC)
----
One thing, however, is sure, - that in all cases the effort should be to impose all the cost of repairing the wrong upon the doer of the wrong. This alone is real justice, and of course such justice is necessarily free. ~ Benjamin Tucker
- 3 Zarbon 00:48, 11 April 2009 (UTC)
- 2 Kalki 15:05, 16 April 2009 (UTC)
----
The moment that justice must be paid for by the victim of injustice it becomes itself injustice. ~ Benjamin Tucker
- 3 Zarbon 00:48, 11 April 2009 (UTC)
- 2 Kalki 15:05, 16 April 2009 (UTC)
----
We are here, on earth. Not one of us has any right to the earth. ~ Benjamin Tucker
- 2 Zarbon 00:48, 11 April 2009 (UTC)
- 2 Kalki 15:05, 16 April 2009 (UTC)
----
The belief that torture is always wrong is a prejudice inherited from an obsolete philosophy. We need to shed the belief that human rights are violated when a terrorist is tortured. As Rawls and others have shown, basic freedoms must form a coherent whole. Self-evidently, there can be no right to attack basic human rights. Therefore, once the proper legal procedures are in place, torturing terrorists cannot violate their rights. In fact, in a truly liberal society, terrorists have an inalienable right to be tortured. ~ John N. Gray
- 2 Zarbon 01:08, 11 April 2009 (UTC)
- 2. Would prefer the suggestion which follows, which makes it clearer, out of context, that this was written satirically. - 02:34, 16 April 2009 (UTC)
- 1 Kalki 15:05, 16 April 2009 (UTC)
----
Human rights are not just cultural or legal constructions, as fashionable western relativists are fond of claiming. They are universal values. To deny the benefits of the new regime of rights to other cultures is to patronise them in a way that is reminiscent of the colonial era. If the new regime on torture is good enough for the US, who can say that it is not good for everyone? ~ John N. Gray
- 2 Zarbon 01:08, 11 April 2009 (UTC)
- 3 InvisibleSun 02:34, 16 April 2009 (UTC)
- 2 Kalki 15:05, 16 April 2009 (UTC)
----
The core of the belief in progress is that human values and goals converge in parallel with our increasing knowledge. The twentieth century shows the contrary. Human beings use the power of scientific knowledge to assert and defend the values and goals they already have. New technologies can be used to alleviate suffering and enhance freedom. They can, and will, also be used to wage war and strengthen tyranny. Science made possible the technologies that powered the industrial revolution. In the twentieth century, these technologies were used to implement state terror and genocide on an unprecedented scale. Ethics and politics do not advance in line with the growth of knowledge — not even in the long run. ~ John N. Gray
- 3 Zarbon 01:08, 11 April 2009 (UTC)
- 3 InvisibleSun 02:34, 16 April 2009 (UTC)
- 2 Kalki 15:05, 16 April 2009 (UTC)
----
The mass political movements of the 20th century were vehicles for myths inherited from religion, and it is no accident that religion is reviving now that these movements have collapsed. ~ John N. Gray
- 3 Zarbon 01:08, 11 April 2009 (UTC)
- 3 InvisibleSun 02:34, 16 April 2009 (UTC)
- 3 Kalki 15:05, 16 April 2009 (UTC)
----
Knowledge grows, but human beings remain much the same. ~ John N. Gray
- 4 Zarbon 01:08, 11 April 2009 (UTC)
- 2 InvisibleSun 02:34, 16 April 2009 (UTC)
- 2 Kalki 15:05, 16 April 2009 (UTC)
----
The US — its bankrupt mortgage institutions nationalised and its gigantic war machine effectively funded by foreign borrowing — is in steep decline. With its financial system in the worst mess since the 1930s, the west's ability to shape events is dwindling by the day. Sermonising about "law-based international relations" is laughable after Iraq, and at bottom not much more than nostalgia for a vanished hegemony. ~ John N. Gray
- 2 Zarbon 01:08, 11 April 2009 (UTC)
- 3 InvisibleSun 02:34, 16 April 2009 (UTC)
- 2 Kalki 15:05, 16 April 2009 (UTC)
----
Over the past 200 years, philosophy has shaken off Christian faith. It has not given up Christianity's cardinal error — the belief that humans are radically different from all other animals. ~ John N. Gray
- 3 Zarbon 01:08, 11 April 2009 (UTC)
- 3 InvisibleSun 02:34, 16 April 2009 (UTC)
- 3 Kalki 15:05, 16 April 2009 (UTC)
----
I am attracted only to music which I consider to be better than it can be performed. Therefore I feel (rightly or wrongly) that unless a piece of music presents a problem to me, a never-ending problem, it doesn't interest me too much. ~ Artur Schnabel
- 2 Zarbon 01:08, 11 April 2009 (UTC)
- 2 InvisibleSun 02:34, 16 April 2009 (UTC)
- 2 Kalki 15:05, 16 April 2009 (UTC)
----
A man always has two reasons for doing anything: a good reason and the real reason. ~ J. P. Morgan
- 3 Zarbon 01:08, 11 April 2009 (UTC)
----
Any man who does not carry with him the value of all of the men around him does not carry the value to spend my time. ~ J. P. Morgan
- 2 Zarbon 01:08, 11 April 2009 (UTC)
----
Critics: People who make monuments out of books. Biographers: People who make books out of monuments. Poets: People who raze monuments. Publishers: People who sell rubble. Readers: People who buy it. ~ Cynthia Ozick
- 3 Zarbon 01:08, 11 April 2009 (UTC)
----
Oh, earth, you're too wonderful for anybody to realize you. ...Do human beings ever realize life while they live it? — Every, every minute? ~ Thornton Wilder
- 3 Kalki 15:05, 16 April 2009 (UTC)
- 1 Zarbon 15:13, 18 April 2009 (UTC)
----
On the stage it is always now; the personages are standing on that razor edge, between the past and the future, which is the essential character of conscious being; the words are rising to their lips in immediate spontaneity … The theater is supremely fitted to say: "Behold! These things are." ~ Thornton Wilder
- 3 Kalki 15:05, 16 April 2009 (UTC)
- 1 Zarbon 15:13, 18 April 2009 (UTC)
----
There is in God — some say —
A deep, but dazzling darkness; as men here
Say it is late and dusky, because they
See not all clear.
O for that Night! where I in Him
Might live invisible and dim!
~ Henry Vaughan ~
- 3 Kalki 15:05, 16 April 2009 (UTC)
- 3 Zarbon 15:13, 18 April 2009 (UTC)
----
I saw Eternity the other night
Like a great ring of pure and endless light.
All calm, as it was bright;
And round beneath it, Time in hours, days, years,
Driv'n by the spheres
Like a vast shadow moved; in which the world
And all her train were hurled.
~ Henry Vaughan ~
- 3 Kalki 15:05, 16 April 2009 (UTC)
- 1 Zarbon 15:13, 18 April 2009 (UTC)
----
As angels in some brighter dreams
Call to the soul when man doth sleep,
So some strange thoughts transcend our wonted themes,
And into glory peep.
~ Henry Vaughan ~
- 3 Kalki 15:05, 16 April 2009 (UTC)
- 2 Zarbon 15:13, 18 April 2009 (UTC)
----