April 7 Quotations

Quotes of the day from previous years:

2004

The danger already exists that mathematicians have made a covenant with the devil to darken the spirit and confine man in the bonds of hell. ~ Saint Augustine

selected by Poor Yorick

2005

Out of the struggle at the center has come an immense, painful longing for a broader, more flexible, fuller, more coherent, more comprehensive account of what we human beings are, who we are, and what this life is for. At the center humankind struggles with collective powers for its freedom, the individual struggles with dehumanization for the possession of his soul. ~ Saul Bellow (recent death)

selected by Kalki

2006

Thanks to the human heart by which we live,
Thanks to its tenderness, its joys, and fears,
To me the meanest flower that blows can give
Thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears.
~ William Wordsworth (born 7 April 1770)

selected by Kalki

2007

In spite of difference of soil and climate, of language and manners, of laws and customs — in spite of things silently gone out of mind, and things violently destroyed, the Poet binds together by passion and knowledge the vast empire of human society, as it is spread over the whole earth, and over all time. ~ William Wordsworth

proposed by InvisibleSun

2008

I always work on the theory that the audience will believe you best if you believe yourself. ~ Charlton Heston (recent death)

proposed by Kalki

2009

Great minds are to make others great. Their superiority is to be used, not to break the multitude to intellectual vassalage, not to establish over them a spiritual tyranny, but to rouse them from lethargy, and to aid them to judge for themselves. ~ William Ellery Channing (born 7 April 1780)

proposed by Zarbon

2010

Suggestions

This City now doth, like a garment, wear
The beauty of the morning; silent, bare,
Ships, towers, domes, theatres and temples lie
Open unto the fields and to the sky;
All bright and glittering in the smokeless air.
~ William Wordsworth (born April 7, 1770)

3 InvisibleSun 19:41, 5 April 2007 (UTC)
3 Kalki 15:59, 6 April 2007 (UTC) But only if prefixed to begin with :

Earth has not anything to show more fair:
Dull would he be of soul who could pass by
A sight so touching in its majesty:

1 Zarbon 23:28, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

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Is there not
An art, a music, and a stream of words
That shalt be life, the acknowledged voice of life?
~ William Wordsworth

3 InvisibleSun 19:41, 5 April 2007 (UTC)
3 Kalki 15:59, 6 April 2007 (UTC)
1 Zarbon 23:28, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

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Dreams, books, are each a world; and books, we know,
Are a substantial world, both pure and good:
Round these, with tendrils strong as flesh and blood,
Our pastime and our happiness will grow.
~ William Wordsworth

3 InvisibleSun 19:41, 5 April 2007 (UTC)
3 Kalki 15:59, 6 April 2007 (UTC)
1 Zarbon 23:28, 22 April 2008 (UTC)
3 Ningauble 16:26, 6 April 2009 (UTC)

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Every great and original writer, in proportion as he is great and original, must himself create the taste by which he is to be relished. ~ William Wordsworth

3 InvisibleSun 19:41, 5 April 2007 (UTC)
3 Kalki 15:59, 6 April 2007 (UTC)
2 Zarbon 23:28, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

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Love had he found in huts where poor men lie;
His daily teachers had been woods and rills,
The silence that is in the starry sky,
The sleep that is among the lonely hills.
~ William Wordsworth

3 InvisibleSun 19:41, 5 April 2007 (UTC)
1 Zarbon 23:28, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

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Enough, if something from our hands have power
To live, and act, and serve the future hour.
~ William Wordsworth

3 InvisibleSun 19:41, 5 April 2007 (UTC)
3 Kalki 15:59, 6 April 2007 (UTC) but would extend it :

I see what was, and is, and will abide;
Still glides the Stream, and shall for ever glide;
The Form remains, the Function never dies;
While we, the brave, the mighty, and the wise,
We Men, who in our morn of youth defied
The elements, must vanish; — be it so!

Enough, if something from our hands have power
To live, and act, and serve the future hour;
And if, as toward the silent tomb we go,
Through love, through hope, and faith's transcendent dower,
We feel that we are greater than we know.

1 Zarbon 23:28, 22 April 2008 (UTC)
3 Ningauble 16:26, 6 April 2009 (UTC) for the extended quote.

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Poetry is the breath and finer spirit of all knowledge; it is the impassioned expression which is in the countenance of all Science. ~ William Wordsworth

3 InvisibleSun 19:41, 5 April 2007 (UTC)
1 Zarbon 23:28, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

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Dust as we are, the immortal spirit grows
Like harmony in music; there is a dark
Inscrutable workmanship that reconciles
Discordant elements, makes them cling together
In one society.
~ William Wordsworth

3 InvisibleSun 19:41, 5 April 2007 (UTC)
3 Kalki 15:59, 6 April 2007 (UTC)
1 Zarbon 23:28, 22 April 2008 (UTC)
3 Ningauble 16:26, 6 April 2009 (UTC)

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What though the radiance which was once so bright
Be now forever taken from my sight,
Though nothing can bring back the hour
Of splendour in the grass, of glory in the flower;
We will grieve not, rather find
Strength in what remains behind;
In the primal sympathy
Which having been must ever be.
~ William Wordsworth

3 InvisibleSun 19:41, 5 April 2007 (UTC)
3 Kalki 02:14, 5 April 2009 (UTC) ~~3 15:59, 6 April 2007 (UTC)~~ with a very strong lean towards a 4
1 Zarbon 23:28, 22 April 2008 (UTC)
4 Ningauble 16:26, 6 April 2009 (UTC) I would prefer to skip first two lines

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Them that's got shall get
Them that's not shall lose
So the Bible said and it still is news
Mama may have, Papa may have
But God bless the child that's got his own
That's got his own.
~ Billie Holiday (born April 7, 1915) and Arthur Herzog, Jr.

3 InvisibleSun 19:41, 5 April 2007 (UTC)
3 Kalki 15:59, 6 April 2007 (UTC)
1 Zarbon 23:28, 22 April 2008 (UTC)
3 Ningauble 16:26, 6 April 2009 (UTC)

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My heart leaps up when I behold
A rainbow in the sky:
So was it when my life began;
So is it now I am a man;
So be it when I shall grow old,
Or let me die!
~ William Wordsworth ~

3 Kalki 15:59, 6 April 2007 (UTC) with a strong lean towards a 4
3 InvisibleSun 17:16, 6 April 2007 (UTC)
1 Zarbon 23:28, 22 April 2008 (UTC)
3 Ningauble 16:26, 6 April 2009 (UTC)

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Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting:
The Soul that rises with us, our life's Star,
Hath had elsewhere its setting,
And cometh from afar...
~ William Wordsworth ~

3 Kalki 15:59, 6 April 2007 (UTC) with a strong lean towards a 4
3 InvisibleSun 17:16, 6 April 2007 (UTC)
1 Zarbon 23:28, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

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Men are we, and must grieve when even the Shade
Of that which once was great, is passed away.
~ William Wordsworth ~

3 Kalki 15:59, 6 April 2007 (UTC) with a strong lean towards a 4
3 InvisibleSun 17:16, 6 April 2007 (UTC)
2 Zarbon 23:28, 22 April 2008 (UTC)
2.5 Ningauble 16:26, 6 April 2009 (UTC)

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I have felt
A presence that disturbs me with the joy
Of elevated thoughts; a sense sublime
Of something far more deeply interfused,
Whose dwelling is the light of setting suns,
And the round ocean and the living air,
And the blue sky, and in the mind of man;
A motion and a spirit, that impels
All thinking things, all objects of all thought,
And rolls through all things.
~ William Wordsworth ~

3 Kalki 02:14, 5 April 2009 (UTC) * 4 Kalki 15:59, 6 April 2007 (UTC) with very strong lean toward 4.
3 InvisibleSun 17:16, 6 April 2007 (UTC)
1 Zarbon 23:28, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

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Difficulties are meant to rouse, not discourage. The human spirit is to grow strong by conflict. ~ William Ellery Channing

3 Zarbon 01:01, 4 April 2009 (UTC)
3 Kalki 02:14, 5 April 2009 (UTC)
3 InvisibleSun 21:39, 6 April 2009 (UTC)

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War is to be ranked among the most dreadful calamities which fall on a guilty world; and, what deserves consideration, it tends to multiply and perpetuate itself without end. It feeds and grows on the blood which it sheds. The passions, from which it springs, gain strength and fury from indulgence. ~ William Ellery Channing

3 Zarbon 01:01, 4 April 2009 (UTC)
3 Kalki 02:14, 5 April 2009 (UTC)
3 Ningauble 16:26, 6 April 2009 (UTC)
3 InvisibleSun 21:39, 6 April 2009 (UTC)

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Another powerful principle of our nature, which is the spring of war, is the passion for superiority, for triumph, for power. The human mind is aspiring, impatient of inferiority, and eager for preeminence and control. ~ William Ellery Channing

3 Zarbon 01:01, 4 April 2009 (UTC)
2 Kalki 02:14, 5 April 2009 (UTC)
2 InvisibleSun 21:39, 6 April 2009 (UTC)

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We need not war to awaken human energy. There is at least equal scope for courage and magnanimity in blessing, as in destroying mankind. The condition of the human race offers inexhaustible objects for enterprise, and fortitude, and magnanimity. ~ William Ellery Channing

2 Zarbon 01:01, 4 April 2009 (UTC)
3 Kalki 02:14, 5 April 2009 (UTC) with a lean toward 4.
3 InvisibleSun 21:39, 6 April 2009 (UTC)

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Nothing which has entered into our experience is ever lost. ~ William Ellery Channing

2 Zarbon 01:01, 4 April 2009 (UTC)
3 Kalki 02:14, 5 April 2009 (UTC)

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We smile at the ignorance of the savage who cuts down the tree in order to reach its fruit; but the same blunder is made by every person who is overeager and impatient in the pursuit of pleasure. ~ William Ellery Channing

3 Zarbon 01:01, 4 April 2009 (UTC)
3 Kalki 02:14, 5 April 2009 (UTC) with a lean toward 4.
3.5 Ningauble 16:26, 6 April 2009 (UTC)

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When I die, I want to die in a Utopia that I have helped to build. ~ Henry Kuttner

3 Zarbon 01:01, 4 April 2009 (UTC)
3 Kalki 02:14, 5 April 2009 (UTC) with a lean toward 4.
3 InvisibleSun 21:39, 6 April 2009 (UTC)

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Of all those arts in which the wise excel,
Nature's chief masterpiece is writing well.
~ John Sheffield

3 Zarbon 01:01, 4 April 2009 (UTC)
3 Kalki 02:14, 5 April 2009 (UTC)
2 InvisibleSun 21:39, 6 April 2009 (UTC)

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There's no such thing in Nature; and you'll draw
A faultless monster which the world ne’er saw.
~ John Sheffield

2 Zarbon 01:01, 4 April 2009 (UTC)
2 Kalki 02:14, 5 April 2009 (UTC) needs context.
2 InvisibleSun 21:39, 6 April 2009 (UTC)

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Read Homer once, and you can read no more;
For all books else appear so mean, so poor,
Verse will seem prose; but still persist to read,
And Homer will be all the books you need.
~ John Sheffield

2 Zarbon 01:01, 4 April 2009 (UTC)
2 Kalki 02:14, 5 April 2009 (UTC)
2 InvisibleSun 21:39, 6 April 2009 (UTC)

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I believe in things I never used to. I think someone is trying to find me — has found me. And is calling. Who it is I don't know. What they want I don't know. But a little while ago I found out one more thing — this sword. ... Sometimes, when my mind is — abstract, something from outside floats into it. Like the need for a sword. And not any sword — just one. I don't know what the sword looks like, but I'd know if I held it in my hand. ... And if I drew it a few inches from the sheath, I could put out that fire up there as if I'd blown on it like a candleflame. And if I drew the sword all the way out — the world would come to an end! ~ Henry Kuttner

3 Kalki 02:29, 5 April 2009 (UTC)
2 Zarbon 15:10, 6 April 2009 (UTC)
2 InvisibleSun 21:39, 6 April 2009 (UTC)

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We are all part of some cosmic pattern, and this pattern works toward good and not evil. ~ Henry Kuttner

3 Kalki 02:29, 5 April 2009 (UTC)
1 Zarbon 15:10, 6 April 2009 (UTC)
2 InvisibleSun 21:39, 6 April 2009 (UTC)

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A doubled weapon wielded by the Face of Ea, wrought the cleaving apart of two universes.
Imponderable forces shifted when that cleavage took place. You and I know nothing about it, for it happened far beyond the perceptions of any sentient creature. But it happened. Oh yes, it happened. ~ Henry Kuttner

3 Kalki 02:29, 5 April 2009 (UTC)
2 Zarbon 15:10, 6 April 2009 (UTC)
2 InvisibleSun 21:39, 6 April 2009 (UTC)

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I'm going forward. I know — because I went. It was a wonderful world they had. I want to see more of it. I want to wake up in a time when the race of man is spreading through the galaxy, leaping across the gulfs between the stars, opening the gates to all the worlds. I want to and I will. ~ Henry Kuttner

3 Kalki 02:29, 5 April 2009 (UTC)
2 Zarbon 15:10, 6 April 2009 (UTC)
3 InvisibleSun 21:39, 6 April 2009 (UTC)

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I call that mind free, which jealously guards its intellectual rights and powers, which calls no man master, which does not content itself with a passive or hereditary faith, which opens itself to light whencesoever it may come, which receives new truth as an angel from heaven. ~ William Ellery Channing

3 Kalki 03:35, 5 April 2009 (UTC) with a lean toward 4.
2 Zarbon 15:10, 6 April 2009 (UTC)
3 InvisibleSun 21:39, 6 April 2009 (UTC)

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There are seasons, in human affairs, of inward and outward revolution, when new depths seem to be broken up in the soul, when new wants are unfolded in multitudes, and a new and undefined good is thirsted for. There are periods when...to dare, is the highest wisdom. ~ William Ellery Channing

3 Kalki 03:35, 5 April 2009 (UTC) with a very strong lean toward 4.
2 Zarbon 15:10, 6 April 2009 (UTC)
3 InvisibleSun 21:39, 6 April 2009 (UTC)

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Quoternity