August 19

Quotes of the day from previous years:

2003
There comes a point when a man must refuse to answer to his leader if he is also to answer to his own conscience. ~ Hartley Shawcross
  • selected by Nanobug


2004
Comedy is simply a funny way of being serious. ~ Peter Ustinov
  • selected by Kalki


2005
Truth has such a face and such a mien As to be lov'd needs only to be seen. ~ John Dryden
  • proposed by Kalki

2006
How are we to survive? Solemnity is not the answer, any more than witless and irresponsible frivolity is. I think our best chance lies in humor, which in this case means a wry acceptance of our predicament. We don't have to like it but we can at least recognize its ridiculous aspects, one of which is ourselves. ~ Ogden Nash
  • proposed by Kalki


2007
Vast is the field of Science ... the more a man knows, the more he will find he has to know. ~ Samuel Richardson
  • proposed by InvisibleSun


2008
Must I at length the Sword of Justice draw?
Oh curst Effects of necessary Law!
How ill my Fear they by my Mercy scan,
Beware the Fury of a Patient Man.

~ John Dryden ~
  • proposed by Kalki


2009
Let those find fault whose wit's so very small,
They've need to show that they can think at all;
Errors, like straws, upon the surface flow;
He who would search for pearls, must dive below.

~ John Dryden ~
  • proposed by Kalki


2010

Suggestions

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.
  • 0 Zarbon 15:46, 24 April 2008 (UTC)


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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)
  • 3 InvisibleSun 21:42, 18 August 2006 (UTC)
  • 1 Zarbon 15:46, 24 April 2008 (UTC)


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Those who doubt most, always erred least. ~ Samuel Richardson (born August 19, 1689)
  • 3 InvisibleSun 21:23, 18 August 2007 (UTC)
  • 3 Kalki 21:53, 18 August 2007 (UTC)
  • 1 Zarbon 15:46, 24 April 2008 (UTC)


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The person who will bear much shall have much to bear, all the world through. ~ Samuel Richardson
  • 4 InvisibleSun 21:23, 18 August 2007 (UTC)
  • 2 Kalki 21:53, 18 August 2007 (UTC) Good, but much prefer the quote on Science, and Dryden's famous "Beware the fury of a patient man."
  • 2 Zarbon 15:46, 24 April 2008 (UTC)


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I'm not smart. I try to observe. Millions saw the apple fall but Newton was the one who asked why. ~ Bernard Baruch (born 19 August 1870)
  • 3 Kalki 22:05, 20 April 2008 (UTC)
  • 1 Zarbon 15:46, 24 April 2008 (UTC)
  • 2 InvisibleSun 21:22, 18 August 2008 (UTC)


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Those who matter don't mind, and those who mind don't matter. ~ Bernard Baruch (born 19 August 1870)
  • 3 Kalki 22:05, 20 April 2008 (UTC) with a lean toward 4.
  • 3 because this says a lot about civilization. Zarbon 15:46, 24 April 2008 (UTC)
  • 3 InvisibleSun 21:22, 18 August 2008 (UTC)


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We are always just one successful terrorist attack away from a nuclear disaster. ~ Fred Thompson
  • 2 Zarbon 06:05, 28 May 2008 (UTC)
  • 2 InvisibleSun 21:22, 18 August 2008 (UTC)
  • 2 Kalki 21:30, 18 August 2008 (UTC)


----

Happy the man, and happy he alone,
He who can call today his own;
He who, secure within, can say,
Tomorrow, do thy worst, for I have lived today.
Be fair, or foul, or rain, or shine,
The joys I have possessed, in spite of fate, are mine.
Not heaven itself upon the past has power;
But what has been, has been, and I have had my hour.

~ John Dryden, based on "Ode XXIX" of Horace ~
  • 3 Kalki 01:32, 12 May 2009 (UTC) with a very strong lean toward 4.


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O! what a Godlike Power is that of doing Good! — I envy the Rich and the Great for nothing else! ~ Samuel Richardson
  • 3 Kalki 22:10, 18 August 2009 (UTC) with a lean toward 4.


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I am forced, as I have often said, to try to make myself laugh, that I may not cry: for one or other I must do. ~ Samuel Richardson
  • 3 Kalki 22:10, 18 August 2009 (UTC)


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Nothing can be more wounding to a spirit not ungenerous, than a generous forgiveness. ~ Samuel Richardson
  • 3 Kalki 22:10, 18 August 2009 (UTC)


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The mind can be but full. It will be as much filled with a small disagreeable occurrence, having no other, as with a large one. ~ Samuel Richardson
  • 3 Kalki 22:10, 18 August 2009 (UTC)


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Vast is the field of Science ... the more a man knows, the more he will find he has to know. ~ Samuel Richardson
  • 3 Kalki 22:10, 18 August 2009 (UTC) with a very strong lean toward 4.


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