February 3 Quotations

Quotes of the day from previous years:

2004

The things to do are: the things that need doing, that you see need to be done, and that no one else seems to see need to be done. ~ Buckminster Fuller

selected by Kalki

2005

The past is but the beginning of a beginning, and all that is or has been is but the twilight of the dawn. ~ H. G. Wells

selected by Kalki

2006

An age is called Dark not because the light fails to shine, but because people refuse to see it. ~ James A. Michener (born c. 3 February 1907)

proposed by UDScott

2007

At the bottom of the heart of every human being, from earliest infancy until the tomb, there is something that goes on indomitably expecting, in the teeth of all experience of crimes committed, suffered, and witnessed, that good and not evil will be done to him. It is this above all that is sacred in every human being. ~ Simone Weil (born 3 February 1909)

proposed by InvisibleSun

2008

When war is waged it is for the purpose of safeguarding or increasing one's capacity to make war. International politics are wholly involved in this vicious cycle. What is called national prestige consists in behaving always in such a way as to demoralize other nations by giving them the impression that, if it comes to war, one would certainly defeat them. What is called national security is an imaginary state of affairs in which one would retain the capacity to make war while depriving all other countries of it. ~ Simone Weil

proposed by InvisibleSun

2009

The whole duty of man consists in being reasonable and just ... I am reasonable because I know the difference between understanding and not understanding and I am just because I have no opinion about things I don’t understand. ~ Gertrude Stein (Date of birth)

proposed by UDScott

2010

Suggestions

I went down to the sacred store
Where I'd heard the music years before
But the man there said the music wouldn't play
And in the streets the children screamed
The lovers cried and the poets dreamed
But not a word was spoken
The church bells all were broken
And the three men I admire most
The Father Son and Holy Ghost
They caught the last train for the coast
The day the music died.
~ Don McLean, American Pie, to commemorate The Day the Music Died, on this date in 1959

3 ~ UDScott 22:03, 1 February 2006 (UTC)
3 InvisibleSun 07:59, 31 January 2007 (UTC)
3 Kalki 16:03, 3 February 2007 (UTC) ( and I will try to get around to creating a page for him sometime soon...)
2 Zarbon 21:46, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

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When you are writing before there is an audience anything written is as important as any other thing and you cherish anything and everything that you have written. After the audience begins, naturally they create something that is they create you, and so not everything is so important, something is more important than another thing. ~ Gertrude Stein (born February 3, 1874)

3 InvisibleSun 07:59, 31 January 2007 (UTC)
3 Kalki 16:03, 3 February 2007 (UTC)
1 Zarbon 21:46, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

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If anything is a surprise then there is not much difference between older and younger because the only thing that does make anybody older is that they cannot be surprised. ~ Gertrude Stein

3 InvisibleSun 07:59, 31 January 2007 (UTC)
3 Kalki 16:03, 3 February 2007 (UTC)
2 Zarbon 21:46, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

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It always did bother me that the American public were more interested in me than in my work. And after all there is no sense in it because if it were not for my work they would not be interested in me so why should they not be more interested in my work than in me. That is one of the things one has to worry about in America. ~ Gertrude Stein

3 InvisibleSun 07:59, 31 January 2007 (UTC)
3 Kalki 16:03, 3 February 2007 (UTC)
1 Zarbon 21:46, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

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If the stars are suns and the earth is the earth and there are men only upon this earth and anything can put an end to anything and any dog does anything like anybody does it what is the difference between eternity and anything. ~ Gertrude Stein

4 InvisibleSun 07:59, 31 January 2007 (UTC)
3 Kalki 16:03, 3 February 2007 (UTC)
1 Zarbon 21:46, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

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Politeness does not interfere with facts, politeness is just another fact. ~ Gertrude Stein

3 InvisibleSun 07:59, 31 January 2007 (UTC)
3 Kalki 16:03, 3 February 2007 (UTC)
2 Zarbon 21:46, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

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After all, human beings are like that. When they are alone they want to be with others, and when they are with others they want to be alone. ~ Gertrude Stein

3 InvisibleSun 07:59, 31 January 2007 (UTC)
3 Kalki 16:03, 3 February 2007 (UTC)
2 Zarbon 21:46, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

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Men of the most brilliant intelligence can be born, live and die in error and falsehood. In them, intelligence is neither a good, nor even an asset. The difference between more or less intelligent men is like the difference between criminals condemned to life imprisonment in smaller or larger cells. The intelligent man who is proud of his intelligence is like a condemned man who is proud of his large cell. ~ Simone Weil

3 InvisibleSun 07:59, 31 January 2007 (UTC)
3 Kalki 16:03, 3 February 2007 (UTC)
3 Zarbon 21:46, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

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A profession can confer on quite ordinary men in their exercise of it, virtues which, if they were extended to all circumstances of life, would make of them heroes or saints. ~ Simone Weil

3 InvisibleSun 07:59, 31 January 2007 (UTC)
3 Kalki 16:03, 3 February 2007 (UTC)
2 Zarbon 21:46, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

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Truth is sought not because it is truth but because it is good. ~ Simone Weil

3 InvisibleSun 07:59, 31 January 2007 (UTC)
3 Kalki 16:03, 3 February 2007 (UTC)
1 Zarbon 21:46, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

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Power must not seem to be arbitrarily allocated, because it will not then be recognized as power. Therefore prestige, which is illusion, is of the very essence of power. ~ Simone Weil

3 InvisibleSun 07:59, 31 January 2007 (UTC)
3 Kalki 16:03, 3 February 2007 (UTC)
1 Zarbon 21:46, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

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God's love for us is not the reason for which we should love him. God's love for us is the reason for us to love ourselves. ~ Simone Weil

3 InvisibleSun 19:33, 2 February 2007 (UTC)
3 Kalki 16:03, 3 February 2007 (UTC)
1 Zarbon 21:46, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

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A gram of experience is worth a ton of theory. ~ Robert Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury (born 3 February 1830)

3 Kalki 22:51, 2 February 2009 (UTC)
2 InvisibleSun 23:06, 2 February 2009 (UTC)
3 Zarbon 04:39, 27 February 2009 (UTC)

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On general grounds I object to Parliament trying to regulate private morality in matters which only affects the person who commits the offence. ~ Robert Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury (born 3 February 1830)

3 Kalki 22:51, 2 February 2009 (UTC)
3 InvisibleSun 23:06, 2 February 2009 (UTC)
1 Zarbon 04:39, 27 February 2009 (UTC)

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The great difficulty which history records is not that of the first step, but that of the second step. What is most evident is not the difficulty of getting a fixed law, but getting out of a fixed law; not of cementing (as upon a former occasion I phrased it) a cake of custom, but of breaking the cake of custom; not of making the first preservative habit, but of breaking through it, and reaching something better. ~ Walter Bagehot (born 3 February 1826)

3 Kalki 22:51, 2 February 2009 (UTC)
3 InvisibleSun 23:06, 2 February 2009 (UTC)
1 Zarbon 04:39, 27 February 2009 (UTC)

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One of the greatest pains to human nature is the pain of a new idea. ~ Walter Bagehot (born 3 February 1826)

3 Kalki 22:51, 2 February 2009 (UTC)
3 InvisibleSun 23:06, 2 February 2009 (UTC)
1 Zarbon 04:39, 27 February 2009 (UTC)

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Rights are always asserted in a tone of contention; and when this tone is adopted, it must rely upon force in the background, or else it will be laughed at. ~ Simone Weil

3 Kalki 22:51, 2 February 2009 (UTC)
3 InvisibleSun 23:06, 2 February 2009 (UTC)
2 Zarbon 04:39, 27 February 2009 (UTC)

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Whenever one tries to suppress doubt, there is tyranny. ~ Simone Weil

3 Kalki 22:51, 2 February 2009 (UTC)
3 InvisibleSun 23:06, 2 February 2009 (UTC)
2 Zarbon 04:39, 27 February 2009 (UTC)

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Only he who has measured the dominion of force, and knows how not to respect it, is capable of love and justice. ~ Simone Weil

4 Kalki 22:51, 2 February 2009 (UTC)
3 InvisibleSun 23:06, 2 February 2009 (UTC)
1 Zarbon 04:39, 27 February 2009 (UTC)

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