January 25
2005
- If I have been able to see further, it was only because I stood on the shoulders of giants. ~ Isaac Newton on his intellectual debt to those who preceded him.
- selected by Kalki
2006
- While fame impedes and constricts, obscurity wraps about a man like a mist; obscurity is dark, ample, and free; obscurity lets the mind take its way unimpeded. Over the obscure man is poured the merciful suffusion of darkness. None knows where he goes or comes. He may seek the truth and speak it; he alone is free; he alone is truthful, he alone is at peace. ~ Orlando: A Biography, by Virginia Woolf (born 25 January 1882)
- selected by Kalki
2007
- I do not believe they are right who say that the defects of famous men should be ignored. I think it is better that we should know them. Then, though we are conscious of having faults as glaring as theirs, we can believe that that is no hindrance to our achieving also something of their virtues. ~ W. Somerset Maugham (born 25 January 1874)
- proposed by InvisibleSun
2008
- If forty million people say a foolish thing it does not become a wise one, but the wise man is foolish to give them the lie. ~ W. Somerset Maugham
- proposed by Jeff Q
2009
- The strongest natures, when they are influenced, submit the most unreservedly; it is perhaps a sign of their strength. ~ Virginia Woolf
- proposed by InvisibleSun
2010
Suggestions
What mean and cruel things men can do for the love of God. ~ A Writer's Notebook, by W. Somerset Maugham- 2 ~ Jeff Q (talk) 03:29, 3 December 2006 (UTC)
- 3 InvisibleSun 10:39, 24 January 2007 (UTC)
- 2 Kalki 23:56, 23 January 2008 (UTC)
- 2 Zarbon 18:43, 22 April 2008 (UTC)
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It is not wealth one asks for, but just enough to preserve one's dignity, to work unhampered, to be generous, frank and independent. ~ W. Somerset Maugham
- 3 InvisibleSun 10:39, 24 January 2007 (UTC)
- 3 Kalki 23:56, 23 January 2008 (UTC)
- 1 Zarbon 18:43, 22 April 2008 (UTC)
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A prince can mak a belted knight,
A marquis, duke, and a' that;
But an honest man's aboon his might,
Guid faith, he mauna fa' that.
~ Robert Burns (born January 25, 1759)
- 3 InvisibleSun 10:39, 24 January 2007 (UTC)
- 2 Kalki 23:56, 23 January 2008 (UTC)
- 1 Zarbon 18:43, 22 April 2008 (UTC)
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For a' that and a' that,
It's coming yet, for a' that,
That man to man the world o'er
Shall brothers be for a' that.
~ Robert Burns
- 4 InvisibleSun 10:39, 24 January 2007 (UTC)
- 2 Kalki 23:56, 23 January 2008 (UTC) I might rank this higher eventually
- 1 Zarbon 18:43, 22 April 2008 (UTC)
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Fiction is like a spider's web, attached ever so lightly perhaps, but still attached to life at all four corners. Often the attachment is scarcely perceptible; Shakespeare's plays, for instance, seem to hang there complete by themselves. But when the web is pulled askew, hooked up at the edge, torn in the middle, one remembers that these webs are not spun in midair by incorporeal creatures, but are the work of suffering human beings, and are attached to the grossly material things, like health and money and the houses we live in. ~ Virginia Woolf (born January 25, 1882)
- 3 InvisibleSun 10:39, 24 January 2007 (UTC)
- 2 Zarbon 18:43, 22 April 2008 (UTC)
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Here on this ring of grass we have sat together, bound by the tremendous power of some inner compulsion. The trees wave, the clouds pass. The time approaches when these soliloquies shall be shared. We shall not always give out a sound like a beaten gong as one sensation strikes and then another. Children, our lives have been gongs striking; clamour and boasting; cries of despair; blows on the nape of the neck in gardens. ~ Virginia Woolf
- 3 InvisibleSun 10:39, 24 January 2007 (UTC)
- 2 Kalki 23:56, 23 January 2008 (UTC) I might rank this 3 eventually
- 1 Zarbon 18:43, 22 April 2008 (UTC)
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Once you begin to take yourself seriously as a leader or as a follower, as a modern or as a conservative, then you become a self-conscious, biting, and scratching little animal whose work is not of the slightest value or importance to anybody. ~ Virginia Woolf
- 3 InvisibleSun 10:39, 24 January 2007 (UTC)
- 2 Kalki 23:56, 23 January 2008 (UTC)
- 1 Zarbon 18:43, 22 April 2008 (UTC)
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