March 25

Quotes of the day from previous years:

2004

A man who lies to himself, and believes his own lies, becomes unable to recognize truth, either in himself or in anyone else, and he ends up losing respect for himself and for others. When he has no respect for anyone, he can no longer love, and in him, he yields to his impulses, indulges in the lowest form of pleasure, and behaves in the end like an animal in satisfying his vices. And it all comes from lying to others and to yourself. ~ Fyodor Dostoevsky

• selected by Kalki

2005

If those who lead you say, "See, the Kingdom is in the sky", then the birds of the sky will precede you. If they say to you, "It is in the sea", then the fish will precede you. Rather, the Kingdom is inside of you, and it is outside of you. When you come to know yourselves, then you will become known, and you will realize that it is you who are the sons of the living Father. But if you will not know yourselves, you dwell in poverty and it is you who are that poverty. ~ Yeshua (Jesus Christ) (Good Friday for Western Christianity, 25 March 2005)

• selected by Kalki

2006

A wiki works best where you're trying to answer a question that you can't easily pose, where there's not a natural structure that's known in advance to what you need to know. ~ Ward Cunningham (Cunningham started the first wiki, WikiWikiWeb, on 25 March 1995.)

• selected by Kalki

2007

I am an Anarchist not because I believe Anarchism is the final goal, but because there is no such thing as a final goal. ~ Rudolf Rocker

• selected by Kalki

2008

Political rights do not exist because they have been legally set down on a piece of paper, but only when they have become the ingrown habit of a people, and when any attempt to impair them will meet with the violent resistance of the populace. Where this is not the case, there is no help in any parliamentary Opposition or any Platonic appeals to the constitution. One compels respect from others when he knows how to defend his dignity as a human being. ~ Rudolf Rocker

• proposed by Kalki

2009

Freedom is the very essence of life, the impelling force in all intellectual and social development, the creator of every new outlook for the future of mankind. The liberation of man from economic exploitation and from intellectual and political oppression, which finds its finest expression in the world-philosophy of Anarchism, is the first prerequisite for the evolution of a higher social culture and a new humanity. ~ Rudolf Rocker

• proposed by Kalki

2010

Suggestions

All social phenomena are the result of a series of various causes, in most cases so inwardly related that it is quite impossible clearly to separate one from the other. We are always dealing with the interplay of various causes which, as a rule, can be clearly recognised but cannot be calculated according to scientific methods. ~ Rudolf Rocker

• 3 Kalki 06:29, 27 March 2007 (UTC) with a lean toward 4.
• 3 InvisibleSun 08:14, 27 March 2007 (UTC)
• 1 Zarbon 04:31, 23 April 2008 (UTC)

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We have come more and more under the dominance of mechanics and sacrificed living humanity to the dead rhythm of the machine without most of us even being conscious of the monstrosity of the procedure. Hence we frequently deal with such matters with indifference and in cold blood as if we handled dead things and not the destinies of men. ~ Rudolf Rocker

• 3 Kalki 06:29, 27 March 2007 (UTC)
• 3 InvisibleSun 08:14, 27 March 2007 (UTC)
• 1 Zarbon 04:31, 23 April 2008 (UTC)

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Every culture, if its natural development is not too much affected by political restrictions, experiences a perpetual renewal of the formative urge, and out of that comes an ever growing diversity of creative activity. Every successful piece of work stirs the desire for greater perfection and deeper inspiration; each new form becomes the herald of new possibilities of development. ~ Rudolf Rocker

• 3 Kalki 00:23, 23 March 2009 (UTC) 4 Kalki 23:32, 24 March 2008 (UTC) but still with a very strong lean toward 4.
• 1 Zarbon 04:31, 23 April 2008 (UTC)
• 3 InvisibleSun 23:00, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

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This planet is haunted by us; the other occupants just evade boredom by filling our skies and seas with monsters. ~ John Keel

• 2 Zarbon 04:39, 20 March 2009 (UTC)
• 2 Kalki 00:23, 23 March 2009 (UTC)
• 2 InvisibleSun 23:00, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

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In art there are only fast or slow developments. Essentially it is a matter of evolution, not revolution. ~ Béla Bartók

• 3 Zarbon 04:39, 20 March 2009 (UTC)
• 3 Kalki 00:23, 23 March 2009 (UTC)
• 3 InvisibleSun 23:00, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

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I have lived in the United States and I know the might of their industrial complex. The United States is a sleeping giant and I am afraid that our attack has awakened it. ~ Chuichi Nagumo

• 3 Zarbon 04:39, 20 March 2009 (UTC)
• 2 Kalki 00:23, 23 March 2009 (UTC)
• 2 InvisibleSun 23:00, 24 March 2009 (UTC)
• – Attribution may be apocryphal. Does the cited secondary source cite the original? If so, it might solve the attribution of a similar statement Isoroku Yamamoto ~ Ningauble 23:11, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

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Discussion is an exchange of knowledge; argument an exchange of ignorance. ~ Robert Quillen

• 3 Zarbon 04:39, 20 March 2009 (UTC)
• 3 Kalki 00:23, 23 March 2009 (UTC)

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You can't build a peaceful world on empty stomachs and human misery. ~ Norman Borlaug

• 2 Zarbon 04:39, 20 March 2009 (UTC)
• 2 Kalki 00:23, 23 March 2009 (UTC)
• 2 InvisibleSun 23:00, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

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The greatest problem about old age is the fear that it may go on too long. ~ A. J. P. Taylor

• 3 Zarbon 04:39, 20 March 2009 (UTC)
• 2 Kalki 00:23, 23 March 2009 (UTC)
• 3 InvisibleSun 23:00, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

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In my opinion we learn nothing from history except the infinite variety of men’s behaviour. We study it, as we listen to music or read poetry, for pleasure, not for instruction. ~ A. J. P. Taylor

• 4 Zarbon 04:39, 20 March 2009 (UTC)
• 1 Kalki 23:59, 24 March 2009 (UTC) * 2 Kalki 00:23, 23 March 2009 (UTC) though I lean toward a 2.
• 2 InvisibleSun 23:00, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

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The growth of technology at the expense of human personality, and especially the fatalistic submission with which the great majority surrender to this condition, is the reason why the desire for freedom is less alive among men today and has with many of them given place completely to a desire for economic security. This phenomenon need not appear so strange, for our whole evolution has reached a stage where nearly every man is either ruler or ruled; sometimes he is both. By this the attitude of dependence has been greatly strengthened, for a truly free man does not like to play the part of either the ruler or the ruled. He is, above all, concerned with making his inner values and personal powers effective in a way as to permit him to use his own judgment in all affairs and to be independent in action. ~ Rudolf Rocker

OR shortened to

Our whole evolution has reached a stage where nearly every man is either ruler or ruled; sometimes he is both. By this the attitude of dependence has been greatly strengthened, for a truly free man does not like to play the part of either the ruler or the ruled. He is, above all, concerned with making his inner values and personal powers effective in a way as to permit him to use his own judgment in all affairs and to be independent in action. ~ Rudolf Rocker

• 3 Kalki 03:04, 24 March 2009 (UTC) 4 Kalki 00:23, 23 March 2009 (UTC) (but now with a lean toward a 4 only for the shortened version — the longer version is a bit too diffuse, and I now rank that only at a 2).
• 1 Zarbon 03:32, 23 March 2009 (UTC)
• 3 for the shorter version. - InvisibleSun 23:00, 24 March 2009 (UTC)

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