March 29 Quotations

Quotes of the day from previous years:

2004

Love is an act of endless forgiveness, a tender look which becomes a habit. ~ Peter Ustinov (recent death)

selected by Kalki

2005

If anything can survive the probe of humour it is clearly of value, and conversely all groups who claim immunity from laughter are claiming special privileges which should not be granted. ~ Eric Idle (born 29 March 1943)

selected by Kalki

2006

Good books tell the truth, even when they're about things that never have been and never will be. They're truthful in a different way. ~ Stanisław Lem (recent death)

selected by Kalki

2007

I have been all men known to history,
Wondering at the world and at time passing;
I have seen evil, and the light blessing
Innocent love under a spring sky.
~ R. S. Thomas ~

selected by Kalki

2008

I have known exile and a wild passion
Of longing changing to a cold ache.
King, beggar and fool, I have been all by turns,
Knowing the body’s sweetness, the mind’s treason;
Taliesin still, I show you a new world, risen,
Stubborn with beauty, out of the heart’s need.
~ R. S. Thomas ~

proposed by Kalki

2009

Suggestions

Perhaps, the 29th being the day on which the last American troops withdrew from South Vietnam, this quote by William Westmoreland, the threatre commander, could be considered:

"It's not that we lost the war militarily. The fact is that we as a nation did not make good our commitment to the South Vietnamese."

[Suggestion made at 2007-03-29 03:32:07 (UTC) — the selection for 2007 had already been made at that time.]

1 Kalki 06:58, 12 April 2007 (UTC)
1 Zarbon 04:43, 23 April 2008 (UTC)
1 Ningauble 17:13, 28 March 2009 (UTC)
1 InvisibleSun 21:38, 28 March 2009 (UTC)

----

I am like a tree,
From my top boughs I can see
The footprints that led up to me.
~ R. S. Thomas

3 because the imagery of comparison here is comfortable...the ideology of growth and experience to that of the tree and the struggle to get to the top, from the roots to the branches, so to speak. A sustainable foundation in the train of thought. Zarbon 05:04, 2 May 2008 (UTC)
2 Ningauble 17:13, 28 March 2009 (UTC)
3 Kalki 19:07, 28 March 2009 (UTC)
3 InvisibleSun 21:38, 28 March 2009 (UTC)

----

Popularity, I have always thought, may aptly be compared to a coquette - the more you woo her, the more apt is she to elude your embrace. ~ John Tyler

3 Zarbon 22:57, 24 March 2009 (UTC)
2.5 Ningauble 17:13, 28 March 2009 (UTC)
3 Kalki 19:07, 28 March 2009 (UTC)
3 InvisibleSun 21:38, 28 March 2009 (UTC)

----

We do not need presidents who are bigger than the country, but rather ones who speak for it and support it. ~ Eugene McCarthy

3 Zarbon 22:57, 24 March 2009 (UTC)
2 Ningauble 17:13, 28 March 2009 (UTC)
2 Kalki 19:07, 28 March 2009 (UTC)
3 InvisibleSun 21:38, 28 March 2009 (UTC)

----

I'm kind of an accidental instrument, really, through which I hope that the judgment and the will of this nation can be expressed. ~ Eugene McCarthy

3 Zarbon 22:57, 24 March 2009 (UTC)
1 Ningauble 17:13, 28 March 2009 (UTC)
3 Kalki 19:07, 28 March 2009 (UTC)
2 InvisibleSun 21:38, 28 March 2009 (UTC)

----

The glove has been thrown to the ground,
The last choice of weapons made.
A book for one thought.
A poem for one line.
A line for one word.
~ Eugene McCarthy (DoB)

3 Ningauble 17:13, 28 March 2009 (UTC)
3 Kalki 19:07, 28 March 2009 (UTC)
3 InvisibleSun 21:38, 28 March 2009 (UTC)
1 Zarbon 02:06, 29 March 2009 (UTC)

----

The only thing that saves us from the bureaucracy is inefficiency. An efficient bureaucracy is the greatest threat to liberty. ~ Eugene McCarthy (DoB)

2.5 Ningauble 17:13, 28 March 2009 (UTC)
3 Kalki 19:07, 28 March 2009 (UTC)
3 InvisibleSun 21:38, 28 March 2009 (UTC)
3 Zarbon 02:06, 29 March 2009 (UTC)

----

Oh, Lord, if I must die today,
Please make it after Close of Play.
For this, I know, if nothing more,
I will not go, without the score.
~ John Major (DoB)

2.5 Ningauble 17:13, 28 March 2009 (UTC)
3 Kalki 19:07, 28 March 2009 (UTC)
3 InvisibleSun 21:38, 28 March 2009 (UTC)
1 Zarbon 02:06, 29 March 2009 (UTC)

----

It is not love I offer
Your quick limbs, your eyes;
Only the barren homage
Of an old man whom time
Crucifies.
~ R. S. Thomas ~

3 Kalki 19:07, 28 March 2009 (UTC) for either this, or, possibly extended slightly:

She is young. Have I the right
Even to name her? Child,
It is not love I offer
Your quick limbs, your eyes;
Only the barren homage
Of an old man whom time
Crucifies.

3, with a preference for the extended version. - InvisibleSun 21:38, 28 March 2009 (UTC)
3 Zarbon 02:06, 29 March 2009 (UTC)

----

He arose, pacing the floor
Strewn with books, his mind big with the poem
Soon to be born, his nerves tense to endure
The long torture of delayed birth.
~ R. S. Thomas ~

3 Kalki 19:07, 28 March 2009 (UTC) with a strong lean toward 4.
2 InvisibleSun 21:38, 28 March 2009 (UTC)
1 Zarbon 02:06, 29 March 2009 (UTC)

----
Sometimes a strange light
shines, purer than the moon,
casting no shadow, that is
the halo upon the bones
of the pioneers who died for truth.
~ R. S. Thomas ~

3 Kalki 19:07, 28 March 2009 (UTC) with a strong lean toward 4.
3 InvisibleSun 21:38, 28 March 2009 (UTC)
1 Zarbon 02:06, 29 March 2009 (UTC)

----
On seeing his shadow fall on such ancient rocks, he had to question himself in a different context and ask the same old question as before, "Who am I?", and the answer now came more emphatically than ever before, "No-one."
But a no-one with a crown of light about his head.
~ R. S. Thomas ~

4 Kalki 19:07, 28 March 2009 (UTC) for either this, or extended to include another quote:

On seeing his shadow fall on such ancient rocks, he had to question himself in a different context and ask the same old question as before, "Who am I?", and the answer now came more emphatically than ever before, "No-one."
But a no-one with a crown of light about his head. He would remember a verse from Pindar: "Man is a dream about a shadow. But when some splendour falls upon him from God, a glory comes to him and his life is sweet."
~ R. S. Thomas ~

3, with a preference for the extended version. - InvisibleSun 21:38, 28 March 2009 (UTC)
2 Zarbon 02:06, 29 March 2009 (UTC)

----

Quoternity