March 31 Quotations

Quotes of the day from previous years:

2004

The meaning I picked, the one that changed my life: Overcome fear, behold wonder. ~ Æschylus

selected by Kalki

2005

Good sense is of all things in the world the most equally distributed, for everybody thinks he is so well supplied with it, that even those most difficult to please in all other matters never desire more of it than they already possess. ~ René Descartes (born 31 March 1596)

selected by Kalki

2006

When we are really honest with ourselves we must admit that our lives are all that really belong to us. So, it is how we use our lives that determines what kind of men we are. It is my deepest belief that only by giving our lives do we find life. ~ Cesar Chavez (born 31 March 1927)

selected by Kalki

2007

So blind is the curiosity by which mortals are possessed, that they often conduct their minds along unexplored routes, having no reason to hope for success, but merely being willing to risk the experiment of finding whether the truth they seek lies there. ... I do not deny that sometimes in these wanderings they are lucky enough to find something true. But I do not allow that this argues greater industry on their part, but only better luck. ~ René Descartes

proposed by InvisibleSun

2008

Let us roll all our strength and all
Our sweetness up into one ball,
And tear our pleasures with rough strife
Thorough the iron gates of life:
Thus, though we cannot make our sun
Stand still, yet we will make him run.
~ Andrew Marvell ~

proposed by Kalki

2009

Cogito ergo sum
I think, therefore I am.
~ René Descartes ~

proposed by Zarbon

2010

Suggestions

But at my back I always hear
Time's wingèd chariot hurrying near;
And yonder all before us lie
Deserts of vast eternity.
~ Andrew Marvell (born March 31, 1621)

3 InvisibleSun 08:38, 30 March 2007 (UTC)
3 Kalki 21:38, 30 March 2007 (UTC) with a lean toward 4, but would prefer to extend it at least thus:

At my back I always hear
Time's winged chariot hurrying near;
And yonder all before us lie
Deserts of vast eternity.
Thy beauty shall no more be found,
Nor, in thy marble vault, shall sound
My echoing song; then worms shall try
That long preserv'd virginity,
And your quaint honour turn to dust,
And into ashes all my lust.
The grave's a fine and private place,
But none I think do there embrace.

OR, perhaps, even earlier,

My vegetable love should grow
Vaster than empires, and more slow.
An hundred years should go to praise
Thine eyes, and on thy forehead gaze;
Two hundred to adore each breast,
But thirty thousand to the rest;
An age at least to every part,
And the last age should show your heart.
For, lady, you deserve this state,
Nor would I love at lower rate.

But at my back I always hear
Time's winged chariot hurrying near;
And yonder all before us lie
Deserts of vast eternity.
Thy beauty shall no more be found,
Nor, in thy marble vault, shall sound
My echoing song; then worms shall try
That long preserv'd virginity,
And your quaint honour turn to dust,
And into ashes all my lust.
The grave's a fine and private place,
But none I think do there embrace.

Or even from the start of the poem to the final line quoted above. ~ Kalki 00:33, 29 March 2009 (UTC) or even the whole thing, and be done with it... ~ Kalki 00:35, 29 March 2009 (UTC)

1 Zarbon 04:46, 23 April 2008 (UTC)
Comment: Favoring the shorter extension. - InvisibleSun 21:35, 30 March 2009 (UTC)

----

The mind, that ocean where each kind
Does straight its own resemblance find;
Yet it creates, transcending these,
Far other worlds, and other seas;
Annihilating all that's made
To a green thought in a green shade.
~Andrew Marvell

3 InvisibleSun 08:38, 30 March 2007 (UTC)
3 Kalki 21:38, 30 March 2007 (UTC) ~~I had been hoping to use this soon, but would opt for the Descartes line at this time.~~ Strong lean toward a 4, but would prefer to extend this to at least include the preceding stanza:

What wondrous life is this I lead!
Ripe apples drop about my head;
The luscious clusters of the vine
Upon my mouth do crush their wine;
The nectarine and curious peach
Into my hands themselves do reach;
Stumbling on melons as I pass,
Insnared with flowers, I fall on grass.

Meanwhile the mind, from pleasure less,
Withdraws into its happiness:
The mind, that ocean where each kind
Does straight its own resemblance find;
Yet it creates, transcending these,
Far other worlds, and other seas;
Annihilating all that's made
To a green thought in a green shade.

AND, perhaps extended even further to include:

Here at the fountain's sliding foot,
Or at some fruit-tree's mossy root,
Casting the body's vest aside,
My soul into the boughs does glide:
There like a bird it sits and sings,
Then whets and combs its silver wings;
And, till prepared for longer flight,
Waves in its plumes the various light.
And opposition of the stars.

1 Zarbon 04:46, 23 April 2008 (UTC)
Comment: Favoring the shorter extension. - InvisibleSun 21:35, 30 March 2009 (UTC)

----

My love is of a birth as rare
As 'tis for object strange and high;
It was begotten by Despair
Upon Impossibility. ~ Andrew Marvell

3 InvisibleSun 08:38, 30 March 2007 (UTC)
3 Kalki 21:38, 30 March 2007 (UTC) with a lean toward 4.
2 Zarbon 04:46, 23 April 2008 (UTC)

----

We have suffered unnumbered ills and crimes in the name of the Law of the Land. Our men, women, and children have suffered not only the basic brutality of stoop labor, and the most obvious injustices of the system; they have also suffered the desperation of knowing that the system caters to the greed of callous men and not to our needs. Now we will suffer for the purpose of ending the poverty, the misery, and the injustice, with the hope that our children will not be exploited as we have been. They have imposed hunger on us, and now we hunger for justice. We draw our strength from the very despair in which we have been forced to live. We shall endure. ~ Cesar Chavez (born March 31, 1927)

3 InvisibleSun 08:38, 30 March 2007 (UTC)
3 Kalki 21:38, 30 March 2007 (UTC)
1 Zarbon 04:46, 23 April 2008 (UTC)

----

Love's whole world on us doth wheel. ~ Andrew Marvell

3 Kalki 21:38, 30 March 2007 (UTC) with a lean toward 4, but now would prefer to extend this to more of the poem:

Fate with jealous eye does see
Two perfect loves, nor lets them close:
Their union would her ruin be,
And her tyrranic power depose.

And therefore her decrees of steel
Us as the distant Poles have placed
(Though Love's whole world on us doth wheel)
Not by themselves to be embraced,

Unless the giddy heaven fall,
And earth some new convulsion tear;
And, us to join, the world should all
Be cramped into a planisphere.

As lines (so loves) oblique may well
Themselves in every angle greet:
But ours so truly parallel,
Though infinite, can never meet.

Therefore the love which us doth bind,
But Fate so enviously debars,
Is the conjunction of the mind,
And opposition of the stars.

3 InvisibleSun 22:04, 30 March 2007 (UTC)
1 Zarbon 04:46, 23 April 2008 (UTC)
Comment: Favoring the extension. - InvisibleSun 21:35, 30 March 2009 (UTC)

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History will judge societies and governments — and their institutions — not by how big they are or how well they serve the rich and the powerful, but by how effectively they respond to the needs of the poor and the helpless. ~ Cesar Chavez

3 Kalki 00:55, 29 March 2009 (UTC) with a very strong lean toward 4, but edged out slightly by Cogito ergo sum below.
3 Zarbon 03:09, 29 March 2009 (UTC)
3 InvisibleSun 21:35, 30 March 2009 (UTC)

----

Die before the one whom you love; to live after he dies is to live a worthless life in this world. ~ Guru Angad Dev

3 Zarbon 03:09, 29 March 2009 (UTC)
1 Kalki 00:44, 30 March 2009 (UTC) I have some sympathies with the sentiment, but not the conclusion.
1 InvisibleSun 21:35, 30 March 2009 (UTC)

----

Doubt is the origin of wisdom. ~ René Descartes

3 Zarbon 03:09, 29 March 2009 (UTC)
3 Kalki 00:44, 30 March 2009 (UTC) with a strong lean toward 4.
3 InvisibleSun 21:35, 30 March 2009 (UTC)

----

Nothing comes out of nothing. ~ René Descartes

3 Zarbon 03:09, 29 March 2009 (UTC)
2 Kalki 00:44, 30 March 2009 (UTC)
2 InvisibleSun 21:35, 30 March 2009 (UTC)

----

Staying as I am, one foot in one country and the other in another, I find my condition very happy, in that it is free. ~ René Descartes

3 Zarbon 03:09, 29 March 2009 (UTC)
3 Kalki 00:44, 30 March 2009 (UTC)
3 InvisibleSun 21:35, 30 March 2009 (UTC)

----

If you would be a real seeker after truth, it is necessary that at least once in your life you doubt, as far as possible, all things. ~ René Descartes

2 Zarbon 03:09, 29 March 2009 (UTC)
3 Kalki 00:44, 30 March 2009 (UTC) with a strong lean toward 4.
3 InvisibleSun 21:35, 30 March 2009 (UTC)

----

It is not enough to have a good mind. The main thing is to use it well. ~ René Descartes

3 Zarbon 03:09, 29 March 2009 (UTC)
3 Kalki 00:44, 30 March 2009 (UTC)
2 InvisibleSun 21:35, 30 March 2009 (UTC)

----

The greatest minds are capable of the greatest vices as well as of the greatest virtues. ~ René Descartes

4 Zarbon 03:09, 29 March 2009 (UTC)
1 Kalki 00:44, 30 March 2009 (UTC) though I can agree with the intentions of this statement, I always am inclined to object to mere intelligence being equated with greatness — without other virtues it is never that at all.
3 InvisibleSun 21:35, 30 March 2009 (UTC)

----

The first precept was never to accept a thing as true until I knew it as such without a single doubt. ~ René Descartes

3 Zarbon 03:09, 29 March 2009 (UTC)
3 Kalki 00:44, 30 March 2009 (UTC) (and even then be cautious.)
3 InvisibleSun 21:35, 30 March 2009 (UTC)

----

Except our own thoughts, there is nothing absolutely in our power. ~ René Descartes

3 Zarbon 03:09, 29 March 2009 (UTC)
2 Kalki 00:44, 30 March 2009 (UTC)

----

I am accustomed to sleep and in my dreams to imagine the same things that lunatics imagine when awake. ~ René Descartes

3 Zarbon 03:09, 29 March 2009 (UTC)
2 Kalki 00:44, 30 March 2009 (UTC)

----

Illusory joy is often worth more than genuine sorrow. ~ René Descartes

3 Zarbon 03:09, 29 March 2009 (UTC)
2 Kalki 00:44, 30 March 2009 (UTC)

----

Perfect numbers like perfect men are very rare. ~ René Descartes

3 Zarbon 03:09, 29 March 2009 (UTC)
2 Kalki 00:44, 30 March 2009 (UTC)

----

The reading of all good books is indeed like a conversation with the noblest men of past centuries who were the authors of them, nay a carefully studied conversation, in which they reveal to us none but the best of their thoughts. ~ René Descartes

2 Zarbon 03:09, 29 March 2009 (UTC)
3 Kalki 00:44, 30 March 2009 (UTC)

----

When it is not in our power to determine what is true, we ought to follow what is most probable. ~ René Descartes

3 Zarbon 03:09, 29 March 2009 (UTC)
2 Kalki 00:44, 30 March 2009 (UTC)

----

I am all for the short and merry life. ~ Edward FitzGerald

3 Zarbon 03:09, 29 March 2009 (UTC)
2 Kalki 00:44, 30 March 2009 (UTC)
3 InvisibleSun 21:35, 30 March 2009 (UTC)

----

Whether we wake or we sleep,
Whether we carol or weep,
The Sun with his Planets in chime,
Marketh the going of Time. ~ Edward FitzGerald

3 Zarbon 03:09, 29 March 2009 (UTC)
2 Kalki 00:44, 30 March 2009 (UTC)
2 InvisibleSun 21:35, 30 March 2009 (UTC)

----

The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ,
Moves on: nor all your Piety nor Wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
Nor all your Tears wash out a Word of it. ~ Edward FitzGerald

3 Zarbon 03:09, 29 March 2009 (UTC)
3 Kalki 00:44, 30 March 2009 (UTC) with a strong lean toward a 4, but prefer to credit it to Omar Khayyám, as translated by FitzGerald, and thus use it on 18 May for Khayyám.
3 for use on May 18. - InvisibleSun 21:35, 30 March 2009 (UTC)

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To fight evil is to fight ourselves. ~ Octavio Paz

3 Zarbon 03:09, 29 March 2009 (UTC)
2 Kalki 00:44, 30 March 2009 (UTC) truth, but not entirely well expressed in this form.
3 InvisibleSun 21:35, 30 March 2009 (UTC)

----

I am a man: little do I last

and the night is enormous.

But I look up:

the stars write.

Unknowing I understand:

I too am written,

and at this very moment

someone spells me out.

~ Octavio Paz

2 Zarbon 03:09, 29 March 2009 (UTC)
3 InvisibleSun 21:35, 30 March 2009 (UTC)

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Wisdom lies neither in fixity nor in change, but in the dialectic between the two. ~ Octavio Paz

3 Zarbon 03:09, 29 March 2009 (UTC)
3 Kalki 00:44, 30 March 2009 (UTC)
3 InvisibleSun 21:35, 30 March 2009 (UTC)

----

The windy lights of Autumn flare;
I watch the moonlit sails go by;
I marvel how men toil and fare,
The weary business that they play!
Their voyaging is vanity,
And fairy gold is all their gain,
And all the winds of winter cry,
“My Love returns no more again.” ~ Andrew Lang

2 Zarbon 03:09, 29 March 2009 (UTC)
2 Kalki 00:44, 30 March 2009 (UTC)
3 InvisibleSun 21:35, 30 March 2009 (UTC)

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There are only two races on this planet—the intelligent and the stupid. ~ John Fowles

2 Zarbon 03:09, 29 March 2009 (UTC)
2 Kalki 00:44, 30 March 2009 (UTC)
1 InvisibleSun 21:35, 30 March 2009 (UTC)

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One does not fall "in" or "out" of love. One grows in love. ~ Leo Buscaglia

3 Kalki 23:41, 22 April 2009 (UTC) with a strong lean toward 4.

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Love is life. And if you miss love, you miss life. ~ Leo Buscaglia

3 Kalki 23:41, 22 April 2009 (UTC) with a strong lean toward 4.

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Quoternity