March 8
2004
- An artist's only concern is to shoot for some kind of perfection, and on his own terms, not anyone else's. ~ J. D. Salinger
- selected by Kalki
2005
- We should be eternally vigilant against attempts to check the expression of opinions that we loathe. ~ Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (born 8 March 1841)
- selected by Kalki
2006
- The character of every act depends upon the circumstances in which it is done. ~ Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (born 8 March 1841)
- selected by Kalki
2007
- Animals arrived, liked the look of the place, took up their quarters, settled down, spread, and flourished. They didn't bother themselves about the past — they never do; they're too busy. ~ Kenneth Grahame (born March 8, 1859)
- proposed by InvisibleSun
2008
- We do not ask for what useful purpose the birds do sing, for song is their pleasure since they were created for singing. Similarly, we ought not to ask why the human mind troubles to fathom the secrets of the heavens. The diversity of the phenomena of nature is so great and the treasures hidden in the heavens so rich precisely in order that the human mind shall never be lacking in fresh enrichment. ~ Johannes Kepler
- proposed by Kalki
2009
- We no longer have a coherent conception of ourselves, and our universe, and our relation to one another and our world. We no longer know, as the Middle Ages did, where we come from, and where we are going, or why. That is, we don't know what information is relevant, and what information is irrelevant to our lives. ~ Neil Postman
- proposed by Zarbon
2010
Suggestions
The whole thing's nonsense, and conventionality, and popular thick-headedness. There's absolutely nothing to fight about, from beginning to end. And anyhow I'm not going to, so that settles it! ~ The Dragon in "The Reluctant Dragon" by Kenneth Grahame- 3 Kalki 23:55, 7 March 2007 (UTC)
- 1 Zarbon 04:11, 23 April 2008 (UTC)
- 2 UDScott 15:41, 4 March 2009 (UTC)
- 2 InvisibleSun 22:53, 7 March 2009 (UTC)
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As a rule, indeed, grown-up people are fairly correct on matters of fact; it is in the higher gift of imagination that they are so sadly to seek. ~ Kenneth Grahame
- 3 Kalki 23:55, 7 March 2007 (UTC)
- 1 Zarbon 04:11, 23 April 2008 (UTC)
- 3 UDScott 15:41, 4 March 2009 (UTC)
- 3 Ningauble 21:49, 7 March 2009 (UTC)
- 3 InvisibleSun 22:53, 7 March 2009 (UTC)
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Nature uses as little as possible of anything. ~ Johannes Kepler (first discovered his third law of planetary motion on this day)
- 3 Kalki 23:55, 7 March 2007 (UTC)
- 1 Zarbon 04:11, 23 April 2008 (UTC)
- 2 UDScott 15:41, 4 March 2009 (UTC)
- 3 InvisibleSun 22:53, 7 March 2009 (UTC)
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The greater the emotional intensity, the greater the simplicity. ~ Alan Hovhaness
- 2 Zarbon 05:09, 4 March 2009 (UTC)
- 3 UDScott 15:41, 4 March 2009 (UTC)
- 2 Kalki 07:29, 7 March 2009 (UTC)
- 2 InvisibleSun 22:53, 7 March 2009 (UTC)
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It's gotten worse and worse, somehow, because physical science has given us more and more terrible deadly weapons, and the human spirit has been destroyed in so many cases, so what's the use of having the most powerful country in the world if we have killed the soul. It's of no use. ~ Alan Hovhaness
- 3 Zarbon 05:09, 4 March 2009 (UTC)
- 3 UDScott 15:41, 4 March 2009 (UTC)
- 2 Kalki 07:29, 7 March 2009 (UTC)
- 2 InvisibleSun 22:53, 7 March 2009 (UTC)
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A musician cannot move others unless he too is moved. He must of necessity feel all of the affects that he hopes to arouse in his audience, for the revealing of his own humour will stimulate a like humour in the listener. ~ Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach
- 3 Zarbon 05:09, 4 March 2009 (UTC)
- 3 UDScott 15:41, 4 March 2009 (UTC)
- 3 Kalki 07:29, 7 March 2009 (UTC)
- – (un-sourced) Ningauble 21:49, 7 March 2009 (UTC)
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The life of the law has not been logic; it has been experience. ~ Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
- 3 Zarbon 05:09, 4 March 2009 (UTC)
- 3 UDScott 15:41, 4 March 2009 (UTC)
- 2 Kalki 07:29, 7 March 2009 (UTC)
- 3 Ningauble 21:49, 7 March 2009 (UTC)
- 3 InvisibleSun 22:53, 7 March 2009 (UTC)
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It is better for all the world, if instead of waiting to execute degenerate offspring for crime, or to let them starve for their imbecility, society can prevent those who are manifestly unfit from continuing their kind. ~ Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
- 2 Zarbon 05:09, 4 March 2009 (UTC)
- 2 UDScott 15:41, 4 March 2009 (UTC)
- 1 Kalki 07:29, 7 March 2009 (UTC)
- 1 InvisibleSun 22:53, 7 March 2009 (UTC)
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A page of history is worth a volume of logic. ~ Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
- 4 Zarbon 05:09, 4 March 2009 (UTC)
- 3 UDScott 15:41, 4 March 2009 (UTC)
- 2 Kalki 07:29, 7 March 2009 (UTC)
- 2 InvisibleSun 22:53, 7 March 2009 (UTC)
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Eloquence may set fire to reason. ~ Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
- 3 and lean toward a 4. Zarbon 05:09, 4 March 2009 (UTC)
- 3 UDScott 15:41, 4 March 2009 (UTC)
- 3 Kalki 07:29, 7 March 2009 (UTC)
- 2 InvisibleSun 22:53, 7 March 2009 (UTC)
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What causes us the most misery and pain... has nothing to do with the sort of information made accessible by computers. The computer and its information cannot answer any of the fundamental questions we need to address to make our lives more meaningful and humane. The computer cannot provide an organizing moral framework. It cannot tell us what questions are worth asking. It cannot provide a means of understanding why we are here or why we fight each other or why decency eludes us so often, especially when we need it the most. The computer is... a magnificent toy that distracts us from facing what we most need to confront — spiritual emptiness, knowledge of ourselves, usable conceptions of the past and future. ~ Neil Postman
- 2 but rather long. Zarbon 05:09, 4 March 2009 (UTC)
- 3 UDScott 15:41, 4 March 2009 (UTC) - but I would trim it to the last sentence.
- 3 Kalki 07:29, 7 March 2009 (UTC)
- 3 InvisibleSun 22:53, 7 March 2009 (UTC)
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Of writing that is filled with mechanical and grammatical error, as compared with writing that conforms to the rules of standard edited English. Surely, we do not want to say that there is a necessary correlation between mechanical and editorial accuracy and intellectual substance. There are many books that are mechanically faultless but which contain untrue, unclear, or even nonsensical ideas. Carefully edited writing tells us, not that the writer speaks truly, but that he or she grasps... the manner in which knowledge is usually expressed. The most devastating argument against a paper that is marred by grammatical and rhetorical error is that the writer does not understand the subject. ~ Neil Postman
- 2 but rather long. Zarbon 05:09, 4 March 2009 (UTC)
- 2 UDScott 15:41, 4 March 2009 (UTC)
- 2 Kalki 07:29, 7 March 2009 (UTC)
- 2. Would start at "There are many..." InvisibleSun 22:53, 7 March 2009 (UTC)
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You cannot avoid making judgements but you can become more conscious of the way in which you make them. This is critically important because once we judge someone or something we tend to stop thinking about them or it. Which means, among other things, that we behave in response to our judgements rather than to that to which is being judged. People and things are processes. Judgements convert them into fixed states. This is one reason that judgements are often self-fulfilling. ~ Neil Postman
- 3 Kalki 07:44, 7 March 2009 (UTC)
- 3 Zarbon 15:17, 7 March 2009 (UTC)
- 3 InvisibleSun 22:53, 7 March 2009 (UTC)
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A definition is the start of an argument, not the end of one. ~ Neil Postman
- 3 Kalki 07:44, 7 March 2009 (UTC)
- 3 Zarbon 15:17, 7 March 2009 (UTC)
- 3 InvisibleSun 22:53, 7 March 2009 (UTC)
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Technology always has unforeseen consequences, and it is not always clear, at the beginning, who or what will win, and who or what will lose. ~ Neil Postman
- 3 Kalki 07:44, 7 March 2009 (UTC)
- 2 Zarbon 15:17, 7 March 2009 (UTC)
- 3 InvisibleSun 22:53, 7 March 2009 (UTC)
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Certitude is not the test of certainty. We have been cocksure of many things that were not so. ~ Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
- 3 Kalki 07:44, 7 March 2009 (UTC)
- 2 Zarbon 15:17, 7 March 2009 (UTC)
- 3 InvisibleSun 22:53, 7 March 2009 (UTC)
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I think it not improbable that man, like the grub that prepares a chamber for the winged thing it never has seen but is to be — that man may have cosmic destinies that he does not understand. ~ Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
- 4 Kalki 07:44, 7 March 2009 (UTC)
- 2 - Zarbon 15:17, 7 March 2009 (UTC)
- 3 InvisibleSun 22:53, 7 March 2009 (UTC)
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