May 29 Quotations

Quotes of the day from previous years:

2004

A conclusion is the place where you got tired of thinking. ~ Steven Wright

selected by Kalki

2005

Learn why the world wags and what wags it. That is the only thing which the mind can never exhaust, never alienate, never be tortured by, never fear or distrust, and never dream of regretting. Learning is the only thing for you. Look what a lot of things there are to learn. ~ T. H. White (born 29 May 1906)

selected by Kalki

2006

It is idle to talk always of the alternative of reason and faith. Reason is itself a matter of faith. It is an act of faith to assert that our thoughts have any relation to reality at all. ~ G. K. Chesterton (born 29 May 1874)

selected by Kalki

2007

The pessimist is commonly spoken of as the man in revolt. He is not. Firstly, because it requires some cheerfulness to continue in revolt, and secondly, because pessimism appeals to the weaker side of everybody, and the pessimist, therefore, drives as roaring a trade as the publican. The person who is really in revolt is the optimist, who generally lives and dies in a desperate and suicidal effort to persuade all the other people how good they are. It has been proved a hundred times over that if you really wish to enrage people and make them angry, even unto death, the right way to do it is to tell them that they are all the sons of God. ~ G. K. Chesterton

proposed by Kalki

2008

Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable. ~ John F. Kennedy

proposed by Zarbon

2009

Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate. ~ John F. Kennedy

proposed by Zarbon

2010

Suggestions

For fear of the newspapers politicians are dull, and at last they are too dull even for the newspapers. - G. K. Chesterton

3 Herby ^{talk thyme} 14:02, 18 May 2007 (UTC)
3 InvisibleSun 22:52, 28 May 2007 (UTC)
3 Kalki 23:01, 28 May 2007 (UTC)
1 Zarbon 05:46, 23 April 2008 (UTC)

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Moderate strength is shown in violence, supreme strength is shown in levity. - G. K. Chesterton

3 Herby ^{talk thyme} 14:02, 18 May 2007 (UTC)
~~3 InvisibleSun 22:52, 28 May 2007 (UTC)~~
This was already used on 13 July 2004
0 since it was already used. Zarbon 05:46, 23 April 2008 (UTC)

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Men do not differ much about what things they will call evils; they differ enormously about what evils they will call excusable. - G. K. Chesterton

3 4 on reviewing it! Herby ^{talk thyme} 07:37, 25 May 2007 (UTC)
~~4 InvisibleSun 22:52, 28 May 2007 (UTC)~~
This was already used on 21 January 2004
0 since it was already used. Zarbon 05:46, 23 April 2008 (UTC)

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The most unfathomable schools and sages have never attained to the gravity which dwells in the eyes of a baby of three months old. It is the gravity of astonishment at the universe, and astonishment at the universe is not mysticism, but a transcendent common-sense. The fascination of children lies in this: that with each of them all things are remade, and the universe is put again upon its trial. ~ G. K. Chesterton

3 Kalki 23:01, 28 May 2007 (UTC)
2 Zarbon 05:46, 23 April 2008 (UTC)
3 InvisibleSun 21:35, 28 May 2008 (UTC)

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I have investigated the dust-heaps of humanity, and found a treasure in all of them. I have found that humanity is not incidentally engaged, but eternally and systematically engaged, in throwing gold into the gutter and diamonds into the sea. ~ G. K. Chesterton

3 Kalki 23:01, 28 May 2007 (UTC)
2 Zarbon 05:46, 23 April 2008 (UTC)
3 InvisibleSun 21:35, 28 May 2008 (UTC)

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Religious and philosophical beliefs are, indeed, as dangerous as fire, and nothing can take from them that beauty of danger. But there is only one way of really guarding ourselves against the excessive danger of them, and that is to be steeped in philosophy and soaked in religion. ~ G. K. Chesterton

3 Kalki 23:01, 28 May 2007 (UTC)
3 Zarbon 05:46, 23 April 2008 (UTC)
3 InvisibleSun 21:35, 28 May 2008 (UTC)

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When I was a child, I was told anyone can become president. Now, I'm starting to believe it. (Found on a "Good Earth" tea bag)

2 Kalki 06:26, 5 June 2007 (UTC) Interesting quote, but no clear author, and no clear relationship to the date.
3 but I wonder who said it Zarbon 05:46, 23 April 2008 (UTC)
0 Unless source found. InvisibleSun 21:35, 28 May 2008 (UTC)

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One day the last portrait of Rembrandt and the last bar of Mozart will have ceased to be — though possibly a colored canvas and a sheet of notes will remain — because the last eye and the last ear accessible to their message will have gone. ~ Oswald Spengler

3 Zarbon 04:37, 22 May 2008 (UTC)
3 InvisibleSun 21:35, 28 May 2008 (UTC)
2 Kalki 21:47, 28 May 2008 (UTC)

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This is our purpose: to make as meaningful as possible this life that has been bestowed upon us; to live in such a way that we may be proud of ourselves; to act in such a way that some part of us lives on. ~ Oswald Spengler

3 Zarbon 04:37, 22 May 2008 (UTC)
3 InvisibleSun 21:35, 28 May 2008 (UTC)
3 Kalki 21:47, 28 May 2008 (UTC)

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A man does what he must — in spite of personal consequences, in spite of obstacles and dangers, and pressures — and that is the basis of all human morality. ~ John F. Kennedy

2 Zarbon 04:51, 22 May 2008 (UTC)
3 InvisibleSun 21:35, 28 May 2008 (UTC)
3 Kalki 21:47, 28 May 2008 (UTC)

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The great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie — deliberate, contrived and dishonest — but the myth — persistent, persuasive, and unrealistic. ~ John F. Kennedy

2 Zarbon 04:51, 22 May 2008 (UTC)
3 InvisibleSun 21:35, 28 May 2008 (UTC)
3 Kalki 21:47, 28 May 2008 (UTC)

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Dante once said that the hottest places in hell are reserved for those who, in a period of moral crisis, maintain their neutrality. ~ John F. Kennedy

2 Zarbon 04:51, 22 May 2008 (UTC)
2 InvisibleSun 21:35, 28 May 2008 (UTC)
2 Kalki 21:47, 28 May 2008 (UTC)

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Freedom is indivisible, and when one man is enslaved, all are not free. ~ John F. Kennedy

3 Zarbon 04:51, 22 May 2008 (UTC)
3 InvisibleSun 21:35, 28 May 2008 (UTC)
3 Kalki 21:47, 28 May 2008 (UTC)

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If a free society cannot help the many who are poor, it cannot save the few who are rich. ~ John F. Kennedy

3 Zarbon 04:51, 22 May 2008 (UTC)
3 InvisibleSun 21:35, 28 May 2008 (UTC)
3 Kalki 21:47, 28 May 2008 (UTC)

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Mankind must put an end to war or war will put an end to mankind. ~ John F. Kennedy

2 Zarbon 04:51, 22 May 2008 (UTC)
3 InvisibleSun 21:35, 28 May 2008 (UTC)
This one was already used. (I will try to update this page more, fully listing JFK and GKC quotes used on other dates, within the next day or two) ~ Kalki 21:47, 28 May 2008 (UTC)

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It is not funny that anything else should fall down, only that a man should fall down ... Why do we laugh? Because it is a gravely religious matter: it is the Fall of Man. Only man can be absurd: for only man can be dignified. ~ G. K. Chesterton

3 Ningauble 00:14, 20 July 2009 (UTC)

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