October 3 Quotations

Quotes of the day from previous years:

2003

We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.
~ The Four Quartets by T. S. Eliot ~

selected by Nanobug

2004

Given the choice between two theories, take the one which is funnier. ~ "Blore's Razor" (Author unknown)

selected by Kalki

2005

Everyone seems to be playing well within the boundaries of his usual rule set. I have yet to hear anyone say something that seemed likely to mitigate the idiocy of this age. ~ John Perry Barlow (born 3 October 1947)

proposed by Kalki

2006

The average "educated" American has been made to believe that, somehow, the United States must lead the world even though hardly anyone has any information at all about those countries we are meant to lead. Worse, we have very little information about our own country and its past. ~ Gore Vidal (born 3 October 1925)

proposed by InvisibleSun

2007

I'm an optimist. In order to be libertarian, you have to be an optimist. You have to have a benign view of human nature, to believe that human beings left to their own devices are basically good. But I'm not so sure about human institutions, and I think the real point of argument here is whether or not large corporations are human institutions or some other entity we need to be thinking about curtailing. Most libertarians are worried about government but not worried about business. I think we need to be worrying about business in exactly the same way we are worrying about government. ~ John Perry Barlow (born 3 October 1947)

proposed by Kalki

2008

As societies grow decadent, the language grows decadent, too. Words are used to disguise, not to illuminate, action: you liberate a city by destroying it. Words are to confuse, so that at election time people will solemnly vote against their own interests. ~ Gore Vidal

proposed by InvisibleSun

2009

We are forming our own Social Contract. This governance will arise according to the conditions of our world, not yours. Our world is different.
Cyberspace consists of transactions, relationships, and thought itself, arrayed like a standing wave in the web of our communications. Ours is a world that is both everywhere and nowhere, but it is not where bodies live.
We are creating a world that all may enter without privilege or prejudice accorded by race, economic power, military force, or station of birth.
We are creating a world where anyone, anywhere may express his or her beliefs, no matter how singular, without fear of being coerced into silence or conformity. ~ John Perry Barlow

proposed by Kalki

2010 : Rank or add further suggestions…
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Ranking system:

4 : Excellent - should definitely be used.

3 : Very Good - strong desire to see it used.

2 : Good - some desire to see it used.

1 : Acceptable - but with no particular desire to see it used.

0 : Not acceptable - not appropriate for use as a quote of the day.

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Suggestions

TV in America created the most coherent reality distortion field that I’ve ever seen. Therein is the problem: People who vote watch TV, and they are hallucinating like a sonofabitch. Basically, what we have in this country is government by hallucinating mob. ~ John Perry Barlow (date of birth)

3 Kalki 23:09, 30 September 2005 (UTC) with a lean toward 4.
3 InvisibleSun 07:30, 1 October 2006 (UTC)
2 UDScott 20:51, 2 October 2007 (UTC)
1 Zarbon 03:48, 25 April 2008 (UTC)

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Think of the earth as a living organism that is being attacked by billions of bacteria whose numbers double every forty years. Either the host dies, or the virus dies, or both die. ~ Gore Vidal (born 3 October 1925)

3 InvisibleSun 07:30, 1 October 2006 (UTC)
2 Kalki 23:49, 2 October 2006 (UTC)
2 UDScott 20:51, 2 October 2007 (UTC)
2 Zarbon 03:48, 25 April 2008 (UTC)

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Happily for the busy lunatics who rule over us, we are permanently the United States of Amnesia. We learn nothing because we remember nothing. ~ Gore Vidal

4 InvisibleSun 07:30, 1 October 2006 (UTC)
1 Kalki 08:29, 2 October 2009 (UTC) * 2 Kalki 23:49, 2 October 2006 (UTC) I can't agree with quite this level of pessimism, though it is very true that people in general have often forgotten much that is important, to the disadvantage of everyone.
2 UDScott 20:51, 2 October 2007 (UTC)
2 Zarbon 03:48, 25 April 2008 (UTC)

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I used to be able to summon up scenes at will, but now aging memory is so busy weeding its own garden that, promiscuously, it pulls up roses as well as crabgrass. ~ Gore Vidal

3 InvisibleSun 07:30, 1 October 2006 (UTC)
2 Kalki 23:49, 2 October 2006 (UTC)
2 UDScott 20:51, 2 October 2007 (UTC)
1 Zarbon 03:48, 25 April 2008 (UTC)

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When I look back on it now, I am so glad that the one thing that I had in my life was my belief that everything in life is a learning experience, whether it be positive or negative. If you can see it as a learning experience, you can turn any negative into a positive. ~ Neve Campbell

2 Zarbon 03:28, 1 July 2008 (UTC)
3 Kalki 19:07, 2 October 2008 (UTC)
2 InvisibleSun 20:18, 2 October 2008 (UTC)

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You have reached the pinnacle of success as soon as you become uninterested in money, compliments, or publicity. ~ Thomas Wolfe

2 Zarbon 03:28, 1 July 2008 (UTC)
3 Kalki 19:07, 2 October 2008 (UTC) with a lean toward 4.
3 InvisibleSun 20:18, 2 October 2008 (UTC)

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If a man has talent and can't use it, he's failed. If he uses only half of it, he has partly failed. If he uses the whole of it, he has succeeded, and won a satisfaction and triumph few men ever know. ~ Thomas Wolfe

2 Zarbon 03:46, 1 July 2008 (UTC)
3 Kalki 19:07, 2 October 2008 (UTC)
3 InvisibleSun 20:18, 2 October 2008 (UTC)

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I don't know yet what I am capable of doing, but, by God, I have genius — I know it too well to blush behind it. ~ Thomas Wolfe

2 Zarbon 03:46, 1 July 2008 (UTC)
2 Kalki 19:07, 2 October 2008 (UTC)
2 InvisibleSun 20:18, 2 October 2008 (UTC)

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The notion that the public accepts or rejects anything in modern art is merely romantic fiction. The game is completed and the trophies distributed long before the public knows what has happened. ~ Thomas Wolfe

2 Zarbon 03:46, 1 July 2008 (UTC)
3 Kalki 19:07, 2 October 2008 (UTC)
3 InvisibleSun 20:18, 2 October 2008 (UTC)

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And out of mind as soon as out of sight. ~ Fulke Greville

2 Zarbon 03:46, 1 July 2008 (UTC)
2 Kalki 19:07, 2 October 2008 (UTC)
2 InvisibleSun 20:18, 2 October 2008 (UTC)

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Hard-hearted minds relent and rigor's tears abound,
And envy strangely rues his end, in whom no fault was found.
Knowledge her light hath lost, valor hath slain her knight,
Sidney is dead, dead is my friend, dead is the world's delight. ~ Fulke Greville

2 Zarbon 03:46, 1 July 2008 (UTC)
2 Kalki 19:07, 2 October 2008 (UTC)
3 InvisibleSun 20:18, 2 October 2008 (UTC)

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We that are bound by vows and by promotion,
With pomp of holy sacrifice and rites,
To teach belief in good and still devotion,
To preach of heaven's wonders and delights—
Yet, when each of us in his own heart looks,
He finds the God there far unlike his books. ~ Fulke Greville

3 Zarbon 03:46, 1 July 2008 (UTC)
2 Kalki 21:42, 2 October 2009 (UTC) * 3 Kalki 19:07, 2 October 2008 (UTC)
3 InvisibleSun 20:18, 2 October 2008 (UTC)

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It is only requisite for me to add that the doctrines which I commenced to preach some seven years since are as firmly believed by me as ever; and through persecutions have attended, and the rage and malice of men been heaped upon me, I feel equally as firm in the great and glorious cause as when first I received my mission from the holy messenger. ~ Oliver Cowdery

2 Zarbon 03:46, 1 July 2008 (UTC)
2 Kalki 19:07, 2 October 2008 (UTC)
1 InvisibleSun 20:18, 2 October 2008 (UTC)

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My father had a deep and lifelong contempt for politicians in general ("They tell lies," he used to say with wonder, "even when they don't have to"). ~ Gore Vidal

3 Kalki 08:29, 2 October 2009 (UTC)
2 Zarbon 13:08, 2 October 2009 (UTC)

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I am at heart a propagandist, a tremendous hater, a tiresome nag, complacently positive that there is no human problem which could not be solved if people would simply do as I advise. ~ Gore Vidal

3 Kalki 08:29, 2 October 2009 (UTC)
2 Zarbon 13:08, 2 October 2009 (UTC)

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The theater needs continual reminders that there is nothing more debasing than the work of those who do well what is not worth doing at all. ~ Gore Vidal

3 Kalki 08:29, 2 October 2009 (UTC) with a lean toward 4, but would probably now prefer it trimmed to:

There is nothing more debasing than the work of those who do well what is not worth doing at all. ~ Gore Vidal

3 Zarbon 13:08, 2 October 2009 (UTC)

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Don't ever make the mistake with people like me thinking we are looking for heroes. There aren't any and if there were, they would be killed immediately. I'm never surprised by bad behaviour. I expect it. ~ Gore Vidal

2 Kalki 21:42, 2 October 2009 (UTC) * 3 Kalki 08:29, 2 October 2009 (UTC) with a strong lean toward 4. am obviously inclined to rank this higher, eventually, but making a tactical rank shift for this year.
4 - Zarbon 13:08, 2 October 2009 (UTC)

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The corporate grip on opinion in the United States is one of the wonders of the Western World. No First World country has ever managed to eliminate so entirely from its media all objectivity — much less dissent. ~ Gore Vidal

3 Kalki 09:09, 2 October 2009 (UTC)
2 Zarbon 13:08, 2 October 2009 (UTC)

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I have always felt that no matter how inscrutable its ways and means, the universe is working perfectly and working according to a greater plan than we can know. ~ John Perry Barlow

3 Kalki 09:09, 2 October 2009 (UTC) with a strong lean toward 4.
3 Zarbon 13:08, 2 October 2009 (UTC)

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We have no elected government, nor are we likely to have one, so I address you with no greater authority than that with which liberty itself always speaks. I declare the global social space we are building to be naturally independent of the tyrannies you seek to impose on us. You have no moral right to rule us nor do you possess any methods of enforcement we have true reason to fear.
Governments derive their just powers from the consent of the governed. You have neither solicited nor received ours. We did not invite you. You do not know us, nor do you know our world. Cyberspace does not lie within your borders. ~ John Perry Barlow

3 Kalki 08:29, 2 October 2009 (UTC) with a very strong lean toward 4.
2 Zarbon 13:08, 2 October 2009 (UTC)

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Quoternity