September 10 Quotations

Quotes of the day from previous years:

2003

It is now possible for a flight attendant to get a pilot pregnant. ~ Richard Ferris

selected by Fonzy

2004

He that would live in peace and at ease, must not speak all he knows, nor judge all he sees. ~ Benjamin Franklin

selected by Kalki

2005

I strongly reject any conceptual scheme that places our options on a line, and holds that the only alternative to a pair of extreme positions lies somewhere between them. More fruitful perspectives often require that we step off the line to a site outside the dichotomy. ~ Stephen Jay Gould (born 10 September 1941)

proposed by Kalki

2006

Organisms are not billiard balls, propelled by simple and measurable external forces to predictable new positions on life's pool table. Sufficiently complex systems have greater richness. Organisms have a history that constrains their future in myriad, subtle ways. ~ Stephen Jay Gould (born 10 September 1941)

proposed by MosheZadka

2007

The river of truth is always splitting up into arms that reunite. Islanded between them, the inhabitants argue for a lifetime as to which is the mainstream. ~ Cyril Connolly (born 10 September 1903)

Loosely sourced variant originally proposed by Kalki, correctly sourced version from a published edition of The Unquiet Grave (1944) proposed by InvisibleSun

2008

Better to write for yourself and have no public, than to write for the public and have no self. ~ Cyril Connolly

proposed by Kalki

2009

It is the man of science, eager to have his every opinion regenerated, his every idea rationalized, by drinking at the fountain of fact, and devoting all the energies of his life to the cult of truth, not as he understands it, but as he does not yet understand it, that ought properly to be called a philosopher. ~ Charles Sanders Peirce

proposed by Zarbon

2010

Suggestions

Evolutionists make no claim for perpetual truth, though creationists often do (and then attack us for a style of argument that they themselves favor). In science, 'fact' can only mean 'confirmed to such a degree that it would be perverse to withhold provisional assent.' I suppose that apples might start to rise tomorrow, but the possibility does not merit equal time in physics classrooms. ~ Stephen Jay Gould (date of birth)

3 Kalki 16:34, 30 August 2005 (UTC) with a lean toward 4.
3 InvisibleSun 02:30, 7 September 2006 (UTC)
1 Zarbon 22:14, 24 April 2008 (UTC)

----

Each of the major sciences has contributed an essential ingredient in our long retreat from an initial belief in our own cosmic importance. Astronomy defined our home as a small planet tucked away in one corner of an average galaxy among millions; biology took away our status as paragons created in the image of God; geology gave us the immensity of time and taught us how little of it our own species has occupied. ~ Stephen Jay Gould (born 10 September 1941)

3 Kalki 16:34, 30 August 2005 (UTC)
3 InvisibleSun 02:30, 7 September 2006 (UTC)
2 Zarbon 22:14, 24 April 2008 (UTC)

----

We inhabit a complex world. Some boundaries are sharp and permit clean and definite distinctions. But nature also includes continua that cannot be neatly parceled into two piles of unambiguous yeses and noes. Biologists have rejected, as fatally flawed in principle, all attempts by anti-abortionists to define an unambiguous 'beginning of life,' because we know so well that the sequence from ovulation or spermatogenesis to birth is an unbreakable continuum—and surely no one will define masturbation as murder. ~ Stephen Jay Gould (born 10 September 1941)

3 Kalki 16:34, 30 August 2005 (UTC) with a lean toward 4.
2 InvisibleSun 02:30, 7 September 2006 (UTC)
1 because I'm not too fond of seeing a quote dealing with masturbation as QOTD. But the message is rather understandable. Zarbon 22:14, 24 April 2008 (UTC)

----

We fear something before we hate; a child who fears noises becomes the man who hates them. ~ Cyril Connolly (born September 10, 1903)

3 InvisibleSun 02:30, 7 September 2006 (UTC)
3 Kalki 16:54, 9 September 2007 (UTC)
3 because this is very true. And as Yoda of Star Wars described it so well, fear leads to the dark side, something I find exquisitely full of moral worth. Zarbon 22:14, 24 April 2008 (UTC)

----

'Dry again?' said the Crab to the Rock-Pool. 'So would you be,' replied the Rock-Pool, 'if you had to satisfy, twice a day, the insatiable sea.' ~ Cyril Connolly

3 InvisibleSun 02:30, 7 September 2006 (UTC)
2 Kalki 16:54, 9 September 2007 (UTC)
1 Zarbon 22:14, 24 April 2008 (UTC)

----

A stone lies in a river; a piece of wood is jammed against it; dead leaves, drifting logs, and branches caked with mud collect; weeds settle there, and soon birds have made a nest and are feeding their young among the blossoming water plants. Then the river rises and the earth is washed away. The birds depart, the flowers wither, the branches are dislodged and drift downward; no trace is left of the floating island but a stone submerged by the water; — such is our personality. ~ Cyril Connolly

4 InvisibleSun 02:30, 7 September 2006 (UTC)
3 Kalki 16:54, 9 September 2007 (UTC)
1 Zarbon 22:14, 24 April 2008 (UTC)

----

We live in an essential and unresolvable tension between our unity with nature and our dangerous uniqueness. Systems that attempt to place and make sense of us by focusing exclusively either on the uniqueness or the unity are doomed to failure. But we must not stop asking and questing because the answers are complex and ambiguous. ~ Stephen Jay Gould (born 10 September 1941)

3 Kalki 12:14, 10 September 2006 (UTC) with a lean toward 4.
3 InvisibleSun 00:41, 11 September 2006 (UTC)
2 Zarbon 22:14, 24 April 2008 (UTC)

----

It is after creation, in the elation of success, or the gloom of failure, that love becomes essential. ~ Cyril Connolly (born 10 September 1903)

3 Kalki 12:14, 10 September 2006 (UTC)
3 InvisibleSun 00:41, 11 September 2006 (UTC)
1 Zarbon 22:14, 24 April 2008 (UTC)

----

No city should be too large for a man to walk out of in a morning. ~ Cyril Connolly (born 10 September 1903)

3 Kalki 12:14, 10 September 2006 (UTC) with a lean toward 4.
3 InvisibleSun 00:41, 11 September 2006 (UTC)
1 Zarbon 22:14, 24 April 2008 (UTC)

----

Yes, it's hard to write. But it's harder not to. ~ Carl Van Doren

2 Zarbon 19:15, 2 June 2008 (UTC)
3 InvisibleSun 23:21, 9 September 2008 (UTC)
3 Kalki 23:07, 9 September 2009 (UTC)

----

The tree of liberty only grows when watered by the blood of tyrants. ~ Bertrand Barère de Vieuzac

2 Zarbon 19:15, 2 June 2008 (UTC)
2 InvisibleSun 23:21, 9 September 2008 (UTC)
1 Kalki 23:07, 9 September 2009 (UTC)

-----

It is only the dead who do not return. ~ Bertrand Barère de Vieuzac

2 Zarbon 19:15, 2 June 2008 (UTC)
2 InvisibleSun 23:21, 9 September 2008 (UTC)
1 Kalki 23:07, 9 September 2009 (UTC)

----

I carry on in my own narrow little tunnel and we have very different experiences of life even though we live together. ~ Siobhan Fahey

2 Zarbon 19:15, 2 June 2008 (UTC)
2 InvisibleSun 23:21, 9 September 2008 (UTC)
2 Kalki 23:07, 9 September 2009 (UTC)

----

The idea does not belong to the soul; it is the soul that belongs to the idea. ~ Charles Peirce

2 Zarbon 19:15, 2 June 2008 (UTC)
3 InvisibleSun 23:21, 9 September 2008 (UTC)
3 Kalki 23:07, 9 September 2009 (UTC) with a strong lean toward 4.

----

Let us not pretend to doubt in philosophy what we do not doubt in our hearts. ~ Charles Peirce

2 Zarbon 19:15, 2 June 2008 (UTC)
2 InvisibleSun 23:21, 9 September 2008 (UTC)
3 Kalki 23:07, 9 September 2009 (UTC)

----

History, as well as life itself, is complicated; neither life nor history is an enterprise for those who seek simplicity and consistency. ~ Jared Diamond

2 Zarbon 19:15, 2 June 2008 (UTC)
3 InvisibleSun 23:21, 9 September 2008 (UTC)
2 Kalki 23:07, 9 September 2009 (UTC)

----

Between too early and too late, there is never more than a moment. ~ Franz Werfel

4 because every moment makes a difference. Zarbon 19:15, 2 June 2008 (UTC)
3 InvisibleSun 23:21, 9 September 2008 (UTC)
2 Kalki 23:07, 9 September 2009 (UTC) with a lean toward 3, or perhaps an eventual 4.

----

For those who believe, no explanation is necessary; for those who do not believe, no explanation is possible. ~ Franz Werfel

3 Zarbon 19:15, 2 June 2008 (UTC)
3 InvisibleSun 23:21, 9 September 2008 (UTC)
3 Kalki 23:07, 9 September 2009 (UTC)

----

The entire universe is perfused with signs, if it is not composed exclusively of signs. ~ Charles Peirce

3 Kalki 23:07, 9 September 2009 (UTC) with a strong lean toward 4.

----

You'd better hope and pray
That you make it safe back to your own world
You'd better hope and pray
That you'll wake one day in your own world
Because when you sleep at night
They don't hear your cries in your own world
Only time will tell
If you can break the spell back in your own world
~ Siobhan Fahey ~

3 Kalki 23:11, 9 September 2009 (UTC)

----

If this world is wearing thin
And you're thinking of escape
I'll go anywhere with you
Just wrap me up in chains
But if you try to go alone
Don't think I'll understand

(Stay) Stay with me
~ Siobhan Fahey ~

3 Kalki 23:11, 9 September 2009 (UTC)

----

Quoternity