January 25
Quotes of the day from previous years:
- 2005
- If I have been able to see further, it was only because I stood on the shoulders of giants. ~ Isaac Newton on his intellectual debt to those who preceded him.
- selected by Kalki
- 2006
- While fame impedes and constricts, obscurity wraps about a man like a mist; obscurity is dark, ample, and free; obscurity lets the mind take its way unimpeded. Over the obscure man is poured the merciful suffusion of darkness. None knows where he goes or comes. He may seek the truth and speak it; he alone is free; he alone is truthful, he alone is at peace. ~ Orlando: A Biography, by Virginia Woolf (born 25 January 1882)
- selected by Kalki
- 2007
- I do not believe they are right who say that the defects of famous men should be ignored. I think it is better that we should know them. Then, though we are conscious of having faults as glaring as theirs, we can believe that that is no hindrance to our achieving also something of their virtues. ~ W. Somerset Maugham (born 25 January 1874)
- proposed by InvisibleSun
- 2008
- If forty million people say a foolish thing it does not become a wise one, but the wise man is foolish to give them the lie. ~ W. Somerset Maugham
- proposed by Jeff Q
- 2009
- The strongest natures, when they are influenced, submit the most unreservedly; it is perhaps a sign of their strength. ~ Virginia Woolf
- proposed by InvisibleSun
- 2010
- O, wad some Power the giftie gie us
To see oursels as others see us!
It wad frae monie a blunder free us,
An' foolish notion.
What airs in dress an' gait wad lea'e us
An' ev'n Devotion.
~ Robert Burns ~- proposed by Kalki
- 2011
- Fiction is like a spider's web, attached ever so lightly perhaps, but still attached to life at all four corners. Often the attachment is scarcely perceptible; Shakespeare's plays, for instance, seem to hang there complete by themselves. But when the web is pulled askew, hooked up at the edge, torn in the middle, one remembers that these webs are not spun in midair by incorporeal creatures, but are the work of suffering human beings, and are attached to the grossly material things, like health and money and the houses we live in. ~ Virginia Woolf
- proposed by InvisibleSun
- 2012
- You will hear people say that poverty is the best spur to the artist. They have never felt the iron of it in their flesh. They do not know how mean it makes you. It exposes you to endless humiliation, it cuts your wings, it eats into your soul like a cancer. It is not wealth one asks for, but just enough to preserve one's dignity, to work unhampered, to be generous, frank and independent. I pity with all my heart the artist, whether he writes or paints, who is entirely dependent for subsistence upon his art. ~ W. Somerset Maugham
- partially proposed by InvisibleSun, extension proposed by Kalki
- 2013
Ye see yon birkie, ca'd a lord, A prince can mak a belted knight, Then let us pray that come it may, |
~ Robert Burns ~ |
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- partially proposed by InvisibleSun, extension for context proposed by Kalki
- 2014
Nothing in the world is permanent, and we're foolish when we ask anything to last, but surely we're still more foolish not to take delight in it while we have it. If change is of the essence of existence one would have thought it only sensible to make it the premise of our philosophy. |
~ W. Somerset Maugham ~ |
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- proposed by bystander
- 2015
The common idea that success spoils people by making them vain, egotistic and self-complacent is erroneous; on the contrary it makes them, for the most part, humble, tolerant and kind. Failure makes people bitter and cruel. |
~ W. Somerset Maugham ~ |
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- proposed by bystander
- 2016
Once you begin to take yourself seriously as a leader or as a follower, as a modern or as a conservative, then you become a self-conscious, biting, and scratching little animal whose work is not of the slightest value or importance to anybody. |
~ Virginia Woolf ~ |
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- proposed by InvisibleSun
Ranking system:
- 4 : Excellent - should definitely be used. (This is the utmost ranking and should be used only for one quote at a time, per person, for each date.)
- 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.
Suggestions[edit]
What mean and cruel things men can do for the love of God. ~ A Writer's Notebook, by W. Somerset Maugham
- 2 ~ Jeff Q (talk) 03:29, 3 December 2006 (UTC)
- 3 InvisibleSun 10:39, 24 January 2007 (UTC)
- 2 Kalki 23:56, 23 January 2008 (UTC)
- 2 Zarbon 18:43, 22 April 2008 (UTC)
Here on this ring of grass we have sat together, bound by the tremendous power of some inner compulsion. The trees wave, the clouds pass. The time approaches when these soliloquies shall be shared. We shall not always give out a sound like a beaten gong as one sensation strikes and then another. Children, our lives have been gongs striking; clamour and boasting; cries of despair; blows on the nape of the neck in gardens. ~ Virginia Woolf
- 3 InvisibleSun 10:39, 24 January 2007 (UTC)
- 2 Kalki 23:56, 23 January 2008 (UTC) I might rank this 3 eventually
- 1 Zarbon 18:43, 22 April 2008 (UTC)
Hypocrisy is the most difficult and nerve-racking vice that any man can pursue; it needs an unceasing vigilance and a rare detachment of spirit. It cannot, like adultery or gluttony, be practised at spare moments; it is a whole-time job. ~ W. Somerset Maugham
- 3 bystander (talk) 23:23, 22 January 2013 (UTC)
- 3 ♞☤☮♌Kalki·†·⚓⊙☳☶⚡ 16:04, 25 January 2013 (UTC) with a lean toward 4.
When I read a book I seem to read it with my eyes only, but now and then I come across a passage, perhaps only a phrase, which has a meaning for me, and it becomes part of me. ~ W. Somerset Maugham
- 3 bystander (talk) 23:23, 22 January 2013 (UTC)
- 3 ♞☤☮♌Kalki·†·⚓⊙☳☶⚡ 16:04, 25 January 2013 (UTC) with a lean toward 4.
Lock up your libraries if you like; but there is no gate, no lock, no bolt that you can set upon the freedom of my mind. ~ Virginia Woolf