Quotes of the day from previous years:

2004
There is a theory which states that if ever anybody discovers exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarre and inexplicable. … There is another theory which states that this has already happened. ~ Douglas Adams
  • selected by Kalki
2005
The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy. ~ Martin Luther King, Jr. (born 15 January 1929)
  • selected by Kalki
2006
Imagine a world in which every single person on the planet is given free access to the sum of all human knowledge. That's what we're doing. ~ Jimmy Wales (Wikipedia Day — Wikipedia started 15 January 2001)
  • proposed by Smurrayinchester
2007
I build no system. I ask an end to privilege, the abolition of slavery, equality of rights, and the reign of law. Justice, nothing else; that is the alpha and omega of my argument: to others I leave the business of governing the world. ~ Pierre-Joseph Proudhon
  • selected by Kalki (no other proposals existed)
2008
I'm concerned about justice. I'm concerned about brotherhood. I'm concerned about truth. And when one is concerned about these, he can never advocate violence. For through violence you may murder a murderer but you can't murder murder. Through violence you may murder a liar but you can't establish truth. Through violence you may murder a hater, but you can't murder hate. Darkness cannot put out darkness. Only light can do that. ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.
  • proposed by Kalki
2009
I know that love is ultimately the only answer to mankind's problems. And I'm going to talk about it everywhere I go. I know it isn't popular to talk about it in some circles today. I'm not talking about emotional bosh when I talk about love, I'm talking about a strong, demanding love. And I have seen too much hate... I have decided to love. If you are seeking the highest good, I think you can find it through love. And the beautiful thing is that we are moving against wrong when we do it, because John was right, God is love. He who hates does not know God, but he who has love has the key that unlocks the door to the meaning of ultimate reality. ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.
  • proposed by Kalki
2010
Men, for years now, have been talking about war and peace. But now, no longer can they just talk about it. It is no longer a choice between violence and nonviolence in this world; it's nonviolence or nonexistence. ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.
  • proposed by Kalki
2011
Those whose conduct gives room for talk
Are always the first to attack their neighbors.
~ Molière (born 15 January 1622)
  • proposed by InvisibleSun
2012
I stand ready to negotiate, but I want no part of laws: I acknowledge none; I protest against every order with which some authority may feel pleased on the basis of some alleged necessity to over-rule my free will. Laws: We know what they are, and what they are worth! They are spider webs for the rich and mighty, steel chains for the poor and weak, fishing nets in the hands of government. ~ Pierre-Joseph Proudhon
  • proposed by Kalki
2013
Man must evolve for all human conflict a method which rejects revenge, aggression and retaliation. The foundation of such a method is love.
~ Martin Luther King, Jr. ~
  • proposed by Kalki
2014
Of what consequence to you, reader, is my obscure individuality? I live, like you, in a century in which reason submits only to fact and to evidence. My name, like yours, is truth-seeker. My mission is written in these words of the law:
Speak without hatred and without fear; tell that which thou knowest.
~ Pierre-Joseph Proudhon ~
  • proposed by Kalki
2015
As man seeks justice in equality, so society seeks order in anarchy.
~ Pierre-Joseph Proudhon ~
  • proposed by Kalki
2016
I must say that I recognized at once that we had never understood the meaning of these words, so common and yet so sacred: Justice, Equity, Liberty; that concerning each of these principles our ideas have been utterly obscure; and, in fact, that this ignorance was the sole cause, both of the poverty that devours us, and of all the calamities that have ever afflicted the human race.
~ Pierre-Joseph Proudhon ~
  • proposed by Kalki
2017
The great problem facing modern man is that, that the means by which we live have outdistanced the spiritual ends for which we live. So we find ourselves caught in a messed-up world. The problem is with man himself and man's soul. We haven't learned how to be just and honest and kind and true and loving. And that is the basis of our problem. The real problem is that through our scientific genius we've made of the world a neighborhood, but through our moral and spiritual genius we've failed to make of it a brotherhood. And the great danger facing us today is not so much the atomic bomb that was created by physical science. Not so much that atomic bomb that you can put in an aeroplane and drop on the heads of hundreds and thousands of people — as dangerous as that is. But the real danger confronting civilization today is that atomic bomb which lies in the hearts and souls of men, capable of exploding into the vilest of hate and into the most damaging selfishness — that's the atomic bomb that we've got to fear today.
~ Martin Luther King, Jr. ~
  • proposed by Illegitimate Barrister
2018
If everyone were clothed with integrity,
If every heart were just, frank, kindly,
The other virtues would be well-nigh useless,
Since their chief purpose is to make us bear with patience
The injustice of our fellows.
~ Molière ~
  • proposed by InvisibleSun
2019
All parties without exception, when they seek for power, are varieties of absolutism.
~ Pierre-Joseph Proudhon ~
  • proposed by Kalki
2020
Education does have a great role to play in this period of transition. But it is not either education or legislation; it is both education and legislation. It may be true that morality cannot be legislated, but behavior can be regulated. It may be true that the law cannot make a man love me, but it can keep him from lynching me, and I think that’s pretty important also. It may be true that the law cannot change the heart, but it can restrain the heartless, and this is what we often do and we have to do in society through legislation. We must depend on religion and education to change bad internal attitudes, but we need legislation to control the external effects of those bad internal attitudes. And so there is a need for meaningful civil right legislation.
~ Martin Luther King, Jr. ~
  • proposed by Kalki
2021 
Rank or add further suggestions…

Quotes by people born this day, already used as QOTD:

  • I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.
    • Used 11 June 2003, as first Wikiquote "Quote of the Day".
  • Cowardice asks the question, "Is it safe?" Expediency asks the question, "Is it politic?" And Vanity comes along and asks the question, "Is it popular?" But Conscience asks the question "Is it right?" And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but he must do it because Conscience tells him it is right. ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.
  • I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood... I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today... ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.
  • What is needed is a realization that power without love is reckless and abusive, and love without power is sentimental and anemic. Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice, and justice at its best is power correcting everything that stands against love... I know that love is ultimately the only answer to mankind's problems. And I'm going to talk about it everywhere I go. ~ Martin Luther King, Jr.

The Quote of the Day (QOTD) is a prominent feature of the Wikiquote Main Page. Thank you for submitting, reviewing, and ranking suggestions!

Ranking system
4 : Excellent – should definitely be used. (This is the utmost ranking and should be used by any editor for only one quote at a time 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.
An averaging of the rankings provided to each suggestion produces it’s general ranking in considerations for selection of Quote of the Day. The selections made are usually chosen from the top ranked options existing on the page, but the provision of highly ranked late additions, especially in regard to special events (most commonly in regard to the deaths of famous people, or other major social or physical occurrences), always remain an option for final selections.
Thank you for participating!

Suggestions

Communism violates the sovereignty of the conscience, and equality: the first, by restricting spontaneity of mind and heart, and freedom of thought and action; the second, by placing labor and laziness, skill and stupidity, and even vice and virtue on an equality in point of comfort. For the rest, if property is impossible on account of the desire to accumulate, communism would soon become so through the desire to shirk. ~ Pierre-Joseph Proudhon

  • 3 Kalki 15:02, 19 January 2007 (UTC) with a lean toward 4, but I would now extend this to:
Man is very willing to obey the law of duty, serve his country, and oblige his friends; but he wishes to labor when he pleases, where he pleases, and as much as he pleases. He wishes to dispose of his own time, to be governed only by necessity, to choose his friendships, his recreation, and his discipline; to act from judgment, not by command; to sacrifice himself through selfishness, not through servile obligation. Communism is essentially opposed to the free exercise of our faculties, to our noblest desires, to our deepest feelings. Any plan which could be devised for reconciling it with the demands of the individual reason and will would end only in changing the thing while preserving the name. Now, if we are honest truth-seekers, we shall avoid disputes about words.
Thus, communism violates the sovereignty of the conscience, and equality: the first, by restricting spontaneity of mind and heart, and freedom of thought and action; the second, by placing labor and laziness, skill and stupidity, and even vice and virtue on an equality in point of comfort. For the rest, if property is impossible on account of the desire to accumulate, communism would soon become so through the desire to shirk.
  • 3 InvisibleSun 05:32, 11 January 2008 (UTC)
  • 1 Zarbon 18:11, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

A learned fool is more foolish than an ignorant one. ~ Molière

  • 3 InvisibleSun 05:32, 11 January 2008 (UTC)
  • 3 Kalki 00:29, 16 January 2008 (UTC) with a strong lean toward 4.
  • 2 Zarbon 18:11, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

There's no system foolproof enough to defeat a sufficiently great fool. ~ Edward Teller (born January 15)

  • 3 because a sufficiently great fool will assume control of any system. Zarbon 22:49, 29 April 2008 (UTC)
  • 2 Kalki 15:58, 6 January 2009 (UTC) but to leap form Teller's valid statement to your invalid conclusion is very foolish, as it is simply not true.
  • 2 InvisibleSun 22:39, 14 January 2009 (UTC)

When you come to the end of all the light you know, and it's time to step into the darkness of the unknown, faith is knowing that one of two things shall happen: Either you will be given something solid to stand on or you will be taught to fly. ~ Edward Teller (born January 15)

  • 2 because there is a dynamic shroud of imagery surrounding angels, flight, and furthermore, the unknown. Zarbon 22:49, 29 April 2008 (UTC)
  • 3 Kalki 15:58, 6 January 2009 (UTC)

It is necessary to have lived in this insulator which is called the national assembly, in order to perceive how the men who are the most completely ignorant of the state of the country are almost always the ones who represent it. ~ Pierre-Joseph Proudhon

  • 3 Kalki (talk · contributions) 16:07, 12 January 2010 (UTC)

To be governed is to be watched over, inspected, spied on, directed, legislated at, regulated, docketed, indoctrinated, preached at, controlled, assessed, weighed, censored, ordered about, by men who have neither the right, nor the knowledge, nor the virtue. … To be governed is to be at every operation, at every transaction, noted, registered, enrolled, taxed, stamped, measured, numbered, assessed, licensed, authorized, admonished, forbidden, reformed, corrected, punished. It is, under the pretext of public utility, and in the name of the general interest, to be placed under contribution, trained, ransomed, exploited, monopolized, extorted, squeezed, mystified, robbed; then, at the slightest resistance, the first word of complaint, to be repressed, fined, despised, harassed, tracked, abused, clubbed, disarmed, choked, imprisoned, judged, condemned, shot, deported, sacrificed, sold, betrayed; and, to crown all, mocked, ridiculed, outraged, dishonoured. That is government; that is its justice; that is its morality. ~ Pierre-Joseph Proudhon

  • 3 Kalki (talk · contributions) 16:07, 12 January 2010 (UTC) with a very strong lean toward 4.
The weakness of 'Black Power' is its failure to see that the black man needs the white man and the white man needs the black man. However much we may try to romanticize the slogan, there is no separate black path to power and fulfillment that dies not intersect white paths, and there is no separate white path to power and fulfillment, short of social disaster, that does not share that power with black aspirations for freedom and human dignity. We are bound together in a single garment of destiny.
~ Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. ~
  • 3.25. – Illegitimate Barrister 19:47, 4 August 2015 (UTC).
Maintain our moral clarity. I have often spoken to you about good and evil. This has made some uncomfortable. But good and evil are present in this world, and between the two there can be no compromise. Murdering the innocent to advance an ideology is wrong every time, everywhere. Freeing people from oppression and despair is eternally right.
~ George W. Bush ~
  • 3. This speech was delivered on January 15, 2009. – Illegitimate Barrister, 14:08, 22 September 2015 (UTC)
  • 2 ♞☤☮♌︎Kalki·†·⚓⊙☳☶⚡ 22:39, 14 January 2016 (UTC) but ONLY if extended to read:
America must maintain our moral clarity. I have often spoken to you about good and evil. This has made some uncomfortable. But good and evil are present in this world, and between the two there can be no compromise. Murdering the innocent to advance an ideology is wrong every time, everywhere. Freeing people from oppression and despair is eternally right. This nation must continue to speak out for justice and truth. We must always be willing to act in their defense and to advance the cause of peace.
I could also probably rank it higher on Bush's birthday on 6 July, as a good quote for that date, in the extended form. ~ ♞☤☮♌︎Kalki·†·⚓⊙☳☶⚡ 22:39, 14 January 2016 (UTC)
We have adopted in the modern world a sort of a relativistic ethic... Most people can't stand up for their convictions, because the majority of people might not be doing it. See, everybody's not doing it, so it must be wrong. And since everybody is doing it, it must be right. So a sort of numerical interpretation of what's right. But I'm here to say to you this morning that some things are right and some things are wrong. Eternally so, absolutely so. It's wrong to hate. It always has been wrong and it always will be wrong. It's wrong in America, it's wrong in Germany, it's wrong in Russia, it's wrong in China. It was wrong in 2000 B.C., and it's wrong in 1954 A.D. It always has been wrong, and it always will be wrong. It's wrong to throw our lives away in riotous living. No matter if everybody in Detroit is doing it, it's wrong. It always will be wrong, and it always has been wrong. It's wrong in every age and it's wrong in every nation. Some things are right and some things are wrong, no matter if everybody is doing the contrary. Some things in this universe are absolute.
~ Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. ~
  • 3.25. A bit long, but a good critique of moral relativism by Dr. King. – Illegitimate Barrister, 01:01, 24 February 2016 (UTC)
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