Quotes of the day from previous years:

2004
People often say to me, "I understand what you are talking about intellectually, but I don't really feel it, I don't realize it," and I am apt to reply, "I wonder whether you do understand it intellectually, because if you did you would also feel it." ~ Alan Watts
  • selected by Kalki
2005
When I orbited the Earth in a spaceship, I saw for the first time how beautiful our planet is. Mankind, let us preserve and increase this beauty, and not destroy it! ~ Yuri Gagarin (born 9 March 1934)
  • selected by Kalki
2006
Some choices will choose you. How you face these choices, these turns in the road, with what kind of attitude, more than the choices themselves, is what will define the context of your life. ~ Dana Reeve (recent death)
  • selected by Kalki
2007
Nobody reads a mystery to get to the middle. They read it to get to the end. If it's a letdown, they won't buy anymore. The first page sells that book. The last page sells your next book. ~ Mickey Spillane (born 9 March 1918)
  • proposed by Kalki
2008
If you're a singer you lose your voice. A baseball player loses his arm. A writer gets more knowledge, and if he's good, the older he gets, the better he writes. ~ Mickey Spillane
  • selected by Kalki
2009
A philosopher is a lover of wisdom, not of knowledge, which for all its great uses ultimately suffers from the crippling effect of ephemerality. All knowledge is transient, linked to the world around it and subject to change as the world changes, whereas wisdom, true wisdom is eternal, immutable. ~ Shashi Tharoor
  • proposed by Zarbon
2010
Orbiting Earth in the spaceship, I saw how beautiful our planet is. People, let us preserve and increase this beauty, not destroy it! ~ Yuri Gagarin
  • proposed by Zarbon
2011
It is necessary to write, if the days are not to slip emptily by. How else, indeed, to clap the net over the butterfly of the moment? for the moment passes, it is forgotten; the mood is gone; life itself is gone. That is where the writer scores over his fellows: he catches the changes of his mind on the hop. Growth is exciting; growth is dynamic and alarming. Growth of the soul, growth of the mind; how the observation of last year seems childish, superficial; how this year — even this week — even with this new phrase — it seems to us that we have grown to a new maturity. It may be a fallacious persuasion, but at least it is stimulating, and so long as it persists, one does not stagnate. ~ Vita Sackville-West
  • proposed by Zarbon
2012
I would have these good people to recollect, that the laws of this country hold out to foreigners an offer of all that liberty of the press which Americans enjoy, and that, if this liberty be abridged, by whatever means it may be done, the laws and the constitution, and all together, is a mere cheat; a snare to catch the credulous and enthusiastic of every other nation; a downright imposition on the world. ~ William Cobbett
  • proposed by bystander
2013
I have come to the conclusion, after many years of sometimes sad experience, that you cannot come to any conclusion at all.
~ Vita Sackville-West ~
  • proposed by Zarbon
2014
It is found in every light of hope,
It knows no bounds nor space
It has risen in red and black and white,
It is there in every race.

It lies in the hearts of heroes dead,
It screams in tyrants’ eyes,
It has reached the peak of mountains high,
It comes searing ‘cross the skies.

It lights the dark of this prison cell,
It thunders forth its might,
It is "the undauntable thought", my friend,
That thought that says "I'm right!"

~ Bobby Sands ~
  • proposed by Zarbon
2015
Of course I have no right whatsoever to write down the truth about my life involving as it naturally does the lives of so many other people, but I do so urged by a necessity of truth-telling, because there is no living soul who knows the complete truth; here, may be one who knows a section; and there, one who knows another section: but to the whole picture not one is initiated.
~ Vita Sackville-West ~
  • proposed by Kalki
2016
I am full of doubts ... Each new film is like a trial. Before I step in front of the camera, I do not know whether I am going to fall or whether I am going to fly — and that is exactly the way I want it to stay.
~ Juliette Binoche ~
  • proposed by Kalki
2017
There isn't a coliseum any more, but the city is a bigger bowl, and it seats more people. The razor-sharp claws aren't those of wild animals but man's can be just as sharp and twice as vicious. You have to be quick, and you have to be able, or you become one of the devoured, and if you can kill first, no matter how and no matter who, you can live and return to the comfortable chair and the comfortable fire. But you have to be quick. And able. Or you'll be dead.
~ Mickey Spillane ~
  • proposed by Kalki
2018
I could feel the hackles on the back of my neck stiffening and I knew he felt the same way.
Dog was meeting dog. Nobody knew it but the dogs and they weren't telling.
He was bigger than I thought. The suggestion of power I had seen in his photographs was for real. When he moved it was with the ponderous grace of some jungle animal, dangerously deceptive, because he could move a lot faster if he had to.
When we were ten feet away he pretended to see us for the first time and a wave of charm washed the cautious expression from his face and he stepped out to greet Dulcie with outstretched hand.
But it wasn't her he was seeing. It was me he was watching. I was one of his own kind. I couldn't be faked out and wasn't leashed by the proprieties of society. I could lash out and kill as fast as he could and of all the people in the room, I was the potential threat. I knew what he felt because I felt the same way myself.
~ Mickey Spillane ~
  • proposed by Kalki
2019
I have nothing to prove to you.
~ Captain Marvel ~
  • proposed by Kalki
2020
Good government is known from bad government by this infallible test: that under the former the labouring people are well fed and well clothed, and under the latter, they are badly fed and badly clothed.
~ William Cobbett ~
  • proposed by UDScott
2021 
Rank or add further suggestions…

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

You can figure things out as quickly as I can, but you haven't got the ways and means of doing the dirty work. That's where I come in. You'll be right behind me every inch of the way, but when the pinch comes I'll get shoved aside and you slap the cuffs on. That is, if you can shove me aside. I don't think you can. ~ Mickey Spillane

  • 3 Kalki 00:35, 9 March 2008 (UTC)
  • 1 Zarbon 04:13, 23 April 2008 (UTC)
  • 2 UDScott 15:46, 4 March 2009 (UTC)
  • 2 InvisibleSun 22:17, 8 March 2009 (UTC)

Movies are open doors, and at every door, I change character and life... I live for the present always. I accept this risk. I don't deny the past, but it's a page to turn. ~ Juliette Binoche (born 9 March 1964)

  • 3 Kalki 00:35, 9 March 2008 (UTC) I might rank this a 4 if a definite published source can be found for it.
  • 1 Zarbon 04:13, 23 April 2008 (UTC)
  • 3 UDScott 15:46, 4 March 2009 (UTC)

I looked and looked but I didn't see God. ~ Yuri Gagarin

  • 3 because sometimes God need not be found by eyes, even when floating in outer space, through the eyes of an astronaut. Zarbon 15:29, 3 May 2008 (UTC)
  • 3 UDScott 15:46, 4 March 2009 (UTC)
  • 1 Kalki 07:55, 7 March 2009 (UTC) no strong desire to use this one, and the accuracy of it has been disputed.

Men of integrity are generally pretty obstinate, in adhering to an opinion once adopted. ~ William Cobbett (born 9 March 1763), Life and Adventures of Peter Porcupine (1796)

  • 3 UDScott 15:55, 4 March 2009 (UTC)
  • 2 Zarbon 05:27, 7 March 2009 (UTC)
  • 3 Kalki (talk · contributions) 17:34, 3 March 2010 (UTC) * 2 Kalki 07:55, 7 March 2009 (UTC)
  • 2 InvisibleSun 22:17, 8 March 2009 (UTC)

Any work of architecture which does not express serenity is a mistake. ~ Luis Barragán

  • 2 Zarbon 05:27, 7 March 2009 (UTC)
  • 3 Kalki 07:55, 7 March 2009 (UTC)
  • 3 InvisibleSun 22:17, 8 March 2009 (UTC)

The Art of Seeing. It is essential to an architect to know how to see: I mean, to see in such a way that the vision is not overpowered by rational analysis. ~ Luis Barragán

  • 2 Zarbon 05:27, 7 March 2009 (UTC)
  • 2 Kalki 07:55, 7 March 2009 (UTC)
  • 2 InvisibleSun 22:17, 8 March 2009 (UTC)

With that she dasht her on the lippes,
So dyed double red:
Hard was the heart that gave the blow,
Soft were those lips that bled. ~ William Warner (birth unknown/date of death)

  • 2 Zarbon 05:27, 7 March 2009 (UTC)
  • 1 Kalki 07:55, 7 March 2009 (UTC)
  • 2 InvisibleSun 22:17, 8 March 2009 (UTC)

Gravitation is the only logical factor a sculptor has to contend with. ~ David Smith

  • 2 Zarbon 05:27, 7 March 2009 (UTC)
  • 1 Kalki 07:55, 7 March 2009 (UTC)
  • 1 InvisibleSun 22:17, 8 March 2009 (UTC)

I'm not as soft or as generous a person as I would be if the world hadn't changed me. ~ Bobby Fischer

  • 2 Zarbon 05:27, 7 March 2009 (UTC)
  • 2 Kalki 07:55, 7 March 2009 (UTC)
  • 2 InvisibleSun 22:17, 8 March 2009 (UTC)
  • 3,5 DanielTom (talk) 20:32, 4 November 2014 (UTC)

The vehicles of human politics seem to run off course, but the site of the accident turns out to have been the intended destination. ~ Shashi Tharoor

  • 3 and lean toward 4. Zarbon 05:27, 7 March 2009 (UTC)
  • 2 Kalki 07:55, 7 March 2009 (UTC)
  • 2 InvisibleSun 22:17, 8 March 2009 (UTC)

Dear Mum, I know you're always there
To help and guide me with all your care,
You nursed and fed me and made me strong
To face the world and all its wrong. ~ Bobby Sands

  • 3 Zarbon 05:27, 7 March 2009 (UTC)
  • 1 Kalki 07:55, 7 March 2009 (UTC)
  • 2 InvisibleSun 22:17, 8 March 2009 (UTC)

Nothing is so well calculated to produce a death-like torpor in the country as an extended system of taxation and a great national debt. ~ William Cobbett

  • 3 bystander (talk) 22:50, 3 March 2012 (UTC)
  • 2 ♞☤☮♌︎Kalki·⚚⚓︎⊙☳☶⚡ 16:36, 6 March 2012 (UTC)
  • 3 Khannaford 23:52, 6 March 2019 (UTC)

Open your eyes, and open your imagination. The next great discovery could be yours. ~ Former U.S. President Barack Obama, introducing the March 9th premiere episode of the science documentary television series Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey (2014), sequel to Carl Sagan's Cosmos: A Personal Voyage (1980).

  • 4 Pithy Francoln (talk) 21:44, 19 October 2016 (UTC) On one hand the fact that the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES introduced the series premiere shows that science education is important to U.S. national interests; on the other, I don't know if Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey has gained enough attention to justify featuring this snippet from a 30-second video clip as a Wikiquote quote of the day. My conclusion - science education *is* important, and if any of the three more-or-less promotional videos from Cosmos: ASO that I've listed here are used, I think it should be this one.
  • 2 ♞☤☮♌︎Kalki·⚚⚓︎⊙☳☶⚡ 23:55, 8 March 2017 (UTC) I am not hostile to this statement, but if it is eventually used here, I would prefer to extend it to read:
America has always been a nation of fearless explorers who dream bigger and reach further than others imagined. … There are no limits so open your eyes and open your imagination. The next great discovery could be yours.

What Cosmos has, at its heart, is hope. It's about the future we could have if we get our act together. - Ann Druyan, co-writer with Carl Sagan for the science documentary television series Cosmos: A Personal Voyage (1980) and a co-writer, executive producer and director for the sequel series, Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey (which premiered on March 9, 2014).

  • 2 Pithy Francoln (talk) 21:44, 19 October 2016 (UTC) If any of these three semi-promotional videos for Cosmos: ASO which I've listed on this date are used, I think it should be the President's.

We've reached a point in time where we've gotten a little lax with our enthusiasm about science and our thirst for knowledge. . . . I hope that this Cosmos can instigate a reawakening of the same enthusiasm for science that the original Cosmos brought. - Seth MacFarlane, executive producer for the science documentary television series, Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey (which premiered on March 9, 2014).

  • 2 Pithy Francoln (talk) 21:44, 19 October 2016 (UTC) If any of these three semi-promotional videos for Cosmos: ASO which I've listed on this date are used, I think it should be the President's.
I don't research anything. If I need something, I'll invent it.
~ Mickey Spillane ~
  • 3 ♞☤☮♌︎Kalki·⚚⚓︎⊙☳☶⚡ 00:27, 9 March 2017 (UTC)
If the public likes you, you're good. Shakespeare was a common, down-to-earth writer in his day.
~ Mickey Spillane ~
  • 3 ♞☤☮♌︎Kalki·⚚⚓︎⊙☳☶⚡ 00:27, 9 March 2017 (UTC)
However roguish a man may be, he always loves to deal with an honest man.
~ William Cobbett ~
  • 3 ♞☤☮♌︎Kalki·⚚⚓︎⊙☳☶⚡ 23:35, 8 March 2020 (UTC)


This article is issued from Wikiquote. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.