Quotes of the day from previous years:

2004

Where there is great love there are always miracles. ~ Willa Cather

• selected by Kalki

2005

Everything comes gradually and at its appointed hour. ~ Ovid (born 20 March 43 BC)

• selected by Kalki

2006

The spirit of truth and the spirit of freedom — these are the pillars of society. ~ Henrik Ibsen (born 20 March 1828)

• selected by Kalki

2007

It is not only what we have inherited from our fathers and mothers that exists again in us, but all sorts of old dead ideas and all kinds of old dead beliefs and things of that kind. They are not actually alive in us; but there they are dormant, all the same, and we can never be rid of them. Whenever I take up a newspaper and read it, I fancy I see ghosts creeping between the lines. There must be ghosts all over the world. They must be as countless as the grains of the sands, it seems to me. And we are so miserably afraid of the light, all of us. ~ Henrik Ibsen (born 20 March 1828)

• proposed by InvisibleSun

2008

If we have learned one thing from the history of invention and discovery, it is that, in the long run — and often in the short one — the most daring prophecies seem laughably conservative. ~ Arthur C. Clarke (recent death)

• selected by Kalki

2009

What is all that men have done and thought over thousands of years, compared with one moment of love. But in all Nature, too, it is what is nearest to perfection, what is most divinely beautiful! There all stairs lead from the threshold of life. From there we come, to there we go. ~ Friedrich Hölderlin

• proposed by Zarbon

2010

Suggestions

You see, the point is that the strongest man in the world is he who stands most alone. ~ Henrik Ibsen

• 3 because strength is heightened ten-fold by serenity, devoid of human obsessions and needs. Zarbon 05:33, 2 May 2008 (UTC)
• 2 UDScott 20:31, 10 March 2009 (UTC)
• 2 Kalki 10:07, 13 March 2009 (UTC)
• 2 InvisibleSun 22:27, 19 March 2009 (UTC)

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A community is like a ship; everyone ought to be prepared to take the helm. ~ Henrik Ibsen

• 4 because unlike the dictatorship where one person steers the ship, the community steers the ship. This, in some cases, is both damaging and positive...a mixture of thought and deduction, never solid, and moreso governed by the changing of times, parallel to how hard the wind blows the ship in a comparative image. Zarbon 05:33, 2 May 2008 (UTC)
• 3 UDScott 20:31, 10 March 2009 (UTC)
• 3 Kalki 10:07, 13 March 2009 (UTC)
• 3 InvisibleSun 22:27, 19 March 2009 (UTC)

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We can learn even from our enemies. ~ Ovid

• 3 because learning from friends and allies alone will never be enough. In order to understand one's enemies, one must study them and learn from them. Very militaristic strategist persona taken here. Zarbon 05:41, 2 May 2008 (UTC)
• 3 UDScott 20:31, 10 March 2009 (UTC)
• 3 Kalki 10:07, 13 March 2009 (UTC)
• 3 InvisibleSun 22:27, 19 March 2009 (UTC)

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Nothing is stronger than habit. ~ Ovid

• 3 because those governed by habit will become accustomed to it and the harder it will become to separate oneself from it. Zarbon 05:41, 2 May 2008 (UTC)
• 2 UDScott 20:31, 10 March 2009 (UTC)
• 2 Kalki 10:07, 13 March 2009 (UTC)
• 2 InvisibleSun 22:27, 19 March 2009 (UTC)

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It is convenient that there be gods, and, as it is convenient, let us believe there are. ~ Ovid

• 3 because convenience is a very powerful ally. To decipher motives based on convenience and to conceive of opportunities solely based on belief when needed, is how people become successful...it takes more than being at the right place at the right time. Zarbon 05:41, 2 May 2008 (UTC)
• 2 UDScott 20:31, 10 March 2009 (UTC)
• 2 Kalki 10:07, 13 March 2009 (UTC)
• 2 InvisibleSun 22:27, 19 March 2009 (UTC)

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Time, the devourer of all things. ~ Ovid

• 3 because the description of time here is solid, a personification of the very word, characterizing time as a learner of man's history, and a devourer who has never subsided or been subdued. Zarbon 05:41, 2 May 2008 (UTC)
• 3 UDScott 20:31, 10 March 2009 (UTC)
• 2 Kalki 10:07, 13 March 2009 (UTC), but I would prefer to include the original Latin as well: Tempus edax rerum
• 2 InvisibleSun 22:27, 19 March 2009 (UTC)

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You need a reason to be sad. You don't need a reason to be happy. ~ Louis Sachar

• 2 Zarbon 14:58, 11 March 2009 (UTC)
• 2 Kalki 10:07, 13 March 2009 (UTC)
• 2 InvisibleSun 22:27, 19 March 2009 (UTC)

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Yet still are you holy to me, as the might of the earth
That bore you away, audaciously perishing!
And I would follow the hero into the depths
Did love not hold me.
~ Friedrich Hölderlin

• 3 Zarbon 14:58, 11 March 2009 (UTC)
• 2 Kalki 10:07, 13 March 2009 (UTC)
• 2 InvisibleSun 22:27, 19 March 2009 (UTC)

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What is the wisdom of a book compared with the wisdom of an angel? ~ Friedrich Hölderlin

• 2 Zarbon 14:58, 11 March 2009 (UTC)
• 3 Kalki 10:07, 13 March 2009 (UTC)
• 2 InvisibleSun 22:27, 19 March 2009 (UTC)

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The real question is not whether machines think but whether men do. The mystery which surrounds a thinking machine already surrounds a thinking man. ~ B. F. Skinner

• 3 Zarbon 14:58, 11 March 2009 (UTC)
• 3 Kalki 10:07, 13 March 2009 (UTC) (but part of this quote was already used, and there are others I prefer to use).
• 3 InvisibleSun 22:27, 19 March 2009 (UTC)

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Society attacks early, when the individual is helpless. ~ B. F. Skinner

• 2 Zarbon 14:58, 11 March 2009 (UTC)
• 2 Kalki 10:07, 13 March 2009 (UTC)
• 2 InvisibleSun 22:27, 19 March 2009 (UTC)

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Education is what survives when what has been learned has been forgotten. ~ B. F. Skinner

• 2 Zarbon 14:58, 11 March 2009 (UTC)
• 3 Kalki 10:07, 13 March 2009 (UTC) with a lean toward 4.
• 3 InvisibleSun 22:27, 19 March 2009 (UTC)

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When we dead awaken. ... We see that we have never lived. ~ Henrik Ibsen

• 3 Kalki 15:26, 19 March 2009 (UTC) with a lean toward 4.
• 3 InvisibleSun 22:27, 19 March 2009 (UTC)
• 2 Zarbon 04:15, 20 March 2009 (UTC)

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Tho' Doubt's beleaguering forces hem us in,
Yet Truth upon the Serpent's head shall trample.
The cause of Love shall win —
Yes, Love shall win!
~ Henrik Ibsen ~

• 3 Kalki 15:26, 19 March 2009 (UTC) with a lean toward 4.
• 3 InvisibleSun 22:27, 19 March 2009 (UTC)
• 1 Zarbon 04:15, 20 March 2009 (UTC)

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