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November 1

From Wikiquote

Quotes of the day from previous years:

2003
God is an Iron ~ Spider Robinson
2004
The progress of the intellect is to the clearer vision of causes, which neglects surface differences. To the poet, to the philosopher, to the saint, all things are friendly and sacred, all events profitable, all days holy, all men divine. ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
2005
I am everything —
Tonight I'll be your mother — I will
Do such things to ease your pain —
Free your mind and you won't feel ashamed.
~ "Damn I Wish I Was Your Lover" by Sophie B. Hawkins (born 1 November 1967)
2006
The wayfarer,
Perceiving the pathway to truth,
Was struck with astonishment.
It was thickly grown with weeds.
"Ha," he said,
"I see that none has passed here
In a long time."
Later he saw that each weed
Was a singular knife.
"Well," he mumbled at last,
"Doubtless there are other roads."
~ Stephen Crane ~ (born 1 November 1871)
2007
You cannot choose your battlefield,
God does that for you;
But you can plant a standard
Where a standard never flew.
~ Nathalia Crane ~
  • proposed by Kalki (Originally proposed here because this had become attributed to Stephen Crane, retained and eventually chosen because of the touch of irony of it having originally placed here by mistake, where the first quote of the day had been "God is an Iron".)
2008
The wisest man is he who does not fancy that he is so at all. ~ Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux
2009

Some say this world of trouble
Is the only one we need
But I’m waiting for that morning
When the new world is revealed.

Oh, when the saints go marching in,
When the saints go marching in,
Oh Lord, I want to be in that number,
When the saints go marching in!

~ When the Saints Go Marching In ~
(quotes from one of Louis Armstrong's versions of the traditional song, with reference to All Saints Day)

2010
It's not too near for me
Like a flower I need the rain
Though it's not clear to me
Every season has it's change
And I will see you
When the sun comes out again.
~ Sophie B. Hawkins ~
2011
Hasten slowly, and without losing heart,
Put your work twenty times upon the anvil.
~ Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux
2012
The hard waves see an arm flung high;
Scorn hits strong because of a lie;
Yet there exists a mystic tie.
Unwind my riddle.
~ Stephen Crane ~
2013
When we survey the whole field of religion, we find a great variety in the thoughts that have prevailed there; but the feelings on the one hand and the conduct on the other are almost always the same, for Stoic, Christian, and Buddhist saints are practically indistinguishable in their lives. The theories which Religion generates, being thus variable, are secondary; and if you wish to grasp her essence, you must look to the feelings and the conduct as being the more constant elements.
~ William James ~
  • proposed by Kalki as a quote on the nature of sainthood, and the attitudes, behavior and conduct of saints, for "All Saints Day."
2014
Now two punctilious envoys, Thine and Mine,
Embroil the earth about a fancied line;
And, dwelling much on right and much on wrong,
Prove how the right is chiefly with the strong.
~ Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux ~
2015
Virtue alone is the unerring sign of a noble soul.
~ Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux ~
2016
The collective name for the ripe fruits of religion in a character is Saintliness. The saintly character is the character for which spiritual emotions are the habitual centre of the personal energy; and there is a certain composite photograph of universal saintliness, the same in all religions, of which the features can easily be traced.
~ William James ~
2017
They say that the world rests on the backs of 36 living saints — 36 unselfish men and women. Because of them the world continues to exist. They are the secret kings and queens of this world.
~ Neil Gaiman ~
in
~ The Sandman ~
2018
We belong to the Society of Friends, a community of love, a family of persons. In so far as we are not just another “denomination,” we know also that the salvation of our age is in our keeping; that is, that it lies in the divine-human society which is "rooted and grounded in love." This is the unity which alone can make one world out of "one world", and not one nightmare, one hell, one burned-out cinder. We know also and in a way we respond to the fact that we have a mission, we are "called to be saints".
~ A. J. Muste ~
2019
Resolve to serve no more, and you are at once freed. I do not ask that you place hands upon the tyrant to topple him over, but simply that you support him no longer; then you will behold him, like a great Colossus whose pedestal has been pulled away, fall of his own weight and break in pieces.
~ Étienne de La Boétie ~
2020
I got my break — big break — when I was five years old. And it's taken me more than seventy years to realize it. You see, at five, I learned to read. It's that simple, and it's that profound. I left school at thirteen, I didn’t have a formal education, and I believe I would not be standing here tonight, without the books, the plays — the scripts. It's been a long journey from Fountainbridge to this evening — with you all. Though my feet are tired, my heart is not.
~ Sean Connery ~
  • proposed by Kalki, in regard to his recent death.
2021
If there is a witness to my little life,
To my tiny throes and struggles,
He sees a fool;
And it is not fine for gods to menace fools.
~ Stephen Crane ~
2022
Often the fear of one evil leads us into a worse.
~ Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux ~
2023
I'm interested in the tension between what is represented and what isn't represented, between the articulate and the silent.
~ Edward W. Said ~
2024
Honor is like an island, rugged and without a beach;
Once we have left it, we can never return.
~ Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux ~
2025
Rank or add further suggestions…

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

  • A man said to the universe:
    "Sir I exist!"
    "However," replied the universe,
    "The fact has not created in me
    A sense of obligation."
    ~ Stephen Crane

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

[edit]

There's nothing that will change someone's moral outlook quicker than cash in large sums. ~ Larry Flynt, born that day.

  • 3 ~ MosheZadka (Talk) 10:13, 30 October 2005 (UTC)
  • 2 --Angel 13:39, 14 November 2006 (UTC)
  • 2 Zarbon 17:14, 25 April 2008 (UTC)
  • 1 Kalki 16:58, 18 October 2008 (UTC)
  • 0 Ningauble 22:02, 31 October 2008 (UTC)
  • 0 because it is unsourced. - InvisibleSun 22:19, 31 October 2008 (UTC)

Damn I wish I was your lover
I'll rock you till the daylight comes
Make sure you are smiling and warm.
~ Sophie B. Hawkins ~ (date of birth)

  • 3 Kalki 23:35, 31 October 2005 (UTC) with a very strong lean toward 4.
  • 2 ShanghaiTim 11:16, 14 November 2006
  • 3 InvisibleSun 20:22, 31 October 2007 (UTC)
  • 1 because this one is rather sexual, something I'd try to avoid as QOTD. Zarbon 17:14, 25 April 2008 (UTC)
  • 2 Ningauble 22:02, 31 October 2008 (UTC)

As I lay me down to sleep
This I pray
That you will hold me dear
~ Sophie B. Hawkins ~ (date of birth)

  • 3 Kalki 23:35, 31 October 2005 (UTC) with a lean to 4.
  • 3 --Angel 13:39, 14 November 2006 (UTC)
  • 3 InvisibleSun 20:22, 31 October 2007 (UTC)
  • 1 although this is actually one of my alltime favorite songs (and I truly love it), it doesn't hold powerful moral as QOTD. Zarbon 17:14, 25 April 2008 (UTC)
  • 2 Ningauble 22:02, 31 October 2008 (UTC)

If your descent is from heroic sires,
Show in your life a remnant of their fires. ~ Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux

Happy the poet who with ease can steer
From grave to gay, from lively to severe. ~ Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux

We can regret what might have been... but we have no reason to be ungrateful for what there is. ~ Edward Said

  • 3 Zarbon 17:12, 6 July 2008 (UTC)
  • 2 Kalki 16:58, 18 October 2008 (UTC)
  • 2 Ningauble 22:02, 31 October 2008 (UTC)
  • 0 because it is unsourced. - InvisibleSun 22:19, 31 October 2008 (UTC)

Tired with dull grief, grown old before my day,
I sit in solitude and only hear
Long silent laughters, murmurings of dismay,
The lost intensities of hope and fear;
In those old marshes yet the rifles lie,
On the thin breastwork flutter the grey rags,
The very books I read are there—and I
Dead as the men I loved, wait while life drags ~ Edmund Charles Blunden

Its wounded length from those sad streets of war
Into green places here, that were my own;
But now what once was mine is mine no more,
I seek such neighbours here and I find none.
With such strong gentleness and tireless will
Those ruined houses seared themselves in me,
Passionate I look for their dumb story still,
And the charred stub outspeaks the living tree. ~ Edmund Charles Blunden

  • 3 Zarbon 17:12, 6 July 2008 (UTC)
  • 1 Kalki 16:58, 18 October 2008 (UTC)
  • 1 Ningauble 22:02, 31 October 2008 (UTC)
  • 3 for starting the quote at "With such strong..."

I saw a man pursuing the horizon;
Round and round they sped.
I was disturbed at this;
I accosted the man.
"It is futile," I said,
"You can never — "

"You lie," he cried,
And ran on.

~ Stephen Crane ~

Men accept servility in order to acquire wealth; as if they could acquire anything of their own when they cannot even assert that they belong to themselves.
~ Étienne de La Boétie ~
You let yourselves be deprived before your own eyes of the best part of your revenues; your fields are plundered, your homes robbed, your family heirlooms taken away. You live in such a way that you cannot claim a single thing as your own; and it would seem that you consider yourselves lucky to be loaned your property, your families, and your very lives.
~ Étienne de La Boétie ~


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