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March 31

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Quotes of the day from previous years:

2004
The meaning I picked, the one that changed my life: Overcome fear, behold wonder. ~ Æschylus
2005
Good sense is of all things in the world the most equally distributed, for everybody thinks he is so well supplied with it, that even those most difficult to please in all other matters never desire more of it than they already possess. ~ René Descartes (born 31 March 1596)
2006
When we are really honest with ourselves we must admit that our lives are all that really belong to us. So, it is how we use our lives that determines what kind of men we are. It is my deepest belief that only by giving our lives do we find life. ~ Cesar Chavez (born 31 March 1927)
2007
So blind is the curiosity by which mortals are possessed, that they often conduct their minds along unexplored routes, having no reason to hope for success, but merely being willing to risk the experiment of finding whether the truth they seek lies there. … I do not deny that sometimes in these wanderings they are lucky enough to find something true. But I do not allow that this argues greater industry on their part, but only better luck. ~ René Descartes
2008
Let us roll all our strength and all
Our sweetness up into one ball,
And tear our pleasures with rough strife
Thorough the iron gates of life:
Thus, though we cannot make our sun
Stand still, yet we will make him run.
~ Andrew Marvell ~
2009
Cogito ergo sum
I think, therefore I am.
~ René Descartes ~
2010
History will judge societies and governments — and their institutions — not by how big they are or how well they serve the rich and the powerful, but by how effectively they respond to the needs of the poor and the helpless. ~ Cesar Chavez
2011

Fate with jealous eye does see
Two perfect loves, nor lets them close:
Their union would her ruin be,
And her tyrranic power depose.

And therefore her decrees of steel
Us as the distant Poles have placed
(Though Love's whole world on us doth wheel)
Not by themselves to be embraced,

Unless the giddy heaven fall,
And earth some new convulsion tear;
And, us to join, the world should all
Be cramped into a planisphere.

As lines (so loves) oblique may well
Themselves in every angle greet:
But ours so truly parallel,
Though infinite, can never meet.

Therefore the love which us doth bind,
But Fate so enviously debars,
Is the conjunction of the mind,
And opposition of the stars.
~ Andrew Marvell ~

2012
If you would be a real seeker after truth, it is necessary that at least once in your life you doubt, as far as possible, all things. ~ René Descartes
2013
I tell you this, that you will have found out the truth of the last tree and the top-most cloud before the truth about me. You will understand the sea, and I shall be still a riddle; you shall know what the stars are, and not know what I am. Since the beginning of the world all men have hunted me like a wolf — kings and sages, and poets and lawgivers, all the churches, and all the philosophies. But I have never been caught yet, and the skies will fall in the time I turn to bay. I have given them a good run for their money, and I will now.
~ "Sunday" ~
in
The Man Who Was Thursday
by
~ G. K. Chesterton ~
2014
Wisdom lies neither in fixity nor in change, but in the dialectic between the two. A constant coming and going: wisdom lies in the momentary.
~ Octavio Paz ~
2015
Love is life. And if you miss love, you miss life.
~ Leo Buscaglia ~
2016
I don't want to talk about the texts or the class. We can do that another time. I just want to know the last time you saw a unicorn and do you still believe in primeval forests.
~ Leo Buscaglia ~
2017
Everything free and decent in life is being locked away in filthy little cellars by beastly people who don’t care.
~ John Fowles ~
2018
I don’t think the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament has much chance of actually affecting the government. It’s one of the first things you have to face up to. But we do it to keep our self-respect to show to ourselves, each one to himself or herself, that we care. And to let other people, all the lazy, sulky, hopeless ones like you, know that someone cares. We’re trying to shame you into thinking about it, about acting.
~ John Fowles ~
2019
I am a man: little do I last
and the night is enormous.
But I look up:
the stars write.
Unknowing I understand:
I too am written,
and at this very moment
someone spells me out.
~ Octavio Paz ~
2020
We have suffered unnumbered ills and crimes in the name of the Law of the Land. Our men, women, and children have suffered not only the basic brutality of stoop labor, and the most obvious injustices of the system; they have also suffered the desperation of knowing that the system caters to the greed of callous men and not to our needs. Now we will suffer for the purpose of ending the poverty, the misery, and the injustice, with the hope that our children will not be exploited as we have been. They have imposed hunger on us, and now we hunger for justice. We draw our strength from the very despair in which we have been forced to live. We shall endure.
~ Cesar Chavez ~
2021
One does not fall "in" or "out" of love. One grows in love.
~ Leo Buscaglia ~
2022
The war continues. Russia is sending new forces to our land to continue to destroy us, to destroy Ukrainians. We must do more to stop the war!
The first and most important thing is weapons. Freedom must be armed no worse than tyranny.
~ Volodymyr Zelenskyy ~
2023
It is not enough to have a good mind. The main thing is to use it well.
~ René Descartes ~
in
~ Discourse on the Method ~
2024
My spirit to yours dear brother,
Do not mind because many sounding your name do not understand you,
I do not sound your name, but I understand you,
I specify you with joy O my comrade to salute you, and to salute those who are with you, before and since, and those to come also,
That we all labor together transmitting the same charge and succession,
We few equals indifferent of lands, indifferent of times,
We, enclosers of all continents, all castes, allowers of all theologies,
Compassionaters, perceivers, rapport of men,
We walk silent among disputes and assertions, but reject not the disputers nor any thing that is asserted,
We hear the bawling and din, we are reach'd at by divisions, jealousies, recriminations on every side,
They close peremptorily upon us to surround us, my comrade,
Yet we walk unheld, free, the whole earth over, journeying up and down till we make our ineffaceable mark upon time and the diverse eras,
Till we saturate time and eras, that the men and women of races, ages to come, may prove brethren and lovers as we are.
~ Walt Whitman ~
in
~ Leaves of Grass ~
  • proposed by Kalki; "To Him That Was Crucified" in regard to Easter Sunday 2024.
2025
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[edit]

But at my back I always hear
Time's wingèd chariot hurrying near;
And yonder all before us lie
Deserts of vast eternity.
~ Andrew Marvell (born March 31, 1621)

  • 3 InvisibleSun 08:38, 30 March 2007 (UTC)
  • 3 Kalki 21:38, 30 March 2007 (UTC) with a lean toward 4, but would prefer to extend it at least thus:
At my back I always hear
Time's winged chariot hurrying near;
And yonder all before us lie
Deserts of vast eternity.
Thy beauty shall no more be found,
Nor, in thy marble vault, shall sound
My echoing song; then worms shall try
That long preserv'd virginity,
And your quaint honour turn to dust,
And into ashes all my lust.
The grave's a fine and private place,
But none I think do there embrace.
OR, perhaps, even earlier,
My vegetable love should grow
Vaster than empires, and more slow.
An hundred years should go to praise
Thine eyes, and on thy forehead gaze;
Two hundred to adore each breast,
But thirty thousand to the rest;
An age at least to every part,
And the last age should show your heart.
For, lady, you deserve this state,
Nor would I love at lower rate.

But at my back I always hear
Time's winged chariot hurrying near;
And yonder all before us lie
Deserts of vast eternity.
Thy beauty shall no more be found,
Nor, in thy marble vault, shall sound
My echoing song; then worms shall try
That long preserv'd virginity,
And your quaint honour turn to dust,
And into ashes all my lust.
The grave's a fine and private place,
But none I think do there embrace.

Or even from the start of the poem to the final line quoted above. ~ Kalki 00:33, 29 March 2009 (UTC) or even the whole thing, and be done with it... ~ Kalki 00:35, 29 March 2009 (UTC)
  • 1 Zarbon 04:46, 23 April 2008 (UTC)
  • Comment: Favoring the shorter extension. - InvisibleSun 21:35, 30 March 2009 (UTC)
  • 3 (from "But at my back I always hear" to "But none I think do there embrace.") DanielTom (talk) 01:26, 26 March 2013 (UTC)

The mind, that ocean where each kind
Does straight its own resemblance find;
Yet it creates, transcending these,
Far other worlds, and other seas;
Annihilating all that's made
To a green thought in a green shade.
~Andrew Marvell

  • 3 InvisibleSun 08:38, 30 March 2007 (UTC)
  • 3 Kalki 21:38, 30 March 2007 (UTC) I had been hoping to use this soon, but would opt for the Descartes line at this time. Strong lean toward a 4, but would prefer to extend this to at least include the preceding stanza:
What wondrous life is this I lead!
Ripe apples drop about my head;
The luscious clusters of the vine
Upon my mouth do crush their wine;
The nectarine and curious peach
Into my hands themselves do reach;
Stumbling on melons as I pass,
Insnared with flowers, I fall on grass.

Meanwhile the mind, from pleasure less,
Withdraws into its happiness:
The mind, that ocean where each kind
Does straight its own resemblance find;
Yet it creates, transcending these,
Far other worlds, and other seas;
Annihilating all that's made
To a green thought in a green shade.

AND, perhaps extended even further to include:
Here at the fountain's sliding foot,
Or at some fruit-tree's mossy root,
Casting the body's vest aside,
My soul into the boughs does glide:
There like a bird it sits and sings,
Then whets and combs its silver wings;
And, till prepared for longer flight,
Waves in its plumes the various light.
And opposition of the stars.
  • 1 Zarbon 04:46, 23 April 2008 (UTC)
  • Comment: Favoring the shorter extension. - InvisibleSun 21:35, 30 March 2009 (UTC)

My love is of a birth as rare
As 'tis for object strange and high;
It was begotten by Despair
Upon Impossibility. ~ Andrew Marvell

  • 3 InvisibleSun 08:38, 30 March 2007 (UTC)
  • 3 Kalki 21:38, 30 March 2007 (UTC) with a lean toward 4.
  • 2 Zarbon 04:46, 23 April 2008 (UTC)

Die before the one whom you love; to live after he dies is to live a worthless life in this world. ~ Guru Angad Dev

  • 3 Zarbon 03:09, 29 March 2009 (UTC)
  • 1 Kalki 00:44, 30 March 2009 (UTC) I have some sympathies with the sentiment, but not the conclusion.
  • 1 InvisibleSun 21:35, 30 March 2009 (UTC)

Doubt is the origin of wisdom. ~ René Descartes

  • 3 Zarbon 03:09, 29 March 2009 (UTC)
  • 3 Kalki 00:44, 30 March 2009 (UTC) with a strong lean toward 4.
  • 3 InvisibleSun 21:35, 30 March 2009 (UTC)

Nothing comes out of nothing. ~ René Descartes

  • 3 Zarbon 03:09, 29 March 2009 (UTC)
  • 2 Kalki 00:44, 30 March 2009 (UTC)
  • 2 InvisibleSun 21:35, 30 March 2009 (UTC)
  • 1 (not original thought) DanielTom (talk) 01:29, 26 March 2013 (UTC)

Staying as I am, one foot in one country and the other in another, I find my condition very happy, in that it is free. ~ René Descartes

  • 3 Zarbon 03:09, 29 March 2009 (UTC)
  • 3 Kalki 00:44, 30 March 2009 (UTC) with a strong lean toward 4.
  • 3 InvisibleSun 21:35, 30 March 2009 (UTC)

The greatest minds are capable of the greatest vices as well as of the greatest virtues. ~ René Descartes

  • 4 Zarbon 03:09, 29 March 2009 (UTC)
  • 1 Kalki 00:44, 30 March 2009 (UTC) though I can agree with the intentions of this statement, I always am inclined to object to mere intelligence being equated with greatness — without other virtues it is never that at all.
  • 3 InvisibleSun 21:35, 30 March 2009 (UTC)

The first precept was never to accept a thing as true until I knew it as such without a single doubt. ~ René Descartes

  • 3 Zarbon 03:09, 29 March 2009 (UTC)
  • 3 Kalki 00:44, 30 March 2009 (UTC) (and even then be cautious.) with a lean toward 4.
  • 3 InvisibleSun 21:35, 30 March 2009 (UTC)

Except our own thoughts, there is nothing absolutely in our power. ~ René Descartes

  • 3 Zarbon 03:09, 29 March 2009 (UTC)
  • 2 Kalki 00:44, 30 March 2009 (UTC)

I am accustomed to sleep and in my dreams to imagine the same things that lunatics imagine when awake. ~ René Descartes

  • 3 Zarbon 03:09, 29 March 2009 (UTC)
  • 2 Kalki 00:44, 30 March 2009 (UTC)

Illusory joy is often worth more than genuine sorrow. ~ René Descartes

  • 3 Zarbon 03:09, 29 March 2009 (UTC)
  • 2 Kalki 00:44, 30 March 2009 (UTC)

Perfect numbers like perfect men are very rare. ~ René Descartes

  • 3 Zarbon 03:09, 29 March 2009 (UTC)
  • 2 Kalki 00:44, 30 March 2009 (UTC)

The reading of all good books is indeed like a conversation with the noblest men of past centuries who were the authors of them, nay a carefully studied conversation, in which they reveal to us none but the best of their thoughts. ~ René Descartes

  • 2 Zarbon 03:09, 29 March 2009 (UTC)
  • 3 Kalki 00:44, 30 March 2009 (UTC) with a lean toward 4.

When it is not in our power to determine what is true, we ought to follow what is most probable. ~ René Descartes

  • 3 Zarbon 03:09, 29 March 2009 (UTC)
  • 2 Kalki 00:44, 30 March 2009 (UTC)

I am all for the short and merry life. ~ Edward FitzGerald

Whether we wake or we sleep,
Whether we carol or weep,
The Sun with his Planets in chime,
Marketh the going of Time. ~ Edward FitzGerald

To fight evil is to fight ourselves. ~ Octavio Paz

  • 3 Zarbon 03:09, 29 March 2009 (UTC)
  • 2 Kalki 00:44, 30 March 2009 (UTC) truth, but not entirely well expressed in this form.
  • 3 InvisibleSun 21:35, 30 March 2009 (UTC)

The windy lights of Autumn flare;
I watch the moonlit sails go by;
I marvel how men toil and fare,
The weary business that they play!
Their voyaging is vanity,
And fairy gold is all their gain,
And all the winds of winter cry,
“My Love returns no more again.” ~ Andrew Lang

There are only two races on this planet—the intelligent and the stupid. ~ John Fowles

  • 2 Zarbon 03:09, 29 March 2009 (UTC)
  • 2 Kalki 00:44, 30 March 2009 (UTC) with a very slight lean toward 3.
  • 1 InvisibleSun 21:35, 30 March 2009 (UTC)

Liberalism is a mental disorder. ~ Michael Savage


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