November 29
Quotes of the day from previous years:
- 2004
- Find the good — and praise it. ~ Alex Haley
- selected by Kalki
- 2005
- Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience. ~ C. S. Lewis (born 29 November 1898)
- proposed by UDScott
- 2006
- The most dangerous thing you can do is to take any one impulse of your own nature and set it up as the thing you ought to follow at all costs. There's not one of them which won't make us into devils if we set it up as an absolute guide. You might think love of humanity in general was safe, but it isn't. If you leave out justice you'll find yourself breaking agreements and faking evidence in trials "for the sake of humanity" and become in the end a cruel and treacherous man. ~ C.S. Lewis (date of birth)
- proposed by UDScott
- 2007
- All that is not eternal is eternally out of date. ~ C.S. Lewis
- proposed by Kalki
- 2008
- Revolutions are not made; they come. A revolution is as natural a growth as an oak. It comes out of the past. Its foundations are laid far back. ~ Wendell Phillips
- proposed by Zarbon
- 2009
- Far away in the sunshine are my highest aspirations. I may not reach them, but I can look up and see their beauty, believe in them, and try to follow where they lead. ~ Louisa May Alcott (born 29 November 1832)
- proposed by UDScott
- 2010
- Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art...It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things that give value to survival. ~ C.S. Lewis
- proposed by dgwingert
- 2011
- It is hard to have patience with people who say "There is no death" or "Death doesn't matter." There is death. And whatever is matters. And whatever happens has consequences, and it and they are irrevocable and irreversible. You might as well say that birth doesn't matter. ~ C. S. Lewis
- proposed by Kalki
- 2012
Some people talk as if meeting the gaze of absolute goodness would be fun. They need to think again. They are still only playing with religion. Goodness is either the great safety or the great danger — according to the way you react to it. |
~ C. S. Lewis ~ |
- proposed by Kalki
- 2013
Simple, sincere people seldom speak much of their piety. It shows itself in acts rather than in words, and has more influence than homilies or protestations. |
~ Louisa May Alcott ~ |
- proposed by Kalki
- 2014
Write on my gravestone: "Infidel, Traitor" — infidel to every church that compromises with wrong; traitor to every government that oppresses the people. |
~ Wendell Phillips ~ |
- proposed by Zarbon
- 2015
Very few children have any problem with the world of the imagination; it's their own world, the world of their daily life, and it's our loss that so many of us grow out of it. |
~ Madeleine L'Engle ~ |
- proposed by DanielTom
- 2016
Critics who treat adult as a term of approval, instead of as a merely descriptive term, cannot be adult themselves. To be concerned about being grown up, to admire the grown up because it is grown up, to blush at the suspicion of being childish; these things are the marks of childhood and adolescence. And in childhood and adolescence they are, in moderation, healthy symptoms. Young things ought to want to grow. But to carry on into middle life or even into early manhood this concern about being adult is a mark of really arrested development. When I was ten, I read fairy tales in secret and would have been ashamed if I had been found doing so. Now that I am fifty I read them openly. When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up. |
~ C. S. Lewis ~ |
- proposed by Kalki
- 2017
The miracles in fact are a retelling in small letters of the very same story which is written across the whole world in letters too large for some of us to see. |
~ C. S. Lewis ~ |
- proposed by DanielTom
- 2018
What can you ever really know of other people's souls — of their temptations, their opportunities, their struggles? One soul in the whole creation you do know: and it is the only one whose fate is placed in your hands. If there is a God, you are, in a sense, alone with Him. You cannot put Him off with speculations about your next door neighbours or memories of what you have read in books. |
~ C. S. Lewis ~ |
- proposed by Kalki
- 2019
If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world. |
~ C. S. Lewis ~ |
- proposed by DanielTom
- 2020
When things go wrong, you'll find they usually go on getting worse for some time; but when things once start going right they often go on getting better. |
~ C. S. Lewis ~ in ~ The Magician's Nephew ~ |
- proposed by Kalki
- 2021
There's a place for us, Somewhere a place for us Peace and quiet and open air wait for us, Somewhere. There's a time for us, Some day a time for us Time together with time to spare, time to look, time to care, Someday. Somewhere we'll find a new way of living. We'll find a way of forgiving, Somewhere. |
~ Stephen Sondheim ~ in ~ West Side Story ~ |
- proposed by Kalki, in regard of his recent death.
- 2022
I'm not afraid of storms, for I'm learning how to sail my ship. |
~ Louisa May Alcott ~ |
- proposed by Kalki
- 2023
A leader takes people where they want to go. A great leader takes people where they don't necessarily want to go, but ought to be. |
~ Rosalynn Carter ~ |
- proposed by Kalki ; in regard to her recent death, and her scheduled funeral on this date.
Quotes by people born this day, already used as QOTD:
- Life is too deep for words, so don't try to describe it, just live it. ~ C. S. Lewis
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]I can imagine no man who will look with more horror on the End than a conscientious revolutionary who has, in a sense sincerely, been justifying cruelties and injustices inflicted on millions of his contemporaries by the benefits which he hopes to confer on future generations: generations who, as one terrible moment now reveals to him, were never going to exist. Then he will see the massacres, the faked trials, the deportations, to be all ineffaceably real, an essential part, his part, in the drama that has just ended: while the future Utopia had never been anything but a fantasy. ~ C.S. Lewis (date of birth)
- 3 UDScott 14:53, 15 November 2005 (UTC)
- 3 InvisibleSun 22:26, 28 November 2007 (UTC)
- 1 Zarbon 07:05, 26 April 2008 (UTC)
- 2 Kalki 02:27, 27 November 2008 (UTC)
Some people think that friendliness is a sign of weakness, when in reality it is a sign of strength. ~ Hans Wolfgang Singer
- I just kike this quote and think someday it should be qotm.--McNoddy 14:24, 5 March 2007 (UTC)
- 3 Kalki 23:23, 5 March 2007 (UTC) copied this quote and rankings for it here from it's original placement by McNoddy as a suggestion for 6 March.
3 InvisibleSun 23:46, 5 March 2007 (UTC)- 2 Zarbon 07:05, 26 April 2008 (UTC)
- 0 Where is the Wikiquote page for this person? - InvisibleSun 21:39, 28 November 2008 (UTC)
- It is as yet uncreated, but the quote itself still ranks highly, and might prompt me or others to eventually create a page here .... ~ Kalki (talk · contributions) 05:11, 27 November 2009 (UTC)
Whether in chains or in laurels, Liberty knows nothing but victories. ~ Wendell Phillips
- 2 Zarbon 04:48, 26 October 2008 (UTC)
- 3 Kalki 02:27, 27 November 2008 (UTC) with a lean toward 4.
- 2 Antiquary 20:44, 28 November 2008 (UTC)
- 3 InvisibleSun 21:39, 28 November 2008 (UTC)
- 3 DanielTom (talk) 15:12, 18 March 2015 (UTC)
All the things that satisfy our instincts only satisfy the animal in us. I want to be proud of myself. I want more. I want to look up to myself and when I die, I want to smile because of the things I have done, not cry for the things I haven't done. ~ Tom Hurndall
- 2 Zarbon 04:48, 26 October 2008 (UTC)
- 2 Kalki 02:27, 27 November 2008 (UTC)
- 2 Antiquary 20:44, 28 November 2008 (UTC)
- 2 InvisibleSun 21:39, 28 November 2008 (UTC)
- 3 bystander (talk) 02:24, 22 November 2012 (UTC)
Our house is burning and we look elsewhere. Nature mutilated, overexploited is not able to recover and we refuse to admit it. From North to South, it suffers from ill-development, and we are indifferent. Earth and humanity are in great peril and we are accountable. ~ Jacques Chirac
- 2 Zarbon 04:48, 26 October 2008 (UTC)
- 2 Kalki 02:27, 27 November 2008 (UTC)
- 3 Antiquary 20:44, 28 November 2008 (UTC)
- 2 InvisibleSun 21:39, 28 November 2008 (UTC)
- 3 bystander (talk) 02:24, 22 November 2012 (UTC) with a lean toward 4.
Love is a great beautifier. ~ Louisa May Alcott
- 3 Kalki (talk · contributions) 05:11, 27 November 2009 (UTC) with a lean toward 4.
- 3 DanielTom (talk) 15:12, 18 March 2015 (UTC)
If you had felt yourself sufficient, it would have been a proof that you were not. ~ C. S. Lewis
- 3 Kalki (talk · contributions) 05:11, 27 November 2009 (UTC)
The Value of myth is that it takes all the things you know and restores to them the rich significance which has been hidden by the veil of familiarity. ~ C. S. Lewis
- 3 Kalki (talk · contributions) 05:11, 27 November 2009 (UTC)
- 3 (he actually wrote: "The value of the myth"...) ~ DanielTom (talk) 13:25, 18 March 2015 (UTC)
The alternative to tragedy, or at least to the risk of tragedy, is damnation. The only place outside of Heaven where you can be perfectly safe from all the dangers and perturbations of love is Hell. ~ C. S. Lewis
- 3 Kalki (talk · contributions) 05:11, 27 November 2009 (UTC)
It is the stupidest children who are the most childish and the stupidest grown-ups who are the most grown-up. ~ C. S. Lewis
- 3 Kalki (talk · contributions) 05:11, 27 November 2009 (UTC) with a strong lean toward 4.
- 3 (original: "It is the stupidest children who are most childish and the stupidest grown-ups who are most grown-up.") DanielTom (talk) 15:12, 18 March 2015 (UTC)
Love may forgive all infirmities and love still in spite of them: but Love cannot cease to will their removal. ~ C. S. Lewis
- 3 Kalki (talk · contributions) 05:11, 27 November 2009 (UTC)
Perfect humility dispenses with modesty. ~ C. S. Lewis
- 3 Kalki (talk · contributions) 05:11, 27 November 2009 (UTC) with a strong lean toward 4.
- 3 DanielTom (talk) 15:12, 18 March 2015 (UTC)
Only the skilled can judge the skillfulness, but that is not the same as judging the value of the result. ~ C. S. Lewis
- 3 Kalki (talk · contributions) 05:11, 27 November 2009 (UTC)
Make your choice, adventurous Stranger;
Strike the bell and bide the danger,
Or wonder, till it drives you mad,
What would have followed if you had.
~ C. S. Lewis ~
- 3 Kalki (talk · contributions) 05:11, 27 November 2009 (UTC) with a strong lean toward 4.
- 3 DanielTom (talk) 15:12, 18 March 2015 (UTC)
Try to exclude the possibility of suffering which the order of nature and the existence of free-wills involve, and you find that you have excluded life itself. ~ C. S. Lewis
- 3 Kalki (talk · contributions) 05:11, 27 November 2009 (UTC) with a strong lean toward 4.
- 3 DanielTom (talk) 15:12, 18 March 2015 (UTC)
I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen. Not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else. ~ C. S. Lewis
I can't imagine a man really enjoying a book and reading it only once. ~ C. S. Lewis
A children's story which is enjoyed only by children is a bad children's story. ~ C. S. Lewis
I became my own only when I gave myself to Another. ~ C. S. Lewis
I wrote the books I should have liked to read. That's always been my reason for writing. People won't write the books I want, so I have to do it for myself. ~ C. S. Lewis
You can't get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me. ~ C. S. Lewis
Some day you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again. ~ C. S. Lewis
Friendship ... is born at the moment when one man says to another "What! You too? I thought that no one but myself..." ~ C. S. Lewis