December 8

December 8

Quotes of the day from previous years:

2004

You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one; I hope some day you'll join us, and the world will live as one. ~ John Lennon (died 8 December 1980)

• selected by Kalki

2005

It is better to ask some of the questions than to know all the answers. ~ James Thurber (born 8 December 1894)

• proposed by UDScott

2006

May memory restore again and again
The smallest color of the smallest day:
Time is the school in which we learn,
Time is the fire in which we burn.
~ Delmore Schwartz ~ (born 8 December 1913)

• proposed by InvisibleSun

2007

A hero is someone who rebels or seems to rebel against the facts of existence and seems to conquer them. Obviously that can only work at moments. It can't be a lasting thing. That's not saying that people shouldn't keep trying to rebel against the facts of existence. Someday, who knows, we might conquer death, disease and war. ~ Jim Morrison (born 8 December 1943)

• proposed by UDScott

2008

The wit makes fun of other persons; the satirist makes fun of the world; the humorist makes fun of himself, but in so doing, he identifies himself with people — that is, people everywhere, not for the purpose of taking them apart, but simply revealing their true nature. ~ James Thurber

• proposed by InvisibleSun

2009

I am not bound over to swear allegiance to any master; where the storm drives me I turn in for shelter. ~ Horace

• proposed by Zarbon

2010

Better than a thousand hollow words
Is one word that brings peace.
Better than a thousand hollow verses
Is one verse that brings peace.
Better than a hundred hollow lines
Is one line of the law, bringing peace.
~ Gautama Buddha (Bodhi Day a traditional date of celebration of his enlightenment)

• proposed by Kalki

2011

Just as a solid rock is not shaken by the storm, even so the wise are not affected by praise or blame. ~ Gautama Buddha (Bodhi Day a traditional date of celebration of his enlightenment)

• proposed by Kalki

2012

How could I think the brief years were enough To prove the reality of endless love?

~ Delmore Schwartz ~

• proposed by Kalki

2013

It is difficult to speak of what is common in a way of your own.

~ Horace ~

• proposed by Kalki

2014

No one saves us but ourselves, No one can and no one may. We ourselves must walk the path Buddhas merely teach the way. By ourselves is evil done, By ourselves we pain endure, By ourselves we cease from wrong, By ourselves become we pure.

~ Gautama Buddha ~ as translated by ~ Paul Carus ~

• proposed by Kalki

2015

Whence, if ever, shall come the actuality Of a voice speaking the mind's knowing, The sunlight bright on the green windowshade, And the self articulate, affectionate, and flowing, Ease, warmth, light, the utter showing, When in the white bed all things are made.

~ Delmore Schwartz ~

• proposed by InvisibleSun

2016

Force without wisdom falls of its own weight.

~ Horace ~

• proposed by InvisibleSun

2017

Semel emissum volat irrevocabile verbum. Once a word has been allowed to escape, it cannot be recalled.

~ Horace ~

• proposed by Kalki

2018

He who has begun has half done. Dare to be wise; begin!

~ Horace ~

• proposed by Kalki

2019

There is no safety in numbers, or in anything else.

~ James Thurber ~

• proposed by InvisibleSun

2020

When I look at a body I know it gives me choices of what to put in a painting; what will suit me and what won't. There is a distinction between fact and truth. Truth has an element of revelation about it. If something is true, it does more than strike one as merely being so.

~ Lucian Freud ~

• proposed by InvisibleSun

2021

Last thing I remember, I was Running for the door. I had to find the passage back To the place I was before. "Relax," said the night man, "We are programmed to receive. You can check-out any time you like, but you can never leave!"

~ Eagles ~

• proposed by UDScott

2022

I want to say thank you. And I want to say thank you to my mother, who is here tonight. You’ll see her in a little while. But she grew up in the 1950s, in Waycross, Georgia, picking somebody else’s cotton and somebody else’s tobacco. But tonight she helped pick her youngest son to be a United States senator.

~ Raphael Warnock ~

• proposed by Kalki

2023

Let your love flow outward through the universe, To its height, its depth, its broad extent, A limitless love, without hatred or enmity. Then, as you stand or walk, Sit or lie down, As long as you are awake, Strive for this with a one-pointed mind; Your life will bring heaven to earth.

~ Gautama Buddha ~

• proposed by Kalki; in regard of Bodhi Day.

2024

To flee vice is the beginning of virtue, and to have got rid of folly is the beginning of wisdom.

~ Horace ~

• proposed by Kalki

2025

Regard the child, regard the animal, Welcome strangers, but study daily things, Knowing that heaven and hell surround us, But this, this which we say before we're sorry, This which we live behind our unseen faces, Is neither dream, nor childhood, neither Myth, nor landscape, final, nor finished, For we are incomplete and know no future, And we are howling or dancing out our souls In beating syllables before the curtain: We are Shakespearean, we are strangers.

~ Delmore Schwartz ~

• proposed by InvisibleSun

2026

Rank or add further suggestions…

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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!

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Suggestions

Bodhi Day

DOB: Lucian Freud · Horace · Jim Morrison · Delmore Schwartz · James Thurber

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The covetous man is ever in want. ~ Horace

• 3 InvisibleSun 07:55, 5 December 2006 (UTC)
• 1 Zarbon 15:54, 26 April 2008 (UTC)
• 3 Kalki 02:09, 29 November 2008 (UTC)
• 2 Antiquary 13:59, 7 December 2008 (UTC)

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He wins every hand who mingles profit with pleasure, by delighting and instructing the reader at the same time. ~ Horace

• 3 InvisibleSun 07:55, 5 December 2006 (UTC)
• 1 Zarbon 15:54, 26 April 2008 (UTC)
• 2 Kalki 02:09, 29 November 2008 (UTC)
• 2 Antiquary 13:59, 7 December 2008 (UTC)

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Child labor! The child must carry
His fathers on his back.
~ Delmore Schwartz (born December 8, 1913)

• 3 InvisibleSun 07:55, 5 December 2006 (UTC)
• 1 Zarbon 15:54, 26 April 2008 (UTC)
• 2 Kalki 02:09, 29 November 2008 (UTC)
• 3 Antiquary 13:59, 7 December 2008 (UTC)

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All we are saying is give peace a chance! ~ John Lennon (Died that die in 1980 after being shot by Mark David Chapman)

—This unsigned comment is by Mrfandango (talk • contribs) .

• 1 Kalki (talk · contributions) 15:03, 3 December 2009 (UTC) 3 Kalki 03:49, 4 December 2007 (UTC) this was used 4 April 2008.
• 3 InvisibleSun 22:13, 7 December 2007 (UTC)
• 1 Zarbon 15:54, 26 April 2008 (UTC)
• 2 Antiquary 13:59, 7 December 2008 (UTC)
• 3 Lyle 21:29, 8 December 2008 (UTC)

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It is sweet and honorable to die for one's country. ~ Horace

• 4 Zarbon 04:10, 29 October 2008 (UTC)
• 2 Kalki 02:09, 29 November 2008 (UTC)
• 2 Antiquary 13:59, 7 December 2008 (UTC)
• 2 InvisibleSun 22:40, 7 December 2008 (UTC)
• 2 DanielTom (talk) 15:27, 7 July 2014 (UTC) (Cf. Bertrand Russell: "Patriots always talk of dying for their country, and never of killing for their country.")

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I very much consider the Internet a garden, and I'm a gardener, and I plant things in it and I work within the framework of the soil, the seasons, the climate, and the temperature, to produce plants. ~ Mark Pesce

• 3 Zarbon 04:10, 29 October 2008 (UTC)
• 2 Kalki 02:09, 29 November 2008 (UTC) with a strong lean toward 3.
• 3 Antiquary 13:59, 7 December 2008 (UTC)
• 3 InvisibleSun 22:40, 7 December 2008 (UTC)

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The great thing about multiculturalism is it doesn't involve knowing anything about other cultures - the capital of Bhutan, the principal exports of Malawi, who cares? All it requires is feeling good about other cultures. It's fundamentally a fraud, and I think was subliminally accepted on that basis. Most adherents to the idea that all cultures are equal don't want to live in anything but an advanced Western society. ~ Mark Steyn

• 2.5 DanielTom (talk) 14:15, 7 July 2014 (UTC)

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And as I see through the real you I'm falling straight into A thousand broken Mirrors I can't hide And outside the bright lights Can't hide the pain inside And I've broken a thousand mirrors

~ Sinéad O'Connor ~

• 3 --ᘙ (talk) 22:29, 5 September 2025 (UTC)
• (?) —  I had intended to use this, but in prepping for it, found that though she was the vocalist of the released song, she has no writing credits regarding it. I am certainly still open to using it in the future, but properly sourcing the lyrics and creating a page for the authors will take time, and has yet to be done. ~ ♞☤☮♌︎Kalki ⚚⚓︎⊙☳☶⚡ 00:00, 8 December 2025 (UTC) + tweaks

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You will rise You'll return The phoenix from the flame You will learn You will rise You'll return Being what you are There is no other Troy For you to burn.

~ Sinéad O'Connor ~

• 3 ♞☤☮♌︎Kalki ⚚⚓︎⊙☳☶⚡ 00:32, 8 December 2025 (UTC)

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