January 28

January 28

Quotes of the day from previous years:

2005

Wise men don't need to prove their point;
men who need to prove their point aren't wise.
The Master has no possessions.
The more he does for others, the happier he is.
The more he gives to others, the wealthier he is.
The Tao nourishes by not forcing.
By not dominating, the Master leads.
~ Lao Zi ~

• selected by Kalki

2006

Sit down and put down everything that comes into your head and then you're a writer. But an author is one who can judge his own stuff's worth, without pity, and destroy most of it. ~ Colette (born 28 January 1873)

• selected by Kalki

2007

Man needs to go outside himself in order to find repose and reveal himself. ~ José Martí

• proposed by InvisibleSun

2008

For the sincere friend
Who gives me his frank hand.
And for the cruel man who pulls out of me
the heart with which I live,
I grow neither nettles nor thorns:
I grow a white rose.
~ José Martí ~

• proposed by Kalki

2009

I love my past. I love my present. I'm not ashamed of what I've had, and I'm not sad because I have it no longer. ~ Colette (born 28 January 1873)

• proposed by InvisibleSun

2010

Life on earth is a hand-to-hand mortal combat... between the law of love and the law of hate. ~ José Martí

• proposed by Kalki

2011

Perhaps the only misplaced curiosity is that which persists in trying to find out here, on this side of death, what lies beyond the grave. ~ Colette

• proposed by InvisibleSun

2012

By means of an image we are often able to hold on to our lost belongings. But it is the desperateness of losing which picks the flowers of memory, binds the bouquet. ~ Colette

• proposed by InvisibleSun

2013

To a poet, silence is an acceptable response, even a flattering one.

~ Colette ~

• proposed by Kalki

2014

I am a sincere man from where the palm tree grows, and before I die I wish to pour forth the verses from my soul.

~ José Martí ~

• proposed by Kalki

2015

Happiness exists on earth, and it is won through prudent exercise of reason, knowledge of the harmony of the universe, and constant practice of generosity.

~ José Martí ~

• proposed by Kalki

2016

Everything that divides men, everything that specified, separates or pens them, is a sin against humanity.

~ José Martí ~

• proposed by Kalki

2017

Up, abysmal thought, out of my depths! I am your rooster and dawn, you sleepy worm: Up! Up! My voice will yet crow you awake! Unsnap the straps of your ears: listen! Because I want to hear you! Up! Up! Here there is thunder enough to make even graves learn to listen! And wipe the sleep and all that befogs and blinds you from your eyes! Hear me with your eyes too: my voice is a remedy even for those born blind. And once you are awake, you shall remain awake eternally. It is not my manner to wake great-grandmothers from their sleep only to tell them — go back to sleep! You stir, you stretch, you gasp? Up! Up! No gasping — you will speak to me! Zarathustra summons you, the godless one! I, Zarathustra, the advocate of life, the advocate of suffering, the advocate of the circle — you I summon, my most abysmal thought! Hail to me! You are coming – I hear you! My abyss speaks, I have unfolded my ultimate depth to the light!

~ Friedrich Nietzsche ~ ~ ⨀ ~

• proposed by Kalki in regard to the Chinese New Year — of the Fire Rooster.

2018

One must have faith in the best in men and distrust the worst. One must allow the best to be shown so that it reveals and prevails over the worst. Nations should have a pillory for whoever stirs up useless hate, and another for whoever fails to tell them the truth in time.

~ José Martí ~

• proposed by Kalki

2019

We are free, but not to be evil, not to be indifferent to human suffering, not to profit from the people, from the work created and sustained through their spirit of political association, while refusing to contribute to the political state that we profit from. We must say no once more. Man is not free to watch impassively the enslavement and dishonor of men, nor their struggles for liberty and honor.

~ José Martí ~

• proposed by Kalki

2020

Whoever brushes aside even a part of the truth, whether through intention or oversight, is doomed to fall. The truth he lacks thrives on negligence, and brings down whatever is built without it. It is easy to resolve our problem knowing its components than resolve them without knowing them.

~ José Martí ~

• proposed by Kalki

2021

Freedoms, like privileges, prevail or are imperiled together. You cannot harm or strive to achieve one without harming or furthering all.

~ José Martí ~

• proposed by Kalki

2022

Peace demands of Nature the recognition of human rights; discrimination is contrary to Nature and to the enemy of peace.

~ José Martí ~

• proposed by Kalki

2023

Talent is a gift that brings with it an obligation to serve the world, and not ourselves, for it is not of our making. To use for our exclusive benefit what is not ours is theft.

~ José Martí ~

• proposed by Kalki

2024

It is necessary to make virtue fashionable.

~ José Martí ~

• proposed by Kalki

2025

Mankind is composed of two sorts of men — those who love and create, and those who hate and destroy.

~ José Martí ~

• proposed by Kalki

2026

The soul, equal and eternal, emanates from bodies of different shapes and colors. Whoever foments and spreads antagonism and hate between the races, sins against humanity.

~ José Martí ~

• proposed by Kalki

2027

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

A grain of poetry suffices to season a century. ~ José Martí (born January 28, 1853)

• 3 InvisibleSun 12:18, 27 January 2007 (UTC)
• 3 Zarbon 19:15, 22 April 2008 (UTC)
• 2 ♞☤☮♌︎Kalki ⚚⚓︎⊙☳☶⚡ 23:58, 27 January 2014 (UTC) with a lean toward 3.

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In the matter of furnishing, I find a certain absence of ugliness far worse than ugliness. ~ Colette

• 3 ♞☮♌︎Kalki·†·⚓⊙☳☶⚡ 04:23, 23 January 2012 (UTC)

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You will do foolish things, but do them with enthusiasm. ~ Colette

• 3 ♞☮♌︎Kalki·†·⚓⊙☳☶⚡ 04:23, 23 January 2012 (UTC)

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We only do well the things we like doing. ~ Colette

• 3 ♞☮♌︎Kalki·†·⚓⊙☳☶⚡ 04:23, 23 January 2012 (UTC)

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Total absence of humor renders life impossible. ~ Colette

• 3 ♞☮♌︎Kalki·†·⚓⊙☳☶⚡ 04:23, 23 January 2012 (UTC)

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There are days when solitude, for someone my age, is a heady wine that intoxicates you with freedom, others when it is a bitter tonic, and still others when it is a poison that makes you beat your head against the wall. ~ Colette

• 3 bystander (talk) 00:01, 23 January 2013 (UTC)
• 2 ♞☤☮♌︎Kalki ⚚⚓︎⊙☳☶⚡ 23:42, 27 January 2014 (UTC)

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A knowledge of different literatures is the best way to free one's self from the tyranny of any of them.

~ José Martí ~

• 3 ♞☤☮♌︎Kalki ⚚⚓︎⊙☳☶⚡ 23:42, 27 January 2014 (UTC)

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The conceited villager believes the entire world to be his village. Provided that he can be mayor, humiliate the rival who stole his sweetheart, or add to the savings in his strongbox, he considers the universal order good, unaware of those giants with seven-league boots who can crush him underfoot, or of the strife in the heavens between comets that go through the air asleep, gulping down worlds.

~ José Martí ~

• 3 ♞☤☮♌︎Kalki ⚚⚓︎⊙☳☶⚡ 23:42, 27 January 2014 (UTC)

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There are men who live contented through they live without decorum. Others suffer as if in agony when they see around them people living without decorum. There must be a certain amount of decorum in the world, just as there must be a certain amount of light. When there are many men without decorum, there are always others who themselves possess the decorum of many men. These are the ones who rebel with terrible strength against those who rob nations of their liberty, which is to rob men of their decorum. Embodied in those men are thousands of men, a whole people, human dignity.

~ José Martí ~

• 3 ♞☤☮♌︎Kalki ⚚⚓︎⊙☳☶⚡ 23:42, 27 January 2014 (UTC)

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In truth, men speak too much of danger. Let others be terrified by the natural and healthy risks of life! We shall not be frightened! Poison sumac grows in a hard-working man's field, the serpent hisses from its hidden den, and the owl's eye shines in the belfry, but the sun goes on lighting the sky, and truth continues marching across the earth unscathed.

~ José Martí ~

• 3 ♞☤☮♌︎Kalki ⚚⚓︎⊙☳☶⚡ 23:42, 27 January 2014 (UTC)

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Like stones rolling down hills, fair ideas reach their objectives despite all obstacles and barriers. It may be possible to speed or hinder them, but impossible to stop them.

~ José Martí ~

• 3 ♞☤☮♌︎Kalki ⚚⚓︎⊙☳☶⚡ 23:42, 27 January 2014 (UTC)

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A genuine man goes to the roots. To be a radical is no more than that: to go to the roots. He who does not see things in their depth should not call himself a radical.

~ José Martí ~

• 3 ♞☤☮♌︎Kalki ⚚⚓︎⊙☳☶⚡ 23:42, 27 January 2014 (UTC)

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He who could have been a torch and stoops to being a pair of jaws is a deserter.

~ José Martí ~

• 3 ♞☤☮♌︎Kalki ⚚⚓︎⊙☳☶⚡ 23:42, 27 January 2014 (UTC)

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Absolute ideas must take relative forms if they are not to fail because of an error in form. Freedom, to be viable, has to be sincere and complete. If a republic refuses to open its arms to all, and move ahead with all, it dies.

~ José Martí ~

• 3 ♞☤☮♌︎Kalki ⚚⚓︎⊙☳☶⚡ 23:42, 27 January 2014 (UTC)

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To believe your own thought, to believe that what is true for you in your private heart is true for all men, — that is genius. Ralph_Waldo_Emerson

• —This unsigned comment is by Balaji.md au (talk • contribs) . (25 January 2016)

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