# March 29

Quotes of the day from previous years:

## 2004

    Love is an act of endless forgiveness, a tender look which becomes a habit. ~ Peter Ustinov (recent death)
   * selected by Kalki

## 2005

    If anything can survive the probe of humour it is clearly of value, and conversely all groups who claim immunity from laughter are claiming special privileges which should not be granted. ~ Eric Idle (born 29 March 1943)
   * selected by Kalki

## 2006

    Good books tell the truth, even when they're about things that never have been and never will be. They're truthful in a different way. ~ Stanisław Lem (recent death)
   * selected by Kalki

## 2007

    I have been all men known to history, Wondering at the world and at time passing; I have seen evil, and the light blessing Innocent love under a spring sky. ~ R. S. Thomas ~
   * selected by Kalki

## 2008

    I have known exile and a wild passion Of longing changing to a cold ache. King, beggar and fool, I have been all by turns, Knowing the body’s sweetness, the mind’s treason; Taliesin still, I show you a new world, risen, Stubborn with beauty, out of the heart’s need. ~ R. S. Thomas ~
   * proposed by Kalki

## 2009

    On seeing his shadow fall on such ancient rocks, he had to question himself in a different context and ask the same old question as before, "Who am I?", and the answer now came more emphatically than ever before, "No-one." But a no-one with a crown of light about his head. He would remember a verse from Pindar: "Man is a dream about a shadow. But when some splendour falls upon him from God, a glory comes to him and his life is sweet." ~ R. S. Thomas ~
   * proposed by Kalki

## 2010

    She is young. Have I the right Even to name her? Child, It is not love I offer Your quick limbs, your eyes; Only the barren homage Of an old man whom time Crucifies. ~ R. S. Thomas ~
   * proposed by Kalki

## 2011

    I am like a tree, From my top boughs I can see The footprints that led up to me. ~ R. S. Thomas
   * proposed by Zarbon

## 2012

    Let despair be known as my ebb-tide; but let prayer have its springs, too, brimming, disarming him; discovering somewhere among his fissures deposits of mercy where trust may take root and grow. ~ R. S. Thomas ~
   * proposed by Kalki

## 2013

* The power of the imagination is a unifying power, hence the force of metaphor; and the poet is the supreme manipulator of metaphor... the world needs the unifying power of the imagination. The two things that give it best are poetry and religion.
* ~ R. S. Thomas ~
   * proposed by Kalki

## 2014

* Sunlight's a thing that needs a window Before it enter a dark room. Windows don't happen.
* ~ R. S. Thomas ~
   * proposed by Kalki

## 2015

* A poet must be able to claim … freedom to follow the vision of poetry, the imaginative vision of poetry … And in any case, poetry is religion, religion is poetry. The message of the New Testament is poetry. Christ was a poet, the New Testament is metaphor, the Resurrection is a metaphor; and I feel perfectly within my rights in approaching my whole vocation as priest and preacher as one who is to present poetry; and when I preach poetry I am preaching Christianity, and when one discusses Christianity one is discussing poetry in its imaginative aspects. … My work as a poet has to deal with the presentation of imaginative truth.
* ~ R. S. Thomas ~
   * proposed by Kalki

## 2016

* Imaginative truth is the most immediate way of presenting ultimate reality to a human being … ultimate reality is what we call God.
* ~ R. S. Thomas ~
   * proposed by Kalki

## 2017

* You have to imagine a waiting that is not impatient because it is timeless.
* ~ R. S. Thomas ~
   * proposed by Kalki

## 2018

* The nearest we approach God … is as creative beings. The poet, by echoing the primary imagination, recreates. Through his work he forces those who read him to do the same, thus bringing them … nearer to the actual being of God as displayed in action.
* ~ R. S. Thomas ~
   * proposed by Kalki

## 2019

* Life is not hurrying on to a receding future, nor hankering after an imagined past. It is the turning aside like Moses to the miracle of the lit bush, to a brightness that seemed as transitory as your youth once, but is the eternity that awaits you.
* ~ R. S. Thomas ~
   * proposed by Kalki

## 2020

* We do not need presidents who are bigger than the country, but rather ones who speak for it and support it.
* ~ Eugene McCarthy ~
   * proposed by Zarbon

## 2021

* The darkness is the deepening shadow of your presence; the silence a process in the metabolism of the being of love.
* ~ R. S. Thomas ~
   * proposed by Kalki

## 2022

* Since the beginning of the Russian invasion one month ago, the war has led to the senseless loss of thousands of lives; the displacement of ten million people, mainly women and children; the systematic destruction of essential infrastructure; and skyrocketing food and energy prices worldwide. This must stop. ... A cessation of hostilities will allow essential humanitarian aid to be delivered and enable civilians to move around safely. It will save lives, prevent suffering, and protect civilians.
* ~ António Guterres ~
   * proposed by Kalki

## 2023

* A slow singer, but loading each phrase With history’s overtones, love, joy And grief learned by his dark tribe In other orchards and passed on Instinctively as they are now, But fresh always with new tears.
* ~ R. S. Thomas ~
   * proposed by Kalki

## 2024

* Sometimes a strange light shines, purer than the moon, casting no shadow, that is the halo upon the bones of the pioneers who died for truth.
* ~ R. S. Thomas ~
   * proposed by Kalki

## 2025

    Rank or add further suggestions…
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

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    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

Perhaps, the 29th being the day on which the last American troops withdrew from South Vietnam, this quote by William Westmoreland, the threatre commander, could be considered:
"It's not that we lost the war militarily. The fact is that we as a nation did not make good our commitment to the South Vietnamese."
    —This unsigned comment is by Jb17kx (talk • contribs) . [Suggestion made at 2007-03-29 03:32:07 (UTC) — the selection for 2007 had already been made at that time.]
* 1 Kalki 06:58, 12 April 2007 (UTC)
* 1 Zarbon 04:43, 23 April 2008 (UTC)
* 1 Ningauble 17:13, 28 March 2009 (UTC)
* 1 InvisibleSun 21:38, 28 March 2009 (UTC)
Popularity, I have always thought, may aptly be compared to a coquette - the more you woo her, the more apt is she to elude your embrace. ~ John Tyler
* 3 Zarbon 22:57, 24 March 2009 (UTC)
* 2.5 Ningauble 17:13, 28 March 2009 (UTC)
* 3 Kalki 19:07, 28 March 2009 (UTC)
* 3 InvisibleSun 21:38, 28 March 2009 (UTC)
I'm kind of an accidental instrument, really, through which I hope that the judgment and the will of this nation can be expressed. ~ Eugene McCarthy
* 3 Zarbon 22:57, 24 March 2009 (UTC)
* 1 Ningauble 17:13, 28 March 2009 (UTC)
* 3 Kalki 19:07, 28 March 2009 (UTC) with a lean toward 4.
* 2 InvisibleSun 21:38, 28 March 2009 (UTC)
The glove has been thrown to the ground, The last choice of weapons made. A book for one thought. A poem for one line. A line for one word. ~ Eugene McCarthy (DoB)
* 3 Ningauble 17:13, 28 March 2009 (UTC)
* 3 Kalki 19:07, 28 March 2009 (UTC) with a lean toward 4.
* 3 InvisibleSun 21:38, 28 March 2009 (UTC)
* 1 Zarbon 02:06, 29 March 2009 (UTC)
The only thing that saves us from the bureaucracy is inefficiency. An efficient bureaucracy is the greatest threat to liberty. ~ Eugene McCarthy (DoB)
* 2.5 Ningauble 17:13, 28 March 2009 (UTC)
* 3 Kalki 19:07, 28 March 2009 (UTC) with a strong lean toward 4.
* 3 InvisibleSun 21:38, 28 March 2009 (UTC)
* 3 Zarbon 02:06, 29 March 2009 (UTC)
Oh, Lord, if I must die today, Please make it after Close of Play. For this, I know, if nothing more, I will not go, without the score. ~ John Major (DoB)
* 2.5 Ningauble 17:13, 28 March 2009 (UTC)
* 3 Kalki 19:07, 28 March 2009 (UTC)
* 3 InvisibleSun 21:38, 28 March 2009 (UTC)
* 1 Zarbon 02:06, 29 March 2009 (UTC)
He arose, pacing the floor Strewn with books, his mind big with the poem Soon to be born, his nerves tense to endure The long torture of delayed birth. ~ R. S. Thomas ~
* 3 Kalki 19:07, 28 March 2009 (UTC) with a very strong lean toward 4.
* 2 InvisibleSun 21:38, 28 March 2009 (UTC)
* 1 Zarbon 02:06, 29 March 2009 (UTC)