# November 10

Quotes of the day from previous years:

## 2004

    When war is declared, truth is the first casualty. ~ Arthur Ponsonby
   * selected by Kalki

## 2005

    We are always living in the final days. What have you got? A hundred years or much, much less until the end of your world. ~ Neil Gaiman (born 10 November 1960)
   * proposed by Kalki

## 2006

    Rarely do we arrive at the summit of truth without running into extremes; we have frequently to exhaust the part of error, and even of folly, before we work our way up to the noble goal of tranquil wisdom. ~ Friedrich Schiller (born 10 November 1759)
   * proposed by InvisibleSun

## 2007

    There's never been a true war that wasn't fought between two sets of people who were certain they were in the right. The really dangerous people believe they are doing whatever they are doing solely and only because it is without question the right thing to do. And that is what makes them dangerous. ~ "Mr. Wednesday" in American Gods by Neil Gaiman
   * proposed by Kalki

## 2008

    The dignity of mankind is in your hands; protect it! It sinks with you! With you it will ascend. ~ Friedrich Schiller ~
   * proposed by InvisibleSun

## 2009

    He who has done his best for his own time has lived for all times. ~ Friedrich Schiller
   * proposed by Kalki

## 2010

    Man only plays when in the full meaning of the word he is a man, and he is only completely a man when he plays. ~ Friedrich Schiller
   * proposed by Kalki

## 2011

    All we have to believe with is our senses, the tools we use to perceive the world: our sight, our touch, our memory. If they lie to us, then nothing can be trusted. And even if we do not believe, then still we cannot travel in any other way than the road our senses show us; and we must walk that road to the end. ~ Neil Gaiman in American Gods
   * proposed by Kalki

## 2012

* There's no such thing as chance; And what to us seems merest accident Springs from the deepest source of destiny.
* ~ Friedrich Schiller ~
   * proposed by Kalki

## 2013

* Dare to be wise! Energy and spirit is needed to overcome the obstacles which indolence of nature as well as cowardice of heart oppose to our instruction. It is not without significance that the old myth makes the goddess of Wisdom emerge fully armed from the head of Jupiter; for her very first function is warlike. Even in her birth she has to maintain a hard struggle with the senses, which do not want to be dragged from their sweet repose. The greater part of humanity is too much harassed and fatigued by the struggle with want, to rally itself for a new and sterner struggle with error. Content if they themselves escape the hard labor of thought, men gladly resign to others the guardianship of their ideas, and if it happens that higher needs are stirred in them, they embrace with a eager faith the formulas which State and priesthood hold in readiness for such an occasion.
* ~ Friedrich Schiller ~
   * proposed by Kalki

## 2014

* It's astonishing how much trouble one can get oneself into, if one works at it. And astonishing how much trouble one can get oneself out of, if one simply assumes that everything will, somehow or other, work out for the best.
* ~ Neil Gaiman ~ in ~ The Sandman ~
   * proposed by Kalki

## 2015

* Everybody has a secret world inside of them. All of the people of the world, I mean everybody. No matter how dull and boring they are on the outside, inside them they've all got unimaginable, magnificent, wonderful, stupid, amazing worlds. Not just one world. Hundreds of them. Thousands maybe.
* ~ Neil Gaiman ~ in ~ The Sandman ~
   * proposed by Kalki

## 2016

* All your questions can be answered, if that is what you want. But once you learn your answers, you can never unlearn them.
* ~ Neil Gaiman ~ in ~ American Gods ~
   * proposed by Kalki

## 2017

* I'm proud of my invention, but I'm sad that it is used by terrorists. … I would prefer to have invented a machine that people could use and that would help farmers with their work — for example a lawnmower.
* ~ Mikhail Kalashnikov ~
   * proposed by Zarbon

## 2018

* We all – adults and children, writers and readers – have an obligation to daydream. We have an obligation to imagine. It is easy to pretend that nobody can change anything, that we are in a world in which society is huge and the individual is less than nothing: an atom in a wall, a grain of rice in a rice field. But the truth is, individuals change their world over and over, individuals make the future, and they do it by imagining that things can be different.
* ~ Neil Gaiman ~
   * proposed by Kalki

## 2019

* All writers … have an obligation to our readers: it's the obligation to write true things, especially important when we are creating tales of people who do not exist in places that never were — to understand that truth is not in what happens but what it tells us about who we are. Fiction is the lie that tells the truth, after all.
* ~ Neil Gaiman ~
   * proposed by Kalki

## 2020

* Honestly, if you're given the choice between Armageddon or tea, you don't say "what kind of tea?"
* ~ Neil Gaiman ~
   * proposed by Kalki

## 2021

* The little folk dare anything … And they talks a lot of nonsense. But they talks an awful lot of sense, as well. You listen to 'em at your peril, and you ignore 'em at your peril, too.
* ~ Neil Gaiman ~ in ~ Stardust : Being A Romance Within The Realm of Faerie ~
   * proposed by Kalki

## 2022

* Have been unavoidably detained by the world. Expect us when you see us.
* ~ Neil Gaiman ~ in ~ Stardust : Being A Romance Within The Realm of Faerie ~
   * proposed by Kalki

## 2023

* The world doesn’t have to be like this. Things can be different. … Fiction can show you a different world. It can take you somewhere you’ve never been. Once you’ve visited other worlds, like those who ate fairy fruit, you can never be entirely content with the world that you grew up in. Discontent is a good thing: discontented people can modify and improve their worlds, leave them better, leave them different.
* ~ Neil Gaiman ~
   * proposed by Kalki

## 2024

* Fairy tales are more than true: not because they tell us that dragons exist, but because they tell us that dragons can be beaten.
* ~ Neil Gaiman ~
   * proposed by Kalki

## 2025

    Rank or add further suggestions…
Quotes by people born this day, already used as QOTD:
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

Dr. Livingstone, I presume? ~ Henry Morton Stanley, uttered that day
    —This unsigned comment is by MosheZadka (talk • contribs) .
* 1 Kalki 08:07, 9 November 2007 (UTC) Many things by Neil Gaiman and some by Friedrich Schiller far outrank the appeal of this one for me.
* 0 Zarbon 06:00, 26 April 2008 (UTC)
* 2 InvisibleSun 22:35, 9 November 2008 (UTC)
If my dream was true, then everything we know, everything we think we know is a lie. It means the world's about as solid and as reliable as a layer of scum on the top of a well of black water which goes down forever, and there are things in the depths that I don't even want to think about. It means that we're just dolls. We don't have a clue what's really going down, we just kid ourselves that we're in control of our lives while a paper's thickness away things that would drive us mad if we thought about them for too long play with us, and move us around from room to room, and put us away at night when they're tired, or bored. ~ Neil Gaiman (date of birth)
* 3 Kalki 20:03, 9 November 2005 (UTC) with a very strong lean toward 4.
* 3 InvisibleSun 23:51, 8 November 2006 (UTC)
* 2 Zarbon 06:00, 26 April 2008 (UTC)
* 3 Hydrangeans (talk) 21:39, 8 November 2024 (UTC)
Where'er I roam, whatever realms I see, My heart untraveled fondly turns to thee; Still to my brother turns with ceaseless pain, And drags at each remove a lengthening chain. ~ Oliver Goldsmith (born November 10, ca. 1730)
* 3 InvisibleSun 23:51, 8 November 2006 (UTC)
* 2 Kalki 08:07, 9 November 2007 (UTC)
* 1 Zarbon 06:00, 26 April 2008 (UTC)
* 3 Hydrangeans (talk) 21:39, 8 November 2024 (UTC)
Conscience is a coward, and those faults it has not strength enough to prevent it seldom has justice enough to accuse. ~ Oliver Goldsmith
* 3 InvisibleSun 23:51, 8 November 2006 (UTC)
* 3 Kalki 08:07, 9 November 2007 (UTC)
* 1 Zarbon 06:00, 26 April 2008 (UTC)
* 3 Hydrangeans (talk) 21:39, 8 November 2024 (UTC)
All that is good is simple and all that is simple is good. ~ Mikhail Kalashnikov
* 3 Zarbon 03:39, 9 July 2008 (UTC)
* 2 Kalki 00:51, 9 November 2008 (UTC)
God felt sorry for actors, so he gave them a place in the sun and a lot of money. All they had to sacrifice was their talent. ~ Claude Rains
* 2 Zarbon 03:42, 9 July 2008 (UTC)
* 1 Kalki 00:51, 9 November 2008 (UTC)
* 1 InvisibleSun 22:35, 9 November 2008 (UTC)
* 1 Hydrangeans (talk) 21:39, 8 November 2024 (UTC)
For he who fights and runs away May live to fight another day; But he who is in battle slain Can never rise and fight again. ~ Oliver Goldsmith
* 3 Zarbon 04:00, 9 July 2008 (UTC)
* 2 Kalki 00:51, 9 November 2008 (UTC) I might rank this higher, but Goldsmith was apparently not the originator of such phrasing, though his version Is one of the more famous.
** Hey mate, I am curious, who did this originate from if not Goldsmith...I always thought it was his, regardless of it being one of the more famous versions. Zarbon 05:04, 9 November 2008 (UTC)
*** See the link accompanying the quote on the Oliver Goldsmith page. - InvisibleSun 22:35, 9 November 2008 (UTC)
* 2 InvisibleSun 22:35, 9 November 2008 (UTC)
For just experience tells; in every soil, That those that think must govern those that toil. ~ Oliver Goldsmith
* 3 Zarbon 04:00, 9 July 2008 (UTC)
* 1 Kalki 00:51, 9 November 2008 (UTC)
* 1 InvisibleSun 22:35, 9 November 2008 (UTC)
Let schoolmasters puzzle their brain, With grammar, and nonsense, and learning; Good liquor, I stoutly maintain, Gives genus a better discerning. ~ Oliver Goldsmith
* 2 Zarbon 04:00, 9 July 2008 (UTC)
* 1 Kalki 00:51, 9 November 2008 (UTC) I don't rank this highly, and the exact phrasing is also disputed — there are many published variants using either genius or genus, though genius seems more appropriate.
* 2 using "genius." - InvisibleSun 22:35, 9 November 2008 (UTC)
Too fair to worship, too divine to love. ~ Henry Hart Milman
* 2 Zarbon 04:00, 9 July 2008 (UTC)
* 1 Kalki 00:51, 9 November 2008 (UTC) I might possibly rank this higher with more context.
* 2 InvisibleSun 22:35, 9 November 2008 (UTC)