# February 26

Quotes of the day from previous years:

## 2004

    An interesting thing has happened since San Francisco started granting marriage licenses to same-sex couples: my marriage is just fine! Even though there are thousands of gay and lesbian couples affirming their love for and commitment to each other, my marriage — my affirmation of love and commitment to (my wife) — isn't threatened at all. As a matter of fact, the only people who can really "threaten" my marriage are the two of us. ~ Wil Wheaton
   * selected by IP 172.143.235.101

## 2005

    The true division of humanity is between those who live in light and those who live in darkness. Our aim must be to diminish the number of the latter and increase the number of the former. That is why we demand education and knowledge. ~ Victor Hugo (born 26 February 1802)
   * selected by Kalki

## 2006

    Sure, ninety percent of science fiction is crud. That's because ninety percent of everything is crud. ~ Theodore Sturgeon (born 26 February 1918)
   * selected by Kalki

## 2007

    To put everything in balance is good, to put everything in harmony is better. ~ Victor Hugo
   * proposed by Kalki

## 2008

    A man is not idle, because he is absorbed in thought. There is a visible labour and there is an invisible labour. ~ Victor Hugo in Les Misérables
   * proposed by Kalki

## 2009

    The need of the immaterial is the most deeply rooted of all needs. One must have bread; but before bread, one must have the ideal. ~ Victor Hugo
   * proposed by Kalki

## 2010

    A day will come when there will be no battlefields, but markets opening to commerce and minds opening to ideas. A day will come when the bullets and bombs are replaced by votes, by universal suffrage, by the venerable arbitration of a great supreme senate which will be to Europe what Parliament is to England, the Diet to Germany, and the Legislative Assembly to France. A day will come when a cannon will be a museum-piece, as instruments of torture are today. And we will be amazed to think that these things once existed! ~ Victor Hugo
   * proposed by InvisibleSun

## 2011

    God manifests himself to us in the first degree through the life of the universe, and in the second degree through the thought of man. The second manifestation is not less holy than the first. The first is named Nature, the second is named Art. ~ Victor Hugo
   * proposed by InvisibleSun

## 2012

    You have enemies? Why, it is the story of every man who has done a great deed or created a new idea. It is the cloud which thunders around everything that shines. Fame must have enemies, as light must have gnats. Do no bother yourself about it; disdain. Keep your mind serene as you keep your life clear. ~ Victor Hugo
   * proposed by bystander

## 2013

* Such is the privilege of genius; it perceives, it seizes relations where vulgar eyes see only isolated facts.
* ~ François Arago ~
   * proposed by Kalki

## 2014

* On certain occasions, the eyes of the mind can supply the want of the most powerful telescopes, and lead to astronomical discoveries of the highest importance.
* ~ François Arago ~
   * proposed by bystander

## 2015

* Jesus wept; Voltaire smiled. Of that divine tear and that human smile is composed the sweetness of the present civilization.
* ~ Victor Hugo ~
   * proposed by InvisibleSun

## 2016

* Would you realize what Revolution is, call it Progress; and would you realize what Progress is, call it Tomorrow.
* ~ Victor Hugo ~ in ~ Les Misérables ~
   * proposed by InvisibleSun

## 2017

* Love is a burnin' thing And it makes a fiery ring Bound by wild desire I fell into a ring of fireI fell into a burnin' ring of fire I went down, down, down And the flames went higher And it burns, burns, burns The ring of fire, the ring of fire
* ~ June Carter Cash ~
   * proposed by Kalki, from her song Ring of Fire which was one of the top hits of her and her husband Johnny Cash, who was born on this day, and "Ring of Fire" also being a popular name for an annular eclipse, one of which is occurring across the southern hemisphere on this date in 2017.

## 2018

* Great perils have this beauty, that they bring to light the fraternity of strangers.
* ~ Victor Hugo ~ in ~ Les Misérables ~
   * proposed by InvisibleSun

## 2019

* I wear the black for the poor and the beaten down, Livin' in the hopeless, hungry side of town, I wear it for the prisoner who has long paid for his crime, But is there because he's a victim of the times.
* ~ Johnny Cash ~
   * proposed by 200.203.55.240 (talk · contributions)

## 2020

* The mind's eye can nowhere find anything more dazzling nor more dark than in man; it can fix itself upon nothing which is more awful, more complex, more mysterious, or more infinite. There is one spectacle grander than the sea, that is the sky; there is one spectacle grander than the sky, that is the interior of the soul. To write the poem of the human conscience, were it only of a single man, were it only of the most infamous of men, would be to swallow up all epics in a superior and final epic.
* ~ Victor Hugo ~ in ~ Les Misérables ~
   * proposed by InvisibleSun

## 2021

* Civil war? What does this mean? Is there any foreign war? Is not every war between men, war between brothers? War is modified only by its aim. There is neither foreign war, nor civil war; there is only unjust war and just war.
* ~ Victor Hugo ~ in ~ Les Misérables ~
   * proposed by InvisibleSun

## 2022

* We are seeing Russian military operations inside the sovereign territory of Ukraine on a scale that Europe has not seen in decades. Day after day, I have been clear that such unilateral measures conflict directly with the United Nations Charter. … I repeat my appeal from last night to President Putin: Stop the military operation. Bring the troops back to Russia. We know the toll of war. With deaths rising, we are seeing images of fear, anguish and terror in every corner of Ukraine. People – everyday innocent people – always pay the highest price.
* ~ António Guterres ~
   * proposed by Kalki; remarks on the current Russian military invasion of Ukraine.

## 2023

* Music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossible to be silent.
* ~ Victor Hugo ~
   * proposed by InvisibleSun

## 2024

* Poetry will take a great step, a decisive step, a step which, like the upheaval of an earthquake, will change the whole face of the intellectual world. It will set about doing as nature does, mingling in its creations — but without confounding them — darkness and light, the grotesque and the sublime; in other words, the body and the soul, the beast and the intellect; for the starting-point of religion is always the starting-point of poetry. All things are connected.
* ~ Victor Hugo ~
   * proposed by Kalki

## 2025

* Those are rare who fall without becoming degraded; there is a point, moreover, at which the unfortunate and the infamous are associated and confounded in a single word, a fatal word, Les Misérables.
* ~ Victor Hugo ~ in ~ Les Misérables ~
   * proposed by Kalki

## 2026

    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

    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

Was this the face that launch'd a thousand ships, And burnt the topless towers of Ilium? Sweet Helen, make me immortal with a kiss! Her lips suck forth my soul: see, where it flies! ~ Christopher Marlowe (baptized February 26, 1564)
* 3 InvisibleSun 22:42, 25 February 2009 (UTC)
* 3 Kalki 23:45, 25 February 2009 (UTC)
* 1 Zarbon 05:52, 27 February 2009 (UTC)
Logic ignores the Almost, just as the sun ignores the candle. ~ Victor Hugo, from Les Misérables
* 3 InvisibleSun 22:42, 25 February 2009 (UTC)
* 3 Kalki 23:45, 25 February 2009 (UTC) with a strong lean toward 4.
* 2 Zarbon 05:52, 27 February 2009 (UTC)
Where the telescope ends, the microscope begins. Which of the two has the grander view? ~ Victor Hugo, from Les Misérables
* 3 InvisibleSun 22:42, 25 February 2009 (UTC)
* 3 Kalki 23:45, 25 February 2009 (UTC)
* 2 Zarbon 05:52, 27 February 2009 (UTC)
* 2 bystander (talk) 21:02, 16 February 2012 (UTC)