# July 3

Quotes of the day from previous years:

## 2004

    You don't understand. I could'a had class. I could'a been a contender. ~ Marlon Brando as "Terry Malloy" in On the Waterfront (recent death)
   * selected by Kalki

## 2005

    The splendor of life forever lies in wait about each one of us in all its fullness, but veiled from view, deep down, invisible, far off. It is there, though, not hostile, not reluctant, not deaf. If you summon it by the right word, by its right name, it will come. ~ Franz Kafka (born 3 July 1883)
   * proposed by User:Kalki

## 2006

    I don't think writers are sacred, but words are. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones in the right order, you might nudge the world a little or make a poem that children will speak for you when you are dead. ~ Tom Stoppard (born 3 July 1937)
   * proposed by InvisibleSun

## 2007

    We are sinful not merely because we have eaten of the Tree of Knowledge, but also because we have not yet eaten of the Tree of Life. ~ Franz Kafka
   * proposed by Kalki

## 2008

    Youth is happy because it has the ability to see beauty. Anyone who keeps the ability to see beauty never grows old. ~ Franz Kafka (date of birth)
   * proposed by Kalki

## 2009

    Beyond a certain point there is no return. This point has to be reached. ~ Franz Kafka
   * proposed by Kalki

## 2010

    I will have poetry in my life. And adventure. And love. Love above all. No... not the artful postures of love, not playful and poetical games of love for the amusement of an evening, but love that... overthrows life. Unbiddable, ungovernable — like a riot in the heart, and nothing to be done, come ruin or rapture. Love — like there has never been in a play. ~ Tom Stoppard in Shakespeare in Love
   * proposed by Kalki

## 2011

    You can only be young once but you can be immature forever. ~ Dave Barry
   * proposed by Zarbon

## 2012

* An artist is the magician put among men to gratify — capriciously — their urge for immortality. The temples are built and brought down around him, continuously and contiguously, from Troy to the fields of Flanders. If there is any meaning in any of it, it is in what survives as art, yes even in the celebration of tyrants, yes even in the celebration of nonentities. What now of the Trojan War if it had been passed over by the artist's touch? Dust. A forgotten expedition prompted by Greek merchants looking for new markets. A minor redistribution of broken pots. But it is we who stand enriched, by a tale of heroes, of a golden apple, a wooden horse, a face that launched a thousand ships — and above all, of Ulysses, the wanderer, the most human, the most complete of all heroes — husband, father, son, lover, farmer, soldier, pacifist, politician, inventor and adventurer.
* ~ Tom Stoppard ~
   * proposed by Kalki

## 2013

* What is this life if, full of care,
* We have no time to stand and stare.
* ~ William Henry Davies ~
   * proposed by DanielTom

## 2014

* How the hell do I know what I find incredible? Credibility is an expanding field... Sheer disbelief hardly registers on the face before the head is nodding with all the wisdom of instant hindsight.
* ~ Tom Stoppard ~
   * proposed by InvisibleSun

## 2015

* This is what makes time travel possible: the flux capacitor!
* ~ Doc Brown ~ in ~ Back to the Future ~
   * proposed by Lyle for an anniversary of the film's release in 1985; used on the 30th anniversary.

## 2016

* Whenever an angel says "Be not afraid!" you'd better start worrying. A big assignment is on the way.
* ~ Elie Wiesel ~
   * Added to QOTD array in tribute to Wiesel, after his recent death.
* All human errors are impatience, the premature breaking off of what is methodical, an apparent fencing in of the apparent thing.
* ~ Franz Kafka ~
   * proposed by Kalki

## 2017

* There is nothing besides a spiritual world; what we call the world of the senses is the Evil in the spiritual world, and what we call Evil is only the necessity of a moment in our eternal evolution. One can disintegrate the world by means of very strong light. For weak eyes the world becomes solid, for still weaker eyes it seems to develop fists, for eyes weaker still it becomes shamefaced and smashes anyone who dares to gaze upon it.
* ~ Franz Kafka ~
   * proposed by Kalki

## 2018

* All writers in some insane place believe that to write is a holy chore — that what one wishes to do is speak to one’s time, to make a difference, to say: "I was here. I was a force for good in some way."
* ~ Harlan Ellison ~
   * proposed by Kalki, in regard to his recent death.

## 2019

* One tells as few lies as possible only by telling as few lies as possible, and not by having the least possible opportunity to do so.
* ~ Franz Kafka ~
   * proposed by Kalki

## 2020

* Between "just desserts" and "tragic irony" we are given quite a large scope for our particular talent. Generally speaking, things have gone about as far as they can possibly go when things have gotten about as bad as they can reasonably get.
* ~ Tom Stoppard ~ in ~ Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead ~
   * proposed by Kalki

## 2021

* The decisive moment in human evolution is perpetual. That is why the revolutionary spiritual movements that declare all former things worthless are in the right, for nothing has yet happened.
* ~ Franz Kafka ~
   * proposed by Kalki

## 2022

* We cross our bridges when we come to them, and burn them behind us, with nothing to show for our progress except a memory of the smell of smoke, and a presumption that once our eyes watered.
* ~ Tom Stoppard ~ in ~ Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead ~
   * proposed by Kalki

## 2023

* Association with human beings lures one into self-observation.
* ~ Franz Kafka ~ in ~ The Zürau Aphorisms ~
   * proposed by Kalki

## 2024

* We shed as we pick up, like travellers who must carry everything in their arms, and what we let fall will be picked up by those behind. The procession is very long and life is very short. We die on the march. But there is nothing outside the march so nothing can be lost to it.
* ~ Tom Stoppard ~
   * proposed by InvisibleSun

## 2026

    Rank or add further suggestions…
Ranking system:
    4 : Excellent - should definitely be used.
    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.

## Suggestions

As Gregor Samsa awoke one morning from uneasy dreams he found himself transformed in his bed into a gigantic insect. ~ The Metamorphosis, Franz Kafka born that day.
* 3 ~ MosheZadka (Talk) 08:22, 25 Jun 2005 (UTC)
* 3 121a0012 June 27, 2005 03:52 (UTC) (But italicize title.)
* 2 A famous line, but still a relatively obscure and simply puzzling statement to many people. ~ Kalki
* 2 InvisibleSun 21:20, 2 July 2007 (UTC)
* 1 Zarbon 04:53, 24 April 2008 (UTC)
* 1 //Gbern3 (talk) 01:27, 1 July 2013 (UTC)
It’s not the voting that’s democracy, it’s the counting. ~ Tom Stoppard (born July 3, 1937)
* 3 InvisibleSun 21:20, 2 July 2007 (UTC)
* 3 Kalki 22:03, 2 July 2007 (UTC)
* 1 Zarbon 04:53, 24 April 2008 (UTC)
* 1 //Gbern3 (talk) 01:27, 1 July 2013 (UTC) ? I don't get it.
I write plays because dialogue is the most respectable way of contradicting myself. ~ Tom Stoppard
* 3 InvisibleSun 21:20, 2 July 2007 (UTC)
* 3 Kalki 22:03, 2 July 2007 (UTC) with a slight lean toward 4.
* 1 Zarbon 04:53, 24 April 2008 (UTC)
* 1 //Gbern3 (talk) 01:27, 1 July 2013 (UTC)
War is capitalism with the gloves off and many who go to war know it but they go to war because they don't want to be a hero. It takes courage to sit down and be counted. ~ Tom Stoppard
* 3 Kalki (talk · contributions) 00:00, 30 June 2010 (UTC)
* 1 //Gbern3 (talk) 01:27, 1 July 2013 (UTC) I'm back to not getting it again.
We do on stage things that are supposed to happen off. Which is a kind of integrity, if you look on every exit as being an entrance somewhere else. ~ Tom Stoppard in Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead (film)
* 3 Kalki (talk · contributions) 00:00, 30 June 2010 (UTC)
* 2 //Gbern3 (talk) 01:27, 1 July 2013 (UTC)
England is home to every shade of political exile. They don't give asylum out of respect for asylum-seekers, but out of respect for themselves. They invented personal liberty, and they know it, and they did it without having any theories about it. They value liberty because it's liberty. ~ Tom Stoppard
* 3 Kalki (talk · contributions) 00:00, 30 June 2010 (UTC)
* 2 //Gbern3 (talk) 01:27, 1 July 2013 (UTC)
Junk journalism is the evidence of a society that has got at least one thing right, that there should be nobody with the power to dictate where responsible journalism begins. ~ Tom Stoppard
* 3 Kalki (talk · contributions) 00:00, 30 June 2010 (UTC)
* 1 //Gbern3 (talk) 01:27, 1 July 2013 (UTC)
Love denied blights the soul we owe to God. ~ Tom Stoppard in Shakespeare in Love
* 3 Kalki (talk · contributions) 00:00, 30 June 2010 (UTC)
* 1 //Gbern3 (talk) 01:27, 1 July 2013 (UTC)
My whole life is waiting for the questions to which I have prepared answers. ~ Tom Stoppard
* 3 Kalki (talk · contributions) 00:00, 30 June 2010 (UTC)
* 1 //Gbern3 (talk) 01:27, 1 July 2013 (UTC) This quote sounds like it's supposed to be important but I guess I just don't understand Tom Stoppard.
* The ulterior motives with which you absorb and assimilate Evil are not your own but those of Evil. The animal wrests the whip from its master and whips itself in order to become master, not knowing that this is only a fantasy produced by a new knot in the master’s whiplash.
* ~ Franz Kafka ~
* 3 ♞☤☮♌︎Kalki ⚚⚓︎⊙☳☶⚡ 23:30, 1 July 2016 (UTC)
* The Messiah will come only when he is no longer necessary; he will come only on the day after his arrival; he will come, not on the last day, but on the very last day.
* ~ Franz Kafka ~
* 3 ♞☤☮♌︎Kalki ⚚⚓︎⊙☳☶⚡ 23:30, 1 July 2016 (UTC)
* In the struggle between yourself and the world, back the world.
* ~ Franz Kafka ~
* 3 ♞☤☮♌︎Kalki ⚚⚓︎⊙☳☶⚡ 23:34, 1 July 2016 (UTC)