# July 22

Quotes of the day from previous years:

## 2003

    One can no more prevent the mind from returning to an idea than the sea from returning to a shore. In the case of the sailor, this is called a tide; in the case of the guilty, it is called remorse. ~ Les Miserables by Victor Hugo
   * selected by Nanobug

## 2004

    What a folly to dread the thought of throwing away life at once, and yet have no regard to throwing it away by parcels and piecemeal. ~ John Howe
   * selected by Kalki

## 2005

    Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door! ~ Emma Lazarus, "The New Colossus" (born 22 July 1849)
   * proposed by Kalki

## 2006

    We thought we were done with these things but we were wrong. We thought, because we had power, we had wisdom. We thought the long train would run to the end of Time. We thought the light would increase. Now the long train stands derailed and the bandits loot it. Now the boar and the asp have power in our time. Now the night rolls back on the West and the night is solid. Our fathers and ourselves sowed dragon's teeth. Our children know and suffer the armed men. ~ Stephen Vincent Benét ~ (born 22 July 1898)
   * proposed by Kalki

## 2007

    Life is not lost by dying! Life is lost Minute by minute, day by dragging day, In all the thousand, small, uncaring ways, The smooth appeasing compromises of time, Which are King Herod and King Herod's men, Always and always. Life can be Lost without vision but not lost by death, Lost by not caring, willing, going on Beyond the ragged edge of fortitude To something more — something no man has ever seen. ~ Stephen Vincent Benét ~
   * proposed by Kalki

## 2008

    Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name Mother of Exiles. ~ Emma Lazarus ~
   * proposed by Kalki

## 2009

    There was sadness in being a man, but it was a proud thing too. And he showed what the pride of it was till you couldn't help feeling it. Yes, even in hell, if a man was a man, you'd know it. And he wasn't pleading for any one person any more, though his voice rang like an organ. He was telling the story and the failures and the endless journey of mankind. They got tricked and trapped and bamboozled, but it was a great journey. And no demon that was ever foaled could know the inwardness of it — it took a man to do that. … His voice could search the heart, and that was his gift and his strength. And to one, his voice was like the forest and its secrecy, and to another like the sea and the storms of the sea; and one heard the cry of his lost nation in it, and another saw a little harmless scene he hadn't remembered for years. But each saw something. And when Dan'l Webster finished he didn't know whether or not he'd saved Jabez Stone. But he knew he'd done a miracle. For the glitter was gone from the eyes of the judge and jury, and, for the moment, they were men again, and knew they were men. ~ Stephen Vincent Benét
   * proposed by Kalki

## 2010

    There was no pain when I awoke, No pain at all. Rest, like a goad, Spurred my eyes open — and light broke Upon them like a million swords: And she was there. There are no words.Heaven is for a moment's span. And ever. ~ Stephen Vincent Benét ~
   * proposed by Kalki

## 2011

    Do not disturb my circles! ~ Archimedes
   * proposed by MosheZadka in honor of Pi Approximation Day.

## 2012

* It is better the truth should come little by little. I have learned that, being a priest. Perhaps, in the old days, they ate knowledge too fast. Nevertheless, we make a beginning. It is not for the metal alone we go to the Dead Places now — there are the books and the writings. They are hard to learn. And the magic tools are broken — but we can look at them and wonder. At least, we make a beginning. And, when I am chief priest we shall go beyond the great river. We shall go to the Place of the Gods — the place newyork — not one man but a company. We shall look for the images of the gods and find the god ASHING and the others — the gods Lincoln and Biltmore and Moses. But they were men who built the city, not gods or demons. They were men. I remember the dead man's face. They were men who were here before us. We must build again.
* ~ Stephen Vincent Benét ~
   * proposed by Kalki

## 2013

* He was talking about the things that make a country a country, and a man a man. And he began with the simple things that everybody's known and felt — the freshness of a fine morning when you're young, and the taste of food when you're hungry, and the new day that's every day when you're a child. He took them up and he turned them in his hands. They were good things for any man. But without freedom, they sickened.
* ~ Stephen Vincent Benét ~
   * proposed by Kalki

## 2014

* I've lived most of my entire adult life outside the law, and never have I compromised with authority. But neither have I gone out and picked fights with authority. That's stupid. They're waiting for that; they invite it; it helps keep them powerful. Authority is to be ridiculed, outwitted and avoided. And it's fairly easy to do all three. If you believe in peace, act peacefully; if you believe in love, acting lovingly; if you believe every which way, then act every which way, that's perfectly valid — but don't go out trying to sell your beliefs to the system. You end up contradicting what you profess to believe in, and you set a bum example. If you want to change the world, change yourself.
* ~ Tom Robbins ~
   * proposed by bystander

## 2015

* He brings man's freedom in his hands, Not as a coin that may be spent or lost But as a living fire within the heart, Never quite quenched — because he brings to all, The thought, the wish, the dream of brotherhood, Never and never to be wholly lost, The water and the bread of the oppressed, The stay and succor of the resolute, The harness of the valiant and the brave, The new word that has changed the shaken world. And, though he die, his word shall grow like wheat And every time a child is born, In pain and love and freedom hardly won, Born and gone forth to help and aid mankind, There will be women with a right to say "Gloria, gloria in excelsis deo! A child is born!"
* ~ Stephen Vincent Benét ~
   * proposed by Kalki

## 2016

* The bottom line is that (a) people are never perfect, but love can be, (b) that is the one and only way that the mediocre and the vile can be transformed, and (c) doing that makes it that. Loving makes love. Loving makes itself. We waste time looking for the perfect lover instead of creating the perfect love.
* ~ Tom Robbins ~
   * proposed by Kalki

## 2017

* When we're incomplete, we're always searching for somebody to complete us. When, after a few years or a few months of a relationship, we find that we're still unfulfilled, we blame our partners and take up with somebody more promising. This can go on and on — series polygamy — until we admit that while a partner can add sweet dimension to our lives, we, each of us, are responsible for our own fulfillment. Nobody else can provide it for us, and to believe otherwise is to delude ourselves dangerously and to program for eventual failure every relationship we enter.
* ~ Tom Robbins ~
   * proposed by bystander

## 2018

* It is so amusing the way that mortals misunderstand the shape, or shapes, of time. … In the realms of the ultimate, each person must figure out things for themselves. … Teachers who offer you the ultimate answers do not possess the ultimate answers, for if they did, they would know that the ultimate answers cannot be given, they can only be received.
* ~ Tom Robbins ~
   * proposed by Kalki

## 2019

* The spirit of man has awakened and the soul of man has gone forth. Grant us the wisdom and the vision to comprehend the greatness of man's spirit, that suffers and endures so hugely for a goal beyond his own brief span. Grant us honor for our dead who died in the faith, honor for our living who work and strive for the faith, redemption and security for all captive lands and peoples. Grant us patience with the deluded and pity for the betrayed. And grant us the skill and valor that shall cleanse the world of oppression and the old base doctrine that the strong must eat the weak because they are strong. Yet most of all grant us brotherhood, not only for this day but for all our years — a brotherhood not of words but of acts and deeds. We are all of us children of earth — grant us that simple knowledge. If our brothers are oppressed, then we are oppressed. If they hunger, we hunger. If their freedom is taken away, our freedom is not secure. Grant us a common faith that man shall know bread and peace — that he shall know justice and righteousness, freedom and security, an equal opportunity and an equal chance to do his best, not only in our own lands, but throughout the world. And in that faith let us march toward the clean world our hands can make. Amen.
* ~ Stephen Vincent Benét ~
   * proposed by Kalki

## 2020

* Love is the ultimate outlaw. It just won’t adhere to any rules. The most any of us can do is to sign on as its accomplice.
* ~ Tom Robbins ~
   * proposed by Kalki

## 2021

* Our earth is but a small star in the great universe. Yet of it we can make, if we choose, a planet unvexed by war, untroubled by hunger or fear, undivided by senseless distinctions of race, color or theory. Grant us that courage and foreseeing to begin this task today that our children and our children's children may be proud of the name of man.
* ~ Stephen Vincent Benét ~
   * proposed by Kalki

## 2022

* Since the beginning of the war, Russia has launched more than 3,000 different cruise missiles over Ukraine, but to destroy someone's family, you don't even need a missile, a small fragment is enough. … I appeal to you on behalf of all the dead. On behalf of people who have lost arms and legs. And on behalf of people who are still alive and well. On behalf of those who are fighting and those who are waiting in the rear for the return of their relatives from the front. I'm asking for something now that I never wanted to ask for. I am asking you for weapons! Weapons not for waging war on someone else's land, but to protect our home and the right to wake up in it alive. I am asking you for anti-aircraft defense — so that rockets do not kill children in their strollers. So that they do not destroy children's rooms and entire families.
* ~ Olena Zelenska ~
   * proposed by Kalki; recent remarks on the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.

## 2023

* I don't follow the latest fashions. I never sing a song that's badly written. In the 1920s and '30s, there was a renaissance in music that was the equivalent of the artistic Renaissance. Cole Porter, Johnny Mercer and others just created the best songs that had ever been written. These are classics, and finally they're not being treated as light entertainment. This is classical music.
* ~ Tony Bennett ~
   * proposed by Kalki; in regard of his recent death.

## 2024

* America has never been better positioned to lead than we are today. I know none of this could have been done without you, the American people. Together, we overcame a once in a century pandemic and the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. We've protected and preserved our Democracy. And we've revitalized and strengthened our alliances around the world. It has been the greatest honor of my life to serve as your President. And while it has been my intention to seek reelection, I believe it is in the best interest of my party and the country for me to stand down and to focus solely on fulfilling my duties as President for the remainder of my term.
* ~ Joe Biden ~
   * proposed by Kalki; recent statement on a major personal, political and historical decision in regard to current situations.

## 2025

    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

It's not men who limit women, it's not straights who limit gays, it's not whites who limit blacks. What limits people is lack of character. What limits people is that they don't have the fucking nerve or imagination to star in their own movie, let alone direct it. ~ Tom Robbins (dob)
* 3 bystander (talk) 05:12, 22 July 2013 (UTC)
* 2 ♞☤ ☮♌︎Kalki ⚚⚓︎⊙☳☶⚡ 00:33, 21 July 2014 (UTC)
* 0 Ilovemydoodle (Not a sockpuppet) (talk / e-mail) 01:22, 21 July 2022 (UTC)
Your friend insults the homeless by giving them no credit for having made the decisions that shaped their lives, and demeans them further by declaring them powerless to alter their situations. There’re many ways, my dear, to victimize people. The most insidious way is to persuade them that they’re victims. ~ Tom Robbins
* 3 bystander (talk) 05:12, 22 July 2013 (UTC)
* 2 ♞☤ ☮♌︎Kalki ⚚⚓︎⊙☳☶⚡ 00:33, 21 July 2014 (UTC)
* 0.5 Ilovemydoodle (Not a sockpuppet) (talk / e-mail) 01:22, 21 July 2022 (UTC)
Children of the future Age
Reading this indignant page,
Know that in a former time
Love! sweet Love! was thought a crime. ~ William Blake JJLiu112 (talk) 01:06, 21 July 2022 (UTC)
* 2.5 @JJLiu112: Good quote, but I do not see any relevance to the date. – Ilovemydoodle (Not a sockpuppet) (talk / e-mail) 01:11, 21 July 2022 (UTC)