# February 19

Quotes of the day from previous years:

## 2004

    Sometimes I think the surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that none of it has tried to contact us ~ Bill Watterson
   * selected by Kalki

## 2005

    I am not so enamored of my own opinions that I disregard what others may think of them. I am aware that a philosopher's ideas are not subject to the judgement of ordinary persons, because it is his endeavor to seek the truth in all things, to the extent permitted to human reason by God. Yet I hold that completely erroneous views should be shunned. ~ Nicolaus Copernicus (born 19 February 1473)
   * selected by Kalki

## 2006

    External success has to do with people who may see me as a model, or an example, or a representative. As much as I may dislike or want to reject that responsibility, this is something that comes with public success. It's important to give others a sense of hope that it is possible and you can come from really different places in the world and find your own place in the world that's unique for yourself. ~ Amy Tan (born 19 February 1952)
   * proposed by Kalki

## 2007

    Hello darkness, my old friend I've come to talk with you again Because a vision softly creeping Left its seeds while I was sleeping And the vision that was planted in my brain Still remains Within the sound of silence. ~ Paul Simon ~ (Lyrics to "The Sound of Silence" — written on this day in 1964)
   * proposed by Kalki

## 2008

    Now that your rose is in bloom, A light hits the gloom on the grave, I've been kissed by a rose on the grave. ~ Seal ~
   * proposed by Kalki

## 2009

    And the sign flashed out its warning In the words that it was forming And the sign said "The words of the prophets Are written on the subway walls And tenement halls And whispered in the sound of silence." ~ Paul Simon ~ (song written on this day in 1964)
   * proposed by Kalki

## 2010

    People have such terrible assumptions about ghosts — you know, phantoms that haunt you, that make you scared, that turn the house upside down. Yin people are not in our living presence but are around, and kind of guide you to insights. Like in Las Vegas when the bells go off, telling you you've hit the jackpot. Yin people ring the bells, saying, "Pay attention." And you say, "Oh, I see now." Yet I'm a fairly skeptical person. I'm educated, I'm reasonably sane, and I know that this subject is fodder for ridicule. … To write the book, I had to put that aside. As with any book. I go through the anxiety, "What will people think of me for writing something like this?" But ultimately, I have to write what I have to write about, including the question of life continuing beyond our ordinary senses. ~ Amy Tan
   * proposed by Kalki

## 2011

    Baby, I compare you to a kiss from a rose on the grave. Ooh, the more I get of you, Stranger it feels, yeah. And now that your rose is in bloom, A light hits the gloom on the grave. ~ Seal ~
   * proposed by Kalki

## 2012

    External success has to do with people who may see me as a model, or an example, or a representative. As much as I may dislike or want to reject that responsibility, this is something that comes with public success. It's important to give others a sense of hope that it is possible and you can come from really different places in the world and find your own place in the world that's unique for yourself. ~ Amy Tan
   * proposed by Kalki

## 2013

* Everyone must dream. We dream to give ourselves hope. To stop dreaming — well, that’s like saying you can never change your fate. Isn’t that true?
* ~ Amy Tan ~
   * proposed by Kalki

## 2014

* To know the mighty works of God, to comprehend His wisdom and majesty and power; to appreciate, in degree, the wonderful workings of His laws, surely all this must be a pleasing and acceptable mode of worship to the Most High, to whom ignorance cannot be more grateful than knowledge.
* ~ Nicolaus Copernicus ~
   * proposed by Kalki

## 2015

* It don't take a genius to spot a goat in a flock of sheep.
* ~ Anonymous ~
   * proposed by Kalki for the beginning of the Year of the Goat/Sheep

## 2016

* When I want something to happen — or not happen — I begin to look at all events and all things as relevant, an opportunity to take or avoid.
* ~ Amy Tan ~
   * proposed by Kalki

## 2017

* If perchance there should be foolish speakers who, together with those ignorant of all mathematics, will take it upon themselves to decide concerning these things, and because of some place in the Scriptures wickedly distorted to their purpose, should dare to assail this my work, they are of no importance to me, to such an extent do I despise their judgment as rash.
* ~ Nicolaus Copernicus ~
   * proposed by Kalki

## 2018

* So vast, without any question, is the divine handiwork of the most excellent Almighty.
* ~ Nicolaus Copernicus ~
   * proposed by Just A Regular New Yorker

## 2019

* Crossing that bridge, With lessons I've learned. Playing with fire, And not getting burned. I may not know what you're going through. But time is the space, Between me and you. Life carries on... it goes on.
* ~ Seal ~
   * proposed by Kalki

## 2020

* Giving up something that no longer serves a purpose, or protects you, or helps you, isn’t giving up at all, it’s growing up.
* ~ Laurell K. Hamilton ~
   * proposed by Kalki

## 2021

* Love is always before you. Love it.
* ~ André Breton ~
   * proposed by Kalki

## 2022

* Art today can only be revolutionary, that is, it must aspire at the complete and radical reconstruction of society, even if for no other reason than to emancipate intellectual creation from the chains which obstruct it and to allow all mankind to rise to the heights that only geniuses could reach in the past.
* ~ André Breton ~
   * proposed by Kalki

## 2023

* I don't like you But I love you. See that I'm always Thinking of you. Oh, oh, oh, You treat me badly; I love you madly. You've really got a hold on me.
* ~ Smokey Robinson ~
   * proposed by Kalki

## 2024

* Then the rainstorm came over me And I felt my spirit break I had lost all of my belief, you see And realized my mistake But time threw a prayer to me And all around me became still I need love, love's divine Please forgive me, now I see that I've been blind Give me love, love is what I need to help me know my name.
* ~ Seal ~
   * proposed by Kalki

## 2025

* It is a curious emotion, this certain homesickness I have in mind. With Americans, it is a national trait, as native to us as the rollercoaster or the jukebox. It is no simple longing for the home town or the country of our birth. The emotion is Janus-faced: we are torn between a nostalgia for the familiar and an urge for the foreign and strange. As often as not, we are homesick most for the places we have never known.
* ~ Carson McCullers ~
   * proposed by Ficaia

## 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

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    1 : Acceptable – but with no particular desire to see it used.
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    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

"You're a religious man. You believe in God and life after death. I also believe. When we come to the other world and meet the millions of Jews who died in the camps and they ask us, 'What have you done?' there will be many answers. You will say, 'I became a jeweler.' Another will say, 'I smuggled coffee and American cigarettes.' Still another will say, 'I built houses,' but I will say, 'I didn't forget you.' ~ Simon Wiesenthal (He was an honorary knighthood)
* proposed by user Sir John Alexander Macdonald
* 2 Kalki 23:32, 20 February 2006 (UTC) but not a very strong date tie-in, and I think there are many better quotes by Wiesenthal
* 1 Zarbon 22:29, 22 April 2008 (UTC)
It is because I had so much joy that I came to have so much hate. ~ Amy Tan
* 2 because both joy and hate are but human emotions. Zarbon 05:17, 1 May 2008 (UTC)
* 1 Kalki 16:20, 18 February 2009 (UTC)
[T]he true way to a man's heart is six inces of metal between his ribs. Sometimes four inches will do the job, but to be really sure, I like to have six. Funny how phallic objects are always more useful the bigger they are. Anyone who tells you size doesn't matter has been seeing too many small knives. ~ Laurell K. Hamilton (born 1963 Feb 19)
* 2 bystander 17:57, 12 February 2012 (UTC)
* 2 ♞☤☮♌︎Kalki ⚚⚓︎⊙☳☶⚡ 19:52, 14 February 2012 (UTC)
Well I wasn't going to die. You didn't die of a broken heart, it just felt like you were going to. I knew from personal experience that if you just kept moving, acting as if you weren't bleeding inside you didn't die, and eventually you stopped wanting to. ~ Laurell K. Hamilton (born 1963 Feb 19)
* 2 bystander 17:57, 12 February 2012 (UTC)
* 2 ♞☤☮♌︎Kalki ⚚⚓︎⊙☳☶⚡ 19:52, 14 February 2012 (UTC) with a lean toward 3.
You cannot die of grief, though it feels as if you can. A heart does not actually break, though sometimes your chest aches as if it is breaking. Grief dims with time. It is the way of things. There comes a day when you smile again, and you feel like a traitor. How dare I feel happy. How dare I be glad in a world where my father is no more. And then you cry fresh tears, because you do not miss him as much as you once did, and giving up your grief is another kind of death. ~ Laurell K. Hamilton (born 1963 Feb 19)
* 3 bystander 17:57, 12 February 2012 (UTC)
* 2 ♞☤☮♌︎Kalki ⚚⚓︎⊙☳☶⚡ 19:52, 14 February 2012 (UTC) with a lean toward 3.
I don't hate Islam. I consider it a backward culture. I have travelled much in the world. And wherever Islam rules, it's just terrible. All the hypocrisy. It's a bit like those old reformed protestants. The Reformed lie all the time. And why is that? Because they have standards and values that are so high that you can't humanly maintain them. You also see that in that Muslim culture. Then look at the Netherlands. In what country could an electoral leader of such a large movement as mine be openly homosexual? How wonderful that that's possible. That's something that one can be proud of. And I'd like to keep it that way, thank you very much. ~ Pim Fortuyn
* 3 DanielTom (talk) 15:18, 8 August 2014 (UTC)
* 1 ♞☤☮♌︎Kalki ⚚⚓︎⊙☳☶⚡ 18:11, 18 February 2015 (UTC) There are many ways of promoting "backward cultures", one of the most prominent of them being taking the worst aspects of the worst people of any other groups and mis-identifying them as innately characteristic of all. This is forever and always one of the primary means by which bigotries are created and sustained, and go on destroying the lives and liberties of millions. I am NOT saying there are not brutal bigots, tyrants and terrorists who think of themselves as "good" muslims any more than I would deny that there are many who think of themselves as "good" Christians, good Jews, good Hindus, good sectarians of any of the more exclusionist creeds, or "good" atheists or even good agnostics or humanists. Those with a bit more enlightenment do not contend so much against the relatively minor conceptual errors or deficiencies of any of the creeds or forms of creedless faith, so much as against the major conceptual errors of embracing and endorsing unjust harshness, extreme bigotry and brutality, against ANY individuals or groups, for ANY reason or rationales. MOST creeds have MANY deficiencies and some significant errors — the wise can contend against these without assuming that anyone and everyone who generally gravitate to some formal creeds embraces the worst of these, or even clearly discerns them.
* I have always known a thing before it happens.
* ~ Amy Tan ~
* 2 ♞☤☮♌︎Kalki ⚚⚓︎⊙☳☶⚡ 21:19, 18 February 2016 (UTC)
* Many workers appear to take a delight in blaming others for all ills... Let our workers keep their minds free from such tendencies and work for our people and our Dharma in the right spirit, lend a helping hand to all our brethren who need help and strive to relieve distress wherever we see it. In this service no distinction should be made between man and man. We have to serve all, be he a Christian or a Muslim or a human being of any other persuasion; for, calamities, distress and misfortunes make no such distinction but afflict all alike. And in serving to relieve the sufferings of man let it not be in a spirit of condescension or mere compassion but as devoted worship of the Lord abiding in the heart of all beings, in the true spirit of our dharma of surrendering our all in the humble service of Him who is Father, Mother, Brother, Friend and Everything to us all.
* ~ M. S. Golwalkar ~
* 2 --ΞΔΞ (talk) 09:49, 20 April 2019 (UTC)
    The curt truth is that, in a deep secret way, the state of being beloved is intolerable to many. The beloved fears and hates the lover, and with the best of reasons. For the lover is forever trying to strip bare his beloved. The lover craves any possible relation with the beloved, even if this experience can cause him only pain.
    ~ Carson McCullers
* 3 Ficaia (talk) 06:43, 14 December 2024 (UTC)