# June 19

Quotes of the day from previous years:

## 2004

    I'm not a prettier everywoman. I am an everywoman that they clean up awfully well for TV. ~ Kelly Ripa
   * suggested by IP 66.157.63.6

## 2005

    True eloquence makes light of eloquence, true morality makes light of morality... To make light of philosophy is to be a true philosopher. ~ Blaise Pascal (born 19 June 1623)
   * proposed by Kalki

## 2006

    It is not power that corrupts but fear. Fear of losing power corrupts those who wield it and fear of the scourge of power corrupts those who are subject to it. ~ Aung San Suu Kyi (born 19 June 1945)
   * proposed by Kalki

## 2007

    We are gradually being conditioned to accept violence as a sensual pleasure. The directors used to say they were showing us its real face and how ugly it was in order to sensitize us to its horrors. You don't have to be very keen to see that they are now in fact desensitizing us. They are saying that everyone is brutal, and the heroes must be as brutal as the villains or they turn into fools. There seems to be an assumption that if you're offended by movie brutality, you are somehow playing into the hands of the people who want censorship... Yet surely, when night after night atrocities are served up to us as entertainment, it's worth some anxiety. … How can people go on talking about the dazzling brilliance of movies and not notice that the directors are sucking up to the thugs in the audience? ~ Pauline Kael
   * proposed by Kalki

## 2008

    The only real prison is fear, and the only real freedom is freedom from fear. ~ Aung San Suu Kyi
   * proposed by Kalki

## 2009

    The wellspring of courage and endurance in the face of unbridled power is generally a firm belief in the sanctity of ethical principles combined with a historical sense that despite all setbacks the condition of man is set on an ultimate course for both spiritual and material advancement. At the root of human responsibility is the concept of perfection, the urge to achieve it, the intelligence to find a path towards it, and the will to follow that path if not to the end at least the distance needed to rise above individual limitations and environmental impediments. It is man's vision of a world fit for rational, civilized humanity which leads him to dare and to suffer to build societies free from want and fear. Concepts such as truth, justice and compassion cannot be dismissed as trite when these are often the only bulwarks which stand against ruthless power. ~ Aung San Suu Kyi
   * proposed by Kalki

## 2010

    The quintessential revolution is that of the spirit, born of an intellectual conviction of the need for change in those mental attitudes and values which shape the course of a nation's development. A revolution which aims merely at changing official policies and institutions with a view to an improvement in material conditions has little chance of genuine success. Without a revolution of the spirit, the forces which produced the iniquities of the old order would continue to be operative, posing a constant threat to the process of reform and regeneration. It is not enough merely to call for freedom, democracy and human rights. There has to be a united determination to persevere in the struggle, to make sacrifices in the name of enduring truths, to resist the corrupting influences of desire, ill will, ignorance and fear. ~ Aung San Suu Kyi
   * proposed by Kalki

## 2011

    Who what am I? My answer: I am the sum total of everything that went before me, of all I have been seen done, of everything done-to-me. I am everyone everything whose being-in-the-world affected was affected by mine. I am anything that happens after I've gone which would not have happened if I had not come. Nor am I particularly exceptional in this matter; each "I", everyone of the now-six-hundred-million-plus of us, contains a similar multitude. I repeat for the last time: to understand me, you'll have to swallow a world. ~ Salman Rushdie
   * proposed by Kalki

## 2012

* The only people who see the whole picture are the ones who step outside the frame.
* ~ Salman Rushdie ~
   * proposed by Kalki

## 2013

* Is it not proven beyond all dispute that there is no limit to the enormities which men will commit when they are once persuaded that they are keepers of other men's consciences? To spread religion by any means, and to crush heresy by all means is the practical inference from the doctrine that one man may control another's religion. Given the duty of a state to foster some one form of faith, and by the sure inductions of our nature slowly but certainly persecution will occur. To prevent for ever the possibility of Papists roasting Protestants, Anglicans hanging Romish priests, and Puritans flogging Quakers, let every form of state-churchism be utterly abolished, and the remembrance of the long curse which it has cast upon the world be blotted out for ever.
* ~ Charles Spurgeon ~
   * proposed by Kalki

## 2014

* I do not envy people who think they have a complete explanation of the world, for the simple reason that they are obviously wrong.
* ~ Salman Rushdie ~
   * proposed by DanielTom

## 2015

* It is a strong argument for democracy that governments regulated by principles of accountability, respect for public opinion and the supremacy of just laws are more likely than an all-powerful ruler or ruling class, uninhibited by the need to honour the will of the people, to observe the traditional duties of Buddhist kingship. Traditional values serve both to justify and to decipher popular expectations of democratic government.
* ~ Aung San Suu Kyi ~
   * proposed by Kalki

## 2016

* The unhappy legacies of authoritarianism can be removed only if the concept of absolute power as the basis of government is replaced by the concept of confidence as the mainspring of political authority: the confidence of the people in their right and ability to decide the destiny of their nation, mutual confidence between the people and their leaders and, most important of all, confidence in the principles of justice, liberty and human rights.
* ~ Aung San Suu Kyi ~
   * proposed by Kalki

## 2017

* Weak logic, inconsistencies and alienation from the people are common features of authoritarianism. The relentless attempts of totalitarian regimes to prevent free thought and new ideas and the persistent assertion of their own lightness bring on them an intellectual stasis which they project on to the nation at large. Intimidation and propaganda work in a duet of oppression, while the people, lapped in fear and distrust, learn to dissemble and to keep silent. And all the time the desire grows for a system which will lift them from the position of "rice-eating robots" to the status of human beings who can think and speak freely and hold their heads high in the security of their rights.
* ~ Aung San Suu Kyi ~
   * proposed by Kalki

## 2018

* People almost invariably arrive at their beliefs not on the basis of proof but on the basis of what they find attractive.
* ~ Blaise Pascal ~
   * proposed by Kalki

## 2019

* A mere trifle consoles us, for a mere trifle distresses us.
* ~ Blaise Pascal ~ in ~ Pensées ~
   * proposed by Kalki

## 2020

* Hope remains even in the most difficult of times … I hope today serves as a reminder that however hard things get, we will meet again.
* ~ Vera Lynn ~
   * proposed by Kalki, in regard of her recent death.

## 2021

* The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, all slaves are free. This involves an absolute equality of personal rights and rights of property between former masters and slaves, and the connection heretofore existing between them becomes that between employer and hired labor.
* ~ Gordon Granger ~
   * proposed by Kalki, in regard to the first "Juneteenth" celebrated as a US federal holiday.

## 2022

* Our reason is always disappointed by the inconstancy of appearances.
* ~ Blaise Pascal ~
   * proposed by Kalki

## 2023

* Juneteenth marks both the long, hard night of slavery and subjugation, and a promise of a brighter morning to come. This is a day of profound — in my view — profound weight and profound power. A day in which we remember the moral stain, the terrible toll that slavery took on the country and continues to take — what I’ve long called “America’s original sin.” At the same time, I also remember the extraordinary capacity to heal, and to hope, and to emerge from the most painful moments and a bitter, bitter version of ourselves, but to make a better version of ourselves.
* ~ Joe Biden ~
   * proposed by Kalki

## 2024

* Irresponsibility is part of the pleasure of all art; it is the part the schools cannot recognize.
* ~ Pauline Kael ~
   * proposed by InvisibleSun

## 2025

    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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## Suggestions

I loved writing about things when I was excited about them... It's painful writing about the bad things in an art form, particularly when young kids are going to be enthusiastic about those things, because they haven't seen anything better, or anything different. ~ Pauline Kael
* 3 Kalki 22:02, 18 June 2007 (UTC)
* 3 InvisibleSun 22:54, 18 June 2007 (UTC)
* 2 Zarbon 04:16, 24 April 2008 (UTC)
The recurrence of certain themes in movies suggests that each generation wants romance restated in slightly new terms, and of course it’s one of the pleasures of movies as a popular art that they can answer this need. ~ Pauline Kael
* 3 Kalki 22:02, 18 June 2007 (UTC)
* 3 InvisibleSun 22:54, 18 June 2007 (UTC)
* 2 Zarbon 04:16, 24 April 2008 (UTC)
When you clean them up, when you make movies respectable, you kill them. The wellspring of their art, their greatness, is in not being respectable ~ Pauline Kael
* 2 Kalki 19:00, 18 June 2009 (UTC) 3 Kalki 22:02, 18 June 2007 (UTC)
* 3 InvisibleSun 22:54, 18 June 2007 (UTC)
* 3 because beauty is found only in the original product. Zarbon 04:16, 24 April 2008 (UTC)
Knowledge of the first principles, like space, time, motion, number, is as solid as any derived through reason, and it is on such knowledge, coming from the heart and instinct, that reason has to depend and base all its arguments. ~ Blaise Pascal (born 19 June 1623)
* 3 Kalki 19:00, 18 June 2009 (UTC) with a lean toward 4.
The truest lengthening of life is to live while we live, wasting no time but using every hour for the highest ends. So be it this day. ~ Charles Spurgeon
* 3 Kalki 19:00, 18 June 2009 (UTC) with a very strong lean toward 4.
* Revolutions generally reflect the irresistible impulse for necessary changes which have been held back by official policies or retarded by social apathy. The institutions and practices of democracy provide ways and means by which such changes could be effected without recourse to violence. But change is anathema to authoritarianism, which will tolerate no deviation from rigid policies. Democracy acknowledges the right to differ as well as the duty to settle differences peacefully. Authoritarian governments see criticism of their actions and doctrines as a challenge to combat. Opposition is equated with 'confrontation', which is interpreted as violent conflict. Regimented minds cannot grasp the concept of confrontation as an open exchange of major differences with a view to settlement through genuine dialogue. The insecurity of power based on coercion translates into a need to crush all dissent. Within the framework of liberal democracy, protest and dissent can exist in healthy counterpart with orthodoxy and conservatism, contained by a general recognition of the need to balance respect for individual rights with respect for law and order.
* ~ Aung San Suu Kyi ~
* 3 ♞☤☮♌︎Kalki ⚚⚓︎⊙☳☶⚡ 16:31, 13 June 2014 (UTC) with a very strong lean toward 4.
* Each man has in him the potential to realize the truth through his own will and endeavour and to help others to realize it. Human life therefore is infinitely precious.
* ~ Aung San Suu Kyi ~
* 3 ♞☤☮♌︎Kalki ⚚⚓︎⊙☳☶⚡ 16:31, 13 June 2014 (UTC) with a lean toward 4.
* Revered monks and people. This public rally is aimed at informing the whole world of the will of the people... Our purpose is to show that the entire people entertain the keenest desire for a multiparty democratic system of government.
* ~ Aung San Suu Kyi ~
* 3 ♞☤☮♌︎Kalki ⚚⚓︎⊙☳☶⚡ 16:31, 13 June 2014 (UTC) with a lean toward 4.
* While a private individual may be bound only by the formal vows that he makes, those who govern should be wholly bound by the truth in thought, word and deed.
* ~ Aung San Suu Kyi ~
* 3 ♞☤☮♌︎Kalki ⚚⚓︎⊙☳☶⚡ 16:31, 13 June 2014 (UTC) with a very strong lean toward 4.
* Hope and optimism are irrepressible but there is a deep underlying premonition that the opposition to change is likely to be vicious. Often the anxious question is asked: will such an oppressive regime really give us democracy? And the answer has to be: democracy, like liberty, justice and other social and political rights, is not 'given', it is earned through courage, resolution and sacrifice.
* ~ Aung San Suu Kyi ~
* 3 ♞☤☮♌︎Kalki ⚚⚓︎⊙☳☶⚡ 16:31, 13 June 2014 (UTC) with a very strong lean toward 4.