# July 13

Quotes of the day from previous years:

## 2004

    Moderate strength is shown in violence, supreme strength is shown in levity. ~ G. K. Chesterton
   * selected by Kalki

## 2005

    I know that you personally do not fear giving up your own life in order to take others — that is why you are so dangerous. But I know you fear that you may fail in your long-term objective to destroy our free society and I can show you why you will fail. ~ Ken Livingstone, Mayor of London (responding to the subway bombings of 7 July 2005)
   * proposed by Kalki

## 2006

    To-morrow comes, true copy of to-day, And empty shadow of what is to be; Yet cheated Hope on future still depends, And ends but only when our being ends. ~ John Clare ~ (born 13 July 1793)
   * proposed by Kalki

## 2007

    Changes in the structure of society are not brought about solely by massive engines of doctrine. The first flash of insight which persuades human beings to change their basic assumptions is usually contained in a few phrases. ~ Kenneth Clark
   * proposed by InvisibleSun

## 2008

    People sometimes tell me that they prefer barbarism to civilisation. I doubt if they have given it a long enough trial. Like the people of Alexandria, they are bored by civilisation; but all the evidence suggests that the boredom of barbarism is infinitely greater. ~ Kenneth Clark
   * proposed by InvisibleSun

## 2009

    O how I feel, just as I pluck the flower And stick it to my breast — words can't reveal; But there are souls that in this lovely hour Know all I mean, and feel whate'er I feel. ~ John Clare ~
   * proposed by Kalki

## 2010

    It is lack of confidence, more than anything else, that kills a civilisation. We can destroy ourselves by cynicism and disillusion, just as effectively as by bombs. ~ Kenneth Clark
   * proposed by Kalki

## 2011

    Men willingly believe what they wish. ~ Julius Caesar
   * proposed by Kalki

## 2012

* Alea iacta est. The die is cast.
* ~ Julius Caesar ~
   * proposed by Kalki

## 2013

* I believe that order is better than chaos, creation better than destruction. I prefer gentleness to violence, forgiveness to vendetta. I believe that in spite of the recent triumphs of science, men haven't changed much in the last two thousand years; and in consequence we must still try to learn from history. History is ourselves.
* ~ Kenneth Clark ~
   * proposed by Kalki

## 2014

* Energy is eternal delight; and from the earliest times human beings have tried to imprison it in some durable hieroglyphic. It is perhaps the first of all the subjects of art.
* ~ Kenneth Clark ~
   * proposed by InvisibleSun

## 2015

* "What is too silly to be said may be sung" — well, yes; but what is too subtle to be said, or too deeply felt, or too revealing or too mysterious — these things can also be sung and can only be sung.
* ~ Kenneth Clark ~
   * proposed by InvisibleSun

## 2016

* There is (gentle reader) nothing (the works of God only set apart) which so much beautifies and adorns the soul and mind of man as does knowledge of the good arts and sciences. Many arts there are which beautify the mind of man; but of all none do more garnish and beautify it than those arts which are called mathematical, unto the knowledge of which no man can attain, without perfect knowledge and instruction of the principles, grounds, and Elements of Geometry.
* ~ John Dee ~
   * proposed by Kalki

## 2017

* It is by the straight line and the circle that the first and most simple example and representation of all things may be demonstrated, whether such things be either non-existent or merely hidden under Nature's veils.
* ~ John Dee ~
   * proposed by Kalki

## 2018

* In time of war all countries behave equally badly, because the power of action is handed over to stupid and obstinate men.
* ~ Kenneth Clark ~
   * proposed by Kalki

## 2019

* The riddle nature could not prove Was nothing else but secret love.
* ~ John Clare ~
   * proposed by Kalki

## 2020

* The ivyed oaks dark shadow falls Oft picking up with wondering gaze Some little thing of other days Saved from the wreck of time.
* ~ John Clare ~
   * proposed by Kalki

## 2021

* The eye instinctively looks for analogies and amplifies them, so that a face imagined in the pattern of a wallpaper may become more vivid than a photograph.
* ~ Kenneth Clark ~
   * proposed by InvisibleSun

## 2022

* At the very outset of our hearings, we described several elements of President Trump's multipart plan to overturn the 2020 election. Our hearings have now covered all but one of those elements, an organized campaign to persuade millions of Americans of a falsehood that the 2020 election was stolen by widespread fraud; a corrupt effort to pressure Vice President Pence to refuse to count electoral votes; an effort to corrupt the US Department of Justice; efforts to pressure state election officials and legislators to change state election results; a scheme to create and submit fake electoral slates from multiple states. And today, you saw how President Trump summoned a mob to Washington for January 6th, and then knowing that that mob was armed, directed that mob to the United States Capitol. Every one of these elements of the planning for January 6th is an independently serious matter. They were all ultimately focused on overturning the election, and they all have one other thing in common. Donald Trump participated in each, substantially and personally. He oversaw or directed the activity of those involved.
* ~ Liz Cheney ~
   * proposed by Kalki; recent remarks on the 2021 United States Capitol attack.

## 2023

* No act is of itself either good or bad. Only its place in the order of things makes it good or bad.
* ~ Milan Kundera ~
   * proposed by Kalki; in regard of his recent death.

## 2024

* We have no idea where we are going, and sweeping, confident articles on the future seem to me, intellectually, the most disreputable of all forms of public utterance.
* ~ Kenneth Clark ~
   * proposed by Kalki

## 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

    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

Hokey religions and ancient weapons are no match for a good blaster at your side, kid. ~ Han Solo (Harrison Ford), Star Wars IV: A New Hope
* Harrison Ford born that day.
* 3 ~ MosheZadka (Talk) 09:01, 25 Jun 2005 (UTC)
* Comment: I would also go for something from Indiana Jones, if anyone would choose something as recognizable. ~ MosheZadka (Talk) 27 June 2005 11:28 (UTC)
* 2 Kalki 21:01, 12 July 2005 (UTC) Good quote, but I prefer the Jedi view on things...
* 2 Jeff Q (talk) 10:53, 10 July 2006 (UTC). Concur with Kalki.
* 2 Here's a nice Star Wars quote but I still feel there are lots of better, more elegant and charming dark side quotes that haven't been used, by Darth Sidious, Darth Maul, Count Dooku, and Grand Moff Tarkin, to name a few. Zarbon 05:34, 24 April 2008 (UTC)
* 2 //Gbern3 (talk) 17:39, 4 July 2013 (UTC)
A man who has a million dollars is as well off as if he were rich. ~ John Jacob Astor IV (date of birth)
* 3 Kalki 20:59, 12 July 2005 (UTC)
* 1 Zarbon 05:34, 24 April 2008 (UTC)
* 3 InvisibleSun 23:35, 12 July 2008 (UTC)
* 1 //Gbern3 (talk) 17:39, 4 July 2013 (UTC) I don't get it.
Serve the classes, live with the masses. Serve the masses, live with the classes. ~ John Jacob Astor IV (date of birth)
* 2 Kalki 20:59, 12 July 2005 (UTC) with a lean toward 3.
* 1 Zarbon 05:34, 24 April 2008 (UTC)
* 3 InvisibleSun 23:35, 12 July 2008 (UTC)
* 1 //Gbern3 (talk) 17:39, 4 July 2013 (UTC)
We have not to fear anything, except fear itself. ~ Julius Caesar (born July 13)
* 3 and this is something that defines powerful characteristics. Fear nothing and success is but definite. I love this quote. Zarbon 06:08, 22 April 2008 (UTC)
* I remain dubious as to the authenticity of this attribution, as I can only find internet sources ascribing it or its Latin version to Julius Caesar, and no earlier published sources which do so. ~ Kalki 22:18, 12 July 2008 (UTC)
* 0 pending better sourcing, if any. InvisibleSun 23:35, 12 July 2008 (UTC)
* 1 //Gbern3 (talk) 17:39, 4 July 2013 (UTC)
Veni, vidi, vici. (I came, I saw, I conquered.) Julius Caesar
* 3 Kalki (talk · contributions) 15:38, 28 June 2011 (UTC)
* 2 //Gbern3 (talk) 17:39, 4 July 2013 (UTC)
* Evidently one cannot look for long at the Last Supper without ceasing to study it as a composition, and beginning to speak of it as a drama. It is the most literary of all great pictures, one of the few of which the effect may largely be conveyed — can even be enhanced — by description.
* ~ Kenneth Clark ~
* 3 ♞☤☮♌︎Kalki ⚚⚓︎⊙☳☶⚡ 23:39, 12 July 2024 (UTC)
* To Leonardo a landscape, like a human being, was part of a vast machine, to be understood part by part and, if possible, in the whole. Rocks were not simply decorative silhouettes. They were part of the earth's bones, with an anatomy of their own, caused by some remote seismic upheaval. Clouds were not random curls of the brush, drawn by some celestial artist, but were the congregation of tiny drops formed from the evaporation of the sea, and soon would pour back their rain into the rivers.
* ~ Kenneth Clark ~
* 3 ♞☤☮♌︎Kalki ⚚⚓︎⊙☳☶⚡ 23:39, 12 July 2024 (UTC)