# December 6

Quotes of the day from previous years:

## 2003

    What we cannot speak of we must pass over in silence. ~ Ludwig Wittgenstein
   * selected by Snoyes

## 2004

    Every man's work, whether it be literature or music or pictures or architecture or anything else, is always a portrait of himself. ~ Samuel Butler
   * selected by Kalki

## 2005

    Love is made out of ecstasy and wonder; Love is a poignant and accustomed pain. It is a burst of Heaven-shaking thunder; It is a linnet's fluting after rain. ~ Joyce Kilmer (born 6 December 1886)
   * proposed by Kalki

## 2006

    Never think that you're not good enough. A man should never think that. People will take you very much at your own reckoning. ~ Anthony Trollope ( (died 6 December 1882))
   * proposed by UDScott

## 2007

    It is stern work, it is perilous work, to thrust your hand in the sun and pull out a spark of immortal flame to warm the hearts of men: but Prometheus, torn by the claws and beaks whose task is never done, would be tortured another eternity to go stealing fire again. ~ Joyce Kilmer (date of birth)
   * proposed by Kalki

## 2008

    The Science of Language has taught us that there is order and wisdom in all languages, and even the most degraded jargons contain the ruins of former greatness and beauty. The Science of Religion, I hope, will produce a similar change in our views of barbarous forms of faith and worship. ~ Max Müller
   * proposed by Zarbon

## 2009

    Is Freedom only a Will-o'-the-wisp To cheat a poet's eye? Be it phantom or fact, it's a noble cause In which to sing and to die! ~ Joyce Kilmer ~ (date of birth)
   * proposed by Kalki

## 2010

    Whenever we can trace back a religion to its first beginnings, we find it free from many of the blemishes that offend us in its later phases. The founders of the ancient religions of the world, as far as we can judge, were minds of a high stamp, full of noble aspirations, yearning for truth, devoted to the welfare of their neighbors, examples of purity and unselfishness. What they desired to found upon earth was but seldom realized, and their sayings, if preserved in their original form, offer often a strange contrast to the practice of those who profess to be their disciples. ~ Max Müller
   * proposed by Kalki

## 2011

    There is no royal road to learning; no short cut to the acquirement of any art. ~ Anthony Trollope in Barchester Towers (date of death)
   * proposed by UDScott

## 2012

* The position which believers and unbelievers occupy with regard to their various forms of faith is very much the same all over the world. The difficulties which trouble us, have troubled the hearts and minds of men as far back as we can trace the beginnings of religious life. The great problems touching the relation of the Finite to the Infinite, of the human mind as the recipient, and of the Divine Spirit as the source of truth, are old problems indeed; and while watching their appearance in different countries, and their treatment under varying circumstances, we shall be able, I believe, to profit ourselves, both by the errors which others committed before us, and by the truth which they discovered. We shall know the rocks that threaten every religion in this changing and shifting world of ours, and having watched many a storm of religious controversy and many a shipwreck in distant seas, we shall face with greater calmness and prudence the troubled waters at home.
* ~ Max Müller ~

## 2013

* Vain is the chiming of forgotten bells That the wind sways above a ruined shrine. Vainer his voice in whom no longer dwells Hunger that craves immortal Bread and Wine.Light songs we breathe that perish with our breath Out of our lips that have not kissed the rod. They shall not live who have not tasted death. They only sing who are struck dumb by God.
* ~ Joyce Kilmer ~
   * proposed by Kalki

## 2014

* If there is one thing which a comparative study of religions places in the clearest light, it is the inevitable decay to which every religion is exposed. It may seem almost like a truism, that no religion can continue to be what it was during the lifetime of its founder and its first apostles.
* ~ Max Müller ~
   * proposed by bystander

## 2015

* At the foot of the Cross on Calvary Three soldiers sat and diced, And one of them was the Devil And he won the Robe of Christ.
* ~ Joyce Kilmer ~
   * proposed by Kalki

## 2016

* David is the song upon God's lips, And Our Lady is the goblet that He sips: And Gabriel's the breath of His command, But Saint Michael is the sword in God's right hand.The Ivory Tower is fair to see, And may her walls encompass me! But when the Devil comes with the thunder of his might, Saint Michael, show me how to fight!
* ~ Joyce Kilmer ~
   * proposed by Kalki

## 2017

* The scene shall never fit the deed. Grotesquely wonders come to pass. The fool shall mount an Arab steed And Jesus ride upon an ass.
* ~ Joyce Kilmer ~
   * proposed by Kalki

## 2018

* O Carpenter of Nazareth, Whose mother was a village maid, Shall we, Thy children, blow our breath In scorn on any humble trade? Have pity on our foolishness And give us eyes, that we may see Beneath the shopman's clumsy dress The splendor of humanity!
* ~ Joyce Kilmer ~
   * proposed by Kalki

## 2019

* There will be and can be no rest till we admit, what cannot be denied, that there is in man a third faculty, which I call simply the faculty of apprehending the Infinite, not only in religion, but in all things; a power independent of sense and reason, a power in a certain sense contradicted by sense and reason; but yet, I suppose, a very real power, if we see how it has held its own from the beginning of the world — how neither sense nor reason has been able to overcome it, while it alone is able to overcome both reason and sense.
* ~ Max Müller ~
   * proposed by Kalki

## 2020

* The Science of Language has taught us that there is order and wisdom in all languages, and even the most degraded jargons contain the ruins of former greatness and beauty. The Science of Religion, I hope, will produce a similar change in our views of barbarous forms of faith and worship; and missionaries, instead of looking only for points of difference, will look out more anxiously for any common ground, any spark of the true light that may still be revived, any altar that may be dedicated afresh to the true God.
* ~ Max Müller ~
   * proposed by Kalki

## 2021

* I do believe we've lost something. … I can't get my hand on it, but we're just not quite where we should be, as the greatest democracy in the world. And I don't know how you correct it, but I keep hoping that there will be a change in my lifetime.
* ~ Bob Dole ~
   * proposed by Kalki, in regard of his recent death.

## 2022

* He must be a man of little faith, who would fear to subject his own religion to the same critical tests to which the historian subjects all other religions. We need not surely crave a tender or merciful treatment for that faith which we hold to be the only true one. We should rather challenge it for the severest tests and trials, as the sailor would for the good ship to which he trusts his own life, and the lives of those who are dear to him. In the Science of Religion, we can decline no comparisons, nor claim any immunities for Christianity, as little as the missionary can, when wrestling with the subtle Brahmin, or the fanatical Mussulman, or the plain speaking Zulu.
* ~ Max Müller ~
   * proposed by Kalki

## 2023

* Matter is the creation of the mind, not the reverse. Our entire world is thought, not wood and stone. We learn to think or reflect upon the thoughts, which the Thinker of the world, invisible, yet everywhere visible, has first thought. What we see, hear, taste, and feel, is all within us, not without. Sugar is not sweet, we are sweet. The sky is not painted blue, we are blue. Nothing is large or small, heavy or light, except as to ourselves. Man is the measure of all things, as an ancient Greek philosopher asserted; and man has inferred, discovered, and named matter.
* ~ Max Müller ~
   * proposed by Kalki

## 2024

* Book love, my friends, is your pass to the greatest, the purest, and the most perfect pleasure that God has prepared for His creatures.
* ~ Anthony Trollope ~
   * proposed by UDScott

## 2025

    Rank or add further suggestions…
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## Suggestions

* Cloistered beside the shouting street, Silent, He calls me to His feet. Imprisoned for His love of me He makes my spirit greatly free. And through my lips that uttered sin The King of Glory enters in.
* ~ Joyce Kilmer ~
* 3 ♞☤☮♌︎Kalki ⚚⚓︎⊙☳☶⚡ 22:55, 5 December 2017 (UTC)
* No longer of Him be it said "He hath no place to lay His head." In every land a constant lamp Flames by His small and mighty camp. There is no strange and distant place That is not gladdened by His face. And every nation kneels to hail The Splendour shining through Its veil.
* ~ Joyce Kilmer ~
* 3 ♞☤☮♌︎Kalki ⚚⚓︎⊙☳☶⚡ 22:55, 5 December 2017 (UTC)