# February 28

Quotes of the day from previous years:

## 2004

    Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much. ~ Oscar Wilde
   * selected by Kalki

## 2005

    Of all our infirmities, the most savage is to despise our being. ~ Michel de Montaigne (born 28 February 1533)
   * selected by Kalki

## 2006

    If you want to have good ideas you must have many ideas. Most of them will be wrong, and what you have to learn is which ones to throw away. ~ Linus Pauling (born 28 February 1901)
   * selected by Kalki

## 2007

    Near the snow, near the sun, in the highest fields, See how these names are feted in the waving grass And by the streamers of the white cloud And whispers of the wind in the listening sky. The names of those who in their lives fought for life, Who wore at their hearts the fire's centre. Born of the sun, they travelled a short while toward the sun And left the vivid air signed with their honour. ~ Stephen Spender ~ (born 28 February 1909)
   * proposed by Kalki

## 2008

    The best defense against usurpatory government is an assertive citizenry. ~ William F. Buckley, Jr. (recent death)
   * selected by Kalki

## 2009

    I speak the truth, not my fill of it, but as much as I dare speak; and I dare to do so a little more as I grow old. ~ Michel de Montaigne
   * proposed by Kalki

## 2010

    Virtue refuses facility for her companion … the easy, gentle, and sloping path that guides the footsteps of a good natural disposition is not the path of true virtue. It demands a rough and thorny road. ~ Michel de Montaigne
   * proposed by Zarbon

## 2011

    Science cannot be stopped. Man will gather knowledge no matter what the consequences — and we cannot predict what they will be. Science will go on — whether we are pessimistic, or are optimistic, as I am. I know that great, interesting, and valuable discoveries can be made and will be made… But I know also that still more interesting discoveries will be made that I have not the imagination to describe — and I am awaiting them, full of curiosity and enthusiasm. ~ Linus Pauling
   * "Man will gather knowledge no matter what the consequences — and we cannot predict what they will be" proposed by Zarbon, extension proposed by Kalki

## 2012

    The world progresses, year by year, century by century, as the members of the younger generation find out what was wrong among the things that their elders said. So you must always be skeptical — always think for yourself. ~ Linus Pauling
   * proposed by Kalki

## 2013

* My single pair of eyes Contain the universe they see; Their mirrored multiplicity Is packed into a hollow body Where I reflect the many, in my one.
* ~ Stephen Spender ~
   * proposed by Kalki

## 2014

* What is precious is never to forget The delight of the blood drawn from ancient springs Breaking through rocks in worlds before our earth; Never to deny its pleasure in the simple morning light, Nor its grave evening demand for love; Never to allow gradually the traffic to smother With noise and fog the flowering of the spirit.
* ~ Stephen Spender ~
   * proposed by Kalki

## 2015

* The miracle is this The more we share... The more We have
* ~ Leonard Nimoy ~
   * proposed by DanielTom, in relation to Nimoy's recent death.

## 2016

* Wherever your life ends, it is all there. The advantage of living is not measured by length, but by use; some men have lived long, and lived little; attend to it while you are in it. It lies in your will, not in the number of years, for you to have lived enough.
* ~ Michel de Montaigne ~
   * proposed by bystander

## 2017

* Great abuses in the world are begotten, or, to speak more boldly, all the abuses of the world are begotten, by our being taught to be afraid of professing our ignorance, and that we are bound to accept all things we are not able to refute: we speak of all things by precepts and decisions. The style at Rome was that even that which a witness deposed to having seen with his own eyes, and what a judge determined with his most certain knowledge, was couched in this form of speaking: “it seems to me.” They make me hate things that are likely, when they would impose them upon me as infallible.
* ~ Michel de Montaigne ~
   * proposed by Kalki

## 2018

* The way of the world is to make laws, but follow customs.
* ~ Michel de Montaigne ~
   * proposed by Kalki

## 2019

* I want to first of all, thank you. I know that this has been hard. I know that you face a lot. I know that you are worried about your family — but this is part of your destiny. And, hopefully, this portion of your destiny will lead to a better — a better, a better Michael Cohen, a better Donald Trump, a better United States of America and a better world. And I mean that from the depths of my heart. When we’re dancing with the angels, the question will be asked: "In 2019, what did we do to make sure we kept our democracy intact?" Did we stand on the sidelines and say nothing? … Come on, now — we can do more than one thing. And we have got to get back to normal.
* ~ Elijah Cummings ~
   * proposed by Kalki

## 2020

* Let us give Nature a chance; she knows her business better than we do.
* ~ Michel de Montaigne ~
   * proposed by Zarbon

## 2021

* Wherever your life ends, it is all there. The utility of living consists not in the length of days, but in the use of time; a man may have lived long, and yet lived but a little. Make use of time while it is present with you. It depends upon your will, and not upon the number of days, to have a sufficient length of life. Is it possible you can imagine never to arrive at the place towards which you are continually going? and yet there is no journey but hath its end. And, if company will make it more pleasant or more easy to you, does not all the world go the self-same way?
* ~ Michel de Montaigne ~
   * proposed by Kalki

## 2022

* The fight is here; I need ammunition, not a ride.
* ~ Volodymyr Zelenskyy ~
   * proposed by Kalki, in regard to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.

## 2023

* The most manifest sign of wisdom is a continual cheerfulness; her state is like that in the regions above the moon, always clear and serene.
* ~ Michel de Montaigne ~
   * proposed by Kalki

## 2024

* Great poetry is always written by somebody straining to go beyond what he can do.
* ~ Stephen Spender ~
   * proposed by Kalki

## 2025

* Truly man is a marvellously vain, diverse, and undulating object. It is hard to found any constant and uniform judgement on him.
* ~ Michel de Montaigne ~
   * proposed by Kalki

## 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

    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

The greatest thing in the world is to know how to belong to oneself. ~ Michel de Montaigne
* 3 because it is easy to be controlled by others. Zarbon 05:36, 1 May 2008 (UTC)
* 2 Kalki 06:46, 27 February 2009 (UTC)
* 3 InvisibleSun 23:24, 27 February 2009 (UTC)
* 2 bystander (talk) 21:47, 16 February 2012 (UTC)
When I play with my cat, who knows if I am not a pastime to her more than she is to me? ~ Michel de Montaigne
* 3 because power is in the eye of the beholder. And to the cat, the master might be under its control. This is actually a rather interesting view. Zarbon 05:36, 1 May 2008 (UTC)
* 2 Kalki 06:46, 27 February 2009 (UTC)
* 3 InvisibleSun 23:24, 27 February 2009 (UTC)
A man must be a little mad if he does not want to be even more stupid. ~ Michel de Montaigne
* 3 because madness is preferable to stupidity. At least to me it is. Zarbon 05:36, 1 May 2008 (UTC)
* 2 Kalki 06:46, 27 February 2009 (UTC) a good statement, but the interpretation is easily skewed in several different ways, not all of them profound; though I lean slightly toward a 3, despite these objections.
* 2 InvisibleSun 23:24, 27 February 2009 (UTC)
* 3 bystander (talk) 21:47, 16 February 2012 (UTC)
And now you know — the rest of the story. ~ Paul Harvey (born 4 September 1918) (died 28 February 2009)
* 2 Kalki 23:43, 1 March 2009 (UTC) but might rank this a 3 or even a 4 eventually.
* 3 bystander (talk) 21:47, 16 February 2012 (UTC) Appropriate for the day of his death.
What America has succeeded in creating is not an economy impervious to shocks, but merely one which enables their consequences to be postponed to a later date. ~ Peter Schiff
    —This unsigned comment is by Smallman12q (talk • contribs) .
* 1 Kalki (talk · contributions) 13:04, 21 February 2010 (UTC) I would rank this 2 on the 23 March page, which is Schiff's birthday, but there seems to be no clear relation to this date.