Quote of the Day… not actually daily, but whenever I encounter one I think worth sharing and there are not too many in sequence. I like quotes as they frequently distill a piece of wisdom into a brief passage, or make other points very succinctly – such as the witticisms of Oscar Wilde.
“To be nobody-but-yourself in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else—means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting.” ~~ E. E. Cummings
Quote of the Day… not actually daily, but whenever I encounter one I think worth sharing and there are not too many in sequence. I like quotes as they frequently distill a piece of wisdom into a brief passage, or make other points very succinctly – such as the witticisms of Oscar Wilde.
“Man is the most insane species. He worships an invisible God and destroys a visible Nature. Unaware that this Nature he’s destroying is this God he’s worshiping.” ~~ Hubert Reeves
Quote of the Day… not actually daily, but whenever I encounter one I think worth sharing and there are not too many in sequence. I like quotes as they frequently distill a piece of wisdom into a brief passage, or make other points very succinctly – such as the witticisms of Oscar Wilde.
“To have a second language is to possess a second soul.” ~~ Charlemagne
Or from another tradition:
“The number of languages you know, the number of persons you are.” ~~ Local Oral Tradition from Asia
I heard the first quote while watching a Great Courses offering of all things, Earth Science. The professor relayed the quote without attribution. His contention being that to learn Earth Science was to learn a new language, the language of the planet.
I do not know about another soul, but learning Spanish has opened me up to learning about other cultures, other countries, other ways at looking at the world.
I’m going to keep an eye on it to see if I become a slightly different person when conversing in another language.
Quote of the Day… not actually daily, but whenever I encounter one I think worth sharing and there are not too many in sequence. I like quotes as they frequently distill a piece of wisdom into a brief passage, or make other points very succinctly – such as the witticisms of Oscar Wilde.
“A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within. An enemy at the gates is less formidable, for he is known and carries his banner openly. But the traitor moves amongst those within the gate freely, his sly whispers rustling through all the alleys, heard in the very halls of government itself.” ~~ Marcus Tullius Cicero
Yup, that Roman cat Cicero was prescient about our current situation in the United States… just saying.
Sad part is that he was writing about a situation in the Roman Empire 2000 years ago, and it still applies today. As a species, it seems we never learn some very basic lessons, we seldom learn from our mistakes. What was it a renowned sage once asked, “are we suffering the Arrogance of Ignorance, or the Ignorance of Arrogance?” Either way, we are screwed.
Quote of the Day… not actually daily, but whenever I encounter one I think worth sharing and there are not too many in sequence. I like quotes as they frequently distill a piece of wisdom into a brief passage, or make other points very succinctly – such as the witticisms of Oscar Wilde.
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“Find out who you are and do it on purpose. And do it with purpose. Don’t ever sacrifice who you are, your principles and your morals and your values to just try to get ahead in business. It ain’t worth it.” ~~ Dolly Parton
Dolly was famously loved by the LGBTQ community and was supportive of their right to be who they are.
“… [I do not] believe that we should criticize and judge other people. I think we should be accepting and loving. We are all God’s children. We are who we are, and we should be allowed to be who we are…. I just think that we should be more loving, more caring. We are who we are. If you’re gay, you’re gay. If you’re straight, you’re straight, and you should be allowed to be, you know, how you are, and who you are.” ~~ Dolly Parton
She has frequently stated:
“We’re all God’s children and God should be the one to judge, not other people.” ~~ Dolly Parton
For a great summation of the life and career of Dolly Parton here is a link to Richard Cox Richardson’s news letter, Letters from an American: August 26, 2026
Quote of the Day… not actually daily, but whenever I encounter one I think worth sharing and there are not too many in sequence. I like quotes as they frequently distill a piece of wisdom into a brief passage, or make other points very succinctly – such as the witticisms of Oscar Wilde.
“I don’t think the robots are taking over. I think the men who play with toys have taken over. And if we don’t take the toys out of their hands, we’re fools.” — Ray Bradbury
I am more and more convinced that if we did not open Pandora’s Box with computers, we are doing so with AI (Artificial Intelligence).
I would make Kurt Vonnegut‘s debut novel, Player Piano, required reading. It is not his best work, but it has an important message. Given that the novel was published in 1952, Vonnegut was amazingly prescient about our current world.
But then again, I would also make George Orwell’s novel, Nineteen Eighty-Four, required reading. I have read this novel three times for various reasons.
Quote of the Day… not actually daily, but whenever I encounter one I think worth sharing and there are not too many in sequence. I like quotes as they frequently distill a piece of wisdom into a brief passage, or make other points very succinctly – such as the witticisms of Oscar Wilde.
Out, out, brief candle! Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player That struts and frets his hour upon the stage And then is heard no more. It is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing. ~~ Macbeth, Act 5, Scene 5 by William Shakespeare
Quote of the Day… not actually daily, but whenever I encounter one I think worth sharing and there are not too many in sequence. I like quotes as they frequently distill a piece of wisdom into a brief passage, or make other points very succinctly – such as the witticisms of Oscar Wilde.
“All governments suffer a recurring problem: Power attracts pathological personalities. It is not that power corrupts but that it is magnetic to the corruptible.” ~~ Frank Herbert, Chapterhouse: Dune
I agree with the first part of the quote, and even the statement that it is a magnet to the corruptible. However, I believe that political power in and of itself can corrupt all but the strongest of personalities. Even if they start out with good intentions, what it does to lesser souls… well Katy bar the door.
Unfortunately, we have way too many of those lesser souls in government at all levels. But it seems to have always been that way.
As an aside, the first two books in the Dune series, Dune and Dune Messiah, are among my favorite novels, science fiction or otherwise. The novels later in the series were good, but at one level he was just churning more out as they were so popular.
Quote of the Day… not actually daily, but whenever I encounter one I think worth sharing and there are not too many in sequence. I like quotes as they frequently distill a piece of wisdom into a brief passage, or make other points very succinctly – such as the witticisms of Oscar Wilde.
“Since it is obviously inconceivable that all religions can be right, the most reasonable conclusion is that they are all wrong.” — Christopher Hitchens
There seems to be a logical fallacy in there somewhere, and if I were better at such things I could name it. However, I do not disagree his statement.
Quote of the Day… not actually daily, but whenever I encounter one I think worth sharing and there are not too many in sequence. I like quotes as they frequently distill a piece of wisdom into a brief passage, or make other points very succinctly – such as the witticisms of Oscar Wilde.
“Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.” ~~ Martin Luther King Jr.
The quote reminds of something my black buddy who lives in Mississippi says from time to time about racists and racist’s attitudes. He refers to the first as ignorant and the second as willful ignorance. They have never allowed themselves to meet a person of color as a fellow human being. I will have to admit he is kinder than me, and he has been dealing with discrimination for nearly 80 years at this point.
