Quotes of the day from previous years:
| When a new babylaughs for the firsttime a new fairy isborn, and as there are always newbabies there are always newfairies. |
| ~J. M. Barrie ~ |
| Man is a substantialemigrant on a pilgrimage ofbeing, and it is accordinglymeaningless to set limits to what he iscapable of being. |
| ~José Ortega y Gasset ~ |
| Nobility isdefined by the demands it makes on us — byobligations, not byrights. |
| ~José Ortega y Gasset ~ |
| We can knowAmerica through ourflag which is itssymbol … In our flag the barriers oftime andspace vanish.All America that ever was and ever will belives everymoment in our flag. Wherever in theworld two or three of us stand together under our flag, all America is there. When we standproudly and salute our flag, that is what we know wordlessly in the passing moment. …Understand that our flag is not the cloth but thepattern of form and color manifested in the cloth … It could have been any pattern once, but our fathers chose that one.History has made itsacred. Thehonor paid it in uncountedacts of individualreverence has made it live. Everymorning in American schoolroomschildren present theirhearts to our flag. Everymorning and evening we render it ourmilitary salutes. And so the pattern lives and it can manifest itself in any number of bits of perishable cloth, but the pattern isindestructible. |
| ~Richard McKenna ~ |
| It is said there will be no morewar. Wemustpretend tobelieve that. But when war comes, it is we who will take the first shock and buytime with ourlives. It is we who keep thefaith. |
| ~Richard McKenna ~ |
| Nationalism is always aneffort in a direction opposite to that of theprinciple whichcreatesnations. The former is exclusive in tendency, the latter inclusive. In periods of consolidation, nationalism has a positive value, and is a lofty standard. But inEurope everything is more than consolidated, and nationalism is nothing but a mania, a pretext to escape from thenecessity of inventing something new, somegreatenterprise. |
| ~José Ortega y Gasset ~ |
| Lifetoday is thefruit of an interregnum, of an empty space between twoorganizations ofhistoricalrule — that which was, that which is to be. For thisreason it isessentially provisional. |
| ~José Ortega y Gasset ~ |
| No one knows toward what centerhuman things are going to gravitate in the nearfuture, and hence thelife of theworld has become scandalously provisional. Everything that today is done in public and in private — even in one's innerconscience — is provisional, the only exception being certain portions of certainsciences. He will be awise man who puts notrust in all that is proclaimed, upheld, essayed, and lauded at thepresent day. All that will disappear as quickly as it came. All of it, from the mania for physicalsports (the mania, not the sports themselves) topoliticalviolence; from "new art" to sun-baths at idiotic fashionable watering-places. Nothing of all that has any roots; it is all pure invention, in the bad sense of the word, which makes it equivalent to ficklecaprice. It is not a creation based on the solid substratum of life; it is not agenuine impulse orneed. In a word, from the point of view of life it isfalse. We are in presence of the contradiction of a style of living which cultivatessincerity and is at the same time afraud. There istruth only in anexistence which feels its acts as irrevocablynecessary. |
| ~José Ortega y Gasset ~ |
| The "ideas" of the average man are not genuine ideas, nor is their possessionculture. An idea is a puttingtruth in checkmate. Whoever wishes to have ideas must first prepare himself todesire truth and to accept therules of the game imposed by it. It is no use speaking of ideas when there is noacceptance of a higher authority to regulate them, a series of standards to which it is possible to appeal in a discussion. Thesestandards are the principles on which culture rests. |
| ~José Ortega y Gasset ~ |
| Russia hasforgotten everything that wasimportant to the victors ofWorld War II. ButUkraine and the whole free world will remind it. So that then no one will forget. So that really important words — "never again" — which are repeated all over the free worldevery year on the days ofremembrance of the victims of World War II regain their weight again. I am grateful to all our defenders who are defending and saving Ukraine fromthe modern descendants of that oldevil. Eternalglory to all ourheroes! Eternal glory to all our warriors! I am grateful to all thefriends of Ukraine andfreedom! Glory to Ukraine! |
| ~Volodymyr Zelenskyy ~ |
| We neverunderstand how little weneed in thisworld until we know theloss of it. |
| ~J. M. Barrie ~ |
| The bestmoments inreading are when you come across something — athought, afeeling, a way of looking at things — that you'd thought special, particular to you. And here it is, set down by someone else, aperson you've never met, maybe even someone long dead. And it's as if ahand has come out, and taken yours. |
| ~Alan Bennett ~ in ~The History Boys ~ |
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Capitalism without competition isn’t capitalism; it’s exploitation. ~Joe Biden
Power is what spoils people. Yes, it seems to me that the seeking after power is the great danger and the great corruptor of mankind. ~Baldur von Schirach (born May 9)
What we do we do not merely with our hands and brains, but with our hearts and souls. This has often become a tragic fate for us. ~Baldur von Schirach (born May 9)
Standards always are out of date. That is what makes them standards. ~Alan Bennett (born May 9, 1934)
I am fully persuaded that I am worth inconceivably more to hang than any other purpose. ~John Brown (born May 9, 1800)
I'm convinced that faith is a matter of inspiration, not a matter of imposition. It is something a person models rather than mandates. Faith does not impose itself on other people. Imposition usually sacrifices somebody else; it seeks to injure or extort others. ~John Ashcroft
Through it all, I've learned to trust that God does indeed have a plan and purpose for me. Trust doesn't come into play when you can figure everything out; that's mere reason. Trust operates when you can't understand why circumstances or events happen. That's where it takes faith to believe that God knows what is best for our lives. ~John Ashcroft
This day had been a nightmare, and I had not yet been asleep. ~John Ashcroft
Doing what is right in the face of adversity is not always easy or popular. Critics may assail you, but the critics don't always realize what they don't know or don't understand, because they don't have access to all the information. ~John Ashcroft
Wise children always choose a mother who was a shocking flirt in her maiden days, and so had several offers before she accepted their fortunate papa. ~J. M. Barrie
What is your name?’
‘Peter Pan.’
She was already sure that he must be Peter, but it did seem a comparatively short name.
‘Is that all?’
‘Yes,’ he said rather sharply. He felt for the first time that it was a shortish name.
‘I’m so sorry,’ said Wendy Moira Angela.
‘It doesn’t matter,’ Peter gulped.
She asked where he lived.
‘Second to the right,’ said Peter, ‘and then straight on till morning.’
‘What a funny address!’
Peter had a sinking feeling. For the first time he felt that perhaps it was a funny address. ~J. M. Barrie inPeter Pan
The rock was very small now; soon it would be submerged. Pale rays of light tiptoed across the waters; and by and by there was to be heard a sound at once the most musical and the most melancholy in the world: the mermaids calling to the moon.
Peter was not quite like other boys; but he was afraid at last. A tremor ran through him, like a shudder passing over the sea; but on the sea one shudder follows another till there are hundreds of them, and Peter felt just the one. Next moment he was standing erect on the rock again, with that smile on his face and a drum beating within him. It was saying, "To die will be an awfully big adventure." ~J. M. Barrie inPeter Pan ~
The moment you doubt whether you can fly, you cease forever to be able to do it. The reason birds can fly and we can't is simply that they have perfect faith, for to have faith is to have wings. ~J. M. Barrie
"If you believe," he shouted to them, "clap your hands; don't let Tink die."
Many clapped.
Some didn't.
A few beasts hissed.
The clapping stopped suddenly; as if countless mothers had rushed to their nurseries to see what on earth was happening; but already Tink was saved. First her voice grew strong, then she popped out of bed, then she was flashing through the room more merry and impudent than ever. She never thought of thanking those who believed, but she would have like to get at the ones who had hissed. ~J. M. Barrie inPeter Pan ~
I know well that many of my readers do not think as I do. This also is most natural and confirms the theorem. For although my opinion turn out erroneous, there will always remain the fact that many of those dissentient readers have never given five minutes' thought to this complex matter. How are they going to think as I do? But by believing that they have a right to an opinion on the matter without previous effort to work one out for themselves, they prove patently that they belong to that absurd type of human being which I have called the "rebel mass." ~José Ortega y Gasset inThe Revolt of the Masses
The State is always, whatever be its form — primitive, ancient, medieval, modern — an invitation issued by one group of men to other human groups to carry out some enterprise in common. That enterprise, be its intermediate processes what they may, consists in the long run in the organisation of a certain type of common life. ~José Ortega y Gasset
The common man, finding himself in a world so excellent, technically and socially, believes that it has been produced by nature, and never thinks of the personal efforts of highly-endowed individuals which the creation of this new world presupposed. Still less will he admit the notion that all these facilities still require the support of certain difficult human virtues, the least failure of which would cause the rapid disappearance of the whole magnificent edifice.… These traits together make up the well-known psychology of the spoilt child. ~José Ortega y Gasset
In the presence of one individual we can decide whether he is "mass" or not. The mass is all that which sets no value on itself — good or ill — based on specific grounds, but which feels itself "just like everybody," and nevertheless is not concerned about it; is, in fact, quite happy to feel itself as one with everybody else. ~José Ortega y Gasset
Contrary to what is usually thought, it is the man of excellence, and not the common man who lives in essential servitude. Life has no savour for him unless he makes it consist in service to something transcendental. Hence he does not look upon the necessity of serving as an oppression. When, by chance, such necessity is lacking, he grows restless and invents some new standard, more difficult, more exigent, with which to coerce himself. This is life lived as a discipline — the noble life. ~José Ortega y Gasset
Life is fired at us point blank. ~José Ortega y Gasset
Man’s being is made of such strange stuff as to be partly akin to nature and partly not, at once natural and extranatural, a kind of ontological centaur, half immersed in nature, half transcending it. ~José Ortega y Gasset
| I take you for what you are, and all that you are, and mix you with all of me, and I don't hold back nothing. Nothing! When you're cold, and hungry, and afraid, so am I. When you're happy, so am I. I'm going to stay with you all that I can, take the very best care of you that I can, and love you every minute until I die. |
| ~Richard McKenna ~ |