Quote of the Day for 2016-02-29

"The thing I fear most is fear."

— Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) "On Fear," Essays

Franklin D. Roosevelt's first inaugural address (March 4, 1933)

Quote of the Day for 2016-02-28

"Men willingly believe what they wish."

— Julius Caesar (100-44 BCE) Commentarii de Bello Gallico, book III, chapter XVIII

Ted Cruz at the Values Voter Summit in Washington D.C. (October 2011) Photograph by Jeff Malet

Quote of the Day for 2016-02-27

"Ambition is like love, impatient / Both of delays and rivals."

— John Denham (1614-1669) The Sophy, act 2, scene 1

Adriana Lima modeling a $2 million bra for Victoria's Secret (October 2010)

Quote of the Day for 2016-02-26

"Only children know what they are looking for."

— Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (1900-1944) The Little Prince, chapter 22

Young Charlie Weber, brother of actor Jake Weber, returning to the wings after talking to Jimi Hendrix, at the Royal Albert Hall (February 24, 1969) Photograph by Eric Hayes

Quote of the Day for 2016-02-25

"The spirit which excludes some men today because they are of a certain color, may exclude others tomorrow because they are of a certain poverty or a certain church or a certain birthplace. There is no safety, no guarantee, no security in a prejudice."

— George William Curtis (1824-1892) "The Good Fight," Orations and Addresses

Nixon Southern Strategy by John Fischetti (October 30, 1969) Mourning the loss of "all deliberate speed," from Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, in the Alexander v. Holmes County Board of Education decision by the US Supreme Court

Quote of the Day for 2016-02-24

"One cannot play chess if one becomes aware of the pieces as living souls and of the fact that the Whites and the Blacks have more in common with each other than with the players. Suddenly one loses all interest in who will be champion."

— Anatol Rapoport (1911-2007) Strategy and Conscience

East German border guards carrying the body of Peter Fechter after he'd been wounded and left to die at the Berlin Wall (August 17, 1962)

Quote of the Day for 2016-02-23

"With love for mankind and hatred of sins."

— St. Augustine (354-430) Epistle CCXI, Opera Omnia

Michael Keaton as Betelgeuse in Beetlejuice (1988)

Quote of the Day for 2016-02-22

"My soul is a canvas stretched across four wooden corners and tacked with copper nails that sink into the edges of timber like teeth."

— Keariene Muizz (1977-    ) "Standing the Test of Time," NY Arts magazine, December 2008

The Offering, part of the Sacred Stones series by Keariene Muizz (2008)

Quote of the Day for 2016-02-21

"No one man can terrorize a whole nation unless we are all his accomplices."

— Edward R. Murrow (1908-1965) Statement to his staff before the See It Now broadcast on Senator Joseph McCarthy (March 9, 1954)

Osama Bin Laden in Afghanistan, during an interview with Hamid Mir (April 1998)

Quote of the Day for 2016-02-20

"I have suggested that behind almost all myth lies the mono-plot of the game of hide-and-seek."

— Alan Watts (1915-1973) The Two Hands of God

In the Labyrinth by Dylan Meconis (2011) with Ariadne and the Minotaur

Quote of the Day for 2016-02-19

"Only the dead are safe; only the dead have seen the end of war."

— George Santayana (1863-1952) "Tipperary," Soliloquies in England and Later Soliloquies

Guernica by Pablo Picasso (1937)

Quote of the Day for 2016-02-18

"Don't mistake vivacity for wit, thare iz about az mutch difference az thare iz between lightning and a lightning bug."

— Josh Billings (1818-1895) Josh Billings' Old Farmers' Allminax

The Algonquin Round Table by Al Hirschfeld (1962) From left, clockwise, Dorothy Parker, Robert Benchley, Alexander Woollcott, Heywood Broun, Marc Connelly, Franklin P. Adams, Edna Ferber, George S. Kaufman, and Robert Sherwood. Background: from left, Lynn Fontanne, Alfred Lunt, Frank Crowninshield, and Frank Case.

Quote of the Day for 2016-02-17

"Women have a hard time of it in this world. They are oppressed by man-made laws, man-made social customs, masculine egoism, the delusion of masculine superiority. Their one comfort is the assurance that, even though it may be impossible to prevail against man, it is always possible to enslave and torture a man."

— H.L. Mencken (1880-1956) "Duty Before Security," The Smart Set, June 1919

Lobby card for The Lion in Winter (1968) Katharine Hepburn as Eleanor of Aquitaine and Peter O'Toole as Henry II

Quote of the Day for 2016-02-16

"I've the most extraordinary longing to say: Bloody Hell."

— Henrik Ibsen (1828-1906) A Doll's House, act 1

Julianne Moore as Laura Brown in The Hours (2002)

Quote of the Day for 2016-02-15

"Oh, there are too many ironies in the fire!"

— John Leonard (1939-2008) "Not Enough Blood, Not Enough Gore," The New York Times, July 7, 1970

Banksy paraphrasing Emma Goldman, at the corner of Clipstone and Cleveland Streets, London (April 24, 2011)

Quote of the Day for 2016-02-14

"We are infants still, with loaded guns for toys."

— Philip Wylie (1920-1971) Generation of Vipers, chapter 1

Atomic test Grable, part of Operation Upshot-Knothole, after being fired from an M65 Atomic Cannon at the Nevada Proving Grounds, Frenchman Flat, Nevada (May 25, 1953)

Quote of the Day for 2016-02-13

"All our scientific and philosophic ideals are altars to unknown gods."

— William James (1842-1910) Lecture at the Harvard Divinity School, March 13, 1884

The Oracle lattice by Justin DaCosta

Quote of the Day for 2016-02-12

"We have really everything in common with America nowadays, except, of course, language."

— Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) The Canterville Ghost, chapter 1, The Court and Society Review, February 23, 1887

"They Can't Fight" by Frederick Burr Opper for the cover of Puck (January 15, 1896)

Quote of the Day for 2016-02-11

"Peace hath her victories / No less renown'd than war."

— John Milton (1608-1674) "To the Lord General Cromwell"

Menachem Begin, Jimmy Carter, and Anwar Sadat at Camp David watching a Marine Corps parade (Sept. 7, 1978)

Quote of the Day for 2016-02-10

"In a political context of the utmost significance, ['freedom from fear'] recognizes a human right which, in a broad sense, may be said to sum up the whole philosophy of human rights."

— Dag Hammarskjöld (1905-1961) Speech at the 180th anniversary of The Virginia Declaration of Rights in Williamsburg, Virginia, May 16, 1956

Freedom from Fear by Norman Rockwell (1943)

Quote of the Day for 2016-02-09

"Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the Husbands. Remember all Men would be tyrants if they could. If particular care and attention is not paid to the Ladies we are determined to foment a Rebellion, and will not hold ourselves bound by any Laws in which we have no voice, or Representation."

— Abigail Adams (1744-1818) Letter to John Adams, March 31, 1776

The Women's Strike for Equality march down Fifth Ave. in New York City (August 26, 1970) Photo by Bob Adelman

Quote of the Day for 2016-02-08

"A learned fool is more foolish than an ignorant one."

— Molière (1622-1673) Les Femmes Savantes, act 4, scene 3

Terry Jones, Pastor of the Dove World Outreach Center in Gainesville, Florida, asserting to the media that the burning of Korans will continue as planned (September 8, 2010) Photo by Scott Audette for Reuters

Quote of the Day for 2016-02-07

"The choice before human beings, is not, as a rule, between good and evil but between two evils."

— George Orwell (1903-1950) "No, Not One," The Adelphi, October 1941

Banksy's Spy Booth at the confluence of St. Anne's Terrace, Hewlett Road, and Fairview Road near GCHQ in Cheltenham, UK (April 2014) Photograph by Matt Cardy

Quote of the Day for 2016-02-06

"The Child is father of the Man; / And I could wish my days to be / Bound each to each by natural piety."

— William Wordsworth (1770-1850) "My Heart Leaps Up When I Behold," Poems in Two Volumes

Salisbury Cathedral from the Meadows by John Constable (1831)

Quote of the Day for 2016-02-05

"What the hell was it I wanted to buy, I wonder, that was worth—Well no matter. It's a late day for regrets."

— Eugene O'Neill (1888-1953) Long Day's Journey Into Night, act 4

One of Marilyn Monroe's last photo shoots (July 1962) George Barris for Cosmopolitan

Quote of the Day for 2016-02-04

"Music is a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosophy."

— Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) Quoted by Bettina von Arnim in a letter to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, May 28, 1810

No. 2 in a series of Beethoven engravings (1931-1938) by Michel Katzaroff (1891-1953), sold not just as prints, but also as postcards.

Quote of the Day for 2016-02-03

"Money is like manure; it's not worth a thing unless it's spread around encouraging young things to grow."

— Thornton Wilder (1897-1975) The Matchmaker, Act 4

Melinda and Bill Gates meet with women in Jamsaut, Bihar, India (March 23, 2011) Photo by Prashant Panjiar

Quote of the Day for 2016-02-02

"Every intelligent child is an amateur anthropologist. The first thing such a child notices is that adults don't make sense."

— John Leonard (1939-2008) "Books of the Times," The New York Times, September 23, 1982

Sarah Palin endorses Donald Trump at Iowa State University in Ames, Iowa (Jan 19, 2016) Photo by Aaron P. Bernstein

Quote of the Day for 2016-02-01

"The less justified a man is in claiming excellence for his own self, the more ready is he to claim all excellence for his nation, his religion, his race or his holy cause."

— Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) The True Believer, part 1, section 9

Ku Klux Klan rally near Washington D.C., National Photo Company (circa 1921)