Quote of the Day for 2016-10-01

"Poverty is the mother of crime."

— Cassiodorus (circa 485-585 CE) Variae Epistolae, book 9, epistle 13 (537 CE)

Mugshot of Alice Caush, arrested for larceny in North Shields (October 31, 1903) Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums

Quote of the Day for 2016-09-30

"Faith which does not doubt is dead faith."

— Miguel de Unamuno (1864-1936) The Agony of Christianity (1931)

Jews Praying in the Synagogue on Yom Kippur by Maurycy Gottlieb (1878)

Quote of the Day for 2016-09-29

"The grief that does not speak, Whispers the o'er-fraught heart, and bids it break."

— William Shakespeare (1564-1616) Macbeth, act 4, scene 3 (1606)

Paul McCartney leaving the AIR Oxford Street studio shortly after the murder of John Lennon (December 9, 1980) Photograph by Paul Fievez

Quote of the Day for 2016-09-28

"The ultimate goal of farming is not the growing of crops, but the cultivation and perfection of human beings."

— Masanobu Fukuoka (1913-2008) The One-Straw Revolution (1975) translated by Larry Korn, Chris Pearce, and Tsune Kurosawa (1978)

Satellite image of the effluent pond at Coronado Feeders, Dalhart, Texas (2013) Photo enhancements by Mishka Henner

Quote of the Day for 2016-09-27

"Nothing does Reason more Right, than the Coolness of those that offer it: for Truth often suffers more by the heat of its defenders than from the arguments of its opposers."

— William Penn (1644-1718) Some Fruits of Solitude in Reflections and Maxims, part 1 (1682)

Martin Luther King, Jr. during an SCLC meeting at B.B. Beamon's Restaurant in Atlanta (January 23, 1963) Photograph by Flip Schulke

Quote of the Day for 2016-09-26

"Art is magic delivered from the lie of being truth."

— Theodor Adorno (1903-1969) Minima Moralia, section 143 (1951) translated by E.F.N. Jephcott (1974)

Fall of the Magician engraving by Pieter van der Heyden (1565) after Pieter Bruegel the Elder

Quote of the Day for 2016-09-25

"Our supreme governors, the mob."

— Horace Walpole (1717-1797) Letter to Sir Horace Mann (September 7, 1743)

Governor Orval Faubus speaking to the crowd protesting against the integration of Little Rock Central High School (August 20, 1959) Photograph by John T. Bledsoe

Quote of the Day for 2016-09-24

"In politics evils should be remedied not revenged."

— Napoleon III (1808-1873) Des Idées Napoléoniennes (1839) Translated by James Augustus Dorr (1859)

The Tramp scene from A Clockwork Orange (1971)

Quote of the Day for 2016-09-23

"Tyranny, in this model, is not created by tyrants alone but by neurotic masses who want tyrants."

— Robert Anton Wilson (1932-2007) Everything is Under Control (1998)

Donald Trump speaking at FreedomFest in Las Vegas (July 11, 2015) Photograph by L.E. Baskow

Quote of the Day for 2016-09-22

"Nobody is a villain in their own story. We're all the heroes of our own stories."

— George R.R. Martin (1948-    ) Interview with Christina Radish in Collider.com (April 17, 2011)

Mugshot of Al Capone after being arrested in Philadelphia on a concealed weapons charge (May 16, 1929)

Quote of the Day for 2016-09-21

"Freedom of the press is guaranteed only to those who own one."

— A.J. Liebling (1904-1963) "Toward a One-Paper Town," The New Yorker (February 12, 1949)

Rupert Murdoch standing under the printing presses of the New York Post (November 8, 1985) Protograph by Roger Ressmeyer

Quote of the Day for 2016-09-20

"[I] am inclined to believe that few attacks either of ridicule or invective make much noise, but by the help of those that they provoke."

— Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) Letter to Hester Thrale (July 5, 1783)

Donna Rice and Gary Hart sitting on a dock in Bimini (1987)

Quote of the Day for 2016-09-19

"But look, you are hiding a lance under your clothes, surely."

— Aristophanes (circa 446-386 BCE) Lysistrata, scene 6 (411 BCE) translation was done anonymously, but is presumed to have been Oscar Wilde

Mae West as Catherine II, from her play Catherine Was Great (1944)

Quote of the Day for 2016-09-18

"I talk about going to [George W. Bush's] Inauguration and crying when he took the oath, 'cause I was so afraid he was going to wreck the economy and muck up the drinking water. The failure of my pessimistic imagination at that moment boggles my mind now."

— Sarah Vowell (1969-    ) Interview with John Stewart on The Daily Show (February 21, 2006)

Train crash scene from The Lone Ranger (2013)

Quote of the Day for 2016-09-17

"Scientists dream about doing great things. Engineers do them."

— James A. Michener (1907-1997) Space, chapter 6 (1982)

Military V-2 rockets in a hanger at Peenemünde (1944)

Quote of the Day for 2016-09-16

"Prejudice is the cause of most of the mistakes of bodies of men. It influences our conduct and warps our judgment, in politics, religion, habits, tastes and opinions."

— James Fenimore Cooper (1789-1851) "On Prejudice," The American Democrat (1838)

Lynching of Laura and Lawrence Nelson (May 25, 1911) Postcard by George Henry Farnum

Quote of the Day for 2016-09-15

"The difference between patriotism and nationalism is that the patriot is proud of his country for what it does, and the nationalist is proud of his country no matter what it does; the first attitude creates a feeling of responsibility, but the second a feeling of blind arrogance that leads to war."

— Sydney J. Harris (1917-1986) "Purely Personal Prejudices," Strictly Personal (1953)

Nazi parade, probably during the Nuremberg Rally of 1934, from Triumph of the Will by Leni Reifenstahl (1935)

Quote of the Day for 2016-09-14

"So I the pleasant grape have pulled from the vine, / And yet I languish in great thirst, while others drink the wine."

— Edward de Vere (1550-1604) "Care and Disappointment," Paradise of Dainty Devices (1576)

Amphora depicting Satyrs making wine by Amasis (circa 550-510 BCE)

Quote of the Day for 2016-09-13

"It was better to let the crime of a guilty person go unpunished than to condemn the innocent."

— Trajan (53-117 CE) Quoted by Justice Edward Douglass White in Coffin Vs. United States (March 4, 1895)

The execution chamber in Huntsville, Texas (2008) Photograph by Pat Sullivan

Quote of the Day for 2016-09-12

"We learn nothing by being right."

— Elizabeth Bibesco (1897-1945) Haven (1951)

Jack Skellington trying to explain Christmas Town to his admirers, from The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)

Quote of the Day for 2016-09-11, Fifteenth Anniversary

"For those thousands in the south tower, the second plane meant the end of everything. For us, its glint was the worldflash of a coming future."

— Martin Amis (1949-    ) "Fear and Loathing," The Guardian (September 18, 2001)

Aerial view of Ground Zero, in lower Manhattan, New York City (September 17, 2001) Photograph by Chief Photographer's Mate Eric J. Tilford

Quote of the Day for 2016-09-10

"The strongest of all warriors are these two—Time and Patience."

— Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910) War and Peace, volume 2, chapter 41 (1869) translated by Constance Garnett

The Viet Minh and the OSS Deer team (August 1945) Standing left to right: Unidentified, Lieutenant Rene Defoumeaux, Ho Chi Minh, Major Allison K. Thomas, General Vo Nguyen Giap, Pfc Henry Prunier, Unidentified, Unidentified, and Pfc Paul Hoagland. Kneeling left to right: Lawrence Vogt, Sergeant Aaron Squires, and Unidentified.

Quote of the Day for 2016-09-09

"That which is not yet known comes out of that which is not yet here."

— Viola Spolin (1906-1994) Quoted by Paul Sills in his preface to the third edition of Improvisation for the Theater (1999)

The Second City Chicago main stage skit "Cum Grano Salis" with Eugenie Ross-Leming, John Belushi, Jim Fisher, and Judy Morgan (1971)

Quote of the Day for 2016-09-08

"An opinion, right or wrong, can never constitute a moral offense, nor be in itself a moral obligation. It may be mistaken; it may involve an absurdity, or a contradiction. It is a truth; or it is an error: it can never be a crime or a virtue."

— Frances Wright (1795-1852) A Few Days in Athens, volume 2, chapter 14 (1822)

"Why not go the limit?" by Harry Grant Dart in Puck magazine (March 18, 1908)

Quote of the Day for 2016-09-07

"And if a stranger sojourn with thee in your land, ye shall not vex him. But the stranger that dwelleth with you shall be unto you as one born among you, and thou shalt love him as thyself; for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God."

— The Book of Leviticus, chapter 19, verses 33-34. Translation from the King James Version (1611)

Palestinian man overlooking the refugee camp outside Jaramana, Syria (1948)

Quote of the Day for 2016-09-06

"If economists wished to study the horse, they wouldn't go and look at horses. They'd sit in their studies and say to themselves, 'what would I do if I were a horse?'"

— Ely Devons (1913-1967) Quoted by Ronald Coase in a speech before the International Society of New Institutional Economics in Washington, D.C. (September 17, 1999)

Cover illustration of Jugend magazine by Heinrich Kley (January 29, 1910)

Quote of the Day for 2016-09-05, Labor Day

"And all labour without any play, boys, / Makes Jack a dull boy in the end."

— Alexander Hay Japp (1837-1905) "Some Book-Worms Will Sit and Will Study," "Vers de Société," The Gentleman's Magazine (November 1880)

Members of the Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America, marching in a May Day parade in New York City (May 1, 1914) Photograph by George Grantham Bain

Quote of the Day for 2016-09-04

"And so shall your garden grow; from the rich soil of the humanities it will rise up and unfold in beauty in the pure air of the spirit."

— Louis Sullivan (1856-1924) Kindergarten Chats, chapter 4 (1918)

Academy by Lamplight by Joseph Wright of Derby (1770)

Quote of the Day for 2016-09-03

"The truth isn't always beauty, but the hunger for it is."

— Nadine Gordimer (1923-2014) "Leaving School—II," The London Magazine (May 1963)

Dick Cavett's Watergate on location in the Senate Watergate Committee hearing room (August 1, 1973) left to right: Senator Herman Talmadge, Senator Daniel Inouye, Senator Lowell Weicker, Dick Cavett, and Senator Howard Baker

Quote of the Day for 2016-09-02

"Cowards die many times before their deaths; The valiant never taste of death but once. Of all the wonders that I yet have heard, It seems to me most strange that men should fear; Seeing that death, a necessary end, Will come when it will come."

— William Shakespeare (1564-1616) Julius Caesar, act 2, scene 4 (1599)

Death and the Gravedigger by Carlos Schwabe (1895)

Quote of the Day for 2016-09-01

"I am not estranged from God, although I am a disbeliever in everything about God excepting God indefinable, inaccessible, inside all and careless of all."

— William Saroyan (1908-1981) Here Comes There Goes You Know Who (1961)

Lemminkäinen's Mother by Akseli Gallen-Kallela (1897)

Quote of the Day for 2016-08-31

"Wall Street is the only place that people ride to work in a Rolls Royce to get advice from those who take the subway."

— Warren Buffett (1930-    ) Quoted by Egbert Sukop in The Money Adventure (1998)

Crowds at Federal Hall on Wall Street during the Panic of 1907 (October 1907)

Quote of the Day for 2016-08-30

"Sports is to war as pornography is to sex."

— Jonathan Haidt (1963-    ) "The Moral Roots of Liberals and Conservatives," TED Talk (March 2008)

"Well—what the hell are you staring at?," by EMK (circa 1941-45)

Quote of the Day for 2016-08-29

"If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And if I have the gift of prophecy and I know all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains but have not love, I am nothing. And if I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profiteth me nothing."

— Paul the Apostle (cira 5-67 CE) First letter to the Corinthians, chapter 13 (circa 53-57 CE) translation from the English Revised Version (1881)

The Siege of Acre by Dominique Papety (circa 1840)

Quote of the Day for 2016-08-28

"Art is the stored honey of the human soul, gathered on wings of misery and travail."

— Theodore Dreiser (1871-1945) "Life, Art and America," The Seven Arts (February 1917)

The Tree of Forgiveness by Edward Burne Jones (1881-2) based on the story of Phyllis and Demophon

Quote of the Day for 2016-08-27

"You think that a wall as solid as the earth separates civilisation from barbarism. I tell you the division is a thread, a sheet of glass. A touch here, a push there, and you bring back the reign of Saturn."

— John Buchan (1875-1940) "The Power-House," Blackwood's Magazine (December 1913)

Screenshot from an ITN news story of the Serbian run Omarska concentration camp in Bosnia-Hertzegovina during the Bosnian War (1992)

Quote of the Day for 2016-08-26

"When success happens to an English writer, he acquires a new typewriter. When success happens to an American writer, he acquires a new life."

— Martin Amis (1949-    ) "Kurt Vonnegut: After the Slaughterhouse," The Observer (November 3, 1985)

Emma Watson, the beneficiary of one literary empire, Photoshopped onto the prop of another (2011) Original photograph of Watson by Joel Ryan (November 12, 2010)

Quote of the Day for 2016-08-25

"There is no flag large enough to cover the shame of killing innocent people for a purpose which is unattainable."

— Howard Zinn (1922-2010) "Terrorism Over Tripoli," Failure to Quit (1993)

Shoes from the La Belle discothèque bombing in West Berlin (April 7, 1986) Photograph by Paul Langrock

Quote of the Day for 2016-08-24

"It matters not how strait the gate, / How charged with punishments the scroll, / I am the master of my fate: / I am the captain of my soul."

— William Ernest Henley (1849-1903) "Invictus," Book of Verses (1888)

A CIA employee helps U.S. evacuees up a ladder onto an Air America Bell 204B helicopter, on the apartment building roof at 22 Gia Long Street, Saigon, shortly before the city's fall (April 29, 1975) Photo by Hubert van Es

Quote of the Day for 2016-08-23

"You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them."

— Ray Bradbury (1920-2012) "Bradbury Still Believes in Heat of 'Fahrenheit 451'," interview by Misha Berson, The Seattle Times (March 12, 1993)

Stock photo of young adults using smart phones by ViewApart

Quote of the Day for 2016-08-22

"When childhood dies, its corpses are called adults and they enter society, one of the politer names of Hell. That is why we dread children, even if we love them. They show us the state of our decay."

— Brian Aldiss (1925-    ) "Brian Aldiss, in 2015, looks back on today," The Guardian (August 18, 1971)

Albert Einstein refusing to smile for photographer Arthur Sasse on the famous physicist's 72nd birthday (March 14, 1951)

Quote of the Day for 2016-08-21

"Maybe all poetry, insofar as it moves us and connects with us, is a revealing of something that the writer doesn't actually want to say but desperately needs to communicate, to be delivered of. Perhaps it's the need to keep it hidden that makes it poetic—makes it poetry."

— Ted Hughes (1930-1998) "Ted Hughes, The Art of Poetry No. 71," The Paris Review (Spring 1995)

In Bed The Kiss by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1892)

Quote of the Day for 2016-08-20

"This world is a comedy to those who think, a tragedy to those who feel."

— Horace Walpole (1717-1797) Letter to Sir Horace Mann (December 31, 1769)

Charlie Chaplin in Shoulder Arms (1918)