April 25

day of the year

Quotes of the day from previous years:

2004
Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared. ~ Gautama Buddha
2005
Everyone is a prisoner of his own experiences. No one can eliminate prejudices — just recognize them. ~ Edward R. Murrow (born 25 April 1908)
2006
The speed of communications is wondrous to behold. It is also true that speed can multiply the distribution of information that we know to be untrue. ~ Edward R. Murrow (born 25 April 1908)
2007
It is especially important to encourage unorthodox thinking when the situation is critical: At such moments every new word and fresh thought is more precious than gold. Indeed, people must not be deprived of the right to think their own thoughts. ~ Boris Yeltsin (recent death)
2008
The newest computer can merely compound, at speed, the oldest problem in the relations between human beings, and in the end the communicator will be confronted with the old problem, of what to say and how to say it. ~ Edward R. Murrow
2009
I will either find a way, or make one. ~ Hannibal
2010
It is best to keep one’s own state intact; to crush the enemy’s state is only second best. ~ Sun Tzu
2011
What the ancients called a clever fighter is one who not only wins, but excels in winning with ease. ~ Sun Tzu
2012
Reason, in fact, is a thing of God, inasmuch as there is nothing which God the Maker of all has not provided, disposed, ordained by reason — nothing which He has not willed should be handled and understood by reason. All, therefore, who are ignorant of God, must necessarily be ignorant also of a thing which is His, because no treasure-house at all is accessible to strangers. And thus, voyaging all the universal course of life without the rudder of reason, they know not how to shun the hurricane which is impending over the world. ~ Tertullian
2013
Man is one name belonging to every nation upon earth. In them all is one soul though many tongues. Every country has its own language, yet the subjects of which the untutored soul speaks are the same everywhere.
~ Tertullian ~
2014
No one man can terrorize a whole nation unless we are all his accomplices.
~ Edward R. Murrow ~
2015
Cum ergo spiritus Dei descendit, indiuidua patientia comitatur eum.
·
When God's Spirit descends, then Patience accompanies Him indivisibly.
~ Tertullian ~
2016
We must not confuse dissent with disloyalty. We must remember always that accusation is not proof and that conviction depends upon evidence and due process of law. We will not walk in fear, one of another. We will not be driven by fear into an age of unreason, if we dig deep in our history and our doctrine, and remember that we are not descended from fearful men — not from men who feared to write, to speak, to associate and to defend causes that were, for the moment, unpopular. This is no time for men who oppose Senator McCarthy's methods to keep silent, or for those who approve. We can deny our heritage and our history, but we cannot escape responsibility for the result. There is no way for a citizen of a republic to abdicate his responsibilities. As a nation we have come into our full inheritance at a tender age. We proclaim ourselves, as indeed we are, the defenders of freedom, wherever it continues to exist in the world, but we cannot defend freedom abroad by deserting it at home.
~ Edward R. Murrow ~

2017

Truth persuades by teaching, but does not teach by persuading.
~ Tertullian ~
2018
You can judge the quality of their faith from the way they behave. Discipline is an index to doctrine.
~ Tertullian ~
2019
The layman always means, when he says "reality" that he is speaking of something self-evidently known; whereas to me it seems the most important and exceedingly difficult task of our time is to work on the construction of a new idea of reality.
~ Wolfgang Pauli ~
2020
The best that most of us can hope to achieve in physics is simply to misunderstand at a deeper level.
~ Wolfgang Pauli ~
2021
Einstein has a feeling for the central order of things. He can detect it in the simplicity of natural laws. We may take it that he felt this simplicity very strongly and directly during his discovery of the theory of relativity. Admittedly, this is a far cry from the contents of religion. I don't believe Einstein is tied to any religious tradition, and I rather think the idea of a personal God is entirely foreign to him. But as far as he is concerned there is no split between science and religion: the central order is part of the subjective as well as the objective realm, and this strikes me as being a far better starting point.
~ Wolfgang Pauli ~
2022
I'm not the candidate of one faction anymore, but the president for all of us. … I know full well that many in this country voted for me not because they support my ideas but to block the far-right. I want to thank them tonight, and know I owe them a debt in the years to come. … We have so much to do, and the war in Ukraine reminds us that we are going through tragic times, times where France must be heard, France must clearly make its choices, and France must anchor its strength in all fields, and we will do just that. … We also need to be careful and respectful because our country is full of division and doubt. Therefore we must be strong and no one will be left by the wayside. Together we must work towards that unity which is the only way through which we can live happier in France, and can overcome the challenges of the coming years. The coming years won't be easy for sure, but they will be historic, and together, we will write that story for the coming generations.
~ Emmanuel Macron ~
  • proposed by Kalki; in regard of his recent re-election.
2023
I don't believe that it can end. Now that I've seen what war is, what civil war is, I know that everybody, if one day it should end, ought to ask himself: "And what shall we make of the fallen? Why are they dead?" I wouldn't know what to say. Not now, at any rate. Nor does it seem to me that the others know. Perhaps only dead know, and only for them is the war really over.
~ Cesare Pavese ~
  • proposed by Nemo; as the day of the liberation from fascism (national holiday).
2024
  All warfare is based on deception. Hence, when we are able to attack, we must seem unable; when using our forces, we must appear inactive; when we are near, we must make the enemy believe we are far away; when far away, we must make him believe we are near.
~ Sun Tzu ~
2025
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In much wisdom is much grief: and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow. ~ Solomon

  • 3 because to know more is to suffer more, knowledge heightens suffering, beautiful. Zarbon 16:35, 22 April 2008 (UTC)

Out of the frying pan into the fire. ~ Tertullian

  • 3 because when trying to avoid one disaster, one may fall into another one that is much worse. Beautiful imagery to go with climactic moral. Zarbon 16:47, 22 April 2008 (UTC)
  • 2 Kalki 01:11, 24 April 2009 (UTC) with a lean toward 3.

Speed is the essence of war. Take advantage of the enemy's unpreparedness; travel by unexpected routes and strike him where he has taken no precautions. ~ Sun Tzu

  • 3 because a swift victory is respected. Zarbon 17:33, 22 April 2008 (UTC)
  • 2 Kalki 23:19, 24 April 2008 (UTC) with a lean toward 3, or eventual 4.

Prorsus credibile est, quia ineptum est.
It is to be believed because it is absurd.
~ Tertullian ~

  • 2 Kalki 01:11, 24 April 2009 (UTC) but leaning toward an eventual 3 or even a 4.
  • 2 Zarbon 02:40, 24 April 2009 (UTC)

Virtue has great power, but not if it is imposed – only when it is chosen. ~ Dinesh D'Souza


[M]atter poses no obstacle to a neutrino. A neutrino could pass through a hundred light years of steel without even slowing down.~ In commemoration of the 25 April 1900 birth of Wolfgang Pauli, from the sixth episode of the science documentary television series Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey (2014).


It seems significant that according to quantum physics the indestructibility of energy on one hand — which expresses its timeless existenceand the appearance of energy in space and time on the other hand correspond to two contradictory (complementary) aspects of reality. In fact, both are always present, but in individual cases the one or the other may be more pronounced.
~ Wolfgang Pauli ~