December 3

December 3 Quotes of the day from previous years:


 * 2003
 * I have never let my schooling get in the way of my education. ~ Mark Twain
 * selected by Basil Fawlty


 * 2004
 * The free expression of the hopes and aspirations of a people is the greatest and only safety in a sane society. ~ Emma Goldman
 * selected by Kalki


 * 2005
 * All idealization makes life poorer. To beautify it is to take away its character of complexity - it is to destroy it. ~ Joseph Conrad in The Secret Agent (born 3 December 1857)
 * proposed by UDScott


 * 2006
 * There is no credulity so eager and blind as the credulity of covetousness, which, in its universal extent, measures the moral misery and the intellectual destitution of mankind. ~ Joseph Conrad
 * proposed by InvisibleSun


 * 2007
 * All creative art is magic, is evocation of the unseen in forms persuasive, enlightening, familiar and surprising, for the edification of mankind, pinned down by the conditions of its existence to the earnest consideration of the most insignificant tides of reality. ~ Joseph Conrad
 * proposed by Kalki


 * 2008
 * The belief in a supernatural source of evil is not necessary; men alone are quite capable of every wickedness. ~ Joseph Conrad
 * proposed by InvisibleSun


 * 2009 :
 * He who wants to persuade should put his trust, not in the right argument, but in the right word. ~ Joseph Conrad
 * proposed by Kalki


 * 2010
 * The changing wisdom of successive generations discards ideas, questions facts, demolishes theories. But the artist appeals to that part of our being which is not dependent on wisdom: to that in us which is a gift and not an acquisition — and, therefore, more permanently enduring. He speaks to our capacity for delight and wonder, to the sense of mystery surrounding our lives; to our sense of pity, and beauty, and pain; to the latent feeling of fellowship with all creation — and to the subtle but invincible, conviction of solidarity that knits together the loneliness of innumerable hearts: to the solidarity in dreams, in joy, in sorrow, in aspirations, in illusions, in hope, in fear, which binds men to each other, which binds together all humanity — the dead to the living and the living to the unborn. ~ Joseph Conrad in The Nigger of the 'Narcissus'
 * proposed by Kalki


 * 2011
 * Truth shall prevail — don't you know Magna est veritas . . . Yes, when it gets a chance. There is a law, no doubt — and likewise a law regulates your luck in the throwing of dice. It is not Justice — the servant of men, but accident, hazard, Fortune — the ally of patient Time — that holds an even and scrupulous balance. ~ Joseph Conrad in Lord Jim
 * proposed by Kalki


 * 2012


 * proposed by Kalki


 * 2013


 * proposed by Kalki


 * 2014


 * proposed by Kalki


 * 2015


 * proposed by Kalki


 * 2016


 * proposed by Kalki


 * 2017


 * proposed by Kalki


 * 2018


 * proposed by Kalki


 * 2019


 * proposed by bystander


 * 2020


 * proposed by Kalki


 * 2021


 * proposed by Kalki


 * 2022


 * proposed by Kalki


 * 2023


 * proposed by Kalki


 * 2024 : Rank or add further suggestions…

Quotes by people born this day, already used as QOTD:


 * Your strength is but an accident arising from the weakness of others. ~ Joseph Conrad in Heart of Darkness
 * used 5 August 2004, selected by Kalki

Suggestions
Our business in this world is not to succeed, but to continue to fail, in good spirits. ~ Robert Louis Stevenson (date of death)
 * 2 ~ UDScott 23:09, 28 November 2005 (UTC)
 * 3 InvisibleSun 00:19, 1 December 2006 (UTC)
 * 2 Zarbon 15:29, 26 April 2008 (UTC)
 * 3 Antiquary 19:32, 2 December 2008 (UTC)
 * 2 Kalki (talk &middot; contributions) 18:37, 2 December 2009 (UTC) with a lean toward 3.

Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap, but by the seeds you plant. ~ Robert Louis Stevenson (date of death)
 * 3 ~ UDScott 23:09, 28 November 2005 (UTC)
 * 0, though very good, this one was already used in July 2004 ~ Kalki 00:17, 4 December 2005 (UTC)
 * 2 Zarbon 15:29, 26 April 2008 (UTC)

The truth is that there is no terror untempered by some great moral idea. ~ Jean-Luc Godard (born December 3, 1930)
 * 3. Fys. &#147;Ta fys aym&#148;. 23:18, 24 November 2006 (UTC)
 * 3 InvisibleSun 00:19, 1 December 2006 (UTC)
 * 2 Zarbon 15:29, 26 April 2008 (UTC)
 * 3 Antiquary 19:32, 2 December 2008 (UTC)
 * 2 Kalki (talk &middot; contributions) 18:37, 2 December 2009 (UTC) with a lean toward 3.

All you need for a movie is a gun and a girl. ~ Jean-Luc Godard.
 * 3. Fys. &#147;Ta fys aym&#148;. 23:18, 24 November 2006 (UTC)
 * 2 InvisibleSun 00:19, 1 December 2006 (UTC)
 * 1 Zarbon 15:29, 26 April 2008 (UTC)
 * 2 Antiquary 19:32, 2 December 2008 (UTC)
 * 1 Kalki (talk &middot; contributions) 05:37, 2 December 2009 (UTC)

The cinema is truth twenty-four times per second. ~ Jean-Luc Godard.
 * 4. Fys. &#147;Ta fys aym&#148;. 23:18, 24 November 2006 (UTC)
 * 3 InvisibleSun 00:19, 1 December 2006 (UTC)
 * 2 Zarbon 15:29, 26 April 2008 (UTC)
 * 1 Kalki (talk &middot; contributions) 05:37, 2 December 2009 (UTC) * 2 Kalki 00:53, 29 November 2008 (UTC)
 * 2 Antiquary 19:32, 2 December 2008 (UTC)

Of all the things I've lost, I miss my mind the most. ~ Ozzy Osbourne
 * 2 Zarbon 04:09, 27 October 2008 (UTC)
 * 2 Kalki 00:53, 29 November 2008 (UTC)

One ship is very much like another, and the sea is always the same. ~ Joseph Conrad in Heart of Darkness
 * 3 Kalki (talk &middot; contributions) 14:29, 30 November 2010 (UTC)

They talk of a man betraying his country, his friends, his sweetheart. There must be a moral bond first. All a man can betray is his conscience. ~ Joseph Conrad
 * 3 Kalki (talk &middot; contributions) 14:29, 30 November 2010 (UTC) with a lean toward 4.

It's only those who do nothing that make no mistakes, I suppose. ~ Joseph Conrad
 * 3 Kalki (talk &middot; contributions) 14:29, 30 November 2010 (UTC) with a lean toward 4.

Woe to the man whose heart has not learned while young to hope, to love — and to put its trust in life! ~ Joseph Conrad
 * 3 Kalki (talk &middot; contributions) 14:29, 30 November 2010 (UTC) with a lean toward 4.
 * 3 bystander (talk) 06:12, 2 December 2012 (UTC)

I can't tell if a straw ever saved a drowning man, but I know that a mere glance is enough to make despair pause. For in truth we who are creatures of impulse are not creatures of despair. ~ Joseph Conrad
 * 3 Kalki (talk &middot; contributions) 14:29, 30 November 2010 (UTC) with a lean toward 4.

The men who could understand his silence were gone — those men who knew how to exist beyond the pale of life and within sight of eternity. They had been strong, as those are strong who know neither doubts nor hopes. They had been impatient and enduring, turbulent and devoted, unruly and faithful. Well-meaning people had tried to represent those men as whining over every mouthful of their food; as going about their work in fear of their lives. But in truth they had been men who knew toil, privation, violence, debauchery — but knew not fear, and had no desire of spite in their hearts. Men hard to manage, but easy to inspire; voiceless men — but men enough to scorn in their hearts the sentimental voices that bewailed the hardness of their fate. It was a fate unique and their own; the capacity to bear it appeared to them the privilege of the chosen! ~ Joseph Conrad in The Nigger of the 'Narcissus'
 * 3 Kalki (talk &middot; contributions) 14:29, 30 November 2010 (UTC) with a lean toward 4.

Art is long and life is short, and success is very far off. And thus, doubtful of strength to travel so far, we talk a little about the aim — the aim of art, which, like life itself, is inspiring, difficult — obscured by mists. It is not in the clear logic of a triumphant conclusion; it is not in the unveiling of one of those heartless secrets which are called the Laws of Nature. It is not less great, but only more difficult. ~ Joseph Conrad in The Nigger of the 'Narcissus'
 * 3 Kalki (talk &middot; contributions) 14:29, 30 November 2010 (UTC) with a lean toward 4.

To arrest, for the space of a breath, the hands busy about the work of the earth, and compel men entranced by the sight of distant goals to glance for a moment at the surrounding vision of form and colour, of sunshine and shadows; to make them pause for a look, for a sigh, for a smile — such is the aim, difficult and evanescent, and reserved only for a very few to achieve. But sometimes, by the deserving and the fortunate, even that task is accomplished. And when it is accomplished — behold! — all the truth of life is there: a moment of vision, a sigh, a smile — and the return to an eternal rest. ~ Joseph Conrad in The Nigger of the 'Narcissus'
 * 3 Kalki (talk &middot; contributions) 14:29, 30 November 2010 (UTC) with a lean toward 4.

Droll thing life is — that mysterious arrangement of merciless logic for a futile purpose. The most you can hope from it is some knowledge of yourself — that comes too late — a crop of unextinguishable regrets. I have wrestled with death. It is the most unexciting contest you can imagine. It takes place in an impalpable grayness, with nothing underfoot, with nothing around, without spectators, without clamor, without glory, without the great desire of victory, without the great fear of defeat, in a sickly atmosphere of tepid skepticism, without much belief in your own right, and still less in that of your adversary. If such is the form of ultimate wisdom, then life is a greater riddle than some of us think it to be. ~ Joseph Conrad in Heart of Darkness
 * 3 Kalki (talk &middot; contributions) 14:29, 30 November 2010 (UTC) with a lean toward 4.

Nobody ever comes back from a "missing" ship to tell how hard was the death of the craft, and how sudden and overwhelming the last anguish of her men. Nobody can say with what thoughts, with what regrets, with what words on their lips they died. But there is something fine in the sudden passing away of these hearts from the extremity of struggle and stress and tremendous uproar—from the vast, unrestful rage of the surface to the profound peace of the depths, sleeping untroubled since the beginning of ages. ~ Joseph Conrad
 * 3 DanielTom (talk) 21:09, 3 December 2014 (UTC)