November 9

November 9 Quotes of the day from previous years:


 * 2004
 * "The time has come", the Walrus said, "To talk of many things: Of shoes — and ships — and sealing wax — Of cabbages — and Kings — And why the Sea is boiling hot — And whether pigs have wings."  ~ Lewis Carroll in Through the Looking-Glass ~
 * selected by Kalki


 * 2005
 * If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first create the universe. ~ Carl Sagan (born 9 November 1934)
 * proposed by MosheZadka


 * 2006
 * Widespread intellectual and moral docility may be convenient for leaders in the short term, but it is suicidal for nations in the long term. One of the criteria for national leadership should therefore be a talent for understanding, encouraging, and making constructive use of vigorous criticism. ~ Carl Sagan
 * selected by Kalki


 * 2007
 * To love another is something like prayer and it can't be planned, you just fall into its arms because your belief undoes your disbelief. ~ ~ Anne Sexton ~
 * proposed by InvisibleSun


 * 2008
 * Every one of us is precious in the cosmic perspective. If a human disagrees with you, let him live. In a hundred billion galaxies, you will not find another. ~ Carl Sagan
 * proposed by Kalki


 * 2009
 * History is full of people who out of fear, or ignorance, or lust for power have destroyed knowledge of immeasurable value which truly belongs to us all. We must not let it happen again. ~ Carl Sagan
 * proposed by Kalki


 * 2010
 * I had an experience... I can't prove it, I can't even explain it, but everything that I know as a human being, everything that I am tells me that it was real! I was given something wonderful, something that changed me forever... A vision of the universe that tells us, undeniably, how tiny, and insignificant and how … rare, and precious we all are! A vision that tells us that we belong to something that is greater than ourselves, that we are not — that none of us — are alone! … I wish I could share that. I wish, that everyone, if only for one moment, could feel that awe, and humility, and hope. But … that continues to be my wish. ~ "Ellie Arroway" in Contact based on the novel by Carl Sagan
 * proposed by Kalki


 * 2011
 * Since, in the long run, every planetary society will be endangered by impacts from space, every surviving civilization is obliged to become spacefaring — not because of exploratory or romantic zeal, but for the most practical reason imaginable: staying alive. ~ Carl Sagan
 * proposed by Kalki


 * 2012


 * proposed by Kalki


 * 2013


 * proposed by Kalki


 * 2014


 * proposed by Kalki


 * 2015


 * proposed by Kalki


 * 2016


 * proposed by DanielTom


 * 2017


 * proposed by Kalki


 * 2018


 * proposed by Kalki


 * 2019


 * proposed by Kalki


 * 2020


 * proposed by Kalki


 * 2021


 * proposed by Kalki


 * 2022


 * proposed by Kalki


 * 2023


 * proposed by Kalki


 * 2024 : Rank or add further suggestions…

Suggestions
A woman who writes feels too much, those trances and portents! As if cycles and children and islands weren't enough; as if mourners and gossips and vegetables were never enough. She thinks she can warm the stars. A writer is essentially a spy. Dear love, I am that girl. ~ Anne Sexton (born November 9, 1928)
 * 3 InvisibleSun 10:34, 8 November 2007 (UTC)
 * 3 Kalki 12:39, 8 November 2007 (UTC)
 * 1 Zarbon 05:55, 26 April 2008 (UTC)
 * 2 04:56, 8 October 2014 (UTC)

I have ridden in your cart, driver, waved my nude arms at villages going by, learning the last bright routes, survivor where your flames still bite my thigh and my ribs crack where your wheels wind. A woman like that is not ashamed to die. I have been her kind. ~ Anne Sexton
 * 4 InvisibleSun 10:34, 8 November 2007 (UTC)
 * 2 Kalki 12:39, 8 November 2007 (UTC)
 * 1 Zarbon 05:55, 26 April 2008 (UTC)
 * 2 04:58, 8 October 2014 (UTC)

But suicides have a special language. Like carpenters they want to know which tools. They never ask why build. ~ Anne Sexton
 * 3 InvisibleSun 10:34, 8 November 2007 (UTC)
 * 2 Kalki 12:39, 8 November 2007 (UTC)
 * 1 Zarbon 05:55, 26 April 2008 (UTC)
 * 3 04:59, 8 October 2014 (UTC)

I love you the way the oboe plays. I love you the way skinny dipping makes my body feel. I love you the way a ripe artichoke tastes. Yet I fear you, as one in the desert fears the sun. ~ Anne Sexton
 * 3 InvisibleSun 10:34, 8 November 2007 (UTC)
 * 3 Kalki 12:39, 8 November 2007 (UTC)
 * 2 Zarbon 05:55, 26 April 2008 (UTC)
 * 1 04:59, 8 October 2014 (UTC)

A religion old or new, that stressed the magnificence of the universe as revealed by modern science, might be able to draw forth reserves of reverence and awe hardly tapped by the conventional faiths. Sooner or later, such a religion will emerge. ~ Carl Sagan
 * 3 Kalki 12:39, 8 November 2007 (UTC) but would now prefer to extend this to :
 * How is it that hardly any major religion has looked at science and concluded, "This is better than we thought! The Universe is much bigger than our prophets said, grander, more subtle, more elegant?" Instead they say, "No, no, no! My god is a little god, and I want him to stay that way." A religion old or new, that stressed the magnificence of the universe as revealed by modern science, might be able to draw forth reserves of reverence and awe hardly tapped by the conventional faiths. Sooner or later, such a religion will emerge. ~ Carl Sagan
 * 3 Kalki (talk &middot; contributions) 11:18, 13 September 2010 (UTC) with a strong lean toward 4.
 * 2 Pithy Francoln (talk) 20:50, 12 October 2016 (UTC) I prefer the shorter version to the longer version.


 * 3 InvisibleSun 17:45, 8 November 2007 (UTC)
 * 1 Zarbon 05:55, 26 April 2008 (UTC)
 * 1 05:01, 8 October 2014 (UTC)
 * 3 Pithy Francoln (talk) 20:50, 12 October 2016 (UTC) I prefer the shorter version to the longer version, because the shorter one is more memorable.

I believe it is an act of delusion to look for (or more so), discover a so-called "educated" preacher/evangelist. Thus, no evangelist/preacher can be better than the other. But I agree, they can be worse. ~ Nadeem F. Paracha
 * 3 Zarbon 17:33, 8 July 2008 (UTC)
 * 1 Kalki 18:21, 8 November 2008 (UTC)
 * 2 05:01, 8 October 2014 (UTC)

Either I'm just too paranoid or this is just my way of now playing the sardonic court jester instead of the "angry young man" who once actually believed in the logic and persuasive power of cohesive literary narratives as a means to bring about change. ~ Nadeem F. Paracha
 * 3 Zarbon 17:33, 8 July 2008 (UTC)
 * 1 Kalki 18:21, 8 November 2008 (UTC)
 * 2 05:01, 8 October 2014 (UTC)

I'd rather fight for a tree than die for a God. ~ Nadeem F. Paracha
 * 3 Zarbon 17:33, 8 July 2008 (UTC)
 * 1 Kalki 18:21, 8 November 2008 (UTC)
 * 1 05;02, 8 October 2014 (UTC)

I'm suspicious of any mode of transportation that requires a running start. ~ Alan Kotok
 * 2 Zarbon 17:33, 8 July 2008 (UTC)
 * 1 Kalki 18:21, 8 November 2008 (UTC)
 * 1 InvisibleSun 23:38, 8 November 2008 (UTC)

I'm opposed to any sport that reduces the coefficient of friction between me and the ground. ~ Alan Kotok
 * 2 Zarbon 17:33, 8 July 2008 (UTC)
 * 1 Kalki 18:21, 8 November 2008 (UTC)
 * 1 InvisibleSun 23:38, 8 November 2008 (UTC)

There's the moon trying to look romantic Moon's too old that's her trouble Aren't we all? ~ Roger McGough
 * 3 Zarbon 17:33, 8 July 2008 (UTC)
 * 1 Kalki 18:21, 8 November 2008 (UTC)
 * 3 InvisibleSun 23:38, 8 November 2008 (UTC)

The general at the radar screen he should have got the sack But that wouldn't bring Three thousand million, seven hundred, and sixty-eight people back, Would it? ~ Roger McGough
 * 3 Zarbon 17:33, 8 July 2008 (UTC)
 * 1 Kalki 18:21, 8 November 2008 (UTC)
 * 2 InvisibleSun 23:38, 8 November 2008 (UTC)

The general at the radar screen Rubbed his hands with glee, And grinning pressed the button And started world war three. ~ Roger McGough
 * 3 Zarbon 17:33, 8 July 2008 (UTC)
 * 1 Kalki 18:21, 8 November 2008 (UTC)
 * 1 InvisibleSun 23:38, 8 November 2008 (UTC)

Democracy may be alright for certain people in the world, but I don't think the type of democracy Fiji needs is the type Australia and New Zealand enjoy. ~ Jona Senilagakali
 * 3 Zarbon 18:03, 8 July 2008 (UTC)
 * 1 Kalki 18:21, 8 November 2008 (UTC)
 * 1 InvisibleSun 23:38, 8 November 2008 (UTC)

If we can't think for ourselves, if we're unwilling to question authority, then we're just putty in the hands of those in power. But if the citizens are educated and form their own opinions, then those in power work for us. In every country, we should be teaching our children the scientific method and the reasons for a Bill of Rights. With it comes a certain decency, humility and community spirit. In the demon-haunted world that we inhabit by virtue of being human, this may be all that stands between us and the enveloping darkness. ~ Carl Sagan
 * 3 Kalki (talk &middot; contributions) 11:18, 13 September 2010 (UTC) with a very strong lean toward 4.
 * 3 Pithy Francoln (talk) 20:50, 12 October 2016 (UTC)

Our loyalties are to the species and the planet, we speak for Earth. Our obligation to survive and flourish is owed not just to ourselves but also to that Cosmos ancient and vast from which we spring. ~ Carl Sagan
 * 3 Kalki (talk &middot; contributions) 11:18, 13 September 2010 (UTC) with a strong lean toward 4.

What an astonishing thing a book is. It's a flat object made from a tree with flexible parts on which are imprinted lots of funny dark squiggles. But one glance at it and you're inside the mind of another person, maybe somebody dead for thousands of years. Across the millennia, an author is speaking clearly and silently inside your head, directly to you. Writing is perhaps the greatest of human inventions, binding together people who never knew each other, citizens of distant epochs. Books break the shackles of time. A book is proof that humans are capable of working magic. ~ Carl Sagan
 * 3 Kalki (talk &middot; contributions) 11:18, 13 September 2010 (UTC) with a very strong lean toward 4.
 * 3 Pithy Francoln (talk) 20:50, 12 October 2016 (UTC)
 * 3 DanielTom (talk) 00:27, 11 December 2016 (UTC)

The sky calls to us. If we do not destroy ourselves, we will one day venture to the stars. ~ Carl Sagan
 * 3 Kalki (talk &middot; contributions) 11:18, 13 September 2010 (UTC) with a lean toward 4.

There are many hypotheses in science that are wrong. That's perfectly all right; it's the aperture to finding out what's right. Science is a self-correcting process. To be accepted, new ideas must survive the most rigorous standards of evidence and scrutiny. ~ Carl Sagan
 * 3 Kalki (talk &middot; contributions) 11:18, 13 September 2010 (UTC)
 * 2 Pithy Francoln (talk) 20:50, 12 October 2016 (UTC)

We wish to pursue the truth no matter where it leads. But to find the truth, we need imagination and skepticism both. We will not be afraid to speculate, but we will be careful to distinguish speculation from fact. The cosmos is full beyond measure of elegant truths; of exquisite interrelationships; of the awesome machinery of nature. ~ Carl Sagan
 * 3 Kalki (talk &middot; contributions) 11:18, 13 September 2010 (UTC)
 * 2 Pithy Francoln (talk) 20:50, 12 October 2016 (UTC)

For the first time, we have the power to decide the fate of our planet and ourselves. This is a time of great danger, but our species is young, and curious, and brave. It shows much promise. ~ Carl Sagan
 * 3 Kalki (talk &middot; contributions) 11:18, 13 September 2010 (UTC)
 * 2 Pithy Francoln (talk) 20:50, 12 October 2016 (UTC)

The major religions on the Earth contradict each other left and right. You can't all be correct. And what if all of you are wrong? It's a possibility, you know. You must care about the truth, right? Well, the way to winnow through all the differing contentions is to be skeptical. I'm not any more skeptical about your religious beliefs than I am about every new scientific idea I hear about. But in my line of work, they're called hypotheses, not inspiration and not revelation. ~ Carl Sagan
 * 3 Kalki (talk &middot; contributions) 11:18, 13 September 2010 (UTC)
 * 2 Pithy Francoln (talk) 20:50, 12 October 2016 (UTC)

You wanna hear something really nutty? I heard of a couple guys who wanna build something called an airplane, you know you get people to go in, and fly around like birds, it's ridiculous, right? And what about breaking the sound barrier, or rockets to the moon? Atomic energy, or a mission to Mars? Science fiction, right? Look, all I'm asking is for you to just have the tiniest bit of vision. You know, to just sit back for one minute and look at the big picture. To take a chance on something that just might end up being the most profoundly impactful moment for humanity, for the history… of history. ~ Carl Sagan
 * 2 ♞☤☮♌︎Kalki ⚚⚓︎⊙☳☶⚡ 22:00, 8 November 2014 (UTC) * 3 Kalki (talk &middot; contributions) 11:18, 13 September 2010 (UTC)
 * 4 05:03, 8 October 2014 (UTC)

Human history can be viewed as a slowly dawning awareness that we are members of a larger group. Initially our loyalties were to ourselves and our immediate family, next, to bands of wandering hunter-gatherers, then to tribes, small settlements, city-states, nations. We have broadened the circle of those we love. We have now organized what are modestly described as super-powers, which include groups of people from divergent ethnic and cultural backgrounds working in some sense together — surely a humanizing and character building experience. If we are to survive, our loyalties must be broadened further, to include the whole human community, the entire planet Earth. Many of those who run the nations will find this idea unpleasant. They will fear the loss of power. We will hear much about treason and disloyalty. Rich nation-states will have to share their wealth with poor ones. But the choice, as H. G. Wells once said in a different context, is clearly the universe or nothing. ~ Carl Sagan
 * 3 Kalki (talk &middot; contributions) 11:18, 13 September 2010 (UTC) with a strong lean toward 4.

The choice is with us still, but the civilization now in jeopardy is all humanity. As the ancient myth makers knew, we are children equally of the earth and the sky. In our tenure of this planet we've accumulated dangerous evolutionary baggage — propensities for aggression and ritual, submission to leaders, hostility to outsiders — all of which puts our survival in some doubt. But we've also acquired compassion for others, love for our children and desire to learn from history and experience, and a great soaring passionate intelligence — the clear tools for our continued survival and prosperity. Which aspects of our nature will prevail is uncertain, particularly when our visions and prospects are bound to one small part of the small planet Earth. But up there in the immensity of the Cosmos, an inescapable perspective awaits us. There are not yet any obvious signs of extraterrestrial intelligence and this makes us wonder whether civilizations like ours always rush implacably, headlong, toward self-destruction. National boundaries are not evident when we view the Earth from space. Fanatical ethnic or religious or national chauvinisms are a little difficult to maintain when we see our planet as a fragile blue crescent fading to become an inconspicuous point of light against the bastion and citadel of the stars. Travel is broadening. ~ Carl Sagan
 * 3 Kalki (talk &middot; contributions) 11:18, 13 September 2010 (UTC) with a strong lean toward 4.

Books permit us to voyage through time, to tap the wisdom of our ancestors. The library connects us with the insights and knowledge, painfully extracted from Nature, of the greatest minds that ever were, with the best teachers, drawn from the entire planet and from all of our history, to instruct us without tiring, and to inspire us to make our own contribution to the collective knowledge of the human species. Public libraries depend on voluntary contributions. I think the health of our civilization, the depth of our awareness about the underpinnings of our culture and our concern for the future can all be tested by how well we support our libraries. ~ Carl Sagan
 * 2 ♞☤☮♌︎Kalki ⚚⚓︎⊙☳☶⚡ 22:00, 8 November 2014 (UTC) * 3 Kalki (talk &middot; contributions) 11:18, 13 September 2010 (UTC) with a lean toward 4.
 * 4 05:04, 8 October 2014 (UTC)
 * 3 Pithy Francoln (talk) 20:50, 12 October 2016 (UTC)

Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it we go nowhere. ~ Carl Sagan
 * 3 Kalki (talk &middot; contributions) 11:18, 13 September 2010 (UTC) with a lean toward 4.

The Cosmos is all that is or ever was or ever will be. Our feeblest contemplations of the Cosmos stir us — there is a tingling in the spine, a catch in the voice, a faint sensation of a distant memory, as if we were falling from a great height. We know we are approaching the greatest of mysteries. ~ Carl Sagan
 * 3 Kalki (talk &middot; contributions) 11:18, 13 September 2010 (UTC) with a lean toward 4.
 * 3 Pithy Francoln (talk) 20:50, 12 October 2016 (UTC) This line may not be the most insightful thing Sagan ever said, but at this point it is truly iconic. Ann Druyan and Steven Soter used a recording of Carl Sagan saying these words again in the intro to the updated version of Cosmos in 2014. I'd love to see it as a quote of the day.

Humans — who enslave, castrate, experiment on, and fillet other animals — have had an understandable penchant for pretending animals do not feel pain. A sharp distinction between humans and 'animals' is essential if we are to bend them to our will, make them work for us, wear them, eat them — without any disquieting tinges of guilt or regret. It is unseemly of us, who often behave so unfeelingly toward other animals, to contend that only humans can suffer. The behavior of other animals renders such pretensions specious. They are just too much like us. ~ Carl Sagan
 * 3 Kalki (talk &middot; contributions) 11:18, 13 September 2010 (UTC)

The vast distances that separate the stars are providential. Beings and worlds are quarantined from one another. The quarantine is lifted only for those with sufficient self-knowledge and judgement to have safely traveled from star to star. ~ Carl Sagan
 * 3 Kalki (talk &middot; contributions) 11:18, 13 September 2010 (UTC) with a strong lean toward 4.
 * 2 Pithy Francoln (talk) 20:50, 12 October 2016 (UTC)


 * 3 ♞☤☮♌︎Kalki ⚚⚓︎⊙☳☶⚡ 20:18, 10 August 2014 (UTC) with a very strong lean toward 4.

The next golden age of human achievement begins here and now: New Year's Day of the next cosmic year. In the first tenth of a second, we take the vision of the Pale Blue Dot to heart, and learn how to share this tiny world with each other. . . as the effects of climate change reverse and diminish. A fifth of a second into this future people will stop dying from the effects of poverty. The planet is now a completely self-sustaining, intercommunicating organism. ~ In commemoration of the 9 November 1934 birth of Carl Sagan, from the eleventh episode of the science documentary television series Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey (2014).
 * 3 Pithy Francoln (talk) 21:35, 11 October 2016 (UTC)

There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another and to preserve and cherish the Pale Blue Dot, the only home we've ever known. ~ Recording of Carl Sagan's voice over a re-imagining of the "Pale Blue Dot" image of Earth taken by Voyager 1, in commemoration of Sagan's birth on 9 November 1934. From the thirteenth episode of the science documentary television series Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey (2014).
 * 4 Pithy Francoln (talk) 22:04, 13 October 2016 (UTC) This quote from Sagan gets my single "4" vote for this date, this year, because it seems to me that this is the idea Sagan emphasized more than anything else as he was approaching death.
 * 2 ♞☤☮♌︎Kalki ⚚⚓︎⊙☳☶⚡ 00:00, 9 November 2017 (UTC)