October 1

  • The final end of government is not to exert restraint but to do good.

    Rufus Choate (born 1 October 1799) American lawyer, Whig politician, and orator
  • Any customer can have a car painted any colour that he wants so long as it is black.

    Henry FordAmerican industrialist, founder of the Ford Motor Company
  • Education is learning what you didn't even know you didn't know.

    Daniel J. Boorstin (born 1 October 1914) American historian, professor, attorney and author

October 2

  • There is but one means to extenuate the effects of enemy fire: it is to develop a more violent fire oneself.

    Ferdinand Foch (born 2 October 1851) French soldier and writer
  • I am one of you and being one of you
    Is being and knowing what I am and know.
    Yet I am the necessary angel of earth,
    Since, in my sight, you see the earth again,
    Cleared of its stiff and stubborn, man-locked set
    And, in my hearing, you hear its tragic drone
    Rise liquidly in liquid lingerings,
    Like watery words awash; like meanings said
    By repetitions of half-meanings.

    Wallace Stevens (born 2 October 1879) American poet and businessman
  • The ideally non-violent state will be an ordered anarchy. That State is the best governed which is governed the least.

    Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (born 2 October 1869) Indian advocate and pioneer of nonviolent social protest

October 3

  • We are forming our own Social Contract. This governance will arise according to the conditions of our world, not yours. Our world is different.
    Cyberspace consists of transactions, relationships, and thought itself, arrayed like a standing wave in the web of our communications. Ours is a world that is both everywhere and nowhere, but it is not where bodies live.
    We are creating a world that all may enter without privilege or prejudice accorded by race, economic power, military force, or station of birth.
    We are creating a world where anyone, anywhere may express his or her beliefs, no matter how singular, without fear of being coerced into silence or conformity.

    John Perry Barlow (born 3 October 1947) American poet, essayist, and co-founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation
  • As societies grow decadent, the language grows decadent, too. Words are used to disguise, not to illuminate, action: you liberate a city by destroying it. Words are to confuse, so that at election time people will solemnly vote against their own interests.

    Gore Vidal (born 3 October 1925) American author
  • I have always felt that no matter how inscrutable its ways and means, the universe is working perfectly and working according to a greater plan than we can know.

    John Perry Barlow (born 3 October 1947) American poet, essayist, and co-founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation

October 4

  • The real difficulty is with the vast wealth and power in the hands of the few and the unscrupulous who represent or control capital. Hundreds of laws of Congress and the state legislatures are in the interest of these men and against the interests of workingmen. These need to be exposed and repealed. All laws on corporations, on taxation, on trusts, wills, descent, and the like, need examination and extensive change. This is a government of the people, by the people, and for the people no longer. It is a government of corporations, by corporations, and for corporations. — How is this?

    Rutherford B. Hayes (born 4 October 1822) American politician, the 19th President of the United States
  • The quicker humanity advances, the more important it is to be the one who deals the first blow.

    Ernst Kaltenbrunner (born 4 October 1903) German senior Nazi official during World War II
  • Disunion and civil war are at hand; and yet I fear disunion and war less than compromise. We can recover from them. The free States alone, if we must go on alone, will make a glorious nation.

    Rutherford B. Hayes (born 4 October 1822) American politician, the 19th President of the United States

October 5

  • There are things I can't force. I must adjust. There are times when the greatest change needed is a change of my viewpoint.

    Denis Diderot (born 5 October 1713) French philosopher and editor
  • Anyone who takes himself too seriously always runs the risk of looking ridiculous; anyone who can consistently laugh at himself does not.

    Václav Havel (born 5 October 1936) Czech writer, dramatist, and politician
  • The only real hope of people today is probably a renewal of our certainty that we are rooted in the earth and, at the same time, in the cosmos. This awareness endows us with the capacity for self-transcendence. Politicians at international forums may reiterate a thousand times that the basis of the new world order must be universal respect for human rights, but it will mean nothing as long as this imperative does not derive from the respect of the miracle of Being, the miracle of the universe, the miracle of nature, the miracle of our own existence. Only someone who submits to the authority of the universal order and of creation, who values the right to be a part of it and a participant in it, can genuinely value himself and his neighbours, and thus honor their rights as well.

    Václav Havel (born 5 October 1936) Czech writer, dramatist, and politician

October 6

  • Every marvel of our age arose out of the critical give and take of an open society. No other civilization ever managed to incorporate this crucial innovation, weaving it into daily life. And if you disagree with this … say so!

    David Brin (born 6 October 1950) American author of science fiction
  • It is said that power corrupts, but actually it's more true that power attracts the corruptible. The sane are usually attracted by other things than power.

    David Brin (born 6 October 1950) American author of science fiction
  • Twilight and evening bell,
    And after that the dark!
    And may there be no sadness of farewell,
    When I embark; For though from out our bourne of Time and Place
    The flood may bear me far,
    I hope to see my Pilot face to face
    When I have crossed the bar.

    Alfred, Lord Tennyson (died 6 October 1892) English poet

October 7

  • I am doing it
    the it I am doing is
    the I that is doing it
    the I that is doing it is
    the it I am doing
    it is doing the I that am doing it
    I am being done by the it I am doing
    it is doing it

    Ronald David Laing (born 7 October 1927) Scottish psychiatrist
  • Chaos needs no allies, for it dwells like a poison in every one of us.

    Steven Erikson (born 7 October 1959) Canadian archaeologist, anthropologist and author
  • We must be clear that when it comes to atoms, language can be used only as in poetry. The poet, too, is not nearly so concerned with describing facts as with creating images and establishing mental connections.

    Niels Bohr (born 7 October 1885) Danish physicist

October 8

  • Muad'Dib could indeed see the Future, but you must understand the limits of this power. Think of sight. You have eyes, yet cannot see without light. If you are on the floor of a valley, you cannot see beyond your valley. Just so, Muad'Dib could not always choose to look across the mysterious terrain. He tells us that a single obscure decision of prophecy, perhaps the choice of one word over another, could change the entire aspect of the future. He tells us "The vision of time is broad, but when you pass through it, time becomes a narrow door." And always, he fought the temptation to choose a clear, safe course, warning "That path leads ever down into stagnation."

    Frank Herbert in "Dune" (born 8 October 1920) American science fiction author
  • The year of jubilee has come;
    Gather the gifts of Earth with equal hand;
    Henceforth ye too may share the birthright soil,
    The corn, the wine, and all the harvest-home.

    Edmund Clarence Stedman (born 8 October 1833) American poet, critic and essayist
  • One always feels that a merely educated man holds his philosophical views as if they were so many pennies in his pocket. They are separate from his life. Whereas with a cultured man there is no gap or lacuna between his opinions and his life. Both are dominated by the same organic, inevitable fatality. They are what he is.

    John Cowper Powys (born 8 October 1872) British novelist, poet, essayist and philosopher

October 9

  • Living is easy with eyes closed, misunderstanding all you see.
    It's getting hard to be someone but it all works out.
    It doesn't matter much to me.

    John Lennon (born 9 October 1940) Singer, songwriter and founder of The Beatles
  • Builders and warriors, strengthen the steps.
    Reader, if you have not grasped — read again,
    after a while.
    The predestined is not accidental,
    The leaves fall in their time.
    And winter is but the harbinger of spring.
    All is revealed; all is attainable.

    Nicholas Roerich (born 9 October 1874) Russian archeologist, painter, poet, and spiritual teacher
  • There's nothing you can do that can't be done
    Nothing you can sing that can't be sung
    Nothing you can say but you can learn how to play the game
    It's easy. All you need is love.

    John Lennon (born 9 October 1940) Singer, songwriter and founder of The Beatles

October 10

  • When there are too many policemen, there can be no liberty. When there are too many soldiers, there can be no peace. When there are too many lawyers, there can be no justice.

    Lin Yutang (born 10 October 1895) Chinese writer and translator
  • I am doing my best to glorify the scamp or vagabond. I hope I shall succeed. For things are not so simple as they sometimes seem. In this present age of threats to democracy and individual liberty, probably only the scamp and the spirit of the scamp alone will save us from being lost in serially numbered units in the masses of disciplined, obedient, regimented and uniformed coolies. The scamp will be the last and most formidable enemy of dictatorships. He will be the champion of human dignity and individual freedom, and will be the last to be conquered. All modern civilization depends entirely upon him.

    Lin Yutang (born 10 October 1895) Chinese writer and translator

October 11

  • The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.

    Eleanor Roosevelt (born 11 October 1884) American social activist and First Lady of the USA from 1933-1945
  • Your true home is in the here and the now. It is not limited by time, space, nationality, or race. Your true home is not an abstract idea. It is something you can touch and live in every moment. With mindfulness and concentration, the energies of the Buddha, you can find your true home in the full relaxation of your mind and body in the present moment. No one can take it away from you. Other people can occupy your country, they can even put you in prison, but they cannot take away your true home and your freedom.

    Thich Nhat Hanh (born 11 October 1926) Vietnamese Buddhist monk, peace activist, and author
  • Do what you feel in your heart to be right — for you'll be criticized anyway. You'll be "damned if you do, and damned if you don't."

    Eleanor Roosevelt (born 11 October 1884) American social activist and First Lady of the USA from 1933-1945

October 12

  • Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.

    Aleister Crowley (born 12 October 1875) British occultist, mystic, poet, and social provocateur
  • The concept which assumes that everything in the Church is irrevocably set for all times appears to me to be a false one. It would be naive to disregard that the Church has a history; the Church is a human institution and like all things human, was destined to change and evolve; likewise, its development takes place often in the form of struggles.

    Edith Stein (born 12 October 1891) German Saint, philosopher, nun and martyr
  • I admit that my visions can never mean to other men as much as they do to me. I do not regret this. All I ask is that my results should convince seekers after truth that there is beyond doubt something worth while seeking, attainable by methods more or less like mine. I do not want to father a flock, to be the fetish of fools and fanatics, or the founder of a faith whose followers are content to echo my opinions. I want each man to cut his own way through the jungle.

    Aleister Crowley (born 12 October 1875) British occultist, mystic, poet, and social provocateur

October 13

  • The practical reason for freedom is that freedom seems to be the only condition under which any kind of substantial moral fibre can be developed — we have tried law, compulsion and authoritarianism of various kinds, and the result is nothing to be proud of.

    Albert Jay Nock (born 13 October 1873) American libertarian author and educational theorist
  • I think it's a disgrace for the international community that we have allowed so many conflicts to become frozen, and we are not making a serious effort to solve them.

    Martti AhtisaariFinnish politician, former President of Finland
  • In every civilization, however generally prosaic, however addicted to the short-time point of view on human affairs, there are always certain alien spirits who, while outwardly conforming to the requirements of the civilization around them, still keep a disinterested regard for the plain intelligible law of things, irrespective of any practical end. They have an intellectual curiosity, sometimes touched with emotion, concerning the august order of nature; they are impressed by the contemplation of it, and like to know as much about it as they can, even in circumstances where its operation is ever so manifestly unfavourable to their best hopes and wishes.

    Albert Jay Nock (born 13 October 1873) American libertarian author and educational theorist

October 14

  • Man cannot be free if he does not know that he is subject to necessity, because his freedom is always won in his never wholly successful attempts to liberate himself from necessity.

    Hannah Arendt (born 14 October 1906) German-American political philosopher
  • A people that values its privileges above its principles soon loses both.

    Dwight D. Eisenhower (born 14 October 1890) American soldier and politician, 34th President of the USA
  • We must be ready to dare all for our country. For history does not long entrust the care of freedom to the weak or the timid. We must acquire proficiency in defence and display stamina in purpose. We must be willing, individually and as a Nation, to accept whatever sacrifices may be required of us. A people that values its privileges above its principles soon loses both.

    Dwight D. Eisenhower (born 14 October 1890) American soldier and politician, 34th President of the USA

October 15

  • All of the great leaders have had one characteristic in common: it was the willingness to confront unequivocally the major anxiety of their people in their time. This, and not much else, is the essence of leadership.

    John Kenneth Galbraith (born 15 October 1908) Canadian-American economist and author
  • A nuclear war does not defend a country and it does not defend a system. I've put it the same way many times; not even the most accomplished ideologue will be able to tell the difference between the ashes of capitalism and the ashes of communism.

    John Kenneth Galbraith (born 15 October 1908) Canadian-American economist and author
  • When the modern corporation acquires power over markets, power in the community, power over the state and power over belief, it is a political instrument, different in degree but not in kind from the state itself. To hold otherwise — to deny the political character of the modern corporation — is not merely to avoid the reality. It is to disguise the reality. The victims of that disguise are the students who instruct in error. Let there be no question: economics, so long as it is thus taught, becomes, however unconsciously, a part of the arrangement by which the citizen or student is kept from seeing how he or she is, or will be, governed.

    John Kenneth Galbraith (born 15 October 1908) Canadian-American economist and author

October 16

  • The struggle is always between the individual and his sacred right to express himself and the power structure that seeks conformity, suppression, and obedience.

    William O. Douglas (born 16 October 1898) American Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court
  • The way to combat noxious ideas is with other ideas. The way to combat falsehoods is with truth.

    William O. Douglas (born 16 October 1898) American Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court
  • The liberties of none are safe unless the liberties of all are protected.

    William O. Douglas (born 16 October 1898) American Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court

October 17

  • An era can be said to end when its basic illusions are exhausted.

    Arthur Miller (born 17 October 1915) American playwright, essayist, and author
  • There's too much of an attempt, it seems to me, to think in terms of controlling man, rather than freeing him. Of defining him rather than letting him go. It's part of the whole ideology of this age, which is power-mad.

    Arthur Miller (born 17 October 1915) American playwright, essayist, and author
  • The law of cases of necessity is not likely to be well furnished with precise rules; necessity creates the law, it supersedes rules; and whatever is reasonable and just in such cases, is likewise legal; it is not to be considered as matter of surprise, therefore, if much instituted rule is not to be found on such subjects.

    William Scott (born 17 October 1745) English judge and jurist

October 18

  • Don't laugh at a youth for his affectations; he is only trying on one face after another to find his own.

    Logan Pearsall Smith (born 18 October 1865) American essayist and critic
  • The essential ingredient of politics is timing.

    Pierre Trudeau (born 18 October 1919) Canadian politician, former Prime Minister of Canada
  • To produce a mighty book, you must choose a mighty theme. No great and enduring volume can ever be written on the flea, though many there be who have tried it.

    Herman Melville in "Moby-Dick"American novelist, essayist, and poet

October 19

  • He gave it for his opinion, that whoever could make two ears of corn, or two blades of grass, to grow upon a spot of ground where only one grew before, would deserve better of mankind, and do more essential service to his country, than the whole race of politicians put together.

    Jonathan Swift (died 19 October 1745) Irish writer and satirist
  • To be nameless in worthy deeds exceeds an infamous history.

    Thomas Browne (born 19 October 1605) English author
  • The cycle of the machine is now coming to an end. Man has learned much in the hard discipline and the shrewd, unflinching grasp of practical possibilities that the machine has provided in the last three centuries: but we can no more continue to live in the world of the machine than we could live successfully on the barren surface of the moon.

    Lewis Mumford (born 19 October 1895) American historian of technology and science

October 20

  • Gonna stand my ground, won't be turned around
    and I'll keep this world from draggin' me down
    gonna stand my ground and I won't back down.

    Tom Petty (born 20 October 1950) American musician famous for his work in "Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers"
  • We're overdue for a dream come true.
    Long time nothing new.
    We're overdue for a dream come true.

    Tom Petty (born 20 October 1950) American musician famous for his work in "Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers"
  • I say one must be a seer, make oneself a seer. The poet makes himself a seer by an immense, long, deliberate derangement of all the senses.

    Arthur Rimbaud (born 20 October 1854) French poet

October 21

  • If we must all agree, all work together, we're no better than a machine. If an individual can't work in solidarity with his fellows, it's his duty to work alone. His duty and his right. We have been denying people that right. We've been saying, more and more often, you must work with the others, you must accept the rule of the majority. But any rule is tyranny. The duty of the individual is to accept no rule, to be the initiator of his own acts, to be responsible. Only if he does so will the society live, and change, and adapt, and survive. We are not subjects of a State founded upon law, but members of a society founded upon revolution. Revolution is our obligation: our hope of evolution.

    Ursula K. Le Guin in "The Dispossessed" (born 21 October 1929) US-based science fiction author
  • You must not change one thing, one pebble, one grain of sand, until you know what good and evil will follow on that act. The world is in balance, in Equilibrium. A wizard's power of Changing and Summoning can shake the balance of the world. It is dangerous, that power. It is most perilous. It must follow knowledge, and serve need. To light a candle is to cast a shadow.

    Ursula K. Le Guin (born 21 October 1929) US-based science fiction author
  • In the scenery of spring,
    nothing is better, nothing worse;
    The flowering branches are
    of themselves, some short, some long.

    Ryōkan

October 22

  • Individual societies begin in harmonious adaptation to the environment and, like individuals, quickly get trapped into nonadaptive, artificial, repetitive sequences.
    When the individual's behavior and consciousness get hooked to a routine sequence of external actions, he is a dead robot, and it is time for him to die and be reborn. Time to "drop out," "turn on," and "tune in." This period of robotization is called the Kali Yuga, the Age of Strife and Empire…

    Timothy Leary (born 22 October 1920) American writer, psychologist and campaigner
  • I often observed to my brother, You see now how little nature requires to be satisfied. Felicity, the companion of content, is rather found in our own breasts than in the enjoyment of external things; And I firmly believe it requires but a little philosophy to make a man happy in whatsoever state he is. This consists in a full resignation to the will of Providence; and a resigned soul finds pleasure in a path strewed with briars and thorns.

    Daniel Boone (born 22 October 1734) American pioneer and frontiersman
  • If you want to change the way people respond to you, change the way you respond to people.

    Timothy Leary (born 22 October 1920) American writer, psychologist and campaigner

October 23

  • The best doctors found a middle position where they were neither overwhelmed by their feelings nor estranged from them. That was the most difficult position of all, and the precise balance — neither too detached nor too caring — was something few learned.

    Michael Crichton (born 23 October 1942) American author and film producer
  • We ought to hate very rarely, as it is too fatiguing; remain indifferent to a great deal, forgive often and never forget.

    Sarah Bernhardt (born 23 October 1844) French stage actress
  • Once the curtain is raised, the actor ceases to belong to himself. He belongs to his character, to his author, to his public. He must do the impossible to identify himself with the first, not to betray the second, and not to disappoint the third. And to this end the actor must forget his personality and throw aside his joys and sorrows. He must present the public with the reality of a being who for him is only a fiction. With his own eyes, he must shed the tears of the other. With his own voice, he must groan the anguish of the other. His own heart beats as if it would burst, for it is the other's heart that beats in his heart. And when he retires from a tragic or dramatic scene, if he has properly rendered his character, he must be panting and exhausted.

    Sarah Bernhardt (born 23 October 1844) French stage actress

October 24

  • Courage is not the absence of fear but the awareness that something else is more important.

    Stephen Covey (born 24 October 1932) American author of the bestselling book
  • We present a dramatically different approach to time management. This is a principle-centred approach. It transcends the traditional prescriptions of faster, harder, smarter, and more. Rather than offering you another clock, this approach provides you with a compass — because more important than how fast you're going, is where you're headed.

    Stephen Covey (born 24 October 1932) American author of the bestselling book
  • A moment of choice is a moment of truth. It's the testing point of our character and competence.

    Stephen Covey (born 24 October 1932) American author of the bestselling book

October 25

  • The lyf so short, the craft so longe to lerne.
    Th’ assay so hard, so sharp the conquerynge,
    The dredful joye, alwey that slit so yerne;
    Al this mene I be love.

    Geoffrey Chaucer (died 25 October 1400) English author, poet, philosopher and bureaucrat
  • I would prefer to remain in prison for another 20 years than bargain my beliefs for freedom.

    Samir Geagea (born 25 October 1952) Lebanese politician and former warlord

October 26

  • Strategy is a system of expedients; it is more than a mere scholarly discipline. It is the translation of knowledge to practical life, the improvement of the original leading thought in accordance with continually changing situations.

    Helmuth von Moltke the Elder (born 26 October 1800) German Generalfeldmarschall, chief of staff of the Prussian Army
  • After bread, education is the first need of the people.

    Georges Danton (born 26 October 1759) French leading figure in the early stages of the French Revolution
  • Cherish your visions and your dreams as they are the children of your soul, the blueprints of your ultimate achievements.

    Napoleon Hill (born 26 October 1883) American author

October 27

  • No man is justified in doing evil on the grounds of expediency.

    Theodore Roosevelt (born 27 October 1858) American politician and 26th President of the United States
  • Books won't stay banned. They won't burn. Ideas won't go to jail. In the long run of history, the censor and the inquisitor have always lost. The only sure weapon against bad ideas is better ideas. The source of better ideas is wisdom. The surest path to wisdom is a liberal education.

    Alfred Whitney Griswold (born 27 October 1906) American historian and former president of Yale University
  • They shall have stars at elbow and foot;
    Though they go mad they shall be sane,
    Though they sink through the sea they shall rise again;
    Though lovers be lost love shall not;
    And death shall have no dominion.

    Dylan Thomas (born 27 October 1914) Welsh poet and writer

October 28

  • Paradoxically, the man who has failed and one who is at the peak of success are in exactly the same position. Each must decide what he will do next, choose the course that will lead him to the future.

    Jigoro Kano (born 28 October 1860) Japanese educator and founder of the Japanese martial art of judo
  • Walk a single path, becoming neither cocky with victory nor broken with defeat, without forgetting caution when all is quiet or becoming frightened when danger threatens.

    Jigoro Kano (born 28 October 1860) Japanese educator and founder of the Japanese martial art of judo
  • The reward for work well done is the opportunity to do more.

    Jonas Salk (born 28 October 1914) American medical researcher and author

October 29

  • If you're a leader, you don't push wet spaghetti, you pull it. The U.S. Army still has to learn that. The British understand it. Patton understood it. I always admired Patton. Oh, sure, the stupid bastard was crazy. He was insane. He thought he was living in the Dark Ages. Soldiers were peasants to him. I didn't like that attitude, but I certainly respected his theories and the techniques he used to get his men out of their foxholes.

    Bill Mauldin (born 29 October 1921) American editorial cartoonist famous for his "Willie and Joe" cartoons
  • He who has provoked the lash of wit, cannot complain that he smarts from it.

    James Boswell (born 29 October 1740) Scottish lawyer, diarist, and author
  • No moral system can rest solely on authority.

    Alfred Jules Ayer (born 29 October 1910) British humanist philosopher

October 30

  • As to the history of the revolution, my ideas may be peculiar, perhaps singular. What do we mean by the Revolution? The war? That was no part of the revolution; it was only an effect and consequence of it. The revolution was in the minds of the people.

    John Adams (born 30 October 1735) American politician and second President of the United States
  • Date not the life which thou hast run by the mean of reckoning of the hours and days, which though hast breathed: a life spent worthily should be measured by a nobler line, — by deeds, not years…

    Richard Brinsley Sheridan (born 30 October 1751) Irish playwright and Whig statesman
  • The science of government it is my duty to study, more than all other sciences; the arts of legislation and administration and negotiation ought to take the place of, indeed exclude, in a manner, all other arts. I must study politics and war, that our sons may have liberty to study mathematics and philosophy.

    John Adams (born 30 October 1735) American politician and second President of the United States

October 31

  • Standing on the bridge that crosses
    The river that goes out to the sea
    The wind is full of a thousand voices
    They pass by the bridge and me.

    Loreena McKennittCanadian composer, songwriter and singer
  • Youth is not a question of years: one is young or old from birth.

    Natalie Clifford Barney (born 31 October 1876) American poet, memoirist, and epigrammatist
  • Wherein lies happiness? In that which becks
    Our ready minds to fellowship divine,
    A fellowship with essence; till we shine,
    Full alchemiz’d, and free of space. Behold
    The clear religion of heaven!

    John Keats (born 31 October 1795) English poet
We reserve the right to not be responsible for the topicality, correctness, completeness or quality of the information provided.
 
 

Learn more ...

Ad