May 1

  • When an angel by divine command
    With rising tempests shakes a guilty land,
    Such as of late o'er pale Britannia passed,
    Calm and serene he drives the furious blast;
    And, pleas'd th' Almighty's orders to perform,
    Rides in the whirlwind, and directs the storm.

    Joseph Addison (born 1 May 1672) English politician and writer
  • What sculpture is to a block of marble, education is to the human soul.

    Joseph Addison (born 1 May 1672) English politician and writer

May 2

  • We are so bound together that no man can labor for himself alone. Each blow he strikes in his own behalf helps to mold the Universe.

    Jerome K. Jerome (born 2 May 1859) English author, best known for "Three Men in a Boat"
  • Philosophy can bake no bread; but she can procure for us God, Freedom, Immortality.

    Novalis (born 2 May 1772) German author, philosopher and poet
  • Before abstraction everything is one, but one like chaos; after abstraction everything is united again, but this union is a free binding of autonomous, self-determined beings. Out of a mob a society has developed, chaos has been transformed into a manifold world.

    Novalis (born 2 May 1772) German author, philosopher and poet

May 3

  • To everything (turn, turn, turn)
    There is a season (turn, turn, turn)
    And a time for every purpose under heaven.

    Pete Seeger (born 3 May 1919) American musician, political activist, and author
  • The lion cannot protect himself from traps, and the fox cannot defend himself from wolves. One must therefore be a fox to recognize traps, and a lion to frighten wolves.

    Niccolò Machiavelli (born 3 May 1469) Florentine political philosopher, historian, musician, poet, and playwright
  • No enterprise is more likely to succeed than one concealed from the enemy until it is ripe for execution.
    Nothing is of greater importance in time of war than in knowing how to make the best use of a fair opportunity when it is offered.

    Niccolò Machiavelli (born 3 May 1469) Florentine political philosopher, historian, musician, poet, and playwright

May 4

  • Beneficence is godlike, and he who does most good to his fellow-man is the Master of Masters, and has learned the Art of Arts. Enrich and embellish the universe as you will, it is only a fit temple for the heart that loves truth with a supreme love. Inanimate vastness excites wonder; knowledge kindles admiration, but love enraptures the soul. Scientific truth is marvellous, but moral truth is divine; and whoever breathes its air and walks by its light, has found the lost paradise. For him, a new heaven and a new earth have already been created. His home is the sanctuary of God, the Holy of Holies.

    Horace Mann (born 4 May 1796) American education reformer and abolitionist
  • A teacher who is attempting to teach without inspiring the pupil with a desire to learn is hammering cold iron.

    Horace Mann (born 4 May 1796) American education reformer and abolitionist
  • If any man seeks for greatness, let him forget greatness and ask for truth, and he will find both.

    Horace Mann (born 4 May 1796) American education reformer and abolitionist

May 5

  • Is it an excellence in your love that it can love only the extraordinary, the rare? If it were love’s merit to love the extraordinary, then God would be — if I dare say so — perplexed, for to Him the extraordinary does not exist at all. The merit of being able to love only the extraordinary is therefore more like an accusation, not against the extraordinary nor against love, but against the love which can love only the extraordinary. Perfection in the object is not perfection in the love. Erotic love is determined by the object; friendship is determined by the object; only love of one’s neighbour is determined by love. Therefore genuine love is recognizable by this, that its object is without any of the more definite qualifications of difference, which means that this love is recognizable only by love.

    Søren Kierkegaard (born 5 May 1813) Danish philosopher and theologian
  • If I have ventured wrongly, very well, life then helps me with its penalty. But if I haven't ventured at all, who helps me then?

    Søren Kierkegaard (born 5 May 1813) Danish philosopher and theologian
  • Do not interrupt the flight of your soul; do not distress what is best in you; do not enfeeble your spirit with half wishes and half thoughts. Ask yourself and keep on asking until you find the answer, for one may have known something many times, acknowledged it; one may have willed something many times, attempted it — and yet, only the deep inner motion, only the heart's indescribable emotion, only that will convince you that what you have acknowledged belongs to you, that no power can take it from you — for only the truth that builds up is truth for you.

    Søren Kierkegaard in "Either/Or" (born 5 May 1813) Danish philosopher and theologian

May 6

  • When true simplicity is gain'd
    To bow and to bend we shan't be asham'd,
    To turn, turn will be our delight
    'Till by turning, turning we come round right.

    Joseph Brackett (born 6 May 1797) American Shaker Elder and songwriter
  • Being entirely honest with oneself is a good exercise.

    Sigmund Freud (born 6 May 1856) Austrian neurologist and psychologist
  • The voice of the intellect is a soft one, but it does not rest until it has gained a hearing. Ultimately, after endlessly repeated rebuffs, it succeeds. This is one of the few points in which it may be optimistic about the future of mankind, but in itself it signifies not a little.

    Sigmund Freud (born 6 May 1856) Austrian neurologist and psychologist

May 7

  • The very essence of democracy is the absolute faith that while people must cooperate, the first function of democracy, its peculiar gift, is to develop each individual into everything that he might be. But I submit to you that when in each man the dream of personal greatness dies, democracy loses the real source of its future strength.

    Edwin H. Land (born 7 May 1909) American scientist and inventor
  • If nature has been frugal in her gifts and endowments, there is the more need of art to supply her defects. If she has been generous and liberal, know that she still expects industry and application on our part, and revenges herself in proportion to our negligent ingratitude. The richest genius, like the most fertile soil, when uncultivated, shoots up into the rankest weeds; and instead of vines and olives for the pleasure and use of man, produces, to its slothful owner, the most abundant crop of poisons.

    David Hume (born 7 May 1711) Scottish philosopher, historian, economist and essayist
  • Bigotry tries to keep truth safe in its hand
    With a grip that kills it.

    Rabindranath Tagore (born 7 May 1861) Bengali philosopher, poet, and winner of the Nobel Prize for literature

May 8

  • I want to break out — to leave this cycle of infection and death. I want to be taken in love: so taken that you and I, and death, and life, will be gathered inseparable, into the radiance of what we would become…

    Thomas Pynchon (born 8 May 1937) American writer based in New York City
  • Freedom granted only when it is known beforehand that its effects will be beneficial is not freedom.

    Friedrich Hayek (born 8 May 1899) Nobel laureate in economics, social scientist and political theorist
  • It is possible for a dictator to govern in a liberal way. And it is also possible for a democracy to govern with a total lack of liberalism. Personally I prefer a liberal dictator to democratic government lacking liberalism.

    Friedrich Hayek (born 8 May 1899) Nobel laureate in economics, social scientist and political theorist

May 9

  • The life of every man is a diary in which he means to write one story, and writes another; and his humblest hour is when he compares the volume as it is with what he vowed to make it.

    J. M. Barrie (born 9 May 1860) Scottish novelist and dramatist, famous for "Peter Pan"
  • Those who bring sunshine into the lives of others cannot keep it from themselves.

    J. M. Barrie (born 9 May 1860) Scottish novelist and dramatist, famous for "Peter Pan"
  • It is not enough that we have a guilty defendant. We must have an innocent system as well.

    John Ashcroft (born 9 May 1942) Former United States Attorney General

May 10

  • Seeing a woman's child is like seeing a woman naked, in the way it changes how her face looks to you, how her face becomes less the whole story.

    John CrowleyAmerican author, famous for "Little, Big"
  • We're one, but we're not the same
    We get to carry each other, carry each other… one.

    Bono (born 10 May 1960) Irish musician and social activist, lead singer of U2
  • Touch me
    Take me to that other place
    Reach me
    I know I'm not a hopeless case
    What you don't have you don't need it
    What you don't know you can feel it somehow

    Bono (born 10 May 1960) Irish musician and social activist, lead singer of U2

May 11

  • There are all kinds of interesting questions that come from a knowledge of science, which only adds to the excitement and mystery and awe of a flower. It only adds. I don't understand how it subtracts.

    Richard Feynman (born 11 May 1918) American physicist
  • Poets say science takes away from the beauty of the stars — mere globs of gas atoms. Nothing is "mere". I too can see the stars on a desert night, and feel them. But do I see less or more? The vastness of the heavens stretches my imagination — stuck on this carousel my little eye can catch one-million-year-old light. A vast pattern — of which I am a part… What is the pattern or the meaning or the why? It does not do harm to the mystery to know a little more about it.

    Richard Feynman (born 11 May 1918) American physicist
  • For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for nature cannot be fooled.

    Richard Feynman (born 11 May 1918) American physicist

May 12

  • I think one's feelings waste themselves in words, they ought all to be distilled into actions and into actions which bring results.

    Florence Nightingale (born 12 May 1820) British nurse and a noted statistician
  • I never lose an opportunity of urging a practical beginning, however small, for it is wonderful how often in such matters the mustard-seed germinates and roots itself.

    Florence Nightingale (born 12 May 1820) British nurse and a noted statistician
  • Happy the man, and happy he alone,
    He who can call today his own;
    He who, secure within, can say,
    Tomorrow, do thy worst, for I have lived today.
    Be fair, or foul, or rain, or shine,
    The joys I have possessed, in spite of fate, are mine.
    Not heaven itself upon the past has power;
    But what has been, has been, and I have had my hour.

    John Dryden, based on "Ode XXIX" of HoraceEnglish poet, literary critic, and playwright

May 13

  • Not living in fear is a great gift, because certainly these days we do it so much. And do you know what I like about comedy? You can’t laugh and be afraid at the same time — of anything. If you're laughing, I defy you to be afraid.

    Stephen Colbert (born 13 May 1964) American satirist, comedian, writer and actor
  • Death and Light are everywhere, always, and they begin, end, strive, attend, into and upon the Dream of the Nameless that is the world, burning words within Samsara, perhaps to create a thing of beauty.

    Roger Zelazny in "Lord of Light" (born 13 May 1937) American writer
  • Always dying, never dead;
    Ever ending, never ended;
    Loathed in darkness,
    Clothed in light,
    He comes, to end a world,
    As morning ends the night.

    Roger Zelazny (born 13 May 1937) American writer
    in
    Lord of Light

May 14

  • Union and co-operation in war obviously increase the power of the individual a thousand fold. Is there the shadow of a reason why they should not produce equal effects in peace; why the principle of co-operation should not give to men the same superior powers, and advantages, (and much greater) in the creation, preservation, distribution and enjoyment of wealth?

    Robert Owen (born 14 May 1771) Welsh socialist and social reformer
  • Errors now almost universally exist, and must be overcome solely by the force of reason; and as reason, to effect the most beneficial purposes, makes her advance by slow degrees, and progressively substantiates one truth of high import after another, it will be evident, to minds of comprehensive and accurate thought, that by these and similar compromises alone can success be rationally expected in practice. For such compromises bring truth and error before the public; and whenever they are fairly exhibited together, truth must ultimately prevail.

    Robert Owen (born 14 May 1771) Welsh socialist and social reformer
  • Men reject their prophets and slay them, but they love their martyrs and honor those they have slain.

    Fyodor DostoevskyRussian writer

May 15

  • The real sin against life is to abuse and destroy beauty, even one's own — even more, one's own, for that has been put in our care and we are responsible for its well-being.

    Katherine Anne Porter (born 15 May 1890) American journalist, essayist and short story writer
  • Every child saved with my help and the help of all the wonderful secret messengers, who today are no longer living, is the justification of my existence on this earth, and not a title to glory.

    Irena SendlerSocial worker
  • I have learned to regard fame as a will-o-the-wisp which, when caught, is not worth the possession; but to please a child is a sweet and lovely thing that warms one's heart and brings its own reward.

    L. Frank Baum (born 15 May 1856) American author, actor, and filmmaker, famous for "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz"

May 16

  • The slave system is one of constant danger, distrust, suspicion, and watchfulness. It debases those whose toil alone can produce wealth and resources for defence, to the lowest degree of which human nature is capable, to guard against mutiny and insurrection, and thus wastes energies which otherwise might be employed in national development and aggrandizement. The free-labor system educates all alike, and by opening all the fields of industrial employment and all the departments of authority, to the unchecked and equal rivalry of all classes of men, at once secures universal contentment, and brings into the highest possible activity all the physical, moral, and social energies of the whole state.

    William H. Seward (born 16 May 1801) American politician, 12th Governor of New York and United States Senator
  • Nothing happens to anybody which he is not fitted by nature to bear.

    Marcus AureliusStoic philosopher and Roman Emperor
  • I have learned, by some experience, that virtue and patriotism, vice and selfishness, are found in all parties, and that they differ less in their motives than in the policies they pursue.

    William H. Seward (born 16 May 1801) American politician, 12th Governor of New York and United States Senator

May 17

  • Yes, there is a Divinity, one from which we must never turn aside for the guidance of our huge inward life and of the share we have as well in the life of all men. It is called the truth.

    Henri Barbusse (born 17 May 1873) French novelist, journalist and communist
  • I believe, in spite of all, in truth's victory. I believe in the momentous value, hereafter inviolable, of those few truly fraternal men in all the countries of the world, who, in the oscillation of national egoisms let loose, stand up and stand out, steadfast as the glorious statues of Right and Duty.

    Henri Barbusse (born 17 May 1873) French novelist, journalist and communist
  • There are cloudy moments when one asks himself if men do not deserve all the disasters into which they rush! No — I recover myself — they do not deserve them. But we, instead of saying "I wish" must say "I will." And what we will, we must will to build it, with order, with method, beginning at the beginning, when once we have been as far as that beginning. We must not only open our eyes, but our arms, our wings.

    Henri Barbusse (born 17 May 1873) French novelist, journalist and communist

May 18

  • The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ,
    Moves on: nor all your Piety nor Wit
    Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
    Nor all your Tears wash out a Word of it.

    Omar Khayyám (born 18 May 1048) Persian mathematician, astronomer, and writer
  • To save the world requires faith and courage: faith in reason, and courage to proclaim what reason shows to be true.

    Bertrand Russell (born 18 May 1872) British philosopher, logician, mathematician and historian
  • The impartiality which, in contemplation, is the unalloyed desire for truth, is the very same quality of mind which, in action, is justice, and in emotion is that universal love which can be given to all, and not only to those who are judged useful or admirable. Thus contemplation not only enlarges the objects of our thoughts, but also the objects of our actions and our affections: it makes us citizens of the universe, not only of one walled city at war with the rest. In this citizenship of the universe consists man's true freedom, and his liberation from the thralldom of narrow hopes and fears.

    Bertrand Russell (born 18 May 1872) British philosopher, logician, mathematician and historian

May 19

  • Humankind consists of two sexes, woman and man. Is it possible that a mass is improved by the improvement of only one part and the other ignored? Is it possible that if half of a mass is tied to earth with chains and the other half can soar into skies?

    Mustafa Kemal AtatürkTurkish army officer and revolutionist statesman
  • Mankind is a single body and each nation a part of that body. We must never say "What does it matter to me if some part of the world is ailing?" If there is such an illness, we must concern ourselves with it as though we were having that illness.

    Mustafa Kemal AtatürkTurkish army officer and revolutionist statesman
  • I wish to live because life has within it that which is good, that which is beautiful and that which is love. Therefore, since I have known all of these things, I have found them to be reason enough and — I wish to live. Moreover, because this is so, I wish others to live for generations and generations and generations.

    Lorraine Hansberry (born 19 May 1930) American playwright

May 20

  • However unwillingly a person who has a strong opinion may admit the possibility that his opinion may be false, he ought to be moved by the consideration that, however true it may be, if it is not fully, frequently, and fearlessly discussed, it will be held as a dead dogma, not a living truth.

    John Stuart Mill (born 20 May 1806) English political philosopher and economist
  • The peculiar evil of silencing the expression of an opinion is, that it is robbing the human race; posterity as well as the existing generation; those who dissent from the opinion, still more than those who hold it. If the opinion is right, they are deprived of the opportunity of exchanging error for truth: if wrong, they lose, what is almost as great a benefit, the clearer perception and livelier impression of truth, produced by its collision with error.

    John Stuart Mill (born 20 May 1806) English political philosopher and economist
  • The only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others. His own good, either physical or moral, is not a sufficient warrant. He cannot rightfully be compelled to do or forbear because it will be better for him to do so, because it will make him happier, because, in the opinions of others, to do so would be wise, or even right. These are good reasons for remonstrating with him, or reasoning with him, or persuading him or entreating him, but not for compelling him, or visiting him with any evil, in case he do otherwise.

    John Stuart Mill (born 20 May 1806) English political philosopher and economist

May 21

  • Some Figures monstrous and mis-shap'd appear,
    Consider'd singly, or beheld too near,
    Which, but proportion'd to their Light, or Place,
    Due Distance reconciles to Form and Grace.
    A prudent Chief not always must display
    His Pow'rs in equal Ranks, and fair Array,
    But with th' Occasion and the Place comply,
    Conceal his Force, nay seem sometimes to Fly.
    Those oft are Stratagems which Errors seem,
    Nor is it Homer Nods, but We that Dream.

    Alexander Pope in "An Essay on Criticism" (born 21 May 1688) English poet
  • The flying Rumours gather'd as they roll'd,
    Scarce any Tale was sooner heard than told;
    And all who told it, added something new,
    And all who heard it, made Enlargements too,
    In ev'ry Ear it spread, on ev'ry Tongue it grew.

    Alexander Pope (born 21 May 1688) English poet
  • All seems Infected that th' Infected spy,
    As all looks yellow to the Jaundic'd Eye.

    Alexander Pope (born 21 May 1688) English poet

May 22

  • Life is infinitely stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent. We would not dare to conceive the things which are really mere commonplaces of existence. If we could fly out of that window hand in hand, hover over this great city, gently remove the roofs, and peep in at the queer things which are going on, the strange coincidences, the plannings, the cross-purposes, the wonderful chains of events, working through generations, and leading to the most outre results, it would make all fiction with its conventionalities and foreseen conclusions most stale and unprofitable.

    Arthur Conan Doyle in "A Case of Identity" (born 22 May 1859) British writer, creator of "Sherlock Holmes"
  • Mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself; but talent instantly recognizes genius.

    Arthur Conan Doyle (born 22 May 1859) British writer, creator of "Sherlock Holmes"
  • The more we progress the more we tend to progress. We advance not in arithmetical but in geometrical progression. We draw compound interest on the whole capital of knowledge and virtue which has been accumulated since the dawning of time.

    Arthur Conan Doyle (born 22 May 1859) British writer, creator of "Sherlock Holmes"

May 23

  • Let no one dare to call another mad who is not himself willing to rank in the same class for every perversion and fault of judgment. Let no one dare aid in punishing another as criminal who is not willing to suffer the penalty due to his own offenses.

    Margaret Fuller (born 23 May 1810) American author, journalist, critic and women's rights activist
  • Genius will live and thrive without training, but it does not the less reward the watering–pot and pruning–knife.

    Margaret Fuller (born 23 May 1810) American author, journalist, critic and women's rights activist
  • Might the simple maxim, that honesty is the best policy be laid to heart! Might a sense of the true aims of life elevate the tone of politics and trade, till public and private honor become identical!

    Margaret Fuller (born 23 May 1810) American author, journalist, critic and women's rights activist

May 24

  • How many roads must a man walk down
    Before you call him a man?
    Yes, 'n' how many seas must a white dove sail
    Before she sleeps in the sand?
    Yes, 'n' how many times must the cannon balls fly
    Before they're forever banned?
    The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind,
    The answer is blowin' in the wind.

    Bob Dylan (born 24 May 1941) American singer-songwriter
  • Every failure is a step to success. Every detection of what is false directs us towards what is true: every trial exhausts some tempting form of error.

    William Whewell (born 24 May 1794) English polymath, scientist, Anglican priest and philosopher
  • How many times must a man look up
    Before he can see the sky?
    Yes, 'n' how many ears must one man have
    Before he can hear people cry?
    Yes, 'n' how many deaths will it take till he knows
    That too many people have died?
    The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind,
    The answer is blowin' in the wind.

    Bob Dylan (born 24 May 1941) American singer-songwriter

May 25

  • You will hear every day the maxims of a low prudence. You will hear, that the first duty is to get land and money, place and name. "What is this Truth you seek? What is this Beauty?" men will ask, with derision. If, nevertheless, God have called any of you to explore truth and beauty, be bold, be firm, be true. When you shall say, "As others do, so will I. I renounce, I am sorry for it, my early visions; I must eat the good of the land, and let learning and romantic expectations go, until a more convenient season." — then dies the man in you; then once more perish the buds of art, and poetry, and science, as they have died already in a thousand thousand men. The hour of that choice is the crisis of your history; and see that you hold yourself fast by the intellect. … Bend to the persuasion which is flowing to you from every object in Nature, to be its tongue to the heart of man, and to show the besotted world how passing fair is wisdom.

    Ralph Waldo Emerson (born 25 May 1803) American lecturer, essayist and poet
  • Any man who can hitch the length and breadth of the galaxy, rough it, slum it, struggle against terrible odds, win through, and still knows where his towel is, is clearly a man to be reckoned with.

    Douglas Adams in "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy"English writer and dramatist
  • Be an artist superior to tricks of art. Show frankly, as a saint would do, all your experience, your methods, tools, and means. Welcome all comers to the freest use of the same. And out of this superior frankness and charity, you shall learn higher secrets of your nature, which gods will bend and aid you to communicate.

    Ralph Waldo Emerson (born 25 May 1803) American lecturer, essayist and poet

May 26

  • You have so many things in the background that you're supposed to do, there's no room left to think. I say, forget all that and ask yourself, "What's the simplest thing that could possibly work?"

    Ward Cunningham (born 26 May 1949) American computer programmer, inventor of the first wiki
  • Thunder only happens when it's raining.
    Players only love you when they're playing.
    Say… Women… they will come and they will go.
    When the rain washes you clean… you'll know.

    Stevie Nicks (born 26 May 1948) American singer and songwriter
  • If there must be resolution and explanation, it must be something worth its weight in mystery. Most times, I'd be content with the mystery.

    Caitlín R. Kiernan (born 26 May 1964) Irish-born American author and paleontologist

May 27

  • The more clearly we can focus our attention on the wonders and realities of the universe about us the less taste we shall have for the destruction of our race. Wonder and humility are wholesome emotions, and they do not exist side by side with a lust for destruction.

    Rachel Carson (born 27 May 1907) American biologist and writer
  • Like the wind crying endlessly through the universe, Time carries away the names and the deeds of conquerors and commoners alike. And all that we are, all that remains, is in the memories of those who cared we came this way for a brief moment.

    Harlan Ellison (born 27 May 1934) American writer of speculative fiction
  • I am confirmed in my division of human energies. Ambitious people climb, but faithful people build.

    Julia Ward Howe (born 27 May 1819) American writer, poet, and social activist

May 28

  • The time has come when scientific truth must cease to be the property of the few, when it must be woven into the common life of the world.

    Louis Agassiz (born 28 May 1807) Swiss-born American zoologist, glaciologist, and geologist
  • In my books I have lifted bits from various religions in trying to come to a better understanding; I've made use of religious themes and symbols. Now, as the world becomes more pagan, one has to lead people in the same direction in a different way…

    Patrick White (born 28 May 1912) Australian novelist and winner of the 1973 Nobel Prize for Literature
  • War of any kind is abhorrent. Remember that since the end of World War II, over 40 million people have been killed by conventional weapons. So, if we should succeed in averting nuclear war, we must not let ourselves be sold the alternative of conventional weapons for killing our fellow men. We must cure ourselves of the habit of war.

    Patrick White (born 28 May 1912) Australian novelist and winner of the 1973 Nobel Prize for Literature

May 29

  • Let us never negotiate out of fear. But let us never fear to negotiate.

    John F. Kennedy (born 29 May 1917) The 35th President of the United States
  • Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.

    John F. Kennedy (born 29 May 1917) The 35th President of the United States
  • The most unfathomable schools and sages have never attained to the gravity which dwells in the eyes of a baby of three months old. It is the gravity of astonishment at the universe, and astonishment at the universe is not mysticism, but a transcendent common-sense. The fascination of children lies in this: that with each of them all things are remade, and the universe is put again upon its trial.

    G. K. Chesterton (born 29 May 1874) British writer, critic and author

May 30

  • When the people are being beaten with a stick, they are not much happier if it is called "the People's Stick."

    Mikhail Bakunin (born 30 May 1814) Russian political philosopher and anarchist
  • By striving to do the impossible, man has always achieved what is possible.

    Mikhail Bakunin (born 30 May 1814) Russian political philosopher and anarchist
  • If I am not in the state of grace, may God put me there; and if I am, may God so keep me.

    Jehanne Darc (Joan of Arc) (died 30 May 1431) National heroine of France and Catholic saint

May 31

  • Talk not so much … of the great old masters, who but painted and chisell’d. Study not only their productions. There is a still higher school for him who would kindle his fire with coal from the altar of the loftiest and purest art. It is the school of all grand actions and grand virtues, of heroism, of the death of patriots and martyrs — of all the mighty deeds written in the pages of history — deeds of daring, and enthusiasm, devotion, and fortitude.

    Walt Whitman (born 31 May 1819) American poet, essayist and journalist
  • Be composed — be at ease with me — I am Walt Whitman, liberal and lusty as Nature,
    Not till the sun excludes you do I exclude you,
    Not till the waters refuse to glisten for you and the leaves to rustle for you, do my words refuse to glisten and rustle for you.

    Walt Whitman in Leaves of Grass (born 31 May 1819) American poet, essayist and journalist
  • It is curious that physical courage should be so common in the world, and moral courage so rare.

    Mark TwainAmerican humorist, novelist, writer, and lecturer
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