February 1

  • Hold fast to dreams
    For if dreams die
    Life is a broken-winged bird
    That cannot fly.

    Langston Hughes (born 1 February 1902) American poet, novelist, playwright and newspaper columnist
  • Reason is the life of the law; nay, the common law itself is nothing else but reason.

    Edward Coke (born 1 February 1552) English colonial entrepreneur and jurist
  • What happens to a dream deferred? Does it dry up
    like a raisin in the sun?
    Or fester like a sore —
    And then run?
    Does it stink like rotten meat?
    Or crust and sugar over —
    like a syrupy sweet? Maybe it just sags
    like a heavy load. Or does it explode?

    Langston Hughes (born 1 February 1902) American poet, novelist, playwright and newspaper columnist

February 2

  • History teaches us that men and nations behave wisely once they have exhausted all other alternatives.

    Abba Eban (born 2 February 1915) Israeli diplomat, politician and author
  • History, Stephen said, is a nightmare from which I am trying to awake.

    James Joyce in "Ulysses" (born 2 February 1882) Irish novelist, short-story writer and poet
  • I'm not playing by their rules anymore!

    Bill Murray as "Phil" in "Groundhog Day"American actor

February 3

  • The whole duty of man consists in being reasonable and just … I am reasonable because I know the difference between understanding and not understanding and I am just because I have no opinion about things I don’t understand.

    Gertrude Stein (born 3 February 1874) American expatriate writer, poet, feminist and playwright
  • When war is waged it is for the purpose of safeguarding or increasing one's capacity to make war. International politics are wholly involved in this vicious cycle. What is called national prestige consists in behaving always in such a way as to demoralize other nations by giving them the impression that, if it comes to war, one would certainly defeat them. What is called national security is an imaginary state of affairs in which one would retain the capacity to make war while depriving all other countries of it.

    Simone Weil (born 3 February 1909) French social and religious philosopher
  • Only he who has measured the dominion of force, and knows how not to respect it, is capable of love and justice.

    Simone Weil (born 3 February 1909) French social and religious philosopher

February 4

  • How long can men thrive between walls of brick, walking on asphalt pavements, breathing the fumes of coal and of oil, growing, working, dying, with hardly a thought of wind, and sky, and fields of grain, seeing only machine-made beauty, the mineral-like quality of life. This is our modern danger — one of the waxen wings of flight. It may cause our civilization to fall unless we act quickly to counteract it, unless we realize that human character is more important than efficiency, that education consists of more than the mere accumulation of knowledge.

    Charles Lindbergh (born 4 February 1902) American aviator and writer
  • Mistakes are part of the game. It's how well you recover from them, that's the mark of a great player.

    Alice Cooper (born 4 February 1948) American rock and roll musician
  • If I had to choose, I would rather have birds than airplanes.

    Charles Lindbergh (born 4 February 1902) American aviator and writer

February 5

  • All progress has resulted from people who took unpopular positions. All change is the result of a change in the contemporary state of mind. Don't be afraid of being out of tune with your environment, and above all pray God that you are not afraid to live, to live hard and fast. To my way of thinking it is not the years in your life but the life in your years that count in the long run. You'll have more fun, you'll do more and you'll get more, you'll give more satisfaction the more you know, the more you have worked, and the more you have lived. For yours is a great adventure at a stirring time in the annals of men.

    Adlai Stevenson (born 5 February 1900) American politician and statesman
  • Let’s talk sense to the American people. Let’s tell them the truth, that there are no gains without pains, that we are now on the eve of great decisions, not easy decisions, like resistance when you're attacked, but a long, patient, costly struggle which alone can assure triumph over the great enemies of man — war, poverty, and tyranny — and the assaults upon human dignity which are the most grievous consequences of each.

    Adlai Stevenson (born 5 February 1900) American politician and statesman
  • Enforced uniformity confounds civil and religious liberty and denies the principles of Christianity and civility. No man shall be required to worship or maintain a worship against his will.

    Roger WilliamsAmerican Protestant theologian

February 6

  • One love,
    One heart,
    Let's get together
    And feel alright.

    Bob Marley (born 6 February 1945) Jamaican singer, guitarist and songwriter
  • I do not believe in a fate that will fall on us no matter what we do. I do believe in a fate that will fall on us if we do nothing. So, with all the creative energy at our command, let us begin an era of national renewal. Let us renew our determination, our courage, and our strength. And let us renew our faith and our hope. We have every right to dream heroic dreams. Those who say that we're in a time when there are no heroes, they just don't know where to look.

    Ronald Reagan (born 6 February 1911) American actor and politician, 40th President of the United States
  • Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it on to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same…

    Ronald Reagan (born 6 February 1911) American actor and politician, 40th President of the United States

February 7

  • It is the same with any life. Imagine one selected day struck out of it, and think how different its course would have been. Pause you who read this, and think for a moment of the long chain of iron or gold, of thorns or flowers, that would never have bound you, but for the formation of the first link on one memorable day.

    Charles Dickens (born 7 February 1812) English novelist of the Victorian era
  • A man acts suitably to his nature, when he conquers his enemy in such a way as that no other creature but a man could be capable of, and that is by the strength of his understanding.

    Thomas More (born 7 February 1478) English lawyer, writer, and politician
  • Extreme justice is an extreme injury: for we ought not to approve of those terrible laws that make the smallest offences capital, nor of that opinion of the Stoics that makes all crimes equal; as if there were no difference to be made between the killing a man and the taking his purse, between which, if we examine things impartially, there is no likeness nor proportion.

    Thomas More (born 7 February 1478) English lawyer, writer, and politician

February 8

  • Man's constitution is so peculiar that his health is purely a negative matter. No sooner is the rage of hunger appeased than it becomes difficult to comprehend the meaning of starvation. It is only when you suffer that you really understand.

    Jules Verne (born 8 February 1828) French writer
  • The greatest thing a human soul ever does in this world is to see something, and tell what it saw in a plain way. Hundreds of people can talk for one who can think, but thousands can think for one who can see. To see clearly is poetry, prophecy, and religion, — all in one.

    John Ruskin (born 8 February 1819) English author, poet and artist

February 9

  • I have seen the truth; I have seen and I know that people can be beautiful and happy without losing the power of living on earth. I will not and cannot believe that evil is the normal condition of mankind. And it is just this faith of mine that they laugh at. But how can I help believing it? I have seen the truth — it is not as though I had invented it with my mind, I have seen it, seen it, and the living image of it has filled my soul for ever.

    Fyodor Dostoevsky (died 9 February 1881) Russian writer
  • You've got to get up every morning with a smile on your face
    And show the world all the love in your heart
    The people gonna treat you better,
    You're gonna find, yes you will,
    That you're beautiful as you feel.

    Carole King (born 9 February 1942) American singer and songwriter
  • For me there are no answers, only questions, and I am grateful that the questions go on and on. I don't look for an answer, because I don't think there is one. I'm very glad to be the bearer of a question.

    P. L. TraversBritish author, creator of "Mary Poppins"

February 10

  • Don't be afraid of death so much as an inadequate life.

    Bertolt Brecht (born 10 February 1898) German Marxist dramatist, stage director and poet
  • Our theater must stimulate a desire for understanding, a delight in changing reality. Our audience must experience not only the ways to free Prometheus, but be schooled in the very desire to free him. Theater must teach all the pleasures and joys of discovery, all the feelings of triumph associated with liberation.

    Bertolt Brecht (born 10 February 1898) German Marxist dramatist, stage director and poet
  • Reason gains all men, by compelling none.
    Mercy was always Heaven's distinguished mark:
    And he, who bears it not, has no friend there.

    Aaron Hill (born 10 February 1685) English dramatist and miscellaneous writer

February 11

  • Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.

    Thomas Edison (born 11 February 1847) American inventor and businessman
  • In Common Sense Paine flared forth with a document so powerful that the Revolution became inevitable. Washington recognized the difference, and in his calm way said that matters never could be the same again.

    Thomas Alva Edison (born 11 February 1847) American inventor and businessman
  • The people who have sufficient passion for the truth to give the truth a chance to prevail, if it runs counter to their bias, are in a minority. How important is this "minority?" It is difficult to say at this point, for, at the present time their influence on governmental decisions is not perceptible.

    Leó Szilárd (born 11 February 1898) Hungarian-American physicist

February 12

  • With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation's wounds, to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan, to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations.

    Abraham Lincoln (born 12 February 1809) 16th President of the United States
  • Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge: it is those who know little, not those who know much, who so positively assert that this or that problem will never be solved by science.

    Charles Darwin (born 12 February 1809) British naturalist
  • I shall try to correct errors when shown to be errors; and I shall adopt new views so fast as they shall appear to be true views.

    Abraham Lincoln (born 12 February 1809) 16th President of the United States

February 13

  • Morning has broken,
    Like the first morning,
    Blackbird has spoken
    Like the first bird.
    Praise for the singing!
    Praise for the morning!
    Praise for them springing
    Fresh from the Word!

    Eleanor Farjeon (born 13 February 1881) English author of children's stories and plays
  • Love has no uttermost, as the stars have no number and the sea no rest.

    Eleanor Farjeon (born 13 February 1881) English author of children's stories and plays
  • Of what use to destroy the children of evil? It is evil itself we must destroy at the roots.

    Eleanor Farjeon (born 13 February 1881) English author of children's stories and plays

February 14

  • How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
    I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
    My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
    For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.
    I love thee to the level of everyday's
    Most quiet need, by sun and candlelight.
    I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;
    I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.
    I love thee with the passion put to use
    In my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith.
    I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
    With my lost saints, — I love thee with the breath,
    Smiles, tears, of all my life! — and, if God choose,
    I shall but love thee better after death.

    Elizabeth Barrett BrowningEnglish poet
  • Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
    Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away.
    When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things. For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known.
    And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

    Paul of TarsusOne of the most notable of early Christian missionaries
  • Life seemed to be an educator's practical joke in which you spent the first half learning and the second half learning that everything you learned in the first half was wrong.

    Russell Baker (born 14 August 1925) American writer best known as a newspaper columnist

February 15

  • Cautious, careful people, always casting about to preserve their reputation and social standing, never can bring about a reform. Those who are really in earnest must be willing to be anything or nothing in the world's estimation.

    Susan B. Anthony (born 15 February 1820) American civil rights leader
  • Kings had always been involving and impoverishing their people in wars, pretending generally, if not always, that the good of the people was the object. This our convention understood to be the most oppressive of all kingly oppressions, and they resolved to so frame the Constitution that no one man should hold the power of bringing this oppression upon us.

    Abraham Lincoln (born 15 February 1809) 16th President of the United States
  • A religious education is an education which inculcates duty and reverence. Duty arises from our potential control over the course of events. Where attainable knowledge could have changed the issue, ignorance has the guilt of vice. And the foundation of reverence is this perception, that the present holds within itself the complete sum of existence, backwards and forwards, that whole amplitude of time, which is eternity.

    Alfred North Whitehead (born 15 February 1861) British mathematician

February 16

  • All experience is an arch, to build upon.

    Henry Brooks Adams (born 16 February 1838) American historian, journalist, novelist and educator
  • Public opinion, or what passes for public opinion, is not invariably a moderating force in the jungle of politics. It may be true, and I suspect it is, that the mass of people everywhere are normally peace-loving and would accept many restraints and sacrifices in preference to the monstrous calamities of war. But I also suspect that what purports to be public opinion in most countries that consider themselves to have popular government is often not really the consensus of the feelings of the mass of the people at all, but rather the expression of the interests of special highly vocal minorities — politicians, commentators, and publicity-seekers of all sorts: people who live by their ability to draw attention to themselves and die, like fish out of water, if they are compelled to remain silent.

    George F. Kennan (born 16 February 1904) American advisor, diplomat, political scientist and historian
  • What one knows is, in youth, of little moment; they know enough who know how to learn.

    Henry Adams

February 17

  • All things are in the Universe, and the universe is in all things: we in it, and it in us; in this way everything concurs in a perfect unity.

    Giordano Bruno (died 17 February 1600) Italian philosopher, astronomer, satirist and martyr
  • A voiceless song in an ageless light
    Sings at the coming dawn
    Birds in flight are calling there
    Where the heart moves the stones
    It's there that my heart is calling
    All for the love of you.

    Loreena McKennitt (born 17 February 1957) Canadian composer, songwriter, singer and pianist
  • The Divine Light is always in man, presenting itself to the senses and to the comprehension, but man rejects it.

    Giordano Bruno (died 17 February 1600) Italian philosopher, astronomer, satirist and martyr

February 18

  • The heart unites whatever the mind separates, pushes on beyond the arena of necessity and transmutes the struggle into love.

    Nikos Kazantzakis (born 18 February 1883) Greek novelist, poet, playwright and philosopher
  • My prayer is not the whimpering of a beggar nor a confession of love. Nor is it the petty reckoning of a small tradesman: Give me and I shall give you. My prayer is the report of a soldier to his general: This is what I did today, this is how I fought to save the entire battle in my own sector, these are the obstacles I encountered, this is how I plan to fight tomorrow.

    Nikos Kazantzakis (born 18 February 1883) Greek novelist, poet, playwright and philosopher
  • Where are we going? Do not ask! Ascend, descend. There is no beginning and no end. Only this present moment exists, full of bitterness, full of sweetness, and I rejoice in it all.

    Nikos Kazantzakis (born 18 February 1883) Greek novelist, poet, playwright and philosopher

February 19

  • And the sign flashed out its warning
    In the words that it was forming
    And the sign said "The words of the prophets
    Are written on the subway walls
    And tenement halls
    And whispered in the sound of silence."

    Paul SimonAmerican singer, songwriter and guitarist of the duo "Simon and Garfunkel"
  • Now that your rose is in bloom,
    A light hits the gloom on the grave,
    I've been kissed by a rose on the grave.

    Seal (born 19 February 1963) Anglo-Nigerian soul singer and songwriter
  • People have such terrible assumptions about ghosts — you know, phantoms that haunt you, that make you scared, that turn the house upside down. Yin people are not in our living presence but are around, and kind of guide you to insights. Like in Las Vegas when the bells go off, telling you you've hit the jackpot. Yin people ring the bells, saying, "Pay attention." And you say, "Oh, I see now." Yet I'm a fairly skeptical person. I'm educated, I'm reasonably sane, and I know that this subject is fodder for ridicule. … To write the book, I had to put that aside. As with any book. I go through the anxiety, "What will people think of me for writing something like this?" But ultimately, I have to write what I have to write about, including the question of life continuing beyond our ordinary senses.

    Amy Tan (born 19 February 1952) Chinese-American writer, known for "The Joy Luck Club"

February 20

  • No man can put a chain about the ankle of his fellow man without at last finding the other end fastened about his own neck.

    Frederick Douglass (died 20 February 1895) American abolitionist, editor, author and reformer
  • Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. Find out just what a people will submit to, and you have found out the exact amount of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them; and these will continue till they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress. Men may not get all they pay for in this world; but they must pay for all they get.

    Frederick Douglass (died 20 February 1895) American abolitionist, editor, author and reformer
  • Our world is in profound danger. Mankind must establish a set of positive values with which to secure its own survival.
    This quest for enlightenment must begin now.
    It is essential that all men and women become aware of what they are, why they are here on Earth and what they must do to preserve civilization before it is too late.

    Richard Matheson (born 20 February 1926) American author and screenwriter

February 21

  • Without Art, we should have no notion of the sacred; without Science, we should always worship false gods.

    W. H. Auden (born 21 February 1907) Anglo-American poet
  • Life is a process of becoming, a combination of states we have to go through. Where people fail is that they wish to elect a state and remain in it. This is a kind of death.

    Anaïs Nin (born 21 February 1903) French-born author, famous for her published journals
  • All I have is a voice
    To undo the folded lie,
    The romantic lie in the brain
    Of the sensual man-in-the-street
    And the lie of Authority
    Whose buildings grope the sky:
    There is no such thing as the State
    And no one exists alone;
    Hunger allows no choice
    To the citizen or the police;
    We must love one another or die.

    W. H. Auden (born 21 February 1907) Anglo-American poet

February 22

  • The Citizens of the United States of America have a right to applaud themselves for giving to Mankind examples of an enlarged and liberal policy: a policy worthy of imitation. All possess alike liberty of conscience and immunities of citizenship. It is now no more that toleration is spoken of, as if it was by the indulgence of one class of people that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural rights. For happily the Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance, requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens in giving it on all occasions their effectual support.

    George Washington (born 22 February 1732) The first President of the United States
  • Life is short, and truth works far and lives long: let us speak the truth.

    Arthur Schopenhauer (born 22 February 1788) German philosopher, known for "The World as Will and Representation"
  • I honor the man who is willing to sink
    Half his present repute for the freedom to think,
    And, when he has thought, be his cause strong or weak,
    Will risk t'other half for the freedom to speak,
    Caring naught for what vengeance the mob has in store,
    Let that mob be the upper ten thousand or lower.

    James Russell Lowell (born 22 February 1819) American Romantic poet, critic, writer and diplomat

February 23

  • We cannot avoid conflict, conflict with society, other individuals and with oneself. Conflicts may be the sources of defeat, lost life and a limitation of our potentiality but they may also lead to greater depth of living and the birth of more far-reaching unities, which flourish in the tensions that engender them.

    Karl Jaspers (born 23 February 1883) German psychiatrist and philosopher
  • There is but one coward on earth, and that is the coward that dare not know.

    W. E. B. Du Bois (born 23 February 1868) American civil rights activist, sociologist and educator
  • How shall Integrity face Oppression? What shall Honesty do in the face of Deception, Decency in the face of Insult, Self-Defense before Blows? How shall Desert and Accomplishment meet Despising, Detraction, and Lies? What shall Virtue do to meet Brute Force? There are so many answers and so contradictory; and such differences for those on the one hand who meet questions similar to this once a year or once a decade, and those who face them hourly and daily.

    W. E. B. Du Bois (born 23 February 1868) American civil rights activist, sociologist and educator

February 24

  • The lot of critics is to be remembered by what they failed to understand.

    George A. Moore (born 24 February 1852) Irish novelist, short story writer, poet and art critic
  • When you're young, you look at television and think, "There's a conspiracy. The networks have conspired to dumb us down." But when you get a little older, you realize that's not true. The networks are in business to give people exactly what they want. That's a far more depressing thought. Conspiracy is optimistic! You can shoot the bastards! We can have a revolution! But the networks are really in business to give people what they want. It's the truth.

    Steve Jobs (born 24 February 1955) Co-founder of Apple Inc.
  • A man travels the world over in search of what he needs and returns home to find it.

    George A. Moore (born 24 February 1852) Irish novelist, short story writer, poet and art critic

February 25

  • Do what you want to do
    And go where you're going to
    Think for yourself
    'Cause I won't be there with you.

    George Harrison (born 25 February 1943) British songwriter, musician, film producer amd a member of The Beatles
  • Every intelligent child is an amateur anthropologist. The first thing such a child notices is that adults don't make sense.

    John Leonard (born 25 February 1939) American literary, TV, film and cultural critic
  • When the state murders, it assumes an authority I refuse to concede: the authority of perfect knowledge in final things.

    John Leonard (born 25 February 1939) American literary, TV, film and cultural critic

February 26

  • The need of the immaterial is the most deeply rooted of all needs. One must have bread; but before bread, one must have the ideal.

    Victor Hugo (born 26 February 1802) French Romantic writer
  • A man is not idle, because he is absorbed in thought. There is a visible labour and there is an invisible labour.

    Victor Hugo in "Les Misérables" (born 26 February 1802) French Romantic writer
  • A day will come when there will be no battlefields, but markets opening to commerce and minds opening to ideas. A day will come when the bullets and bombs are replaced by votes, by universal suffrage, by the venerable arbitration of a great supreme senate which will be to Europe what Parliament is to England, the Diet to Germany, and the Legislative Assembly to France.
    A day will come when a cannon will be a museum-piece, as instruments of torture are today. And we will be amazed to think that these things once existed!

    Victor Hugo (born 26 February 1802) French Romantic writer

February 27

  • Turn, turn, my wheel! All things must change
    To something new, to something strange;
    Nothing that is can pause or stay;
    The moon will wax, the moon will wane,
    The mist and cloud will turn to rain,
    The rain to mist and cloud again,
    To-morrow be to-day.

    Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (born 27 February 1807) American poet
  • The heights by great men reached and kept
    Were not attained by sudden flight,
    But they, while their companions slept,
    Were toiling upward in the night.

    Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (born 27 February 1807) American poet
  • If we could read the secret history of our enemies, we should find in each man's life sorrow and suffering enough to disarm all hostility.

    Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (born 27 February 1807) American poet

February 28

  • I speak the truth, not my fill of it, but as much as I dare speak; and I dare to do so a little more as I grow old.

    Michel de Montaigne (born 28 February 1533) French Renaissance writer
  • The best defense against usurpatory government is an assertive citizenry.

    William F. Buckley, Jr.American author, conservative journalist and commentator
  • Virtue refuses facility for her companion … the easy, gentle, and sloping path that guides the footsteps of a good natural disposition is not the path of true virtue. It demands a rough and thorny road.

    Michel de Montaigne (born 28 February 1533) French Renaissance writer

February 29

  • God bless the King! (I mean our faith's defender!)
    God bless! (No harm in blessing) the Pretender.
    But who Pretender is, and who is King,
    God bless us all! That's quite another thing!

    John Byrom (born 29 February 1692) English poet
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