July 1

  • There are two kinds of truths: those of reasoning and those of fact. The truths of reasoning are necessary and their opposite is impossible; the truths of fact are contingent and their opposites are possible.

    Gottfried Leibniz (born 1 July 1646) German philosopher and mathematician
  • A person reveals his character by nothing so clearly as the joke he resents.

    Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (born 1 July 1742) German scientist, satirist and philosopher

July 2

  • Words do not express thoughts very well. They always become a little different immediately they are expressed, a little distorted, a little foolish. And yet it also pleases me and seems right that what is of value and wisdom to one man seems nonsense to another.

    Hermann Hesse (born 2 July 1877) German-Swiss poet, novelist, and painter
  • There are gains for all our losses,
    There are balms for all our pain:
    But when youth, the dream, departs,
    It takes something from our hearts,
    And it never comes again.

    Richard Henry Stoddard (born 2 July 1825) American critic and poet
  • Inspiration is not the exclusive privilege of poets or artists. There is, there has been, there will always be a certain group of people whom inspiration visits. It's made up of all those who've consciously chosen their calling and do their job with love and imagination. It may include doctors, teachers, gardeners — I could list a hundred more professions. Their work becomes one continuous adventure as long as they manage to keep discovering new challenges in it. Difficulties and setbacks never quell their curiosity. A swarm of new questions emerges from every problem that they solve. Whatever inspiration is, it's born from a continuous "I don't know."

    Wisława Szymborska (born 2 July 1923) Polish poet, essayist and translator

July 3

  • Beyond a certain point there is no return. This point has to be reached.

    Franz Kafka (born 3 July 1883) Bohemian-Jewish novelist and fiction writer
  • Youth is happy because it has the ability to see beauty. Anyone who keeps the ability to see beauty never grows old.

    Franz Kafka (born 3 July 1883) Bohemian-Jewish novelist and fiction writer
  • I will have poetry in my life. And adventure. And love. Love above all. No… not the artful postures of love, not playful and poetical games of love for the amusement of an evening, but love that… overthrows life. Unbiddable, ungovernable — like a riot in the heart, and nothing to be done, come ruin or rapture. Love — like there has never been in a play.

    Tom Stoppard in "Shakespeare in Love" (born 3 July 1937) British dramatist and screenwriter

July 4

  • Every individual has a place to fill in the world, and is important, in some respect, whether he chooses to be so or not.

    Nathaniel Hawthorne (born 4 July 1804) American novelist and short story writer
  • Happiness in this world, when it comes, comes incidentally. Make it the object of pursuit, and it leads us a wild-goose chase, and is never attained. Follow some other object, and very possibly we may find that we have caught happiness without dreaming of it.

    Nathaniel Hawthorne (born 4 July 1804) American novelist and short story writer
  • The greatest obstacle to being heroic is the doubt whether one may not be going to prove one's self a fool; the truest heroism is, to resist the doubt; and the profoundest wisdom, to know when it ought to be resisted, and when to be obeyed.

    Nathaniel Hawthorne (born 4 July 1804) American novelist and short story writer

July 5

  • We shelter an angel within us. We must be the guardians of that angel.

    Jean Cocteau (born 5 July 1889) French poet, novelist, painter, and filmmaker
  • Take a commonplace, clean it and polish it, light it so that it produces the same effect of youth and freshness and originality and spontaneity as it did originally, and you have done a poet’s job. The rest is literature.

    Jean Cocteau (born 5 July 1889) French poet, novelist, painter, and filmmaker
  • Life is not theory. It is reality, with inherent duties to everything and everyone.

    Tivadar Csontváry Kosztka (born 5 July 1853) Hungarian painter

July 6

  • Peace can only last where human rights are respected, where the people are fed, and where individuals and nations are free. True peace with oneself and with the world around us can only be achieved through the development of mental peace.

    Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama (born 6 July 1935) Head of state and spiritual leader of the people of Tibet
  • I wish to have no connection with any ship that does not sail fast; for I intend to go in harm's way.

    John Paul Jones (born 6 July 1747) Scottish-born naval officer
  • I believe that at every level of society — familial, tribal, national and international — the key to a happier and more successful world is the growth of compassion. We do not need to become religious, nor do we need to believe in an ideology. All that is necessary is for each of us to develop our good human qualities.

    Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama (born 6 July 1935) Head of state and spiritual leader of the people of Tibet

July 7

  • Magic is not science, it is a collection of ways to do things — ways that work but often we don't know why.

    Robert A. Heinlein in "Glory Road" (born 7 July 1907) American author of science fiction
  • Do not confuse "duty" with what other people expect of you; they are utterly different. Duty is a debt you owe to yourself to fulfill obligations you have assumed voluntarily. Paying that debt can entail anything from years of patient work to instant willingness to die. Difficult it may be, but the reward is self-respect.

    Robert A. Heinlein (born 7 July 1907) American author of science fiction
  • I am free, no matter what rules surround me. If I find them tolerable, I tolerate them; if I find them too obnoxious, I break them. I am free because I know that I alone am morally responsible for everything I do.

    Robert A. Heinlein in "The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress" (born 7 July 1907) American author of science fiction

July 8

  • Man is so made that when anything fires his soul, impossibilities vanish.

    Jean de La Fontaine (born 8 July 1621) French fabulist and poet
  • As far as service goes, it can take the form of a million things. To do service, you don't have to be a doctor working in the slums for free, or become a social worker. Your position in life and what you do doesn't matter as much as how you do what you do.

    Elisabeth Kübler-Ross (born 8 July 1926) Swiss-born psychiatrist and author
  • There must be understanding between the artist and the people. In the best ages of art that has always been the case. Genius can probably run on ahead and seek out new ways. But the good artists who follow after genius — and I count myself among these — have to restore the lost connection once more.

    Käthe Kollwitz (born 8 July 1867) German painter, printmaker, and sculptor

July 9

  • As a child I was taught that to tell the truth was often painful. As an adult I have learned that not to tell the truth is more painful, and that the fear of telling the truth — whatever the truth may be — that fear is the most painful sensation of a moral life.

    June Jordan (born 9 July 1936) African-American political activist, writer and poet
  • Nature is busy creating absolutely unique individuals, whereas culture has invented a single mold to which all must conform. It is grotesque.

    U. G. Krishnamurti (born 9 July 1918) Indian speaker and philosopher
  • We have to learn to think in a new way. We have to learn to ask ourselves, not what steps can be taken to give military victory to whatever group we prefer, for there no longer are such steps; the question we have to ask ourselves is: what steps can be taken to prevent a military contest of which the issue must be disastrous to all parties?

    Bertrand RussellBritish philosopher, historian and social critic

July 10

  • It is better that ten guilty persons escape, than that one innocent suffer.

    William Blackstone (born 10 July 1723) English jurist and professor
  • Science is but a perversion of itself unless it has as its ultimate goal the betterment of humanity.

    Nikola Tesla (born 10 July 1856) Serb-born American physicist, inventor, and electrical engineer
  • Universal peace as a result of cumulative effort through centuries past might come into existence quickly — not unlike a crystal that suddenly forms in a solution which has been slowly prepared.

    Nikola Tesla (born 10 July 1856) Serb-born American physicist, inventor, and electrical engineer

July 11

  • I can never join with my voice in the toast which I see in the papers attributed to one of our gallant naval heroes. I cannot ask of heaven success, even for my country, in a cause where she should be in the wrong. Fiat justitia, pereat coelum. My toast would be, may our country always be successful, but whether successful or otherwise, always right.

    John Quincy Adams (born 11 July 1767) American lawyer, diplomat and the 6th President of the USA
  • Sailors have an expression about the weather: they say the weather is a great bluffer. I guess the same is true of our human society — things can look dark, then a break shows in the clouds, and all is changed.

    E. B. White (born 11 July 1899) American essayist, columnist, poet and editor
  • Life's meaning has always eluded me and I guess it always will. But I love it just the same.

    E. B. White (born 11 July 1899) American essayist, columnist, poet and editor

July 12

  • The philosophies of one age have become the absurdities of the next, and the foolishness of yesterday has become the wisdom of tomorrow.

    William Osler (born 12 July 1849) Canadian physician
  • To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of arts. Every man is tasked to make his life, even in its details, worthy of the contemplation of his most elevated and critical hour.

    Henry David Thoreau in "Walden" (born 12 July 1812) American author, poet and philosopher
  • No human being is constituted to know the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth; and even the best of men must be content with fragments, with partial glimpses, never the full fruition.

    William Osler (born 12 July 1849) Canadian physician

July 13

  • O how I feel, just as I pluck the flower
    And stick it to my breast — words can't reveal;
    But there are souls that in this lovely hour
    Know all I mean, and feel whate'er I feel.

    John Clare (born 13 July 1793) English poet
  • People sometimes tell me that they prefer barbarism to civilisation. I doubt if they have given it a long enough trial. Like the people of Alexandria, they are bored by civilisation; but all the evidence suggests that the boredom of barbarism is infinitely greater.

    Kenneth Clark (born 13 July 1903) English author, museum director, and broadcaster
  • It is lack of confidence, more than anything else, that kills a civilisation. We can destroy ourselves by cynicism and disillusion, just as effectively as by bombs.

    Kenneth Clark (born 13 July 1903) English author, museum director, and broadcaster

July 14

  • This land is your land, this land is my land
    From California to the New York Island,
    From the Redwood Forest, to the Gulf stream waters,
    This land was made for you and me.

    Woody Guthrie (born 14 July 1912) American folk musician, famous for his song "This Land Is Your Land"
  • The note of hope is the only note that can help us or save us from falling to the bottom of the heap of evolution, because, largely, about all a human being is, anyway, is just a hoping machine, a working machine … don't worry — the human race will sing this way as long as there is a human to race. The human race is a pretty old place.

    Woody Guthrie (born 14 July 1912) American folk musician, famous for his song "This Land Is Your Land"
  • Freedom is not an exchange — it is freedom.

    André MalrauxFrench novelist, adventurer, art historian and statesman

July 15

  • Choose only one master — Nature.

    Rembrandt (born 15 July 1606) Dutch painter and etcher
  • Try to put well in practice what you already know; and in so doing, you will in good time, discover the hidden things which you now inquire about. Practice what you know, and it will help to make clear what now you do not know.

    Rembrandt (born 15 July 1606) Dutch painter and etcher
  • There is no document of civilization which is not at the same time a document of barbarism.

    Walter Benjamin (born 15 July 1892) German Jewish literary critic and philosopher

July 16

  • I have always lived in a world in which I'm just a spot in history. My life is not the important point. I'm just part of the continuum, and that continuum, to me, is a marvelous thing. The history of life, and the history of the planet, should go on and on and on and on. I cannot conceive of anything in the universe that has more meaning than that.

    Sheri S. Tepper (born 16 July 1929) Author of science fiction, horror and mystery novels
  • Ignorance perpetuates itself just as knowledge does. Men write false documents, they preach false doctrine, and those beliefs survive to inspire wickedness in later generations. … Conversely, some men write and teach about the truth, only to be declared heretic by the wicked. In such cases evil has the advantage, for it will do anything to suppress truth, but the good man limits what he will do to suppress falsehood.
    One might almost make a rule of it: "Whoever declares another heretic is himself a devil. Whoever places a relic or artifact above justice, kindness, mercy, or truth is himself a devil and the thing elevated is a work of evil magic."

    Sheri S. Tepper (born 16 July 1929) Author of science fiction, horror and mystery novels
  • Nothing limits intelligence more than ignorance; nothing fosters ignorance more than one's own opinions; nothing strengthens opinions more than refusing to look at reality.

    Sheri S. Tepper (born 16 July 1929) Author of science fiction, horror and mystery novels

July 17

  • They told us not to wish in the first place, not to aspire, not to try; to be quiet, to play nice, to shoot low and aspire not at all. They are always wrong. Follow your dreams. Make your wishes. Create the future. And above all, believe in yourself.

    J. Michael Straczynski (born 17 July 1954) American writer and TV producer
  • Error is a hardy plant; it flourisheth in every soil;
    In the heart of the wise and good, alike with the wicked and foolish;
    For there is no error so crooked, but it hath in it some lines of truth;
    Nor is any poison so deadly, that it serveth not some wholesome use.

    Martin Farquhar Tupper (born 17 July 1810) English writer, and poet
  • God, from a beautiful necessity, is Love in all he doeth,
    Love, a brilliant fire, to gladden or consume:
    The wicked work their woe by looking upon love, and hating it:
    The righteous find their joys in yearning on its loveliness for ever.

    Martin Farquhar Tupper (born 17 July 1810) English writer, and poet

July 18

  • It is best to love wisely, no doubt; but to love foolishly is better than not to be able to love at all.

    William Makepeace Thackeray (born 18 July 1811) English Victorian writer
  • When I die, my money's not gonna come with me. My movies will live on for people to judge what I was as a person. I just want to stay curious.

    Heath LedgerAustralian television and film actor
  • A man who takes away another man's freedom is a prisoner of hatred, he is locked behind the bars of prejudice and narrow-mindedness. I am not truly free if I am taking away someone else's freedom, just as surely as I am not free when my freedom is taken from me. The oppressed and the oppressor alike are robbed of their humanity.
    When I walked out of prison, that was my mission, to liberate the oppressed and the oppressor both. Some say that has now been achieved. But I know that that is not the case. The truth is that we are not yet free; we have merely achieved the freedom to be free, the right not to be oppressed. We have not taken the final step of our journey, but the first step on a longer and even more difficult road. For to be free is not merely to cast off one's chains, but to live in a way that respects and enhances the freedom of others. The true test of our devotion to freedom is just beginning.

    Nelson Mandela (born 18 July 1918) South African political activist

July 19

  • Old anchormen, you see, don't fade away; they just keep coming back for more. And that's the way it is…

    Walter CronkiteAmerican broadcast journalist
  • Everyone has talent at twenty-five. The difficulty is to have it at fifty.

    Edgar Degas (born 19 July 1834) French painter, printmaker and sculptor
  • I should like to be famous and unknown.

    Edgar Degas (born 19 July 1834) French painter, printmaker and sculptor

July 20

  • Houston: Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed.

    Neil ArmstrongAmerican aviator and former astronaut, the first man to actually step foot upon the moon
  • Sameness is the mother of disgust, variety the cure.

    Petrarch (born 20 July 1304) Italian scholar, poet, and early humanist
  • Hitherto your eyes have been darkened and you have looked too much, yes, far too much, upon the things of earth. If these so much delight you what shall be your rapture when you lift your gaze to things eternal!

    Petrarch (born 20 July 1304) Italian scholar, poet, and early humanist

July 21

  • Now I've been happy lately
    Thinking about the good things to come
    And I believe it could be
    Something good has begun. Oh, I've been smiling lately
    Dreaming about the world as one
    And I believe it could be
    Someday it's going to come.

    Cat Stevens (Yusuf Islam) (born 21 July 1948) English musician and singer-songwriter
  • There's no one thing that's true. It's all true.

    Ernest Hemingway (born 21 July 1899) American novelist and short story writer
  • Today is only one day in all the days that will ever be. But what will happen in all the other days that ever come can depend on what you do today. It's been that way all this year. It's been that way so many times. All of war is that way.

    Ernest Hemingway (born 21 July 1899) American novelist and short story writer

July 22

  • There was sadness in being a man, but it was a proud thing too. And he showed what the pride of it was till you couldn't help feeling it. Yes, even in hell, if a man was a man, you'd know it. And he wasn't pleading for any one person any more, though his voice rang like an organ. He was telling the story and the failures and the endless journey of mankind. They got tricked and trapped and bamboozled, but it was a great journey. And no demon that was ever foaled could know the inwardness of it — it took a man to do that. … His voice could search the heart, and that was his gift and his strength. And to one, his voice was like the forest and its secrecy, and to another like the sea and the storms of the sea; and one heard the cry of his lost nation in it, and another saw a little harmless scene he hadn't remembered for years. But each saw something. And when Dan'l Webster finished he didn't know whether or not he'd saved Jabez Stone. But he knew he'd done a miracle. For the glitter was gone from the eyes of the judge and jury, and, for the moment, they were men again, and knew they were men.

    Stephen Vincent Benét (born 22 July 1898) American author, poet, short story writer and novelist
  • Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
    A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
    Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
    Mother of Exiles.

    Emma Lazarus (born 22 July 1849) American poet
  • There was no pain when I awoke,
    No pain at all. Rest, like a goad,
    Spurred my eyes open — and light broke
    Upon them like a million swords:
    And she was there. There are no words. Heaven is for a moment's span.
    And ever.

    Stephen Vincent Benét (born 22 July 1898) American author, poet, short story writer and novelist

July 23

  • The preservation of peace and the guaranteeing of man's basic freedoms and rights require courage and eternal vigilance: courage to speak and act — and if necessary, to suffer and die — for truth and justice; eternal vigilance, that the least transgression of international morality shall not go undetected and unremedied. These lessons must be learned anew by each succeeding generation, and that generation is fortunate indeed which learns from other than its own bitter experience.

    Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia (born 23 July 1892) Emperor of Ethiopia from 1916 – 1936
  • Throughout history, it has been the inaction of those who could have acted, the indifference of those who should have known better, the silence of the voice of justice when it mattered most, that has made it possible for evil to triumph.

    Haile Selassie I of Ethiopia (born 23 July 1892) Emperor of Ethiopia from 1916 – 1936
  • There are two kinds of truth: the truth that lights the way and the truth that warms the heart. The first of these is science, and the second is art. Neither is independent of the other or more important than the other. Without art science would be as useless as a pair of high forceps in the hands of a plumber. Without science art would become a crude mess of folklore and emotional quackery. The truth of art keeps science from becoming inhuman, and the truth of science keeps art from becoming ridiculous.

    Raymond Chandler (born 23 July 1888) Anglo-American author of crime stories and novels

July 24

  • The art of victory is learned in defeat.

    Simón Bolívar (born 24 July 1783) South American revolutionary leader
  • Many have puzzled themselves about the origin of evil. I am content to observe that there is evil, and that there is a way to escape from it, and with this I begin and end.

    John Newton (born 24 July 1725) British slave trader, clergyman and songwriter
  • The three greatest fools of history have been Jesus Christ, Don Quixote . . . and me!

    Simón Bolívar (born 24 July 1783) South American revolutionary leader

July 25

  • Good and evil grow up together and are bound in an equilibrium that cannot be sundered. The most we can do is try to tilt the equilibrium toward the good.

    Eric Hoffer (born 25 July 1902) American writer on social issues
  • Though ours is a godless age, it is the very opposite of irreligious. The true believer is everywhere on the march, and both by converting and antagonizing he is shaping the world in his own image. And whether we are to line up with him or against him, it is well that we should know all we can concerning his nature and potentialities.

    Eric Hoffer (born 25 July 1902) American writer on social issues
  • The central task of education is to implant a will and a facility for learning; it should produce not learned but learning people. The truly human society is a learning society, where grandparents, parents, and children are students together.
    In a time of drastic change it is the learners who inherit the future. The learned usually find themselves equipped to live in a world that no longer exists.

    Eric Hoffer (born 25 July 1902) American writer on social issues

July 26

  • I hear you say "Why?" Always "Why?" You see things; and you say "Why?" But I dream things that never were; and I say "Why not?"

    George Bernard Shaw (born 26 July 1856) Irish playwright
  • We should not pretend to understand the world only by the intellect; we apprehend it just as much by feeling. Therefore, the judgment of the intellect is, at best, only the half of truth, and must, if it be honest, also come to an understanding of its inadequacy.

    Carl Jung (born 26 July 1875) Swiss psychiatrist and founder of analytical psychology
  • We are so captivated by and entangled in our subjective consciousness that we have forgotten the age-old fact that God speaks chiefly through dreams and visions.

    Carl Jung (born 26 July 1875) Swiss psychiatrist and founder of analytical psychology

July 27

  • It was my shame, and now it is my boast,
    That I have loved you rather more than most.

    Hilaire Belloc (born 27 July 1870) British writer and poet
  • I've been sleeping through my life
    Now I'm waking up
    And I want to stand in the sunshine
    I have never been ecstatic
    Had a flower but it never bloomed
    In the darkness of my wasted youth
    It was hiding in the shadows
    Learning to become invisible
    Uncover me.

    Juliana Hatfield (born 27 July 1967) American musician and singer-songwriter

July 28

  • We do not choose political freedom because it promises us this or that. We choose it because it makes possible the only dignified form of human coexistence, the only form in which we can be fully responsible for ourselves. Whether we realize its possibilities depends on all kinds of things — and above all on ourselves.

    Karl Popper (born 28 July 1902) Austrian and British philosopher and professor
  • If I could only give three words of advice, they would be, "Tell the Truth." If I got three more words, I'd add, "All the time."

    Randy PauschProfessor of Computer Science and a best-selling author
  • Our knowledge can only be finite, while our ignorance must necessarily be infinite.

    Karl Popper (born 28 July 1902) Austrian and British philosopher and professor

July 29

  • For all that has been —
    Thanks.
    For all that shall be —
    Yes.

    Dag Hammarskjöld (born 29 July 1905) Swedish diplomat and the second United Nations Secretary-General
  • Now I understand what you tried to say to me
    How you suffered for your sanity
    How you tried to set them free —
    They would not listen
    They did not know how,
    Perhaps they'll listen now.

    Don McLean in "Vincent (Starry Starry Night)"American singer-songwriter, most famous for "American Pie"

July 30

  • Moving stranger,
    Does it really matter,
    As long as you're not afraid to feel? Touch me, hold me.
    How my open arms ache!
    Try to fall for me.

    Kate Bush (born 30 July 1958) English singer-songwriter, musician and record producer
  • I don't know you,
    And you don't know me.
    It is this that brings us together.

    Kate Bush (born 30 July 1958) English singer-songwriter, musician and record producer
  • With wide-embracing love
    Thy Spirit animates eternal years,
    Pervades and broods above,
    Changes, sustains, dissolves, creates, and rears. Though earth and moon were gone,
    And suns and universes ceased to be,
    And Thou wert left alone,
    Every existence would exist in Thee. There is not room for Death,
    Nor atom that his might could render void:
    Thou — THOU art Being and Breath,
    And what THOU art may never be destroyed.

    Emily Brontë (born 30 July 1818) English novelist and poet

July 31

  • I beg the reader not to go in search of messages. It is a term that I detest because it distresses me greatly, for it forces on me clothes that are not mine, which in fact belong to a human type that I distrust; the prophet, the soothsayer, the seer. I am none of these; I'm a normal man with a good memory who fell into a maelstrom and got out of it more by luck than by virtue, and who from that time on has preserved a certain curiosity about maelstroms large and small, metaphorical and actual.

    Primo Levi (born 31 July 1919) Italian chemist and author
  • The future of humanity is uncertain, even in the most prosperous countries, and the quality of life deteriorates; and yet I believe that what is being discovered about the infinitely large and infinitely small is sufficient to absolve this end of the century and millennium. What a very few are acquiring in knowledge of the physical world will perhaps cause this period not to be judged as a pure return of barbarism.

    Primo Levi (born 31 July 1919) Italian chemist and author
  • Only a crisis — actual or perceived — produces real change. When that crisis occurs, the actions that are taken depend on the ideas that are lying around. That, I believe, is our basic function: to develop alternatives to existing policies, to keep them alive and available until the politically impossible becomes politically inevitable.

    Milton Friedman (born 31 July 1912) American economist
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