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That the world can be improved and yet must be celebrated as it is are contradictions. The beginning of maturity may be the recognition that both are true.

Bill Stott
William M. Stott (b. 1940) American diplomat, academic in American Studies and English, author
Documentary Expression and Thirties America, ch. 15 (1973)
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Closing words of the book.
 
Added on 3-Nov-23 | Last updated 3-Nov-23
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Under the Mountain dark and tall
The King has come unto his hall!
His foe is dead, the Worm of Dread,
And ever so his foes shall fall.

The sword is sharp, the spear is long,
The arrow swift, the Gate is strong;
The heart is bold that looks on gold;
The dwarves no more shall suffer wrong.

The dwarves of yore made mighty spells,
While hammers fell like ringing bells
In places deep, where dark things sleep,
In hollow halls beneath the fells.

On silver necklaces they strung
The light of stars, on crowns they hung
The dragon-fire, from twisted wire
The melody of harps they wrung.

The mountain throne once more is freed!
O! wandering folk, the summons heed!
Come haste! Come haste! across the waste!
The king of friend and kin has need.

Now call we over the mountains cold,
‘Come back unto the caverns old’!
Here at the Gates the king awaits,
His hands are rich with gems and gold.

The king is come unto his hall
Under the Mountain dark and tall.
The Worm of Dread is slain and dead,
And ever so our foes shall fall!

J.R.R. Tolkien (1892-1973) English writer, fabulist, philologist, academic [John Ronald Reuel Tolkien]
The Hobbit, ch. 15 “The Gathering of the Clouds” [Thorin, et al.] (1937)
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Added on 8-Sep-22 | Last updated 8-Sep-22
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And the host laughed and wept, and in the midst of their merriment and tears the clear voice of the minstrel rose like silver and gold, and all men were hushed. And he sang to them, now in the Elven-tongue, now in the speech of the West, until their hearts, wounded with sweet words, overflowed, and their joy was like swords, and they passed in thought out to regions where pain and delight flow together and tears are the very wine of blessedness.

J.R.R. Tolkien (1892-1973) English writer, fabulist, philologist, academic [John Ronald Reuel Tolkien]
The Lord of the Rings, Vol. 3: The Return of the King, Book 6, ch. 4 “The Field of Cormallen” (1955)
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Added on 11-Aug-22 | Last updated 11-Aug-22
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Conquer, but never triumph.

[Siege, aber triumphire nicht.]

Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach (1830-1916) Austrian writer
Aphorisms [Aphorismen], No. 9 (1880) [tr. Wister (1883)]
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(Source (German)). Alternate translation:

Be victorious but not triumphant.
[tr. Scrase/Mieder (1994)]
 
Added on 5-Apr-22 | Last updated 21-Sep-22
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I will accept that sometimes a villain has to die, but I’ll be damned if I’ll take free drinks for doing it.

Phil Foglio (b. 1956) American writer, cartoonist
Agatha H. and the Clockwork Princess [Barry Heterodyne] (2012) [with Kaja Foglio]
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Added on 28-Mar-22 | Last updated 28-Mar-22
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We should not forget that our tradition is one of protest and revolt, and it is stultifying to celebrate the rebels of the past — Jefferson and Paine, Emerson and Thoreau — while we silence the rebels of the present.

Henry Steele Commager (1902-1998) American historian, writer, activist
“Who Is Loyal to America?” Harper’s Magazine #1168 (Sep 1947)
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Reprinted in Freedom, Loyalty, Dissent (1954).
 
Added on 16-Feb-22 | Last updated 16-Feb-22
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Stir the eggnog, lift the toddy,
Happy New Year, everybody.

McGinley - Stir the eggnog, lift the toddy, Happy New Year, everybody - wist.info quote

Phyllis McGinley (1905-1978) American author, poet
(Attributed)
 
Added on 31-Dec-21 | Last updated 31-Dec-21
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We make religion a drudgery, a grind, a slavery when it should be a revelry, a festival, an everlasting song.

Frank W. Boreham (1871-1959) Anglo-Australian preacher
The Drums of Dawn, “The Tower of Babel” (1933)
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Added on 13-Jul-21 | Last updated 13-Jul-21
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Believing hear, what you deserve to hear:
Your birthday as my own to me is dear.
Blest and distinguished days! which we should prize
The first, the kindest bounty of the skies.
But yours gives most; for mine did only lend
Me to the world; yours gave to me a friend.

[Si credis mini, Quinte, quot mereris,
natalis, Ovidi, tuas Aprilis
ut nostras amo Martias Kalendas
felix utraque lux diesque nobis
signandi melioribus lapillis!
hic vitam tribuit set hic amicum
pus dant, Quinte, mini tuae Kalendae.]

Marcus Valerius Martial
Martial (AD c.39-c.103) Spanish Roman poet, satirist, epigrammatist [Marcus Valerius Martialis]
Epigrams [Epigrammata], Book 9, epigram 52 (9.52) (AD 94) [tr. Hay (1755)]
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To the poet Ovid. Original Latin. Alternate translations:

What thou deserv'st, if thou beleeve,
I do to Aprils Calends give
For thy birth, Ovid, what I doe
To March, to which mine own I owe.
Both happy dayes, with whitest stone
Both to bee mark'd by me; by one
A friend: by tother life I have.
The greater gift thy Calends gave.
[tr. May (1629), 9.53]

If you but believe me, Quintus Ovidius, I love, as you deserve, the first of April, your natal day, as much as I love my own first of March. Happy is either morn! and may both days be marked by us with the whitest of stones! The one gave me life, but the other a friend. Yours, Quintus, gave me more than my own.
[tr. Bohn's Classical (1859)]

Ovid, as your deserts are high,
Know that our natal mornings I
Keep with a like fidelity;
How blest the light
Of those twin days we mark with white!
Mine gave me life, but yours a friend,
And that's the gift I more commend.
[tr. Street (1907)]

If you believe me, Quintus Ovidius, the kalends of your natal April I love -- 'tis your desert -- as much as my own of March. Happy is either morn! and days are they to be marked by us with fairer stones. One gave me life, but the other a friend. Your kalends, Quintus, gave me the more.
[tr. Ker (1919)]

If you believe me, Quintus Ovidius, I love your birthday Kalends of April as much as my own of March -- you deserve it. Happy both days, days to be marked by me, with superior pebbles. The one gave me life, but the other a friend. Quintus, your Kalends give me more.
[tr. Shackleton Bailey (1993)]

 
Added on 1-Jun-21 | Last updated 27-Nov-23
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The first fact about the celebration of a birthday is that it is a way of affirming defiantly, and even flamboyantly, that it is a good thing to be alive.

Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936) English journalist and writer
“Our Birthday,” G. K.’s Weekly (1935-03-21)
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Added on 14-May-21 | Last updated 19-Aug-23
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For friendship adds a brighter radiance to prosperity and lessens the burden of adversity by dividing and sharing it.

[Nam et secundas res splendidiores facit amicitia et adversas partiens communicansque leviores.]

Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BC) Roman orator, statesman, philosopher
Laelius De Amicitia [Laelius on Friendship], ch. 6 / sec. 22 (44 BC) [tr. Falconer (1923)]
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Alternate translations:

  • "Friendship improves happiness and abates misery, by the doubling of our joy and the dividing of our grief." [tr. Addison (1711), Spectator, #68 (18 May 1711)]
  • "For prosperity, friendship renders more brilliant, and adversity more supportable, by dividing and communicating it." [tr. Edmonds (1871)]
  • "Such friendship at once enhances the lustre of prosperity, and by dividing and sharing adversity lessens its burden." [tr. Peabody (1887)]
  • "For friendship both makes favourable things more splendid and disasters lighter, by splitting and sharing them." [Source]
 
Added on 1-Mar-21 | Last updated 11-Aug-22
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At Christmas play, and make good cheer,
For Christmas comes but once a year.

Thomas Tusser (1524-1580) English poet and farmer
A Hundred Good Points of Husbandry, “The Farmer’s Daily Diet” (1557)
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Added on 25-Dec-20 | Last updated 25-Dec-20
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Drink and dance and laugh and lie,
Love, the reeling midnight through,
For tomorrow we shall die!
(But, alas, we never do.)

Dorothy Parker (1893-1967) American writer
“The Flaw in Paganism,” Death and Taxes (1931)
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Added on 20-Apr-20 | Last updated 20-Apr-20
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“Christmas a humbug, uncle!” said Scrooge’s nephew. “You don’t mean that, I am sure.”

“I do,” said Scrooge. “Merry Christmas! What right have you to be merry? What reason have you to be merry? You’re poor enough.”

“Come, then,” returned the nephew gaily. “What right have you to be dismal? What reason have you to be morose? You’re rich enough.”

Scrooge having no better answer ready on the spur of the moment, said “Bah!” again; and followed it up with “Humbug.”

Charles Dickens (1812-1870) English writer and social critic
A Christmas Carol, ch. 1 (1843)
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Added on 16-Dec-19 | Last updated 16-Dec-19
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I could not live without Champagne. In victory I deserve it. In defeat I need it.

Winston Churchill (1874-1965) British statesman and author
Comment to Odette Pol Roger (1946)

Frequently misattributed to Napoleon Bonaparte ("In victory you deserve champagne. In defeat you need it."); no citation of the quote has been fond prior to 1946. See here for more discussion.
 
Added on 13-Mar-19 | Last updated 13-Mar-19
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But man is a Noble Animal, splendid in ashes, and pompous in the grave, solemnizing Nativities and Deaths with equall lustre, nor omitting Ceremonies of bravery, in the infamy of his nature.

Thomas Browne (1605-1682) English physician and author
Hydriotaphia, or Urne-Buriall, ch. 5 (1658)
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Added on 8-Jan-18 | Last updated 4-Aug-21
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The more you join with people in their joys and their sorrows, the more nearer and dearer they come to be to you.

Mark Twain (1835-1910) American writer [pseud. of Samuel Clemens]
Tom Sawyer Abroad, ch. 11 (1894)
 
Added on 21-Sep-16 | Last updated 21-Sep-16
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Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep.

Paul - rejoice weep - wist_info quote

The Bible (The New Testament) (AD 1st - 2nd C) Christian sacred scripture
Romans 12:15 [KJV]

Quoting 12:15-18: "Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep. Be of the same mind toward one another; do not be haughty in mind, but associate with the lowly Do not be wise in your own estimation. Never pay back evil for evil to anyone Respect what is right in the sight of all men. If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men."
 
Added on 7-Sep-16 | Last updated 9-Mar-20
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I live my life in celebration and in praise of the life I’m living. What you focus on expands. The more you praise and celebrate your life, the more there is in life to celebrate. The more you complain, the more you find fault, the more misery and fault you will have to find.

Oprah Winfrey (b. 1954) American TV personality, actress
“Words of the Week,” Jet (27 Oct 1986)
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Added on 13-May-16 | Last updated 13-May-16
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Let us have wine and women, mirth and laughter,
Sermons and soda water the day after.

Byron - sermons and soda water - wist_info quote

Lord Byron
George Gordon, Lord Byron (1788-1824) English poet
Don Juan, Canto 2, st. 178 (1819)
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Added on 26-Apr-16 | Last updated 26-Mar-24
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New Year’s is a harmless annual institution, of no particular use to anybody save as a scapegoat for promiscuous drunks, and friendly calls, and humbug resolutions, and we wish you to enjoy it with a looseness suited to the greatness of the occasion.

Mark Twain (1835-1910) American writer [pseud. of Samuel Clemens]
“New Year’s Day,” Virginia City Territorial Enterprise (Jan 1864)
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Added on 31-Dec-15 | Last updated 31-Dec-15
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Ring out the old, ring in the new,
Ring, happy bells, across the snow;
The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true.

Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809-1892) English poet
“In Memoriam A. H. H.” [Arthur Henry Hallam], part 106 (1849)
 
Added on 31-Dec-15 | Last updated 31-Dec-15
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I am sure I have always thought of Christmas time, when it has come round — apart from the veneration due to its sacred name and origin, if anything belonging to it can be apart from that — as a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time: the only time I know of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely, and to think of people below them as if they really were fellow-passengers to the grave, and not another race of creatures bound on other journeys. And therefore, uncle, though it has never put a scrap of gold or silver in my pocket, I believe that it has done me good, and will do me good; and I say, God bless it!

Charles Dickens (1812-1870) English writer and social critic
A Christmas Carol [Fred] (1843)
 
Added on 24-Dec-15 | Last updated 24-Dec-15
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The believer sings louder than he speaks.

Abdal Hakim Murad (b. 1960) British Muslim shaykh, researcher, writer, academic [b. Timothy John Winter]
“Contentions 2,” #33
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Added on 8-May-15 | Last updated 8-May-15
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“It looks to me,” he went on in a melancholy tone, “as if they was too much noise an’ smoke about pathritism in America f’r the good ib th’ country.”

Finley Peter Dunne (1867-1936) American humorist and journalist
“Freedom and the Fourth of July” (1897)
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Added on 13-Oct-14 | Last updated 13-Oct-14
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But banish care, it’s no time for it now — on with the dance, let joy be unconfined is my motto, whether there’s any dance to dance or any joy to unconfine ….

Mark Twain (1835-1910) American writer [pseud. of Samuel Clemens]
“The American Claimant,” ch. 2 (1892)
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See Byron.
 
Added on 17-Mar-10 | Last updated 26-Jan-19
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The Second Day of July 1776, will be the most memorable Epocha, in the History of America. — I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more.

John Adams (1735-1826) American lawyer, Founding Father, statesman, US President (1797-1801)
Letter to Abigail Adams (1776-07-03)
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The Colonial Congress approved of the Independence Resolution on 2 July. The final agreement on the Declaration, and its signing, was on 4 July.
 
Added on 4-Jul-08 | Last updated 5-Jul-23
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Drink! for you know not whence you came nor why:
Drink! for you know not why you go, nor where.

Omar Khayyám (1048-1123) Persian poet, mathematician, philosopher, astronomer [عمر خیام]
Rubáiyát, 74 [tr. FitzGerald, 4th ed. (1879)]
 
Added on 19-Aug-07 | Last updated 31-Jul-17
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GONZALO: Beseech you, sir, be merry. You have cause —
So have we all — of joy, for our escape
Is much beyond our loss. Our hint of woe
Is common; every day some sailor’s wife,
The masters of some merchant, and the merchant
Have just our theme of woe. But for the miracle —
I mean our preservation — few in millions
Can speak like us. Then wisely, good sir, weigh
Our sorrow with our comfort.

Shakespeare
William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Tempest, Act 2, sc. 1, l. 1ff (2.1.1-9) (1611)
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Added on 1-Feb-04 | Last updated 8-Feb-24
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When the Egyptians were drowning in the Red Sea, the angels in heaven began to break forth in songs of jubilation, but the Holy One, blessed be He, silenced them: “My creatures are perishing — and ye are ready to sing!”

The Talmud (AD 200-500) Collection of Jewish rabbinical writings
(Unreferenced)

In Louis I. Newman, comp. The Talmudic Anthology, 103 (1945): "When the Egyptians were drowning, the angels wished to sing. But God said, 'My children are dying, and you would sing?'"
 
Added on 1-Feb-04 | Last updated 17-Sep-15
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