WIST Quotations

Gaiman, Neil -- Blog entry (2012-12-31), “My New Year’s Wish”

Dave — Fri, 29 Dec 2023 23:36:21 +0000

So this is my wish, a wish for me as much as it is a wish for you: in the world to come, let us be brave — let us walk into the dark without fear, and step into the unknown with smiles on our faces, even if we’re faking them.
And whatever happens to us, whatever we make, whatever we learn, let us take joy in it. We can find joy in the world if it’s joy we’re looking for, we can take joy in the act of creation.
So that is my wish for you, and for me. Bravery and joy.

Neil Gaiman (b. 1960) British author, screenwriter, fabulist
Blog entry (2012-12-31), “My New Year’s Wish”
(Source)

Gaiman, Neil -- Blog entry (2008-12-31), “Another Year”

Dave — Thu, 28 Dec 2023 23:13:49 +0000

I hope you will have a wonderful year, that you’ll dream dangerously and outrageously, that you’ll make something that didn’t exist before you made it, that you will be loved and that you will be liked, and that you will have people to love and to like in return. And, most importantly (because I think there should be more kindness and more wisdom in the world right now), that you will, when you need to be, be wise, and that you will always be kind.

Neil Gaiman (b. 1960) British author, screenwriter, fabulist
Blog entry (2008-12-31), “Another Year”
(Source)

Paisley, Brad -- Twitter (31 Dec 2009)

Dave — Sat, 31 Dec 2022 23:52:00 +0000

Tomorrow is the first blank page of a 365 page book. Write a good one.

Brad Paisley (b. 1972) American country music singer-songwriter
Twitter (31 Dec 2009)
(Source)

Beecher, Henry Ward -- “A Completed Year,” sermon, Plymouth Pulpit #379 (10 Jan 1883)

Dave — Sat, 24 Dec 2022 04:45:59 +0000

Neither should one live in the past, as if to him there was no future; as if he had done with all the rest of life. Keep young. Many men talk about being born again. Every man should be born again on the first day of January. Start with a fresh page. Take up one more hole in the buckle, if necessary, or let down one, according to circumstances; but, on the first of January let every man gird himself once more, with his face to the front, and take interest in the things that are and are to be, and not in the things that were and are past.

Henry Ward Beecher (1813-1887) American clergyman and orator
“A Completed Year,” sermon, Plymouth Pulpit #379 (10 Jan 1883)

Atkinson, Brooks -- Once Around the Sun, “December 31” (1951)

Dave — Wed, 21 Dec 2022 22:50:51 +0000

Drop the last year into the silent limbo of the past. Let it go, for it was imperfect, and thank God that it can go.

Brooks Atkinson (1894-1984) American drama critic and journalist
Once Around the Sun, “December 31” (1951)
(Source)

McGinley, Phyllis -- (Attributed)

Dave — Fri, 31 Dec 2021 22:26:32 +0000

Stir the eggnog, lift the toddy,
Happy New Year, everybody.

Phyllis McGinley (1905-1978) American author, poet
(Attributed)

Gaiman, Neil -- Blog entry (2011-12-31), “My New Year Wish”

Dave — Tue, 28 Dec 2021 21:24:33 +0000

I hope that in this year to come, you make mistakes.
Because if you are making mistakes, then you are making new things, trying new things, learning, living, pushing yourself, changing yourself, changing your world. You’re doing things you’ve never done before, and more importantly, you’re Doing Something.
So that’s my wish for you, and all of us, and my wish for myself. Make New Mistakes. Make glorious, amazing mistakes. Make mistakes nobody’s ever made before. Don’t freeze, don’t stop, don’t worry that it isn’t good enough, or it isn’t perfect, whatever it is: art, or love, or work or family or life.
Whatever it is you’re scared of doing, Do it.
Make your mistakes, next year and forever.

Neil Gaiman (b. 1960) British author, screenwriter, fabulist
Blog entry (2011-12-31), “My New Year Wish”
(Source)

Nash, Ogden -- “Good-bye, Old Year, You Oaf, or Why Don’t They Pay the Bonus?” (1935)

Dave — Fri, 17 Jul 2020 15:33:25 +0000

Every New Year is the direct descendant, isn’t it, of a long line of proven criminals?

Ogden Nash (1902-1971) American poet
“Good-bye, Old Year, You Oaf, or Why Don’t They Pay the Bonus?” (1935)
(Source)

Gaiman, Neil -- Blog entry (2001-12-31), “As I Was Saying”

Dave — Mon, 12 Feb 2018 17:50:26 +0000

May your coming year be filled with magic and dreams and good madness. I hope you read some fine books and kiss someone who thinks you’re wonderful, and don’t forget to make some art — write or draw or build or sing or live as only you can. And I hope, somewhere in the next year, you surprise yourself.

Neil Gaiman (b. 1960) British author, screenwriter, fabulist
Blog entry (2001-12-31), “As I Was Saying”
(Source)

Blunt, Wilfred -- My Diaries, 1888-1914, 31 Dec 1900 (1921)

Dave — Thu, 02 Jun 2016 13:32:42 +0000

I bid good-bye to the old century, may it rest in peace as it has lived in war. Of the new century I prophesy nothing except that it will see the decline of the British Empire. Other worse empires will rise perhaps in its place, but I shall not live to see the day. It all seems a very little matter here in Egypt, with the pyramids watching us as they watched Joseph, when, as a young man four thousand years ago, perhaps in this very garden, he walked and gazed at the sunset behind them, wondering about the future just as I did this evening. And so, poor wicked nineteenth century, farewell!

Wilfrid Scawen Blunt (1840-1922) English poet, critic, horse breeder
My Diaries, 1888-1914, 31 Dec 1900 (1921)

Tennyson, Alfred, Lord -- The Foresters, Act 1, sc. 3 [Robin] (1892)

Dave — Thu, 31 Dec 2015 17:22:14 +0000

Hope
Smiles from the threshold of the year to come
Whispering “it will be happier.”

Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809-1892) English poet
The Foresters, Act 1, sc. 3 [Robin] (1892)
(Source)

Twain, Mark -- “New Year’s Day,” Virginia City Territorial Enterprise (c. 1 Jan 1864)

Dave — Thu, 31 Dec 2015 17:08:55 +0000

Now is the accepted time to make your regular annual good resolutions. Next week you can begin paving hell with them as usual.

Mark Twain (1835-1910) American writer [pseud. of Samuel Clemens]
“New Year’s Day,” Virginia City Territorial Enterprise (c. 1 Jan 1864)
(Source)

Rilke, Rainer Maria -- Letter (1907-01-01) to Clara Rilke

Dave — Thu, 31 Dec 2015 17:08:17 +0000

And now let us believe in a long year that is given to us, new, untouched, full of things that have never been, full of work that has never been done, full of tasks, claims, and demands; and let us see that we learn to take it without letting fall too much of what it has to bestow upon those who demand of it necessary, serious, and great things.

Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1963) German poet
Letter (1907-01-01) to Clara Rilke
(Source)

Usually paraphrased: "And now we welcome the new year. Full of things that have never been."

Twain, Mark -- “New Year’s Day,” Virginia City Territorial Enterprise (Jan 1864)

Dave — Thu, 31 Dec 2015 17:07:04 +0000

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)
(Source)

Tennyson, Alfred, Lord -- “In Memoriam A. H. H.” [Arthur Henry Hallam], part 106 (1849)

Dave — Thu, 31 Dec 2015 17:06:24 +0000

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)

Heywood, John -- Ballad (1576), “Be Merry Friends,” st. 17

Dave — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 19:46:29 +0000

Let the world slide, let the world go:
A fig for care, and a fig for woe!
If I can’t pay, why, I can owe;
And death makes equal the high and low.
Be merry, friends!

John Heywood (1497?-1580?) English playwright and epigrammist
Ballad (1576), “Be Merry Friends,” st. 17
(Source)

Collected in John Payne Collier (ed.), A Book of Roxburghe Ballads (1847), which includes more history about it.

This quote from the final stanza of the ballad (as reconstructed) was popularized when quoted in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 5th Ed. (1870) and subsequent editions.

The ballad also shows up in a collection of James Orchard Halliwell (ed.), The Moral Play of Wit and Science (1848) for the Shakespeare Society. This has an earlier version of the ballad, which does not include this stanza. (It also wavers in spelling between "mery" / "merye" and "frends" / "freendes.") This is in turn endnoted with five contemporary English stanzas, replacing the last two given, which includes that quoted above.

"Let the world slide" is used by the Beggar (Sly) in Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew, Induction, sc. 1 (c. 1590).

Dickens, Charles -- Sketches by Boz, “Characters,” ch. 2 “A Christmas Dinner” (1833-36)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

Reflect upon your present blessings — of which every man has many — not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some. Fill your glass again, with a merry face and contented heart. Our life on it, but your Christmas shall be merry, and your new year a happy one!

Charles Dickens (1812-1870) English writer and social critic
Sketches by Boz, “Characters,” ch. 2 “A Christmas Dinner” (1833-36)
(Source)

Franklin, Benjamin -- Poor Richard’s Almanack (1755)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

Be at War with your Vices, at Peace with your Neighbours, and let every New-Year find you a better Man.

Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) American statesman, scientist, philosopher, aphorist
Poor Richard’s Almanack (1755)

More information on this quotation here.