Quote of the Day: 31 December 2024 #QotD

“Time, driving all things before it, may bring with it evil as well as good.” -Niccolo Machiavelli
[Farewell, 2024. May 2025 bring each of you joy to exceed your expectations.]

Quote of the Day: 30 December 2024 #QotD

“You must know it’s the little people who’re the last to be thought of when great tribes go to war.” -Slam, Raising Steam
[Even in our world today, this remains true.]

Quote of the Day: 29 December 2024 #QotD

“One of the most important things we can learn in this life is the difference between what is eternal and what is not. Once we understand that, everything changes—our relationships, the choices we make, the way we treat people.” -Dieter F. Uchtdorf

Quote of the Day: 28 December 2024 #QotD

“I have heard it said that there are men who read in books to convince themselves there is a God. I know not but man may so deform his works in the settlement, as to leave doubt among traders and priests.” -Hawkeye, The Last of the Mohicans
[Go get out in nature. It's astoundingly beautiful. There is much to commend God's handiwork in it.]

Quote of the Day: 27 December 2024 #QotD

“Sometimes fries are the only way to keep you sane.” -Lucy Carlyle, The Creeping Shadow
[A comfort sincerely enjoyed is worth the negatives that may exist for it.]

Quote of the Day: 26 December 2024 #QotD

“That is, he made boasts. But boasts are wind and deeds are hard.” -Jord Commason, Foundation and Empire
[As in all things, when it comes to implementation is when you differentiate the posers from the doers.]

Quote of the Day: 25 December 2024 #QotD

“As we commemorate the birth of our Savior, our hearts are attuned to what is most important in our lives. Christmas makes us more aware and more grateful for the sacrifices that have been made for us.” -Dallin H. Oaks
[Merry Christmas!]

Bonus Quote of the Day: 25 December 2024 #QotD

“That’s long enough! Wake up! Wake up! It’s Christmas!!” -Calvin, Calvin and Hobbes
[Merry Christmas to all you bleary-eyed parents.]

Quote of the Day: 24 December 2024 #QotD

“[W]hat in the world can a person get their mother for Christmas that lives up to what they deserve? Pretty much nothing[.]” -Libby Monroe, What Stars Are Made Of
[Or anyone who really matters to you, for that matter?]

Quote of the Day: 23 December 2024 #QotD

“You can’t keep digging up the corpse of who you used to be, Wayne. You can’t keep toting it around. Let him stay buried. Consider who you are, not who you left behind.” -Waxillium Ladrian, The Lost Metal
[There's not much to add to this. It is sufficient on its own and doesn't need any commentary from me.]

Quote of the Day: 22 December 2024 #QotD

“I bear witness of the sacred work of teaching Heavenly Father’s children the simple doctrine of Jesus Christ, which allows us to be spiritually cleansed and ultimately be welcomed into God’s presence, to live with Him and His Son in glory forever in families.” -Henry B. Eyring

Quote of the Day: 21 December 2024 #QotD

“And most generally there is something about everything that you can be glad about, if you keep hunting long enough to find it.” -Pollyanna Whittier, Pollyanna
[Depending on the framing, it can sound a bit cynical, though.]

Quote of the Day: 20 December 2024 #QotD

“Sometimes you owed it to yourself to do what was necessary, not what was easy.” -Lukan Gardova (thought), The Silverblood Promise
[Those 'sometimes' end up being an awful lot of the time. Like, almost all the time.]

Quote of the Day: 19 December 2024 #QotD

“[T]here is no fixed or predestined total amount of income or wealth to be shared. If some people are creating more wealth than they are receiving as income, then they are not making other people poorer. But if they are creating products or services that are worth less than the income they receive, then equally clearly they are making other people poorer.” -Thomas Sowell
[The error so many fall into of thinking that there is a fixed amount of wealth is pervasive. I used to believe the same, when I was a child. I have since learned the difference between value, wealth, and money. But I don't know that I could convince someone else of the things I have come to realize about them.]

Quote of the Day: 18 December 2024 #QotD

“When a child is learning a musical instrument he is learning long-term perseverance.” -Sharlene Habermeyer
[There is no easy way to get to proficiency on an instrument. You have to put in the time to develop technique and other skills. And that only matters if you have sufficient instruction to help you past plateaus, roadblocks, and discouragement.]

Quote of the Day: 17 December 2024 #QotD

“Because an insight is new doesn’t mean it’ll be useful, or even good news.” -Scott Meyer
[Sometimes, it means just the opposite. There are traditions about things for a reason. We disregard them at our peril.]

Quote of the Day: 16 December 2024 #QotD

“The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult; and left untried.” -G. K. Chesterton
[Too true. I, a Christain myself, probably fall prey to this more than I realize. I can only hope I come closer and closer to the ideal as I seek to follow the Saviour.]

Quote of the Day: 15 December 2024 #QotD

“Happiness and joy in this life and the next are always linked with the gospel of Jesus Christ.” -Gary E. Stevenson

Quote of the Day: 14 December 2024 #QotD

“Yeah, well. Sometimes, when I get bored, I stop and think.” -Harry Dresden, Skin Game
[A dangerous pastime for a man of little intellect, or one prone to rumination.]

Quote of the Day: 13 December 2024 #QotD

“The customer is always right, even when they are being absurd.” -Tom Stranger, A murder of Manatees
[The original quote is so often misunderstood to mean that whatever the customer wants is correct, when what it really means is that the customers underlying desires are valid, and the employees should be empowered to find a way to meet those desires to produce additional profit.]

Quote of the Day: 12 December 2024 #QotD

“It is impossible to manufacture or imitate love.” -Horace Slughorn, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
[Something to keep in mind, all year, but this time of year in particular.]

Quote of the Day: 11 December 2024 #QotD

“[L]ike fire and fusion, government is a dangerous servant and a terrible master.” -Bernardo de la Paz, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress
[The power is so intoxicating that it is so tremendously tempting to seize it for yourself instead of diminishing the power of government so it isn't a threat to the individual.]

Quote of the Day: 10 December 2024 #QotD

“Loneliness didn’t tell you what you had lost, only that something was missing.” -Tom Clancy
[Loneliness is only an indication of an underlying need. It's tremendously painful, but like physical pain, it's there to signal the attention that is required.]

Quote of the Day: 9 December 2024 #QotD

“You wouldn’t be normal if you were never afraid. Even the bravest men experience fear.” -Major Major, Catch-22
[The fear is just the emotion. How you respond to that fear is what determines if you're acting rationally and reasonably or not.]

Quote of the Day: 8 December 2024 #QotD

“Christ’s charity—_evident in complete loyalty to divine will_—persisted and continues to persist, not just through the easy and comfortable days but especially through the darkest and most difficult ones.” -Jeffrey R. Holland

Quote of the Day: 7 December 2024 #QotD

“Why ever did I wake up!” -Bombur, The Hobbit
[It's Saturday. I'm probably going to take a nap.]

Quote of the Day: 6 December 2024 #QotD

“Story of our species. Everybody knows it’s coming, but not so soon.” -Ian Malcolm, Jurassic Park
[We are continually surprised by things we thoroughly expect to happen. It's so common we shouldn't be surprised, yet we are.]

Quote of the Day: 5 December 2024 #QotD

“[A]n ocean of knowledge is apt to drown you long before it educates you.” -Mark Lawrence
[Regardless of your skill in swimming through that knowledge, too. You will simply be overwhelmed by the vastness of that ocean.]

Quote of the Day: 4 December 2024 #QotD

“The thing about being embarrassed is that sooner or later you aren’t, but you remember that you were.” -Blodwen Rhysson, Raising Steam
[And hopefully that is enough to help you remember and make changes to your character so that you won't be embarrassed in the same way again.]

Quote of the Day: 3 December 2024 #QotD

“There is no sense in talking of ‘becoming better’ if better means simply ‘what we are becoming’—it is like congratulating yourself on reaching your destination and defining destination as ‘the place you have reached’.” -C. S. Lewis
[There has to be a definite and predetermined goal if we are to know whether we are becoming better or not. Otherwise, it is just an exercise in self-satisfaction.]

Quote of the Day: 2 December 2024 #QotD

“Every one sees what you seem, but few know what you are[.]” -Niccolo Machiavelli
[Everyone wears something of a mask. Whether that mask closely resembles the face beneath or not is up to the individual. But no one is entirely transparent with who they are to the world, even if only unintentionally.]

Quote of the Day: 1 December 2024 #QotD

“Ancient voices from the dust plead with us today to learn this everlasting lesson: prosperity, possessions, and ease constitute a potent mixture that can lead even the righteous to drink the spiritual poison of pride.” -David A. Bednar