WIST

The best authors are always the severist critics of their own works.

Lord Chesterfield (1694-1773) English statesman, wit [Philip Dormer Stanhope]
Letter to his son (6 May 1751)

MERCUTIO: A plague o’ both your houses!

William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Romeo and Juliet, III.i.111 (1594)

Too much and for too long, we seem to have surrendered personal excellence and community value in the mere accumulation of material things. Our Gross National Product, now, is over eight hundred billion dollars a year, but that GNP — if we judge the United States of America by that — that GNP counts air pollution and cigarette advertising and ambulances to clear our highways of carnage. It counts special locks for our doors and the jails for the people who break them. It counts the destruction of the redwoods and the loss of our natural wonder in chaotic sprawl. It counts napalm and it counts nuclear warheads, and armored cars for the police to fight the riots in our cities. It counts Whitman’s rifle and Speck’s knife, and the television programs which glorify violence in order to sell toys to our children.

Robert Francis Kennedy (1925-1968) American politician
Speech, U. of Kansas, Lawrence (18 Mar 1968)

My people and I have come to an agreement which satisfies both. They are to say what they please, and I am to do what I please.

Frederick II (1712-1786) King of Prussia (a.k.a. Frederick the Great)
(Attributed)

In matters of national security emotion is no substitute for intelligence, nor rigidity for prudence. To act coolly, intelligently and prudently in perilous circumstances is the test of a man — and also a nation.

Adlai Ewing Stevenson (1900-1965) American politician
Radio address (11 Apr 1955)