WIST

This week has been a bit spotty with WIST, as I’ve been in a flurry of holiday/vacation travel and activities.  I’m going to be taking a week off from WIST until after the New Year, since the coming week will be even more harried (and likely less connected).

Thank you all for your support and reading of this little hobby of mine.  I’ll be doing a more official tally in the New Year,  but I’ve added probably a good thousand quotes to the list, and had a great time doing so.

Here’s hoping you and yours have a wonderful holiday season, and that the new year brings you both joy and illuminating words to ponder.

I don’t think writers are sacred, but words are. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones in the right order, you might nudge the world a little or make a poem that children will speak for you when you are dead.

Tom Stoppard (b. 1937) Czech-English playwright and screenwriter
The Real Thing, Act II, sc. v [Henry] (1982)

True love ennobles and dignifies the material labors of life; and homely services rendered for love’s sake have in them a poetry that is immortal.

Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-1896) American author
Household Papers and Stories, Part 2, ch. 4 (1864)

He that knows how to make those he converses with easy, without debasing himself to low and servile Flattery, has found the true Art of living in the World, and being both welcome and valued everywhere.

John Locke (1632-1704) English philosopher
Some Thoughts Concerning Education, #143 (1693)

The sophist sneers: Fool, take
Thy pleasure, right or wrong!
The pious wail: Forsake
A world these sophists throng!
Be neither saint nor sophist-led, but be a man.

Matthew Arnold (1822-1888) English poet and critic
Empedocles on Etna, Act I, sc. ii (1852)
Full text.

Every man has a retirement picture in which he does those things he never had time to do — makes journeys, reads the neglected books he always pretended to have read.

John Steinbeck (1902-1968) American writer
East of Eden (1952)

If you are a Christian, you are a minister. This proposition is absolutely basic to any understanding of the Christian movement. A non-ministering Christian is a contradiction in terms. The Christian faith is not made up of spectators listening to professionals, and it is not for individuals who are seeking, primarily, to save their own souls. It is necessarily made up of persons who are called to serve as representatives of Christ in the world, and to serve means to minister. Ministry is intrinsic to the Christian life. Ministry is not something added or means to an end; it is central and ineradicable.

D. Elton Trueblood (1900-1994) American author, educator, theologian [David Elton Trueblood]
“You Are a Minister”

I like life. It’s something to do.

Ronnie Shakes (contemp.) (fl. decd.) American comedian
(Attributed)

Envy … desires not so much its own happiness as another’s misery.

Dr. Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) English writer, lexicographer, critic
The Rambler #183 (Dec 1751)

No one ever approaches perfection except by stealth, and unknown to themselves.

William Hazlitt (1778-1830) English writer
“On Taste,” Sketches and Essays (1839)

Little one, I would like to see anyone — prophet, king or God — persuade a thousand cats to do anything at the same time.

Neil Gaiman (b. 1960) British fabulist
The Sandman, Vol. 3, Dream Country, “A Dream of a Thousand Cats” [Cynical Cat] (#18) (1990)

Destiny leads the willing but drags the unwilling.

Thomas Fuller (1654-1734) English writer, physician
Gnomologia, #1274 (1732)
See Seneca the Younger.

We are interested in others when they are interested in us.

Publilius Syrus (d. 42 BC) Assyrian slave, writer, philosopher
Moral Sayings, 16 [tr. D. Lyman, Jr (1862)]

Must we always talk for victory, and never once for truth, for comfort, and joy?

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) American essayist and poet
Journal (29 Feb 1856)
Speaking of Thoreau's style of conversational.

History shows that there are no invincible armies and that there never have been.

Josef Stalin (1879-1953) Soviet political leader
“Comrades! Citizens! Brothers and sisters! Men of our army and navy!”, Radio Address (3 Jul 1941)

A few weeks after the invasion of the USSR by Germany.  Full text.

We, in some unknown Power’s employ,
Move on a rigorous line;
Can neither, when we will, enjoy,
Nor, when we will, resign.

Matthew Arnold (1822-1888) English poet and critic
“Stanzas in Memory of the Author of ‘Obermann’”, s. 34 (1852)

Humor is a social lubricant that helps us get over some of the bad spots.

Steve Allen (1922-2000) American composer, entertainer, and wit.
(Attributed)

A gloomy morning.  On all sides a depressing outlook, and within, disgust  with self.

Henri-Frédéric Amiel (1821-1881) Swiss philosopher, poet, critic
Journal (26 Apr 1968) [tr. Mrs. H. Ward (1887)]

Eloquence is the power to translate a truth into language perfectly intelligible to the person to whom you speak.

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) American essayist and poet
“Eloquence,” Letters and Social Aims (1876)

What is essential in war is victory, not prolonged operations.

Sun-Tzu (fl. 6th C. AD) Chinese general and philosopher [a.k.a. Sun Wu]
The Art of War, ch. 2

The profession of book-writing makes horse-racing seem like a solid, stable business.

John Steinbeck (1902-1968) American writer
The Acts of King Arthur and His Noble Knights, Preface (1976)
Steinbeck often used this phrase; it's first quoted in Newsweek (24 Dec 1962)

If others could only see us as we think we are.

Kin Hubbard (1868-1930) American caricaturist and humorist [Frank McKinney Hubbard]
Abe Martin’s Back Country Sayings (1917)

The salvation of America and of the human race depends on the next Election, if we believe the newspapers.

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) American essayist and poet
Journal (Oct 1848)

Pray for thy enemy, for if thou beest a good Man thyself, thou canst not but rejoice to see thy worst Enemy become a good Man, too

Thomas Fuller (1654-1734) English writer, physician
Introductio ad Prudentiam, #878 (1731)

Here’s the way I look at it. President Bush has uranium-tipped bunker busters and I have puns. I think he’ll be okay.

Jon Stewart (b. 1962) American satirist, comedian, and television host. [b. Jonathan Stuart Leibowitz]
Interview, Rolling Stone (31 Oct 2006)
Full text.

Knowledge is indivisible. When people grow wise in one direction, they are sure to make it easier for themselves to grow wise in other directions as well. On the other hand, when they split up knowledge, concentrate on their own field, and scorn and ignore other fields, they grow less wise — even in their own field.

Isaac Asimov (1920-1992) Russian-American writer
The Roving Mind (1983)

It is of great advantage that man should know his station, and not erroneously imagine that the whole Universe exists only for him.

Maimonides (1135-1204) Spanish Jewish philosopher [Moses ben Maimon]
The Guide for the Perplexed, 3.12 (AD 1190) [tr. M Friedlander (1904)]

How rare, men with the character to praise
a friend’s success without a trace of envy.

Aeschylus (525-456 BC) Greek dramatist (Æschylus)
Agamemnon, l. 818 [tr. R. Fagles (1975)]

Almost every sect of Christianity is a perversion of its essence, to accommodate it to the prejudices of the world.

William Hazlitt (1778-1830) English writer
“On the Causes of Methodism,” The Round Table (1817)

Never a possession, always the possessor, with skin as pale as smoke, and eyes tawny and sharp as yellow wine: Desire is everything you have ever wanted. Whoever you are. Whatever you are. Everything.

Neil Gaiman (b. 1960) British fabulist
The Sandman, Vol. 4, Season of Mists, Prologue (#21) (1991)

The greater the tension, the greater is the potential. Great energy springs from a correspondingly great tension of opposites.

Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961) Swiss psychologist
“Paracelsus as a Spiritual Phenomenon,” introduction (1942), Alchemical Studies [tr. R. Hull (1967)]

We are all children of one and the same God and, therefore, absolutely equal.

Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948) Indian philosopher and nationalist [b. Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi]
Harijan (2 Feb 1934)

The aim of education is the knowledge not of facts but of values.

Dean William Ralph Inge (1860-1954) English prelate
“The Training of Reason” (1918)
In A. C. Benson (ed.), Cambridge Essays on Education (1918)

Nothing so dates a man as to decry the younger generation.

Adlai Ewing Stevenson (1900-1965) American politician
Speech, University of Wisconsin, Madison (8 Oct 1952)

This is a pleasant surprise, Archie. I would not have believed it. That of course is the advantage of being a pessimist; a pessimist gets nothing but pleasant surprises, an optimist nothing but unpleasant.

Rex Stout (1886-1975) American writer
Fer-de-Lance, ch. 1 [Wolfe] (1934)

He that will have the Kernel must crack the Shell.

Thomas Fuller (1654-1734) English writer, physician
Gnomologia, #2348 (1732)

I suppose if you had to choose just one quality to have that would be it: vitality.

John Fitzgerald Kennedy (1917-1963) US President (1961-63)
In A. Schlesinger, Jr., A Thousand Days, 25.2 (1965)

The real existence of an enemy upon whom one can foist off everything evil is an enormous relief to one’s conscience. You can then at least say, without hesitation, who the devil is; you are quite certain that the cause of your misfortune is outside, and not your own attitude.

Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961) Swiss psychologist
Jung, “General Aspects of Dream Psychology” (1916) [tr. R. Hull (1960)]

Whatever barriers we put up are gone. Even if it’s just momentary. We are judging people by not the color of their skin, but the content of their character. You know, all this talk about “These guys are criminal masterminds. They’ve gotten together and their extraordinary guile and their wit and their skill …” It’s, it’s — it’s a lie. Any fool can blow something up. Any fool can destroy. But to see these guys, these firefighters and these policemen and people from all over the country, literally with buckets, rebuilding … that’s extraordinary. And that’s why we have already won … they can’t … it’s light. It’s democracy. They can’t shut that down.

Jon Stewart (b. 1962) American satirist, comedian, and television host. [b. Jonathan Stuart Leibowitz]
“September 11, 2001,” Monolog, The Daily Show (20 Sep 2001)
Full video.

Don’t you believe in flying saucers, they ask me? Don’t you believe in telepathy? — in ancient astronauts? — in the Bermuda triangle? — in life after death?
No, I reply. No, no, no, no, and again no.
One person recently, goaded into desperation by the litany of unrelieved negation, burst out “Don’t you believe in anything?”
“Yes,” I said. “I believe in evidence. I believe in observation, measurement, and reasoning, confirmed by independent observers. I’ll believe anything, no matter how wild and ridiculous, if there is evidence for it. The wilder and more ridiculous something is, however, the firmer and more solid the evidence will have to be.”

Isaac Asimov (1920-1992) Russian-American writer
The Roving Mind (1983)

For country ’tis a sweet and seemly thing
To die.

[Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori.]

Horace (65-8 BC) Roman poet and satirist [Quintus Horacius Flaccus]
Odes [Carmina], Book 3, Ode 2, l. 13
Alt trans:

• "Sweet and glorious it is to die for our country." [J. C. Elgood,  The Works of Horace]

We cannot evade life’s course, but we can school ourselves to be superior to fortune and also to look unflinchingly upon the most painful things.

Herman Hesse (1877-1962)
Gertrude (1910) [tr. H. Rosner]

To persevere, trusting in what hopes he has,
Is courage in a man.  The coward despairs.

Euripides (485?-406? BC) Greek tragic dramatist
Heracles, l. 100 [tr. W. Arrowsmith (1956)]

It is well that there is no one without a fault; for he would not have a friend in the world.

William Hazlitt (1778-1830) English writer
Characteristics, #66 (1823)
Full text here and here.

Beloved-of-the-Gods, King Piyadasi, does not value gifts and honors as much as he values this — that there should be growth in the essentials of all religions. Growth in essentials can be done in different ways, but all of them have as their root restraint in speech, that is, not praising one’s own religion, or condemning the religion of others without good cause. And if there is cause for criticism, it should be done in a mild way. But it is better to honor other religions for this reason. By so doing, one’s own religion benefits, and so do other religions, while doing otherwise harms one’s own religion and the religions of others. Whoever praises his own religion, due to excessive devotion, and condemns others with the thought “Let me glorify my own religion,” only harms his own religion. Therefore contact (between religions) is good. One should listen to and respect the doctrines professed by others.

Asoka (c. 269-232 BC) Indian Buddhist emperor [Ashoka, Piyadasi]
Edicts, Girnar version (256 BC)

I will not cease from Mental Fight,
Nor shall my Sword sleep in my hand
Till we have built Jerusalem
In England’s green and pleasant Land.

William Blake (1757-1827) English poet, mystic, artist
Milton: A Poem, preface, 1.13 (1804-08)

This is on me.

Dorothy Parker (1893-1967) American writer
(Attributed)
Proposed epitaph for herself. In Robert E. Drennan, ed., "Dorothy Parker," The Algonquin Wits (1968)

Intelligence plus character — that is the goal of true education.

Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968) American clergyman and reformer
Speech, Washington (26 Mar 1964)

Man does not live by words alone, despite the fact that sometimes he has to eat them.

Adlai Ewing Stevenson (1900-1965) American politician
Speech, Denver, Colorado (5 Sep 1952)

I think the detective story is by far the best upholder of the democratic doctrine in literature. I mean, there couldn’t have been detective stories until there were democracies, because the very foundation of the detective story is the thesis that if you’re guilty you’ll get it in the neck and if you’re innocent you can’t possibly be harmed. No matter who you are. There was no such conception of justice until after 1830. There was no such thing as a policeman or a detective in the world before 1830, because the modern conception of the policeman and detective, namely, a man whose only function is to find out who did it and then get the evidence that will punish him, did not exist. … In Paris before the year 1800 — read the Dumas stories — there were gangs of people whose business was to go out and punish wrongdoers. But why? Because they had hurt De Marillac or Richelieu or the Duke or some Huguenot noble, not just because they had harmed society. It is only the modern policeman that is out to protect society.

Rex Stout (1886-1975) American writer
Roundtable discussion of Sherlock Holmes, on Mark Van Doren’s Invitation to Learning (Jan 1942)
Transcribed in M. Van Doren, The New Invitation to Learning: The Essence of the Great Books of All Times (1942)