WIST

Much less evil would be done on earth if evil could not be done in the name of good.

Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach (1830-1916) Austrian writer
Aphorisms (1905) [tr. Scrase & Mieder (1994)]

She had some experience of the world, and the capacity for reflection that makes such experience profitable.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) French philosopher and writer
Confessions, ch. 3 “1731-1732″ (1781) [tr. Cohen (1953)]

In a conversation, keep in mind that you’re more interested in what you have to say than anyone else is.

Andy Rooney (b. 1919) American journalist, commentator, author
“A Penny Saved Is a Waste of Time,” Pieces of My Mind (1984)

Below the surface stream, shallow and light,
Of what we say and feel — below the stream,
As light, of what we think we feel, there flows
With noiseless current, strong, obscure and deep,
The central stream of what we feel indeed.

Matthew Arnold (1822-1888) English poet and critic
St. Paul and Protestantism (1870)

We are not powerless. We have tremendous potential for good or ill. How we choose to use that power is up to us; but first we must choose to use it. We’re told every day, “You can’t change the world.” But the world is changing every day. Only question is … who’s doing it? You or somebody else?

J. Michael (Joe) Straczynski (b. 1954) American screenwriter, producer, author
“At The Midpoint (Spoilers for everything),” rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated (7 Apr 1995)
Full text.

Experience of the world may be looked upon as a kind of text, to which reflection and knowledge form the commentary.

Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860) German philosopher
“Counsels and Maxims” (2.8), Essays of Arthur Schopenhauer [tr. Saunders (1851)]

What frustrates the American people is a Washington where every day is Election Day. We cannot wage a perpetual campaign where the only goal is to see who can get the most embarrassing headlines about their opponent — a belief that if you lose, I win.

Barack Obama (b. 1961) American politician, US President (2009- )
State of the Union Address (27 Jan 2010)

Enthusiasm is the glory and hope of the world.

Amos Bronson Alcott (1799-1888) American transcendentalist, teacher, writer
“Orphic Sayings” (2), The Dial (Jul 1840)

Opportunities multiply as they are seized.

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

I am incomparably, incredibly, overwhelmingly glad to be home. I’ve never been so goddam lonesome in my life.

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

The desire of the esteem of others is as real a want of nature as hunger — and the neglect and contempt of the world as severe a pain as the gout or stone.

John Adams (1735-1826) US President (1797-1801)
Discourses on Davila (1790)
Full text.

Faith is taking the first step, even when you don’t see the whole staircase.

Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968) American clergyman and reformer
(Attributed)
Variant: "Take the first step in faith. You don't have to see the whole staircase, just take the first step."

If two men claim thy help, and one is thy enemy, help him first.

Other Authors and Sources
Talmud
In Louis I. Newman (comp.), The Talmudic Anthology, #136 (1945)

The power of fortune is confessed only by the miserable; for the happy impute all their success to prudence or merit.

Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) English writer and churchman
“Thoughts on Various Subjects” (1706)
Full text.

Acts of injustice done
Between the setting and the rising sun
In history lie like bones, each one.

W. H. Auden (1907-1973) American poet [Wystan Hugh Auden]
The Ascent of F6, Act II, sc. v [with Christpher Isherwood] (1936)

If you consult enough experts, you can confirm any opinion.

Other Authors and Sources
“Hiram’s Law,” in Arthur Bloch, comp., Murphy’s Law: Book Three, “Expertsmanship” (1962)

Experience is that marvelous thing that enables you to recognize a mistake when you make it again.

Franklin P. Jones (1881-1960) American journalist
(Attributed)
Variant: "Experience enables you to recognize a mistake when you make it again."

In conversation, remember two principles: Think before speak; stop talking before they say, “Enough.”

Sa'adi (1184-1283/1291?) Persian poet [a.k.a. Sa'di, Moslih Eddin Sa'adi, Mushrif-ud-Din Abdullah, Muslih-ud-Din Mushrif ibn Abdullah, Mosleh al-Din Saadi Shirazi, Shaikh Mosslehedin Saadi Shir
The Maxims of Sa’di, ch. 1 [tr. Nakosteen (1977)]

We have an obligation to one another, responsibilities and trusts. That does not mean we must be pigeons, that we must be exploited. But it does mean that we should look out for one another when and as much as we can; and that we have a personal responsibility for our behavior; and that our behavior has consequences of a very real and profound nature.

J. Michael (Joe) Straczynski (b. 1954) American screenwriter, producer, author
“At The Midpoint (Spoilers for everything),” rec.arts.sf.tv.babylon5.moderated (7 Apr 1995)
Full text.

Nations are not truly great solely because the individuals composing them are numerous, free, and active; but they are great when these numbers, this freedom, and this activity are employed in the service of an ideal higher than that of an ordinary man, taken by himself.

Matthew Arnold (1822-1888) English poet and critic
Democracy (1861)

It is better to offer no excuse than a bad one.

President George Washington (1732-1799) US President, military leader
Letter to Harriet Washington (30 Oct 1791)

Just think how stupid the average person is, then realize that half of them are even stupider!

George Carlin (b. 1937) American comedian
(Attributed)

My enemy is dead, a man divine as myself is dead.

Walt Whitman (1819-1892) American poet
“Reconciliation” (1865), Leaves of Grass (1855-1892)

Remember, no more effort is required to aim high in life, to demand abundance and prosperity, than is required to accept misery and poverty.

Napoleon Hill (1883-1970) American author, motivational speaker
Think and Grow Rich, ch. 2 (1938)
Full text.

He was my North, my South, my East and West,
My working week and my Sunday rest,
My noon, my midnight, my talk, my song;
I thought that love would last forever: I was wrong.

W. H. Auden (1907-1973) American poet [Wystan Hugh Auden]
“Stop All the Clocks [Funeral Blues]” (1936)

Example is the best precept.

Aesop (620?-560? BC) Legendary Greek storyteller
“The Two Crabs,” Fables [tr. Jacobs (1894)]

The salary of the chief executive of the large corporation is not a market award for achievement.  It is frequently in the nature of a warm personal gesture by the individual to himself.

John Kenneth Galbraith (1908-2006) Canadian-American economist, diplomat, author
Annals of an Abiding Liberal, ch. 6 (1979)

Man will do many things to get himself loved; he will do all things to get himself envied.

Mark Twain (1835-1910) American writer [pseud. of Samuel Clemens]
Following the Equator, ch. 21, epigraph (1897)

If a person has no delicacy, he has you in his power, for you necessarily feel some towards him; and since he will take no denial, you must comply with his peremptory demands, or send for a constable, which out of respect for his character you will not do.

William Hazlitt (1778-1830) English writer
“On The Want Of Money,” Monthly Magazine (Jan 1827)
Full text.

All Bette’s stories have happy endings. That’s because she knows where to stop. She’s realized the real problem with stories — if you keep them going long enough, they always end in death.

Neil Gaiman (b. 1960) British fabulist
The Sandman, Vol. 1, Preludes and Nocturnes, “24 Hours” (#6) (1989)

While women weep, as they do now, I’ll fight; while children go hungry, as they do now I’ll fight; while men go to prison, in and out, in and out, as they do now, I’ll fight; while there is a drunkard left, while there is a poor lost girl upon the streets, while there remains one dark soul without the light of God, I’ll fight, I’ll fight to the very end!

William Booth (1829–1912), British evangelist, founder of the Salvation Army
Address, Royal Albert Hall, London (9 May 1912)
Reported as the conclusion of his final speech, years afterward. May have been pulled from an earlier speech. Discussion.

Be noble! And the nobleness that lies
In other men, sleeping, but never dead,
Will rise in majesty to meet thine own.

James Russell Lowell (1819-1891) American diplomat, essayist, poet
“Sonnet 4″ (1840)

Education should have two objects: first, to give definite knowledge, reading and writing, language and mathematics, and so on; secondly, to create those mental habits which will enable people to acquire knowledge and form sound judgments for themselves.

Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) English mathematician and philosopher
Sceptical Essays, 12 (1928)

Freedom is not an ideal, it is not even a protection, if it means nothing more than freedom to stagnate, to live without dreams, to have no greater aim than a second car and another television set.

Adlai Ewing Stevenson (1900-1965) American politician
“Putting First Things First”, Foreign Affairs (Jan 1960)

Nothing is more admirable than the fortitude with which millionaires tolerate the disadvantages of their wealth.

Rex Stout (1886-1975) American writer
The Red Box, ch. 11 [Wolfe] (1937)

Few things are harder to put up with than the annoyance of a good example.

Mark Twain (1835-1910) American writer [pseud. of Samuel Clemens]
The Tragedy of Pudd’nhead Wilson, ch. 19, epigraph (1894)

The tactical result of an engagement forms the base for new strategic decisions because victory or defeat in a battle changes the situation to such a degree that no human acumen is able to see beyond the first battle. In this sense one should understand Napoleon’s saying: “I have never had a plan of operations.” Therefore no plan of operations extends with any certainty beyond the first contact with the main hostile force.

Helmuth von Moltke (1800-1891) Prussian soldier
“On Strategy” (1871)
Translated in Daniel J. Hughes, Harry Bell, Moltke on the Art of War: Selected Writings (1993).

Paraphrases / variants:

• "No plan survives contact with the enemy."
• "No battle plan ever survives contact with the enemy."

One of the reasons so few people are to be found who seem sensible and pleasant in conversation is that almost everybody is thinking about what he wants to say himself rather than about answering clearly what is being said to him.

François VI, duc de La Rochefoucauld (1613-1680) French epigrammist, memoirist, noble
Maxims, #139 (1665) [tr. L. Tancock (1959)]

In the Soviet Army, it takes more courage to retreat than advance.

Josef Stalin (1879-1953) Soviet political leader
Remark to Averell Harriman
Harriman, the US ambassador to the USSR, quotes Stalin in B. Sokolov, The Truth about the Great Patriotic War.  Full text.

The free-thinking of one age is the common sense of the next.

Matthew Arnold (1822-1888) English poet and critic
God and the Bible (1875)

I have always found that so-called bad people gain in one’s estimation when one gets to know them better, and good people decline.

Georg C. Lichtenberg (1742-1799) German physicist, writer
Aphorisms, G.25 (1806) [tr. Hollingdale (1990)]

Nothing is so contagious as an example, and our every really good or bad action inspires a similar one.

François VI, duc de La Rochefoucauld (1613-1680) French epigrammist, memoirist, noble
Maxims, #230 (1665) [tr. Tancock (1959)]

Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772-1834) English poet and critic
The Statesman’s Manual (1816)

Treat your men as you would your own beloved sons. And they will follow you into the deepest valley.

Sun-Tzu (fl. 6th C. AD) Chinese general and philosopher [a.k.a. Sun Wu]
The Art of War, ch. 10

With a few exceptions people don’t want money. They want luxury and they want love and they want admiration.

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

Happiest are the people who give most happiness to others.

Denis Diderot (1713-1784) French editor, philosopher
(Attributed)

Proselytizing is more a passionate search for something not yet found than a desire to bestow upon the world something we already have.  It is a search for a final and irrefutable demonstration that our absolute truth is indeed the one and only truth. The proselytizing fanatic strengthens his own faith by converting others.

Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
The True Believer, ch. 88 (1951)

Know your enemies: avoid them if you can; intimidate them if you can’t; subdue them if you must.

Thomas Szasz (b. 1920) Hungarian-American psychiatrist, educator
“Ethics,” The Untamed Tongue (1990)

Do not wait; the time will never be “just right.” Start where you stand, and work with whatever tools you may have at your command, and better tools will be found as you go along.

Napoleon Hill (1883-1970) American author, motivational speaker
Think and Grow Rich (1938)
Full text.

To surrender to ignorance and call it God has always been premature, and it remains premature today.

Isaac Asimov (1920-1992) Russian-American writer
“The ‘Threat’ of Creationism,” New York Times Magazine (14 Jun 1981)