Who dares to teach must never cease to learn.
John Cotton Dana (1856-1929) American librarian
Building Inscription, Newark State Teachers College
Dana was asked to supply a Latin quotation to be inscribed on a new building at Newark State Teachers College (now Kean University). Unable to find an appropriate Latin phrase, he authored this English one instead, which eventually became the college motto (see The New York Times Book Review, 5 Mar 1967). The university motto has since been shortened to Semper Discens ("Always Learning").
Sometimes attributed to Richard Henry Dann.
KIRK: Charlie, there are a million things in this universe you can have and there are a million things you can’t have. It’s no fun facing that, but that’s the way things are.
CHARLIE: Then what am I going to do?
KIRK: Hang on tight and survive. Everybody does.
CHARLIE: You don’t.
KIRK: Everybody, Charlie. Me, too.Dorothy Catherine "D. C." Fontana (1939-2019) television screenwriter, story editor
“Charlie X,” Star Trek (aired 15 Sep 1966)
The only wise and safe course is to act from day to day in accordance with what one’s own conscience seems to decree.
Winston Churchill (1874-1965) British statesman and author
The Second World War: The Gathering Storm, part 1, ch. 12 (1948)
Only among people who think no evil can Evil monstrously flourish.
Logan Pearsall Smith (1865-1946) American-English essayist, editor, anthologist
Afterthoughts, “Other People” (1931)
Believe not all thou hearest, nor speak all thou believest.
Thomas Fuller (1654-1734) English physician, preacher, aphorist, writer
Introductio ad Prudentiam, Vol. 1, # 323 (1725)
(Source)
He wrapped himself in quotations — as a beggar would enfold himself in the purple of Emperors.
Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) English writer
Many Inventions, “The Finest Story in the World” (1893)
(Source)
But indeed Conviction, were it never so excellent, is worthless till it convert itself into Conduct. Nay properly Conviction is not possible ill then.
Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) Scottish essayist and historian
Sartor Resartus, Book 2, ch. 9 (1831)
(Source)
The reactionaries hold that government policies should be designed for the special benefit of small groups of people who occupy positions of wealth and influence. Their theory seems to be that if these groups are prosperous, they will pass along some of their prosperity to the rest of us. This can be described as the “trickle down theory.”
Harry S Truman (1884-1972) US President (1945-1953)
Speech, St Paul (3 Nov 1949)
Look up, laugh loud, talk big, keep the colour in your cheek and the fire in your eye, adorn your person, maintain your health, your beauty, and your animal spirits, and you will pass for a fine man.
William Hazlitt (1778-1830) English writer
“On The Conduct of Life” (1822)
Indeed, history is nothing more than a tableau of crimes and misfortunes.
[En effet, l’histoire n’est que le tableau des crimes et des malheurs.]
Voltaire (1694-1778) French writer [pseud. of Francois-Marie Arouet]
L’Ingénu, ch.10 (1767)
We should not think of conversion as the acceptance of a particular creed, but as a change of heart.
Helen Keller (1880-1968) American author and lecturer
My Religion, ch. 6 (1927)
The best way to teach that one should be suspicious of everything one holds dear is through the study of brilliant people of the past, who, by modern standards are so wrong, and where it is easy to see that their errors were the result of cultural biases of their day.
Stephen Jay Gould (1941-2002) American paleontologist, geologist, biologist
In Charles Petit, “A Thinker Who Delights in Discredited Theories,” San Francisco Sunday Examiner & Chronicle (14 Feb 1993)
The aim of every political constitution is, or ought to be, first to obtain for rulers men who possess most wisdom to discern, and most virtue to pursue, the common good of the society; and in the next place, to take the most effectual precautions for keeping them virtuous whilst they continue to hold their public trust.
James Madison (1751-1836) American statesman, political theorist, US President (1809-17)
The Federalist #57 “The Alleged Tendency of the New Plan to Elevate the Few at the Expense of the Many” (19 Feb 1788)
Those who have not lost the ability to recognize that which is laughable in themselves, or their own nothingness, are not arrogant, nor are they enemies of an Open Society. Its enemy is a person with a fiercely serious countenance and burning eyes.
Václav Havel (1936-2011) Czech playwright, essayist, dissident, politician
Speech, accepting the “Open Society” Prize, Central European University (24 Jun 1999)
(Source)
It is exceedingly clever to know how to hide your cleverness.
François VI, duc de La Rochefoucauld (1613-1680) French epigrammatist, memoirist, noble
Réflexions ou sentences et maximes morales [Maxims], #245 (1665-1678) [tr. L. Kronenberger (1959)]
People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I don’t believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and, if they do not find them, make them.
George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) British playwright and critic
Mrs. Warren’s Profession, ch. 2 (1893)
Never speak disrespectfully of Society, Algernon. Only people who can’t get into it do that.
Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) Irish poet, wit, dramatist
The Importance of Being Earnest (1895)
We sometimes congratulate ourselves at the moment of waking from a troubled dream: it may be so the moment after death.
Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864) American writer
American Notebooks (25 Oct 1836)
In Passages from the American Note-Books of Nathaniel Hawthorne, ed. S. Hawthorne (1868). Full text.
My idea of heaven is eating paté de foie gras to the sound of trumpets.
Sydney Smith (1771-1845) English clergyman, essayist, wit
In H. Pearson, The Smith of Smiths, ch. 10 (1934)
Administrivia: Feeds still not working properly
I’m aware the folks who are reading this via Feedburner (directly or via email), feeds are still goofed up (presently the formatting is better, but the author name is missing — and that’s now causing a problem with other direct feeds). I know what needs fixing, but haven’t confirmed the latest approach to how is working. Apologies, and feel free to come visit the site in order to see the latest-greatest until I can get this corrected.
UPDATE (mere minutes later, of course): Problem fixed, huzzah. I will be spreading this out to other feed templates later today.
It is always darkest just before the Day dawneth.
Thomas Fuller (1608-1661) English churchman, historian
A Pisgah-Sight of Palestine, ii. xi (1650)
The dog is a gentleman; I hope to go to his heaven, not man’s.
Mark Twain (1835-1910) American writer [pseud. of Samuel Clemens]
Letter to W.D. Howells (2 Apr 1899)
IVANOVA: You’ll excuse me, but I’m in the middle of fifteen things, all of them annoying.
J. Michael (Joe) Straczynski (b. 1954) American screenwriter, producer, author [a/k/a "JMS"]
Babylon 5, 1×01 “Midnight on the Firing Line” (26 Jan 1994)
A large part of the mischief and folly of the world comes from rushing in, taking a position, the not knowing how to retreat. There is something about making a speech or writing an article which perverts the human mind. When an utterance is published, the Rubicon has been crossed and the bridges have been burned. It seems to end the inquiry, and after that we almost cease to be interested in the truth, being so preoccupied to prove that we already possess it.
Walter Lippmann (1889-1974) American journalist and author
Columnn, New York Herald Tribune (10 Oct 1953)
You can do very little with faith, but you can do nothing without it.
Samuel Butler (1835-1902) English novelist, satirist, scholar
The Note-Books of Samuel Butler, ch. 21 “Faith” (1912)
Full text.
He wears a mask, and his face grows to fit it.
George Orwell (1903-1950) English writer [pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair]
“Shooting an Elephant” (1936)
Everything is worth what its purchaser will pay for it.
Publilius Syrus (d. 42 BC) Assyrian slave, writer, philosopher [less correctly Publius Syrus]
Sententiae [Moral Sayings], # 847
There is nothing that people bear more impatiently, or forgive less, than contempt; and an injury is much sooner forgotten than an insult.
Lord Chesterfield (1694-1773) English statesman, wit [Philip Dormer Stanhope]
Letter to his son, #112 (9 Oct 1746)
Ultimately our moral sense or conscience becomes a highly complex sentiment — originating in the social instinct, largely guided by the approbation of our fellow men, ruled by reason, self-interest, and in later times by deep religious feelings, and confirmed by instruction and habit.
Charles Darwin (1809-1882) English naturalist
The Descent of Man, 2d ed., ch. 5 (1874)
What I like in a good author isn’t what he says, but what he whispers.
Logan Pearsall Smith (1865-1946) American-English essayist, editor, anthologist
Afterthoughts, “Arts and Letters” (1931)
Administrivia: Still having a few technical difficulties
Well, irritatingly enough, though the Atom/RSS feed for the site looks fine in Google Reader, and in the viewer in FeedBurner, too, the email version that FeedBurner sends out looks … less than … good.
Apologies to WIST readers who use that feature. I’ll try to figure out what the heck is going on.
Training distiguishes an army from an armed mob.
Douglas MacArthur (1880-1964) American general
“Annual Report of the Chief of Staff” (30 Jun 1934)
We should not pretend to understand the world only by the intellect; we apprehend it just as much by feeling. Therefore, the judgment of the intellect is, at best, only the half of truth, and must, if it be honest, also come to an understanding of its inadequacy.
Carl Jung (1875-1961) Swiss psychologist
Psychological Types, “Conclusion” (1921)
Many can bear Adversity but few Contempt.
Thomas Fuller (1654-1734) English physician, preacher, aphorist, writer
Gnomologia: Adages and Proverbs, #3340 (1732)
(Source)
No man who ignores the rights and needs of others can hope to walk in the light of contemplation because his way has turned aside from truth, from compassion, and therefore from God.
Thomas Merton (1915-1968) French-American religious and writer [a.k.a. Fr. M. Louis]
New Seeds of Contemplation, ch. 3 (1961)
Conservatism stands on man’s incontestable limitations; reform on his indisputable infinitiude.
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) American essayist, lecturer, poet
“The Conservative,” lecture, Boston (1841-12-09)
Administrivia: Welcome to WIST v3!
A combination of factors — a fractious PC that was causing me difficulty updating the old Movable Type site, a new mania for WordPress, and a touch of obsession — has led to my converting over WIST to a WordPress blog. I think it will provide, in the long run, some serious advantages in performance and ease of use, both for me and for my readers.
There’s still a lot to do here — my inability to update the old version caused me to rush this to production. Part of the needed changes are cosmetic — getting the WIST logo back in place. Others more more substantial — getting the feeds working properly, dealing with some odd formatting glitches, etc.
But I’m pleased to be able to roll this out. I hope you continue to enjoy reading and using WIST as much as I enjoy keeping it updated. And, at a rather appropriate cracking-the-7000-quote mark, it’s a perfect time for a brand new era.
UPDATE: I was unable to make a final post in the old MT installation to let folks kno this, but … as part of the conversion, the RSS feed addresses for WIST have changed. If you were using FeedBurner, then you’ll see a difference, but you don’t have to do anything. If you had a direct subscription to the feed from the site, though, it no longer works. Go to the RSS link at the top of the page to make a new choice over how you want to subcribe here.
What is needed in politics is not the ability to lie but rather the sensibility to know when, where, how and to whom to say things.
Václav Havel (1936-2011) Czech playwright, essayist, dissident, politician
International Herald Tribune (29 Oct 1991)
The two kinds of people I mean
Are the people who lift and the people who lean.Ella Wheeler Wilcox (1850-1919) American author and poet.
“Lifting and Leaning”
Here is a good rule of thumb:
Too clever is dumb.Ogden Nash (1902-1971) American poet
“Reflections on Ingenuity,” Many Long Years Ago (1945)
(Source)
Every individual has a place to fill in the world, and is important, in some respect, whether he chooses to be so or not.
Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864) American writer
American Notebooks (25 Oct 1836)
In Passages from the American Note-Books of Nathaniel Hawthorne, ed. S. Hawthorne (1868). Full text.
Did you ever hear my definition of marriage? It is, that it resembles a pair of shears, so joined that they cannot be separated; often moving in opposite directions, yet always punishing anyone who comes between them.
Sydney Smith (1771-1845) English clergyman, essayist, wit
Memoir of the Reverend Sydney Smith, by His Daughter, Lady Holland, Vol. 1, ch. 11 (1855)
(Source)
Beware of all enterprises that require new clothes, and not rather a new wearer of clothes.
Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) American philosopher and writer
Walden, “Economy” (1854)
Know the enemy, know yourself; in a hundred battles you will not be in peril.
Sun-Tzu (fl. 6th C. AD) Chinese general and philosopher [a.k.a. Sun Wu]
The Art of War, “Offensive Strategy” (31) [tr. S. Griffith (1963)]
Alt trans:
- "It is said that if you know your enemies and know yourself, you will not be imperiled in a hundred battles; if you do not know your enemies but do know yourself, you will win one and lose one; if you do not know your enemies nor yourself, you will be imperiled in every single battle." [cited ch. 3, last sentence.]
- "If you know others and know yourself, you will not be imperiled in a hundred battles; if you do not know others but know yourself, you win one and lose one; if you do not know others and do not know yourself, you will be imperiled in every single battle."
- "Know your enemy and know yourself, find naught in fear for 100 battles. Know yourself but not your enemy, find level of loss and victory. Know thy enemy but not yourself, wallow in defeat every time."
- "If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle."
- Literal translation: "Know [the] other, know [the] self, hundred battles without danger; not knowing [the] other but know [the] self, one win one loss; not knowing [the] other, not knowing [the] self, every battle must [be] lost."
PREDICAMENT, n. The wage of consistency.
Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914?) American writer and journalist
The Devil’s Dictionary, “Predicatment” (1911)
A hen is only an egg’s way of making another egg.
Samuel Butler (1835-1902) English novelist, satirist, scholar
Life and Habit, ch. 8 (1877)
Full text.
Administrivia: Technical difficulties
Apologies for the lack of WIST entries yesterday. Technical difficulties on my PC (still ongoing) caused the problem, but I’m going to work around them today.
Meantime, I’ll catch up on the gap, and, hopefully, have some Big News for you later this weekend.
Again, thanks for your patience.
Once you say you’re going to settle for second, that’s what happens to you in life.
John F. Kennedy (1917-1963) US President (1961-63)
Comment on the Vice Presidency (1960)
Quoted in T. Sorensen, <i>Kennedy</i>, ch. 1 (1965)
Good Sense is Thing all need, few have,
and none think they lack.Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) American statesman, scientist, philosopher, aphorist
Poor Richard’s Almanack (Jun 1746)
Consult your conscience, rather than popular opinion.
Publilius Syrus (d. 42 BC) Assyrian slave, writer, philosopher [less correctly Publius Syrus]
Sententiae [Moral Sayings], # 146 [tr. Lyman (1862)]
That we should practise what we preach is generally admitted; but anyone who preaches what he and his hearers practise must incur the gravest moral disapprobation.
Logan Pearsall Smith (1865-1946) American-English essayist, editor, anthologist
Afterthoughts, “Life and Human Nature” (1931)
A red is any son-of-a-bitch who wants thirty cents when we’re payin’ twenty-five.
John Steinbeck (1902-1968) American writer
The Grapes of Wrath, ch. 22 (1939)
Judging by common sense is merely another phrase judging by first appearances; and everyone who has mixed among mankind with any capacity for observing them, knows that the men who place implicit faith in their own common sense, are, without any exception, the most wrong-headed and impracticable persons with whom he ever had to deal.
John Stuart Mill (1806-1873) English philosopher and economist
“The Spirit of the Age,” part 2 The Examiner (English journal) (6-29 May 1831)
Worse than idle is compassion
If it ends in tears and sighs.William Wordsworth (1770-1850) English poet
“The Armenian Lady’s Love” (1835)
What I fear most are affirmative actions of sober and well-intentioned men, granting to government powers to do something that appears to need doing.
Robert A. Heinlein (1907-1988) American writer
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress (1966)
