- WIST is my personal collection of quotations, curated for thought, amusement, turn of phrase, historical significance, or sometimes just (often-unintentional) irony.
Please feel free to browse and borrow.
- 18,202 quotes and counting ...
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action age America author beauty belief change character death democracy education ego error evil faith fear freedom future God government happiness history humanity integrity leadership liberty life love morality perspective politics power pride progress reality religion science society success truth virtue war wealth wisdom writing- I've been adding topics since 2014, so not all quotes have been given one. Full topic list.
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Popular Quotables
- “Wealth and Poverty,” speech, National… (8,183)
- Agamemnon, ll. 175-183 [tr. Johnston (2007)] (6,166)
- “The Lesson for Today,” A Witness Tree (1942) (6,009)
- “The Triumph of Stupidity” (10 May 1933) (5,209)
- Nobel prize acceptance speech (10 Dec 1962) (4,916)
- “On The Conduct of Life” (1822) (4,473)
- “In Search of a Majority,” Speech,… (3,968)
- “Tips for Teens,” Social Studies (1981) (3,910)
- “Get a Knife, Get a Dog, but Get Rid of… (3,775)
- Letter to Clara Rilke (1 Jan 1907) (3,657)
Most Quoted Authors
Author Cloud
Adams, John • Bacon, Francis • Bible • Bierce, Ambrose • Billings, Josh • Butcher, Jim • Chesterfield (Lord) • Chesterton, Gilbert Keith • Churchill, Winston • Cicero, Marcus Tullius • Einstein, Albert • Eisenhower, Dwight David • Emerson, Ralph Waldo • Franklin, Benjamin • Fuller, Thomas (1654) • Gaiman, Neil • Galbraith, John Kenneth • Gandhi, Mohandas • Hazlitt, William • Heinlein, Robert A. • Hoffer, Eric • Huxley, Aldous • Ingersoll, Robert Green • Jefferson, Thomas • Johnson, Lyndon • Johnson, Samuel • Kennedy, John F. • King, Martin Luther • La Rochefoucauld, Francois • Lewis, C.S. • Lincoln, Abraham • Mencken, H.L. • Orwell, George • Pratchett, Terry • Roosevelt, Eleanor • Roosevelt, Theodore • Russell, Bertrand • Seneca the Younger • Shakespeare, William • Shaw, George Bernard • Stevenson, Adlai • Stevenson, Robert Louis • Twain, Mark • Watterson, Bill • Wilde, Oscar- Only the 45 most quoted authors are shown above. Full author list.
Recent Feedback
- Dave on The Odyssey [Ὀδύσσεια], Book 6, l. 180ff [Odysseus to Nausicaa] (c. 700 BC) [tr. Rieu (1946)]
- Richard McBroom on “What I Believe,” Forum and Century (Oct 1930)
- Marcus Aurelius - (Spurious) | WIST on Meditations, Book 2, #11 [tr. Gill (2014)]
- Richard McBroom on “What I Believe,” Forum and Century (Oct 1930)
- Elizabeth II - Address to the Nation (5 Apr 2020) | WIST on “We’ll Meet Again” (1939) [with Hughie Charles]
- Pratchett, Terry - The Last Hero (2001) | WIST on Gnomologia: Adages and Proverbs, #3366 (1732)
- King, Stephen - On Writing, ch. 12 (2000) | WIST on In “Ten Rules for Writing Fiction,” The Guardian (20 Feb 2010)
- King, Stephen - On Writing, ch. 12 (2000) | WIST on On the Art of Writing, Lecture 12 “On Style,” Cambridge University (28 Jan 1914)
- Richard McBroom on “What I Believe,” Forum and Century (Oct 1930)
- Phillips, Wendell - "Mobs and Education," Speech, Twenty-Eighth Congregational Society, Boston (16 Dec 1860) | WIST on “The Boston Mob,” speech, Antislavery Meeting, Boston (21 Oct 1855)
Quotations by Brilliant, Ashleigh
Been through Hell? Whaddya bring back for me?
Please don’t lie to me, unless you’re absolutely sure I’ll never find out the truth.
I either want less corruption, or more chance to participate in it.
I don’t understand you. You don’t understand me. What else do we have in common?
My opinions may have changed, but not the fact that I am right.
Try to relax and enjoy the crisis.
It’s not easy taking my problems one at a time when they refuse to get in line.
Inform all the troops that communications have completely broken down.
Please don’t tell me to relax — it’s only my tension that’s holding me together.
I’m not getting paid much for staying alive but it’s good experience.
My life has a superb cast but I can’t figure out the plot.
Why is everybody behaving as if there were no reason to panic?
All I ask is a chance to prove that money can’t make me happy.
I may not be totally perfect, but parts of me are excellent.
To be sure of hitting the target, shoot first, and call whatever you hit the target.
If you can’t learn to do it well, learn to enjoy doing it badly.
I don’t have any solution, but I certainly admire the problem.
Incredible as it seems, my life is based on a true story.
I have abandoned my search for truth, and am now looking for a good fantasy.
I have abandoned my search for truth, and am now looking for a good fantasy.
I could do great things, if I weren’t so busy doing little things.
The time for action is past! Now is the time for senseless bickering!
Please remain calm — it’s no use both of us being hysterical at the same time.
My sources are unreliable, but their information is fascinating.
By doing just a little every day, I can gradually let the task completely overwhelm me.
What’s the good of being forgiven, if I have to promise not to do it again?
What I like most about myself is that I is that I’m so understanding when I do something wrong.
By doing just a little every day, I can gradually let the task completely overwhelm me.
My life is a performance for which I was never given any chance to rehearse.
Life may have no meaning. Or even worse, it may have a meaning of which I disapprove.
Inside every older person there’s a younger person wondering what happened.
Life is the only game in which the object of the game is to learn the rules.
I try to take one day at a time, but sometimes several days attack me at once.
My life is already complicated enough, without trying to introduce organization into it.
I too have known joy and sadness, and, on the whole, I prefer joy.
All I want is a warm bed and a kind word and unlimited power.
One thing travel teaches is why living at home is so popular.
Sometimes I make a mental note, but then forget where I put it.
It’s hopeless! Tomorrow there’ll be even more books I should have read than there are today.
I, too, could be successful, if I had money, talent, luck, charm, confidence, and plenty of help.
What I need are problems I that I can eat my way out of.
At the highest level of performance, there is no difference between the dancer and the dance.
Why should I change with the times, when the times are obviously wrong?
Don’t give me anything else to make a mess of, until I finish making my present mess.
People who don’t believe in progress must have forgotten how bad things used to be.
Appreciate Me Now, and Avoid the Rush.