- WIST is my personal collection of quotations, curated for thought, amusement, turn of phrase, historical significance, or sometimes just (often-unintentional) irony.
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Popular Quotables
- “Wealth and Poverty,” speech, National… (7,883)
- Agamemnon, ll. 175-183 [tr. Johnston (2007)] (6,009)
- “The Lesson for Today,” A Witness Tree (1942) (5,941)
- “The Triumph of Stupidity” (10 May 1933) (5,105)
- Nobel prize acceptance speech (10 Dec 1962) (4,886)
- “On The Conduct of Life” (1822) (4,263)
- “In Search of a Majority,” Speech,… (3,929)
- “Get a Knife, Get a Dog, but Get Rid of… (3,750)
- Letter to Clara Rilke (1 Jan 1907) (3,570)
- “A Cult of Ignorance,” Newsweek (21 Jan 1980) (3,446)
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Adams, John • Bacon, Francis • Bible • Bierce, Ambrose • Billings, Josh • Butcher, Jim • Chesterton, Gilbert Keith • Churchill, Winston • Einstein, Albert • Eisenhower, Dwight David • Emerson, Ralph Waldo • Franklin, Benjamin • Fuller, Thomas (1654) • Gaiman, Neil • Galbraith, John Kenneth • Gandhi, Mohandas • Goethe, Johann von • Hazlitt, William • Heinlein, Robert A. • Hoffer, Eric • Huxley, Aldous • Ingersoll, Robert Green • James, William • 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.
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- 8-Jan-21 - ***Dave Does the Blog on Speech to the electors of Bristol (3 Nov 1774).
- 4-Jan-21 - Doing the Numbers, 12/2020 | WIST on Republic, Book 1, 347c.
- 4-Jan-21 - Doing the Numbers, 12/2020 | WIST on “On The Conduct of Life” (1822).
- 4-Jan-21 - Doing the Numbers, 12/2020 | WIST on Nobel prize acceptance speech (10 Dec 1962).
- 4-Jan-21 - Doing the Numbers, 12/2020 | WIST on Letter to Clara Rilke (1 Jan 1907).
- 4-Jan-21 - Doing the Numbers, 12/2020 | WIST on “The Triumph of Stupidity” (10 May 1933).
Quotations by Plutarch
When it was told that Antony and Dolabella were in a plot against him, Caesar said he did not fear such fat, luxurious men, but rather the pale, lean fellows, meaning Cassius and Brutus.
It is indeed desirable to be well descended, but the glory belongs to our ancestors.
Judgement is to be made of actions in according to the times in which they were performed.
Let us carefully observe those good qualities wherein our enemies excel us; and endeavor to excel them, by avoiding what is faulty, and imitating what is excellent in them.
To find fault is easy; to do better may be difficult.
Prosperity is no just scale; adversity is the only balance to weigh friends.
Even a nod from a person who is esteemed is of more force than a thousand arguments or studied sentences from others.
Character is simply habit long continued.
Plutarch (AD 46-127) Greek historian, biographer, essayist [Mestrius Plutarchos]
Moral Writings [Moralia], “On the Education of Children,” 4.3 [tr. Babbitt and Goodwin]
(Source)
Base and absurd requests he should reject, not harshly but gently, informing the askers by way of consolation that the requests are not in accord with their own excellence and reputation.
When the candles are out, all women are fair.
Plutarch (AD 46-127) Greek historian, biographer, essayist [Mestrius Plutarchos]
Morals [Moralia], “Conjugal Precepts” #46
(Source)
Alt. trans.: "All women are alike when the lamp is put out."
The mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be kindled.
It is circumstance and proper measure that give an action its character, and make it either good or bad.
He who cheats with an oath acknowledges that he is afraid of his enemy, but that he also thinks little of God.
Judgment is to be made of actions according to the times in which they were performed.