WIST Quotations

Wells, H.G. -- (Attributed)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

Humanity either makes, or breeds, or tolerates all its afflictions.

H. G. Wells (1866-1946) British writer [Herbert George Wells]
(Attributed)

Wells, H.G. -- A Modern Utopia, ch. 1, § 1 (1905)

Dave — Thu, 31 Jul 2025 17:52:55 +0000

The Utopia of a modern dreamer must needs differ in one fundamental aspect from the Nowheres and Utopias men planned before Darwin quickened the thought of the world. Those were all perfect and static States, a balance of happiness won for ever against the forces of unrest and disorder that inhere in things. […] But the Modern Utopia must be not static but kinetic, must shape not as a permanent state but as a hopeful stage, leading to a long ascent of stages. Nowadays we do not resist and overcome the great stream of things, but rather float upon it. We build now not citadels, but ships of state.

H. G. Wells (1866-1946) British writer [Herbert George Wells]
A Modern Utopia, ch. 1, § 1 (1905)
(Source)

Wells, H.G. -- Apropos of Dolores (1938)

Dave — Fri, 16 Sep 2016 22:33:59 +0000

While there is a chance of the world getting through its troubles I hold that a reasonable man has to behave as though he was sure of it. If at the end your cheerfulness is not justified, at any rate you will have been cheerful.

H. G. Wells (1866-1946) British writer [Herbert George Wells]
Apropos of Dolores (1938)

Wells, H.G. -- Experiment in Autobiography, ch. 9, sec. 2 “The Samurai — In Utopia and in the Fabian Society (1905-1909)” (1934)

Dave — Mon, 05 Oct 2015 16:13:15 +0000

Leaders I feel should guide as far as they can — and then vanish. Their ashes should not choke the fire they have lit.

H. G. Wells (1866-1946) British writer [Herbert George Wells]
Experiment in Autobiography, ch. 9, sec. 2 “The Samurai — In Utopia and in the Fabian Society (1905-1909)” (1934)
(Source)

Variant: "Leaders should lead as far as they can and then vanish. Their ashes should not choke the fire they have lit."

Wells, H.G. -- Mind at the End of Its Tether, ch. 4 “Recent Realizations of the Nature of Life” (1945)

Dave — Fri, 20 Jan 2023 18:58:12 +0000

Adapt or perish, now as ever, is Nature’s inexorable imperative.

H. G. Wells (1866-1946) British writer [Herbert George Wells]
Mind at the End of Its Tether, ch. 4 “Recent Realizations of the Nature of Life” (1945)
(Source)

Wells, H.G. -- The First Men in the Moon, ch. 21 (1901)

Dave — Mon, 28 Apr 2025 18:26:51 +0000

Even if one has been to the moon, one has still to earn a living.

H. G. Wells (1866-1946) British writer [Herbert George Wells]
The First Men in the Moon, ch. 21 (1901)
(Source)

Wells, H.G. -- The Outline of History, Vol. 2, ch. 41, sec. 4 (1921)

Dave — Mon, 06 Jan 2020 21:05:50 +0000

Human history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe.

H. G. Wells (1866-1946) British writer [Herbert George Wells]
The Outline of History, Vol. 2, ch. 41, sec. 4 (1921)
(Source)

Also attributed to Wells: "Civilization is in a race between education and catastrophe. Let us learn the truth and spread it as far and wide as our circumstances allow. For the truth is the greatest weapon we have."

Wells, H.G. -- The War of the Worlds, Book 1, ch. 1 (1898)

Dave — Wed, 23 Aug 2017 01:48:33 +0000

No one would have believed in the last years of the nineteenth century that this world was being watched keenly and closely by intelligences greater than man’s and yet as mortal as his own; that as men busied themselves about their various concerns they were scrutinized and studied, perhaps almost as narrowly as a man with a microscope might scrutinize the transient creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of water. With infinite complacency men went to and fro over this globe about their little affairs, serene in their assurance of their empire over matter. It is possible that the infusoria under the microscope do the same. No one gave a thought to the older worlds of space as sources of human danger, or thought of them only to dismiss the idea of life upon them as impossible or improbable. It is curious to recall some of the mental habits of those departed days. At most terrestrial men fancied there might be other men upon Mars, perhaps inferior to themselves and ready to welcome a missionary enterprise. Yet across the gulf of space, minds that are to our minds as ours are to those of the beasts that perish, intellects vast and cool and unsympathetic, regarded this earth with envious eyes, and slowly and surely drew their plans against us. And early in the twentieth century came the great disillusionment.

H. G. Wells (1866-1946) British writer [Herbert George Wells]
The War of the Worlds, Book 1, ch. 1 (1898)
(Source)

Wells, H.G. -- The Wife of Sir Isaac Harman, 9.2 (1914)

Dave — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 17:37:01 +0000

Moral indignation is jealousy with a halo.

H. G. Wells (1866-1946) British writer [Herbert George Wells]
The Wife of Sir Isaac Harman, 9.2 (1914)