- 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.
- 17,638 quotes and counting ...
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action age America author beauty belief change character courage death education ego error evil faith fear freedom future God government happiness history humanity integrity leadership liberty life love morality perspective politics poverty power progress religion science society success truth tyranny virtue war wealth wisdom writing- I've been adding topics/tags since 2014, so not all quotes have been given one. Full topic list.
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Popular Quotables
- “Wealth and Poverty,” speech, National… (7,229)
- “The Lesson for Today,” A Witness Tree (1942) (5,859)
- Agamemnon, ll. 175-183 [tr. Johnston (2007)] (5,848)
- “The Triumph of Stupidity” (10 May 1933) (4,960)
- Nobel prize acceptance speech (10 Dec 1962) (4,875)
- “On The Conduct of Life” (1822) (3,968)
- “In Search of a Majority,” Speech,… (3,846)
- “Get a Knife, Get a Dog, but Get Rid of… (3,708)
- “A Cult of Ignorance,” Newsweek (21 Jan 1980) (3,176)
- “The Historian as Participant,” Daedalus… (3,168)
Most Quoted Authors
Author Cloud
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.
Recent Feedback
- 19-Oct-20 - Dave on (Attributed).
- 19-Oct-20 - Dave on (Attributed).
- 19-Oct-20 - Tim Mattock on (Attributed).
- 14-Oct-20 - How far can we deduce that the act of writing poetry was a self-harming manifestation of Sylvia Plath’s mental illness? – Maya Elphick on Problemata, 30.1.
- 6-Oct-20 - Equal Rites (1987) | WIST on “An Essay on Criticism,” Part 2, ll. 15-18 (1711).
- 6-Oct-20 - "On Elemental Instruction in Physiology" (1877) | WIST on “An Essay on Criticism,” Part 2, ll. 15-18 (1711).
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By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest.
Confucius (551-479 BC) Chinese philosopher [Ku'ng Ch'iu / King Qiu, Ku'ng Fu-tzu / Kong Fuzi]
(Attributed)
