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)
There are large parts of the Christian ethic which are universally admitted to be too good for this wicked world. We have in fact, two kinds of morality, side by side: one that we preach, but do not practice, and another that we practice, but seldom preach.
Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) English mathematician and philosopher
“Eastern and Western Ideals of Happiness,” Sceptical Essays (1928)
There are plenty of decent legislators, and plenty of able legislators; but the blamelessness and the fighting edge are not always combined. Both qualities are necessary for the man who is to wage active battle against the powers that prey. He must be clean of life, so that he can laugh when his public or his private record is searched; and yet being clean of life will not avail him if he is either foolish or timid. He must walk warily and fearlessly, and while he should never brawl if he can avoid it, he must be ready to hit hard if the need arises. Let him remember, by the way, that the unforgivable crime is soft hitting. Do not hit at all if it can be avoided; but never hit softly.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) American politician, statesman, conservationist, writer, US President (1901-1909)
“Practical Politics,” The Outlook (26 Apr 1913)
It is revolting to have no better reason for a rule of law than that so it was laid down in the time of Henry IV. It is still more revolting if the grounds upon which it was laid down have vanished long since, and the rule simply persists from blind imitation of the past.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (1841-1935) American jurist, Supreme Court Justice
“The Path of the Law”, 10 Harvard Law Review 457 (1897)
Full text.
As I look at the human story I see two stories. They run parallel and never meet. One is of people who live, as they can or must, the events that arrive; the other is of people who live, as they intend, the events they create.
Margaret C. Anderson (1886-1973) American editor, memoirist
The Fiery Fountains, Part 1 (1951)
Common sense appears to be only another name for the thoughtlessness of the unthinking. It is made of the prejudices of childhood, the idiosyncracies of individual character, and the opinion of the newspapers.
W. Somerset Maugham (1874-1965) English novelist and playwright [William Somerset Maugham]
“Clinical Notes,” American Mercury (Nov 1924)
Do as most do; and few will speak ill of thee.
Thomas Fuller (1654-1734) English physician, preacher, aphorist, writer
Introductio ad Prudentiam, Vol. 1, # 135 (1725)
(Source)
Our Creator would never have made such lovely days, and have given us the deep hearts to enjoy them, above and beyond all thought, unless we were meant to be immortal.
Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864) American writer
“The Old Manse,” Mosses from an Old Manse (1846)
Avoid shame but do not seek glory — nothing so expensive as glory.
Sydney Smith (1771-1845) English clergyman, essayist, wit
Memoir of the Reverend Sydney Smith, by His Daughter, Lady Holland, Vol. 1, ch. 4 (1855)
(Source)
Noted as his "favorite motto."
I’ve never been convinced that there’s any meaningful division between high culture and pop culture — I think there’s good stuff out there, and there’s stuff that’s not much good, and that Sturgeon’s Law applies to high culture and popular culture: 90% of it will be crap, which means that 10% of it will be amazing.
Hereby it is manifest that during the time men live without a common power to keep them all in awe, they are in that condition which is called war; and such a war as is of every man against every man.
No man on earth is truly free,
All are slaves of money or necessity.
Public opinion or fear of prosecution
forces each one, against his conscience,
to conform.Euripides (485?-406? BC) Greek tragic dramatist
Hecuba, l. 860 [tr. W.Arrowsmith (1956)]
We have left undone those things which we ought to have done, and we have done those things we ought not to have done.
(Other Authors and Sources)
Book of Common Prayer, “Morning Prayer (General Confession)” (1662)
We relish news of our heroes, forgetting that we are extraordinary to somebody too.
Helen Hayes (1900-1993) American actress
(Attributed)
Everything matters more than we think it does, and, at the same time, nothing matters so much as we think it does. The merest spark may set all Europe in a blaze, but though all Europe be set in a blaze twenty times over, the world will wag itself right again.
Samuel Butler (1835-1902) English novelist, satirist, scholar
The Note-Books of Samuel Butler, “Sparks” (1912)
(Source)
History suggests only that capitalism is a necessary condition for political freedom. Clearly it is not a sufficient condition.
Milton Friedman (1912-2006) American economist, intellectual
Capitalism and Freedom, ch. 1 (1962)
Youk’n hide de fier, but w’at you gwine do wid de smoke?
Joel Chandler Harris (1848-1908) American writer
Plantation Proverbs
Self-confidence is the first requisite to great undertakings.
Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) English writer, lexicographer, critic
Lives of the English Poets, “Pope” (1781)
(Source)
Advances in medicine and agriculture have saved vastly more lives than have been lost in all the wars in history.
Carl Sagan (1934-1996) American scientist and writer
The Demon-Haunted World, ch. 1 “The Most Precious Thing” (1995)
Most people sell their souls, and live with a good conscience on the proceeds.
Logan Pearsall Smith (1865-1946) American-English essayist, editor, anthologist
Afterthoughts, “Other People” (1931)
It is natural for the mind to believe, and for the will to love; so that, for want of true objects, they must attach themselves to false.
Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) French scientist and philosopher
Pensées, # 81 (1670) [tr. W. Totter (1931)]
Love is the condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own.
Robert A. Heinlein (1907-1988) American writer
Stranger in a Strange Land [Jubal] (1961)
Not in the "Uncut" 1991 re-issue; Heinlein added this line in place of other cuts in the first edition manuscript.
Then there are the fanatical atheists whose intolerance is of the same kind as the intolerance of the religious fanatics and comes from the same source. They are like slaves who are still feeling the weight of their chains which they have thrown off after hard struggle. They are creatures who -— in their grudge against the traditional “opium of the people” -— cannot hear the music of the spheres. The Wonder of nature does not become smaller because one cannot measure it by the standards of human morals and human aims.
Albert Einstein (1879-1955) German-American physicist
Letter (7 Aug 1941) [Einstein Archive, reel 54-927]
It is an interesting question how far men would retain their relative rank if they were divested of their clothes.
Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) American philosopher and writer
Walden, “Economy” (1854)
If competition has its evils, it prevents greater evils. … It is the common error of Socialists to overlook the natural indolence of mankind; their tendency to be passive, to be the slaves of habit, to persist indefnitely in a course once chosen. Let them one attain any state of existence which they consider tolerable, and the danger to be apprehended is that they will thenceforth stagnate. … Competition may not be the best conceivable stimulus, but it is at present a necessary one, and no one can foresee the time when it will not be indspensable to progress.
John Stuart Mill (1806-1873) English philosopher and economist
Principles of Political Economy, 4.7.7 (1848)
Deep down, below the surface of the average man’s conscience, he hears a voice whispering, “There is something not right,” no matter how much his rightness is supported by public opinion or by the moral code.
Carl Jung (1875-1961) Swiss psychologist
“Introduction to Wickes’s Analyse der Kinderseele” (1931), The Development of Personality [tr. R. Hull (1954)]
He that’s cheated twice by the same Man is an Accomplice with the Cheater.
Thomas Fuller (1654-1734) English physician, preacher, aphorist, writer
Gnomologia: Adages and Proverbs, #2281 (1732)
(Source)
Circumstances reveal us to others and still more to ourselves.
François VI, duc de La Rochefoucauld (1613-1680) French epigrammatist, memoirist, noble
Réflexions ou sentences et maximes morales [Maxims], #345 (1665-1678) [tr. L. Tancock (1959)]
Vanity asks the question — is it popular? Conscience asks the question — is it right?
Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968) American clergyman, civil rights leader, social activist, preacher
Sermon, Passion Sunday, National Cathedral, Washington, DC (31 Mar 1968)
See also this.
… [T]he great thing to learn about life is, first, not to do what you don’t want to do, and, second, to do what you do want to do.
Margaret C. Anderson (1886-1973) American editor, memoirist
My Thirty Years’ War, ch. 1 (1930)
Of course, in politics, just as anywhere else in life, it is impossible and it would not be sensible always to say everything bluntly. Yet that does not mean one has to lie. What is needed here are tact, instinct and good taste.
Václav Havel (1936-2011) Czech playwright, essayist, dissident, politician
International Herald Tribune (29 Oct 1991)
Man is not the creature of circumstances, circumstances are the creatures of men. We are free agents, and man is more powerful than matter.
Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881) English politician and author
Vivian Grey Part 6, ch. 7 (1826)
How DO we know that the people we meet are not computers programmed to simulate people?
Buckminster Fuller (1895-1983) American architect, engineer
I Seem To Be a Verb (1970)
Every one of us has a bad conscience, which he tries to escape by going to sleep as quickly as possible.
Franz Kafka (1883-1924) Czech-Austrian Jewish writer
In G. Janouch, Conversations with Kafka [tr. G. Rees (1953)]
Romance and poetry, ivy, lichens and wallflowers need ruin to make them grow.
Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864) American writer
The Marble Faun, Preface (1860)
It is a bore, I admit, to be past seventy, for you are left for execution, and are daily expecting the death-warrant; but … it is not anything very capital we quit. We are, at the close of life, only hurried away from stomach-aches, pains in the joints, from sleepless nights and unamusing days, from weakness, ugliness, and nervous tremors; but we shall all meet again in another planet, cured of all our defects.
Sydney Smith (1771-1845) English clergyman, essayist, wit
Letter (13 Sep 1842)
If thou confesseth thy Sins and amendest not, thou mocketh God.
Thomas Fuller (1654-1734) English physician, preacher, aphorist, writer
Introductio ad Prudentiam, # 661 (1725)
(Source)
Absence makes the heart grow fonder.
[Semper in absentes felicior aestus amantes.]
Propertius (50-16 BC) Roman elegiac poet [Sextus Propertius]
Elegies II, xxxiii, 43
