WIST Quotations

Russell, Bertrand -- Conquest of Happiness, Part 2, ch. 17 “The Happy Man” (1930)

Dave — Wed, 04 Feb 2026 16:32:17 +0000

The happy life is to an extraordinary extent the same as the good life. Professional moralists have made too much of self-denial, and in so doing have put the emphasis in the wrong place. Conscious self-denial leaves a man self-absorbed and vividly aware of what he has sacrificed; in consequence it fails often of its immediate object and almost always of its ultimate purpose. What is needed is not self-denial, but that kind of direction of interest outward which will lead spontaneously and naturally to the same acts that a person absorbed in the pursuit of his own virtue could only perform by means of conscious self-denial.

Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) English mathematician and philosopher
Conquest of Happiness, Part 2, ch. 17 “The Happy Man” (1930)
(Source)

Addison, Joseph -- Essay (1711-12-08), The Spectator, No. 243

Dave — Mon, 08 Sep 2025 16:44:41 +0000

Temperance and abstinence, faith and devotion, are in themselves perhaps as laudable as any other virtues; but those which make a man popular and beloved are justice, charity, munificence, and, in short, all the good qualities which render us beneficial to each other.

Joseph Addison (1672-1719) English essayist, poet, statesman
Essay (1711-12-08), The Spectator, No. 243
(Source)

Montaigne, Michel de -- Essays, Book 3, ch. 5 (3.5), “Of Some Verses of Virgil [Sur des vers de Virgile]” (1586) [tr. Screech (1987)]

Dave — Wed, 18 Jun 2025 22:47:07 +0000

Philosophy does not do battle against such pleasures as are natural, provided that temperance accompanies them; she teaches moderation in such things not avoidance.

[La philosophie n’estrive point contre les voluptez naturelles, pourveu que la mesure y soit joincte : & en presche la moderation, non la fuitte.]

Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) French essayist
Essays, Book 3, ch. 5 (3.5), “Of Some Verses of Virgil [Sur des vers de Virgile]” (1586) [tr. Screech (1987)]
(Source)

The first part of this quotation (to the semi-colon) appeared in the 1588 edition; the final phrase about moderation was added for the 1595 edition.

(Source (French)). Alternate translations:

Philosophie contends not against naturall delights, so that due measure be joined therewith; and alloweth the moderation, not the shunning of them.
[tr. Florio (1603)]

Philosophy does not contend against natural Pleasures, provided they be moderate: and only preaches Moderation, not a total Abstinence.
[tr. Cotton (1686)]

Philosophy does not contend against natural pleasures, provided they be moderate, and only preaches moderation, not a total abstinence.
[tr. Cotton/Hazlitt (1877)]

Philosophy does not at all contend against natural pleasures, provided due measure be kept; and it preaches moderation in them, not avoidance.
[tr. Ives (1925)]

Philosophy does not contend against natural pleasures, provided that measure is observed, and it preaches moderation in them, not flight.
[tr. Zeitlin (1934)]

Philosophy does not strive against natural pleasures, provided that measure goes with them; she preaches moderation in them, not flight.
[tr. Frame (1943)]

Martial -- Epigrams [Epigrammata], Book 12, epigram 30 (12.30) (AD 101) [tr. Michie (1972)]

Dave — Fri, 19 Aug 2022 21:37:22 +0000

Aper’s teetotal. So what? I commend
Sobriety in a butler, not a friend.

[Siccus, sobrius est Aper; quid ad me?
Servum sic ego laudo, non amicum]

Martial (AD c.39-c.103) Spanish Roman poet, satirist, epigrammatist [Marcus Valerius Martialis]
Epigrams [Epigrammata], Book 12, epigram 30 (12.30) (AD 101) [tr. Michie (1972)]
(Source)

"On Aper." (Source (Latin)). Alternate translations:

Tom never drinks: that I should much commend
In Tom my coachman, but not Tom my friend.
[tr. Hay (1755)]

Frugal and sober, I commend
In both, my servant; not my friend.
[tr. Elphinston (1782), 12.114]

Ned is a sober fellow, they pretend --
Such would I have my coachman, not my friend.
[tr. Hoadley (fl. 18th C), §245]

Aper is abstemious and sober. What is that to me? For such a quality I praise my slave, not my friend.
[tr. Bohn's Classical (1859)]

"Now Aper is a sober man;
He never had a jag on."
Well, what of that? I wish my slaves,
Not friends, to hate a flagon.
[tr. Nixon (1911), "No Recommendation"]

Aper is abstemious, sober: what is that to me? A slave I praise so, not a friend.
[tr. Ker (1919)]

He's sober and abstemious? One commends
These qualities in slave, but not in friends.
[tr. Pott & Wright (1921)]

You're always sober, never drunk.
Such temperance is fine
In servants and domestics, but
Not in a friend of mine.
[tr. Marcellino (1968)]

Aper is dry and sober. What is that to me? I commend a slave so, not a friend.
[tr. Shackleton Bailey (1993)]

He's a clean and sober fellow?
Well, what's that mean to me?
He doesn't seem potential friend,
More like an employee.
[tr. Ericsson (1995)]

Aper is dry and sober. What good is that to me? It’s what I praise a slave for, not a friend!
[tr. @aleatorclassicus (2013)]

So what if Aper's sober! I commend
abstinence in a slave, not in a friend.
[tr. McLean (2014)]

Elders, Joycelyn -- Keynote Speech, Sistersong Conference (3 Jun 2007)

Dave — Thu, 10 Feb 2022 21:30:39 +0000

Condoms will break, but I can assure you that vows of abstinence will break more easily than condoms.

Joycelyn Elders (b. 1933) American pediatrician, public health administrator, academic
Keynote Speech, Sistersong Conference (3 Jun 2007)
(Source)

Home, Henry -- Introduction to the Art of Thinking, ch. 2 (1761)

Dave — Fri, 15 May 2020 20:24:28 +0000

A rich man cannot enjoy a sound mind nor a sound body without exercise and abstinence; and yet these are truly the worst ingredients of poverty.

Henry Home, Lord Kames (1696-1782) Scottish jurist, agriculturalist, philosopher, writer
Introduction to the Art of Thinking, ch. 2 (1761)
(Source)

Greeley, Horace -- (Attributed)

Dave — Tue, 18 Jul 2017 04:19:21 +0000

Abstaining is favorable both to the head and the pocket.

Horace Greeley (1881-1872) American newspaper editor, reformer, politician
(Attributed)
(Source)

Quoted in Maturin Murray Ballou, Edge-Tools of Speech (1886).

Beecher, Henry Ward -- Life Thoughts (1858)

Dave — Tue, 11 Jul 2017 00:39:35 +0000

The way to avoid evil is not by maiming our passions, but by compelling them to yield their vigor to our moral nature. Thus they become, as in the ancient fable, the harnessed steeds which bear the chariot of the sun.

Henry Ward Beecher (1813-1887) American clergyman and orator
Life Thoughts (1858)
(Source)

Lewis, C.S. -- “The Weight of Glory,” sermon, Oxford University Church of St Mary the Virgin (8 Jun 1941)

Dave — Fri, 08 Jul 2016 18:23:23 +0000

If you asked twenty good men today what they thought the highest of the virtues, nineteen of them would reply, Unselfishness. But if you asked almost any of the great Christians of old he would have replied, Love. You see what has happened? A negative term has been substituted for a positive, and this is of more than philological importance. The negative ideal of Unselfishness carries with it the suggestion not primarily of securing good things for others, but of going without them ourselves, as if our abstinence and not their happiness was the important point. I do not think this is the Christian virtue of Love.

C. S. Lewis (1898-1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
“The Weight of Glory,” sermon, Oxford University Church of St Mary the Virgin (8 Jun 1941)

Byron, George Gordon, Lord -- Don Juan, Canto 2, st. 178 (1819)

Dave — Tue, 26 Apr 2016 21:46:53 +0000

Let us have wine and women, mirth and laughter,
Sermons and soda water the day after.

George Gordon, Lord Byron (1788-1824) English poet
Don Juan, Canto 2, st. 178 (1819)
(Source)

Dryden, John -- Epistle 13 “To My Honoured Kinsman, John Driden of Chesterton” (1699)

Dave — Fri, 18 Apr 2014 16:23:52 +0000

Better shun the bait than struggle in the snare.

John Dryden (1631-1700) English poet, dramatist, critic
Epistle 13 “To My Honoured Kinsman, John Driden of Chesterton” (1699)

La Bruyere, Jean de -- The Characters [Les Caractères], ch. 11 “Of Mankind [De l’Homme],” § 112 (11.112) (1688) [tr. Stewart (1970)]

Dave — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 12:54:05 +0000

The first thing that happens to men once they have had to give up any pleasure, whether for propriety’s sake, or from satiety, or for their health, is to condemn it in other people. Such behavior implies a sort of attachment to the very things one has just renounced: we want nobody else to enjoy the good things that we have lost; it is a feeling of jealousy.

[La première chose qui arrive aux hommes après avoir renoncé aux plaisirs, ou par bienséance, ou par lassitude, ou par régime, c’est de les condamner dans les autres. Il entre dans cette conduite une sorte d’attachement pour les choses mêmes que l’on vient de quitter; l’on aimerait qu’un bien qui n’est plus pour nous ne fût plus aussi pour le reste du monde: c’est un sentiment de jalousie.]

Jean de La Bruyère (1645-1696) French essayist, moralist
The Characters [Les Caractères], ch. 11 “Of Mankind [De l’Homme],” § 112 (11.112) (1688) [tr. Stewart (1970)]
(Source)

(Source (French)). Alternate translations:

The first thing men do, when they have renounc'd pleasure, either out of decency, surfeit, or conviction, is to condemn it in others. This sort of management is however seldom free from a particular affection for those very things they left off, but they would have no body enjoy the pleasure they can no longer enjoy themselves, which proceeds more from Jealousie than any thing else.
[Bullord ed. (1696)]

The first thing Men do, when they have renounc'd Pleasure, either out of Decency, Surfeit, or Conviction, is to condemn it in others. They preserve, in this Conduct, a sort of Affection for the very things they left off; they would have no body enjoy the Pleasure they can no longer enjoy themselves: 'Tis a sentiment of Jealousy.
[Curll ed. (1713)]

The first Thing, when Men have renounced Pleasure, either out of Decency, Satiety, or Necessity, is to condemn it in others. This Sort of Reproof, however, is not free from a latent Affection for their forsaken Pleasures; they would interdict to all others what they can themselves no longer enjoy; their Admonitions are the Snarlings of Jealousy, not the Dictates of Purity.
[Browne ed. (1752)]

The first thing men do when they have renounced pleasure, through decency, lassitude, or for the sake of health, is to condemn it in others. Such conduct denotes a kind of latent affection for the very things they left off; they would like no one to enjoy a pleasure they can no longer indulge in; and thus they show their feelings of jealousy.
[tr. Van Laun (1885)]

Bierce, Ambrose -- “Abstainer,” The Cynic’s Word Book (1906)

Dave — Tue, 12 Mar 2013 21:41:48 +0000

ABSTAINER, n. A weak person who yields to the temptation of denying himself a pleasure. A Total Abstainer is one who abstains from everything, but abstention, and especially from inactivity in the affairs of others.

Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914?) American writer and journalist
“Abstainer,” The Cynic’s Word Book (1906)
(Source)

Included in The Devil's Dictionary (1911).

Augustine of Hippo -- On the Good of Marriage [De Bono Conjugali], § 25 (AD 401)

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

To many, total abstinence is easier than perfect moderation.

[Multi quidem facilius se abstinent ut non utantur, quam temperent ut bene utantur.]

Augustine of Hippo (354-430) Christian church father, philosopher, saint [b. Aurelius Augustinus]
On the Good of Marriage [De Bono Conjugali], § 25 (AD 401)
(Source)

(Source (Latin)). Alternate translations:

Many indeed with more ease practice abstinence, so as not to use, than practice temperance, so as to use well.
[tr. Cornish (<1885)]

Many indeed find it easier to abstain from making use of them than to control their use and use them properly.
[tr. Kearney (1999)]

Complete abstinence is easier than perfect moderation.
[E.g.]