WIST Quotations

Commager, Henry Steele -- Speech (1971-04-10), “The University and the Community of Learning,” Kent State University, Ohio

Dave — Mon, 08 Dec 2025 23:03:31 +0000

It is the function of the university to preserve what is best in the heritage of the past, and pass this on to the future; what other institution can do this so magisterially? Its function is to inflame the minds of the young with passion to serve society, and to train them for that service; what other institution does this? Its function is to inspire all its acolytes with a sense of the beauty and the dignity of the search for truth, and to make sure that this great task will never be neglected. Its function is to stand aside from its own society and its own time, to exalt those values that are universal and timeless. Its function is to push outward the bounds of knowledge — knowledge of the physical universe, and of the nature and history of man, and thus enable man to confront and perhaps even to triumph over those problems which crowd about him so pitilessly. No other institution can do this.

Henry Steele Commager (1902-1998) American historian, writer, activist
Speech (1971-04-10), “The University and the Community of Learning,” Kent State University, Ohio
(Source)

Barzun, Jacques -- Essay (1989), “Culture High and Dry,” The Culture We Deserve

Dave — Mon, 02 Dec 2024 22:12:54 +0000

Philosophers no longer write for the intelligent, only for their fellow professionals. The few thousand academic philosophers in the world do not stint themselves: they maintain more than seventy learned journals. But in the handful that cover more than one subdivision of philosophy, any given philosopher can hardly follow more than one or two articles in each issue. This hermetic condition is attributed to “technical problems” in the subject. Since William James, Russell, and Whitehead, philosophy, like history, has been confiscated by scholarship and locked away from the contamination of general use.

Jacques Barzun (1907-2012) French-American historian, educator, polymath
Essay (1989), “Culture High and Dry,” The Culture We Deserve
(Source)

An earlier version of this essay was published as "Scholarship versus Culture," Atlantic Monthly (1984-11).

Frye, Northrop -- Anatomy of Criticism, “Polemical Introduction” (1957)

Dave — Mon, 08 Nov 2021 17:35:33 +0000

Physics is an organized body of knowledge about nature, and a student of it says that he is learning physics, not nature. Art, like nature, has to be distinguished from the systematic study of it, which is criticism.

Northrop Frye (1912-1991) Canadian literary critic and literary theorist
Anatomy of Criticism, “Polemical Introduction” (1957)
(Source)

Fussell, Paul -- Class: A Guide Through the American Status System, ch. 6 (1983)

Dave — Tue, 25 May 2021 15:36:58 +0000

Anyone who doesn’t realize that, whether for their attenders or their conductors, colleges and universities are the current equivalent of salons and levees and courts should look harder. If no other institution here confers the titles of nobility forbidden by the Constitution, they do. Or something very much like it.

Paul Fussell (1924-2012) American cultural and literary historian, author, academic
Class: A Guide Through the American Status System, ch. 6 (1983)

Democritus -- Frag. 64 (Diels) [tr. Freeman (1948)]

Dave — Tue, 05 Jan 2021 16:24:33 +0000

Many much-learned men have no intelligence.

[Πολλοὶ πολυμαθέες νοῦν οὐκ ἔχουσιν.]

Democritus (c. 460 BC - c. 370 BC) Greek philosopher
Frag. 64 (Diels) [tr. Freeman (1948)]
(Source)

Diels citation "64. (190 N.) DEMOKRATES. 29."; collected in Joannes Stobaeus (Stobaios) Anthologium III, 4, 81. Freeman notes this as one of the Gnômae, from a collection called "Maxims of Democratês," but because Stobaeus quotes many of these as "Maxims of Democritus," they are generally attributed to the latter.

Alternate translations:

"There are many who know many things, yet are lacking in wisdom." [tr. Bakewell (1907)]
"Many who have learned much possess no sense." [tr. Barnes (1987)]
"Many who have learned a lot do not have a mind." [tr. @sentantiq (2018)]
"Many, though widely read, possess no sense." [Source]

De Botton, Alain -- “Reclaiming the Intellectual Life for Posterity,” Liberal Education (Spring 2009)

Dave — Fri, 18 Aug 2017 14:41:06 +0000

This ideal University of Life … would never take the importance of culture for granted. It would know that culture is kept alive by a constant respectful questioning — not by an excessive and snobbish attitude of respect. Therefore, rather than leaving it hanging why one was reading Anna Karenina or Madame Bovary, an ideal course covering nineteenth-century literature would ask plainly “What is it that adultery ruins in a marriage?” Students in the ideal University of Life would end up knowing much the same material as their colleagues in other institutions, they would simply have learned it under a very different set of headings.

Alain de Botton (b. 1969) Swiss-British author
“Reclaiming the Intellectual Life for Posterity,” Liberal Education (Spring 2009)
(Source)

Layton, Irving -- “Obs II,” The Whole Bloody Bird (1969)

Dave — Fri, 02 Jun 2017 01:29:42 +0000

If poetry is like an orgasm, an academic can be likened to someone who studies the passion-stains on the bedsheets.

Irving Layton (1912-2006) Romanian-Canadian poet [b. Israel Pincu Lazarovitch]
“Obs II,” The Whole Bloody Bird (1969)
(Source)

Lehrer, Tom -- “Bright College Days,” An Evening (Wasted) with Tom Lehrer (1959)

Dave — Thu, 26 May 2016 14:02:18 +0000

Hearts full of youth!
Hearts full of truth!
Six parts gin to
One part vermouth!

Tom Lehrer (b. 1928) American mathematician, satirist, songwriter
“Bright College Days,” An Evening (Wasted) with Tom Lehrer (1959)

Lehrer, Tom -- “Lobachevsky,” Songs by Tom Lehrer (1953)

Dave — Thu, 11 Feb 2016 15:50:40 +0000

Plagiarize,
Let no one else’s work evade your eyes,
Remember why the good Lord made your eyes,
So don’t shade your eyes,
But plagiarize, plagiarize, plagiarize —
Only be sure always to call it, please, “research”.

Tom Lehrer (b. 1928) American mathematician, satirist, songwriter
“Lobachevsky,” Songs by Tom Lehrer (1953)

Bacon, Francis -- “Of Studies,” Essays, No. 50 (1625)

Dave — Thu, 20 Nov 2014 14:51:01 +0000

Studies themselves give forth directions too much at large, except they be bounded by experience.

Francis Bacon (1561-1626) English philosopher, scientist, author, statesman
“Of Studies,” Essays, No. 50 (1625)
(Source)

Bradbury, Ray -- Interview with Sam Geller, “The Art of Fiction, No. 203,” The Paris Review (Spring 2010)

Dave — Tue, 03 Jun 2014 04:19:27 +0000

You can’t learn to write in college. It’s a very bad place for writers because the teachers always think they know more than you do — and they don’t.

Ray Bradbury (1920-2012) American writer, futurist, fabulist
Interview with Sam Geller, “The Art of Fiction, No. 203,” The Paris Review (Spring 2010)
(Source)

Chesterton, Gilbert Keith -- Essay (1921-10-15), “Child Psychology and Nonsense,” closing words, Illustrated London News, “Our Notebook” column

Dave — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 13:02:10 +0000

For there are two ways of dealing with nonsense in this world. One way is to put nonsense in the right place; as when people put nonsense into nursery rhymes. The other is to put nonsense in the wrong place; as when they put it into educational addresses, psychological criticisms, and complaints against nursery rhymes or other normal amusements of mankind.

Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936) English journalist and writer
Essay (1921-10-15), “Child Psychology and Nonsense,” closing words, Illustrated London News, “Our Notebook” column
(Source)

Collected in Vol. 32 of his Collected Works. See also The Society of G. K. Chesterton.

Watterson, Bill -- Calvin and Hobbes (1993-02-11)

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

CALVIN: I used to hate writing assignments, but now I enjoy them. I realized that the purpose of writing is to inflate weak ideas, obscure poor reasoning, and inhibit clarity. With a little practice, writing can be an intimidating and impenetrable fog!

Bill Watterson (b. 1958) American cartoonist
Calvin and Hobbes (1993-02-11)
(Source)

Sayre, Wallace -- Sayre’s Third Law

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

The politics of the university are so intense because the stakes are so low.

Wallace Sayre (1905-1972) U.S. political scientist, academic
Sayre’s Third Law

One of several formulations of the same sentiment, which has also been attributed to Richard Neustadt, Jesse Unruh, Henry Kissinger ("University politics are vicious precisely because the stakes are so small"), Charles Philip Issawi ("In any dispute the intensity of feeling is inversely proportional to the value of the issues at stake. That is why academic politics are so bitter"), Lawrence Peter, C.P. Snow, and others, with antecedents by Samuel Johnson and Woodrow Wilson. Most of the attributions come in the early-mid 1970s, though Herbert Kaufman, a colleague, claimed Sayres had used the phrase for decades.

See also Quote Investigator, Quote Verifier, and Wikipedia for more discussion.