WIST Quotations

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

Dave — Tue, 09 Jul 2024 16:49:48 +0000

GENEALOGY, n. An account of one’s descent from an ancestor who did not particularly care to trace his own.

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

Included in The Devil's Dictionary (1911). Originally published in the "Devil's Dictionary" column in the San Francisco Wasp (1885-02-21).

Williams, Bern -- (Attributed)

Dave — Mon, 27 Dec 2021 22:15:54 +0000

The average man will bristle if you say his father was dishonest, but he will brag a little if he discovers that his great-grandfather was a pirate.

Bernard J. "Bern" Williams (1913–2004) American columnist radio host, aphorist
(Attributed)

Chesterton, Gilbert Keith -- Orthodoxy, ch. 4 “The Ethics of Elfland” (1908)

Dave — Tue, 21 Dec 2021 23:54:28 +0000

Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes, our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead. Tradition refuses to submit to the small and arrogant oligarchy of those who merely happen to be walking about.

Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874–1936) English journalist and writer
Orthodoxy, ch. 4 “The Ethics of Elfland” (1908)
(Source)

Bernard of Chartres -- (Attributed)

Dave — Thu, 12 Dec 2013 13:39:48 +0000

We are like dwarfs on the shoulders of giants, so that we can see more than them and things at a greater distance.

Bernard of Chartres (d. after 1124) French philosopher, scholar, administrator. [a.k.a. Bernardus Carnotensis]
(Attributed)

Attributed in John of Salisbury, The Metalogicon, 3.4 (1159). Paraphrase of this original: "Bernard of Chartres used to say that we [the Moderns] are like dwarves perched on the shoulders of giants [the Ancients], and thus we are able to see more and farther than the latter. And this is not at all because of the acuteness of our sight or the stature of our body, but because we are carried aloft and elevated by the magnitude of the giants." See here for more discussion. See also Isaac Newton.

Keller, Helen -- The Story of My Life, Part 1, ch. 1 (1903)

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

There is no king who has not had a slave among his ancestors, and no slave who has not had a king among his.

Helen Keller (1880–1968) American author and lecturer
The Story of My Life, Part 1, ch. 1 (1903)