WIST Quotations

Martin, Judith -- “Miss Manners,” syndicated column (1981-03-29)

Dave — Mon, 10 Mar 2025 16:41:01 +0000

Miss Manners is amazed at the number of otherwise gentle souls who turn nasty when they are driving. And they all suffer from the wonderful, ostrich-like delusion that they cannot be identified because they are safely inside their cars. It seems silly to her to have to say what good driving manners are. They are the same as the simplest, most obvious of non-driving manners, except that each person is surrounded by thousands of dollars of treacherous metal.

Judith Martin (b. 1938) American author, journalist, etiquette expert [a.k.a. Miss Manners]
“Miss Manners,” syndicated column (1981-03-29)

Tolkien, J.R.R. -- The Lord of the Rings, Vol. 3: The Return of the King, Book 5, ch. 2 “The Passing of the Grey Company” [Aragorn to Éowyn] (1955)

Dave — Fri, 08 Jul 2022 21:58:56 +0000

‘A time may come soon,’ said he, ‘when none will return. Then there will be need of valour without renown, for none shall remember the deeds that are done in the last defence of your homes. Yet the deeds will not be less valiant because they are unpraised.’

J.R.R. Tolkien (1892–1973) English writer, fabulist, philologist, academic [John Ronald Reuel Tolkien]
The Lord of the Rings, Vol. 3: The Return of the King, Book 5, ch. 2 “The Passing of the Grey Company” [Aragorn to Éowyn] (1955)

Brault, Robert -- (Attributed)

Dave — Tue, 13 Oct 2020 22:05:25 +0000

I nod to a passing stranger, and the stranger nods back, and two human beings go off feeling a little less anonymous.

Robert Brault (b. c. 1945) American aphorist, programmer
(Attributed)

Arendt, Hannah -- Origins of Totalitarianism, Part 3, ch. 12 “Totalitarianism in Power,” sec. 3 (1951)

Dave — Tue, 23 Jun 2020 17:59:09 +0000

The concentration camps, by making death itself anonymous (making it impossible to find out whether a prisoner is dead or alive), robbed death of its meaning as the end of a fulfilled life. In a sense they took away the individual’s own death, proving that henceforth nothing belonged to him and he belonged to no one. His death merely set a seal on the fact that he had never existed.

Hannah Arendt (1906–1975) German-American philosopher, political theorist
Origins of Totalitarianism, Part 3, ch. 12 “Totalitarianism in Power,” sec. 3 (1951)

Lowell, James Russell -- “Jeffries Wyman,” The Nation #484 (8 Oct 1874)

Dave — Wed, 21 Jun 2017 00:42:25 +0000

The wisest man could ask no more of Fate
Than to be simple, modest, manly, true,
Safe from the Many, honored by the Few;
To count as naught in World, or Church, or State,
But inwardly in secret to be great.

James Russell Lowell (1819–1891) American diplomat, essayist, poet
“Jeffries Wyman,” The Nation #484 (8 Oct 1874)

Talmud -- (Unreferenced)

Dave — Thu, 25 May 2017 22:55:26 +0000

He that gives should never remember. He that receives should never forget.

The Talmud (AD 200–500) Collection of Jewish rabbinical writings
(Unreferenced)

Helps, Arthur -- Thoughts in the Cloister and the Cloud(1835)

Dave — Fri, 16 Dec 2016 02:16:55 +0000

If you would understand your own age, read the works of fiction produced in it. People in disguise speak freely.

Arthur Helps (1813–1875) English writer and bureaucrat
Thoughts in the Cloister and the Cloud(1835)

Wilde, Oscar -- “The Critic as Artist” [Gilbert] (1891)

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

Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.

Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish poet, wit, dramatist
“The Critic as Artist” [Gilbert] (1891)