WIST Quotations

Doctor Who (1963) -- 26×02 “Ghost Light,” Part 2 (1989-10-11) [w. Marc Platt]

Dave — Wed, 14 Jan 2026 20:27:09 +0000

THE DOCTOR: It’s very, very old. Perhaps even older.

Doctor Who (1963-1989) British science fiction television series, original run (BBC)
26×02 “Ghost Light,” Part 2 (1989-10-11) [w. Marc Platt]
(Source)

(Source (Video))

Orwell, George -- Essay (1942-08), “Looking Back on the Spanish War, ch. 4, Such, Such Were the Joys, essay 8 (1953)

Dave — Fri, 02 Jan 2026 17:47:33 +0000

When I think of antiquity, the detail that frightens me is that those hundreds of millions of slaves on whose backs civilization rested generation after generation have left behind them no record whatever. We do not even know their names. In the whole of Greek and Roman history, how many slaves’ names are known to you? I can think of two, or possibly three. One is Spartacus and the other is Epictetus. Also, in the Roman room at the British Museum there is a glass jar with the maker’s name inscribed on the bottom, “Felix fecit.” I have a vivid mental picture of poor Felix (a Gaul with red hair and a metal collar round his neck), but in fact he may not have been a slave; so there are only two slaves whose names I definitely know, and probably few people can remember more. The rest have gone down into utter silence.

George Orwell (1903-1950) English journalist, essayist, writer [pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair]
Essay (1942-08), “Looking Back on the Spanish War, ch. 4, Such, Such Were the Joys, essay 8 (1953)
(Source)

Byron, George Gordon, Lord -- Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, Canto 2, st. 73 (1812)

Dave — Fri, 11 Oct 2024 18:57:59 +0000

Fair Greece! sad relic of departed Worth!
Immortal, though no more; though fallen, great!

George Gordon, Lord Byron (1788-1824) English poet
Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, Canto 2, st. 73 (1812)
(Source)

Mencken, H. L. -- A Book of Burlesques, “The Jazz Webster” (1924)

Dave — Wed, 03 Jul 2024 16:39:34 +0000

EPIGRAM. A platitude with vine-leaves in its hair.

H. L. Mencken (1880-1956) American writer and journalist [Henry Lewis Mencken]
A Book of Burlesques, “The Jazz Webster” (1924)
(Source)

Byron, George Gordon, Lord -- Don Juan, Canto 3, st. 86a “The Isles of Greece,” st. 1 (1821)

Dave — Wed, 05 Jun 2024 14:05:54 +0000

The Isles of Greece, the Isles of Greece!
Where burning Sappho loved and sung,
Where grew the arts of war and peace,
Where Delos rose, and Phoebus sprung!
Eternal summer gilds them yet,
But all, except their sun, is set.

George Gordon, Lord Byron (1788-1824) English poet
Don Juan, Canto 3, st. 86a “The Isles of Greece,” st. 1 (1821)
(Source)

Ehrman, Bart -- “The Textual Reliability of the New Testament: A Dialogue between Bart Ehrman and Daniel Wallace,” Greer-Heard Point-Counterpoint Forum in Faith and Culture (2008-04-04/05)

Dave — Wed, 29 Nov 2023 18:50:06 +0000

The question is then how can we decide what anybody in the ancient world said. We can’t. We wish we could. It would be nice if we could. You would like to think that because you can go to the store and buy an edition of Plato that you are actually reading Plato, but the problem is that we just do not have the kind of evidence that we need in order to establish what ancient authors actually wrote. In some cases, we have all these data, and sometimes we have just one manuscript. Sometimes we have a manuscript that was written two-thousand years later, and that’s it! So, as much as we would like to be able to say we know what ancient authors actually wrote, we often just do not know.

Bart D. Ehrman (b. 1955) American Biblical scholar, author
“The Textual Reliability of the New Testament: A Dialogue between Bart Ehrman and Daniel Wallace,” Greer-Heard Point-Counterpoint Forum in Faith and Culture (2008-04-04/05)
(Source)

Reprinted in Robert Stewart, ed., The Reliability of the New Testament (2011).

Dickinson, Lowes -- The Greek View of Life, ch. 1 “Religion,” sec. 1 (1911)

Dave — Thu, 13 Jul 2023 17:25:22 +0000

What we commonly have in our mind when we speak of religion is a definite set of doctrines, of a more or less metaphysical character, formulated in a creed and supported by an organization distinct from the state. And the first thing we have to learn about the religion of the Greeks is that it included nothing of the kind. There was no church, there was no creed, there were no articles. Priests there were, but they were merely public officials, appointed to perform certain religious rites. The distinction between cleric and layman, as we know it, did not exist; the distinction between poetry and dogma did not exist; and whatever the religion of the Greeks may have been, one thing at any rate is clear, that it was something very different from all that we are in the habit of associating with the world.

G. Lowes Dickinson (1862-1932) British political scientist and philosopher [Goldsworthy "Goldie" Lowes Dickinson]
The Greek View of Life, ch. 1 “Religion,” sec. 1 (1911)
(Source)

Lovecraft, H. P. -- “The Cats of Ulthar,” Tryout (Nov 1920)

Dave — Tue, 15 Jun 2021 15:43:16 +0000

It is said that in Ulthar, which lies beyond the river Skai, no man may kill a cat; and this I can verily believe as I gaze upon him who sitteth purring before the fire. For the cat is cryptic, and close to strange things which men cannot see. He is the soul of antique Aegyptus, and bearer of tales from forgotten cities in Meroe and Ophir. He is the kin of the jungle’s lords, and heir to the secrets of hoary and sinister Africa. The Sphinx is his cousin, and he speaks her language; but he is more ancient than the Sphinx, and remembers that which she hath forgotten.

H. P. Lovecraft (1890-1937) American fabulist [Howard Phillips Lovecraft]
“The Cats of Ulthar,” Tryout (Nov 1920)
(Source)

De Botton, Alain -- The Consolations of Philosophy, ch. 4 “Consolation for Inadequacy” (2000)

Dave — Fri, 16 Feb 2018 02:54:05 +0000

It is striking how much more seriously we are likely to be taken after we have been dead a few centuries.

Alain de Botton (b. 1969) Swiss-British author
The Consolations of Philosophy, ch. 4 “Consolation for Inadequacy” (2000)
(Source)

Emerson, Ralph Waldo -- “Progress of Culture,” Letters and Social Aims (1876)

Dave — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 14:47:31 +0000

How cunningly nature hides every wrinkle of her inconceivable antiquity under roses and violets and morning dew!

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) American essayist, lecturer, poet
“Progress of Culture,” Letters and Social Aims (1876)

Horace -- Odes [Carmina], Book 4, # 9, l. 25ff (4.9.25-28) (23 BC) [tr. Marshall (1908)]

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

Oft before Agamemnon brave men warred;
But all unwept they lie in endless night,
Lacking, to deck their deeds with light,
Song of a heaven-taught bard.

[Vixere fortes ante Agamemnona
multi; sed omnes illacrimabiles
urgentur ignotique longa
nocte, carent quia vate sacro.]

Horace (65–8 BC) Roman poet, satirist, soldier, politician [Quintus Horatius Flaccus]
Odes [Carmina], Book 4, # 9, l. 25ff (4.9.25-28) (23 BC) [tr. Marshall (1908)]
(Source)

"To Lollius." See also Gray.

(Source (Latin)). Alternate translations:

Men slasht ere Diomed was made:
But all are in oblivion drown'd,
And put unmourn'd into the ground,
For lack of Sacred Poets aid.
[tr. Fanshawe; ed. Brome (1666)]

Before that Age a thousand liv'd,
And sent surprising Glories forth,
But none the silent Grave surviv'd;
In Night their Splendor's gone,
They fell, unmourn'd, unknown;
Because no Verse embalms their Worth.
[tr. Creech (1684)]

Vain was the Chief's, the Sage's pride!
They had no Poet, and they dy'd.
In vain they schem'd, in vain they bled!
They had no Poet, and are dead.
[tr. Pope (1733–38)]

Before Atrides men were brave:
But ah! oblivion, dark and long,
Has lock'd them in a tearless grave,
For lack of consecrating song.
[tr. Conington (1872)]

Many brave men lived before Agamemnon: but all of them, unlamented and unknown, are overwhelmed with endless obscurity, because they were destitute of a sacred bard.
[tr. Smart/Buckley (1853)]

Many, many have lived, who were valiant in fight,
Before Agamemnon; but all have gone down,
Unwept and unknown, in the darkness of night,
For lack of a poet to hymn their renown.
[tr. Martin (1864)]

Many brave men have lived long before Agamemnon,
But o’er them darkly presses the slumber eternal;
All unwept and unknown, wanting Him --
Everlastingly sacred -- the Bard!
[tr. Bulwer-Lytton (1870)]

Many brave men lived before Agamemnon, but all like crushed under eternal obvlivion, unknown to us and unwept by us, because no bard hath immortalized them.
[tr. Elgood (1893)]

Ere Agamemnon saw the light
There lived brave men: but tearless all,
Enfolded in eternal night,
For lack of sacred minstrels, fall.
[tr. Gladstone (1894)]

Brave men before the great Agamemnon's time
Liv'd many, but in tearless oblivion
And night, unknown and unlamented
Lie they, for want of a sacred poet
[tr. Phelps (1897)]

Prior to Agamemnon lived many who were brave,
But all unwept, unknown.
In endless night are plunged because
They lack a bard divine.v [tr. Garnsey (1907)]

Many heroes lived before Agamemnon ; but all are overwhelmed in unending night, unwept, unknown, because they lack a sacred bard.
[tr. Bennett (Loeb) (1912)]

Before the age of Agamemnon wight
Lived many a hero, but unwept, unknown,
Because no sacred bard hymned their renown,
They, one and all, lie whelmed in endless night.
[tr. Mills (1924)]

Many brave men lived before Agamemnon,
But all went down unmourned, unhouured, into the smothering darkness
For lack of a minstrel to be their glory-giver.
[tr. Michie (1963)]

There were heroes before Agamemnon
Was born -- but who knows them? Unmourned,
They lie buried in eternal darkness,
Sung by no sacred song.
[tr. Raffel (1983)]

Heroes have lived before Agamemnon lived,
But all of them are lost somewhere in the night,
Unwept, unknown, unless they had a poet
To tell what was their story.
[tr. Ferry (1997)]

Many brave men
Llived before Agamemnon.
But all of them, unwept and unknown,
are shrouded in eternal night
for lack of a sacred bard.
[tr. Alexander (1999)]

Many brave men lived before Agamemnon:
but all are imprisoned in unending night,
all of them are unwept and unknown,
because of the lack of a sacred bard.
[tr. Kline (2015)]