WIST Quotations

Shaw, George Bernard -- (Attributed)

Dave — Thu, 15 Sep 2022 17:34:28 +0000

The longer I live, the more I am inclined to the belief that this earth is used by other planets as a lunatic asylum.

George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish playwright and critic
(Attributed)

Attributed to Shaw by Judge Henry Neil in a letter (6 Sep 1919) to the Dublin Weekly Freeman. Neil said Shaw had made the statement in correspondence over pension laws for widows. While Voltaire (and others earlier) employed similar metaphors for Earth as a madhouse, this particular phrasing appears to be Shaw's.

More discussion of the quotation's origins here: This Earth Is Used By Other Planets as a Lunatic Asylum – Quote Investigator.

Ascherson, Neal -- “If we teach children morality, what will we say about the arms trade?” The Independent (21 Jan 1996)

Dave — Wed, 01 Dec 2021 00:15:36 +0000

My own view is that to expel a political asylum-seeker because his country threatens to cancel business contracts with Britain is absolutely wrong. And it is not only wrong but dangerous in the long term to us all. This is because of one of the Laws of Politics that I wrote long ago into my little black notebook: “The way a state treats its aliens is the way it would treat its own subjects if it dared”.

Neal Ascherson (b. 1932) Scottish journalist and writer
“If we teach children morality, what will we say about the arms trade?” The Independent (21 Jan 1996)
(Source)

Emerson, Ralph Waldo -- Essay (1841), “History,” Essays: First Series, No. 1

Dave — Mon, 16 Jan 2017 20:32:15 +0000

Every man is a divinity in disguise, a god playing the fool. It seems as if heaven had sent its insane angels into our world as to an asylum, and here they will break out into their native music and utter at intervals the words they have heard in heaven; and then the mad fit returns, and they mope and wallow like dogs.

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American essayist, lecturer, poet
Essay (1841), “History,” Essays: First Series, No. 1
(Source)

This essay was a combination of three separate lectures on "English Literature" (1835-1836), "The Philosophy of History" (1836-1837), and "Human Life" (1837-1838).

Note this passage is missing from the University of Michigan online collection.