WIST Quotations

Kerr, Jean -- Essay (1960-11), “Mirror, Mirror, on the Wall, I Don’t Want to Hear One Word Out of You,” Ladies’ Home Journal, Vol. 77, No. 4

Dave — Mon, 04 May 2026 19:38:37 +0000

I’m tired of all this nonsense about beauty being only skin-deep. That’s deep enough. What do you want, an adorable pancreas? Personally, I find that it’s work, work, work just trying to keep this top half inch in shape.

Jean Kerr (1922-2003) American author and playwright [b. Bridget Jean Collins]
Essay (1960-11), “Mirror, Mirror, on the Wall, I Don’t Want to Hear One Word Out of You,” Ladies’ Home Journal, Vol. 77, No. 4
(Source)

Collected in The Snake Has All The Lines (1960).

See Adams (1615).

Shakespeare, William -- Merry Wives of Windsor, Act 2, sc. 2, l. 105ff (2.2.105-106) (1597)

Dave — Mon, 27 Jan 2025 17:24:05 +0000

FALSTAFF:Setting the attractions of
my good parts aside, I have no other charms.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Merry Wives of Windsor, Act 2, sc. 2, l. 105ff (2.2.105-106) (1597)
(Source)

La Rochefoucauld, Francois -- Réflexions ou sentences et maximes morales [Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims], ¶90 (1665-1678) [tr. Tancock (1959)]

Dave — Mon, 05 Aug 2024 13:50:52 +0000

In daily life we are more often liked for our defects than for our qualities.

[Nous plaisons plus souvent dans le commerce de la vie par nos défauts que par nos bonnes qualités.]

François VI, duc de La Rochefoucauld (1613-1680) French epigrammatist, memoirist, noble
Réflexions ou sentences et maximes morales [Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims], ¶90 (1665-1678) [tr. Tancock (1959)]
(Source)

This first appeared in the 5th Ed. (1678). See bottom for parallel maxims.

(Source (French)). Alternate translations:

We are often more agreeable through our faults, than through our good qualities.
[pub. Donaldson (1783), ¶130; [ed. Lepoittevin-Lacroix (1797), ¶97]

We often appear to be more agreeable in our faults than in our good qualities.
[ed. Carvill (1835), ¶114]

In the intercourse of life we more often please by our faults than our good qualities.
[ed. Gowens (1851), ¶232]

In the intercourse of life, we please more by our faults than by our good qualities.
[tr. Bund/Friswell (1871), ¶90]

In everyday existence we please others more by our faults than by our merits.
[tr. Heard (1917), ¶228]

In the ordinary intercourse of life our faults give more pleasure than our virtues.
[tr. Stevens (1939), ¶90]

In daily life our faults are frequently more pleasant than our good qualities.
[tr. FitzGibbon (1957), ¶90]

In the business of living our faults are often more attractive than our virtues.
[tr. Kronenberger (1959), ¶90]

In our dealings with the world, we often please more by our faults than by our good qualities.
[tr. Whichello (2016), ¶90]

The attractiveness of vice or faults versus virtue in human nature was not an uncommon theme in La Rochefoucauld's maxims. Consider the following:

There are some who are disgusting in their merits, and others who please with their faults.
[tr. Winchello (2016), ¶155]

[Il y a des gens dégoûtants avec du mérite, et d’autres qui plaisent avec des défauts.]
[1st ed.]

There are people whose faults beseem them well, and others whose good qualities disgrace them.
[tr. Winchello (2016), ¶251]

[Il y a des personnes à qui les défauts siéent bien, et d’autres qui sont disgraciées avec leurs bonnes qualités.]
[1st ed.]

There are people who enjoy the approval of the world whose sole merit consists in their having vices that are useful in the general affairs of life.
[tr. Winchello (2016), ¶273]

[Il y a des gens, qu’on approuve dans le monde, qui n’ont pour tout mérite que les vices qui servent au commerce de la vie.]
[1st ed.]

There are certain faults which, when displayed in a flattering light, shine more brightly than virtue itself.
[tr. Winchello (2016), ¶354]

[Il y a de certains défauts qui, bien mis en œuvre, brillent plus que la vertu même.]
[4th ed.]

There are bad qualities which make for great talents.
[tr. Winchello (2016), ¶468]

[Il y a de méchantes qualités qui font de grands talents.]
[5th ed.]

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

Dave — Wed, 03 Jun 2020 23:17:35 +0000

BAIT, n. A preparation that renders the hook more palatable. The best kind is beauty.

Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914?) American writer and journalist
“Bait,” 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 (1881-04-23).

Arendt, Hannah -- The Origins of Totalitarianism, Part 3, ch. 10 “A Classless Society,” sec. 1 (1951)

Dave — Tue, 28 Apr 2020 21:40:11 +0000

For the propaganda of totalitarian movements which precede and accompany totalitarian regimes is invariably as frank as it is mendacious, and would-be totalitarian rulers usually start their careers by boasting of their past crimes and carefully outlining their future ones. The Nazis were “convinced that evil-doing in our time has a morbid force of attraction,” Bolshevik assurances inside and outside Russia that they do not recognize ordinary moral standards have become a mainstay of Communist propaganda, and experience has proven time and again that the propaganda value of evil deeds and general contempt for moral standards is independent of mere self-interest, supposedly the most powerful psychological factor in politics.

Hannah Arendt (1906-1975) German-American philosopher, political theorist
The Origins of Totalitarianism, Part 3, ch. 10 “A Classless Society,” sec. 1 (1951)
(Source)

Pope, Alexander -- The Rape of the Lock, Canto 5, l. 33 (1712)

Dave — Wed, 04 Oct 2017 00:13:51 +0000

Beauties in vain their pretty Eyes may roll;
Charms strike the Sight, but Merit wins the Soul.

Alexander Pope (1688-1744) English poet
The Rape of the Lock, Canto 5, l. 33 (1712)
(Source)

Lebowitz, Fran -- Metropolitan Life, “Manners” (1978)

Dave — Mon, 08 May 2017 21:34:01 +0000

All of God’s children are not beautiful. Most of God’s children are, in fact, barely presentable.

Fran Lebowitz (b. 1950) American journalist, essayist
Metropolitan Life, “Manners” (1978)
(Source)

Carriger, Gail -- Timeless (2012)

Dave — Fri, 07 Oct 2016 03:39:13 +0000

“A man’s virility is in his beard,” he insisted.

To which Alexia replied, “And a woman’s is in her décolletage. Yet you don’t see me allowing mine to get out of control, now, do you?”

“If wishes were balloons,’ was his only response.

Gail Carriger (b. 1976) American archaeologist, author [pen name of Tofa Borregaard]
Timeless (2012)

Marlowe, Christopher -- The Tragicall History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus, Act 5, sc. 1 (sc. 13), l. 1358ff (1594; 1604 “A” text)

Dave — Wed, 04 Mar 2015 14:33:51 +0000

FAUSTUS: Was this the face that launch’d a thousand ships,
And burnt the topless towers of Ilium —
Sweet Helen, make me immortal with a kiss. —
[They kiss]
Her lips suck forth my soul: see, where it flies! —
Come, Helen, come, give me my soul again.
[They kiss again]
Here will I dwell, for heaven is in these lips,
And all is dross that is not Helena.

Christopher "Kit" Marlowe (1564-1593) English dramatist and poet
The Tragicall History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus, Act 5, sc. 1 (sc. 13), l. 1358ff (1594; 1604 “A” text)
(Source)

The "B" text (1594; 1616) has the same wording (l. 1874ff).