WIST Quotations

Addison, Joseph -- Essay (1711-06-26), The Spectator, No. 101

Dave — Mon, 06 Apr 2026 21:31:43 +0000

If men of eminence are exposed to censure on one hand, they are as much liable to flattery on the other. If they receive reproaches which are not due to them, they likewise receive praises which they do not deserve. In a word, the man in a high post is never regarded with an indifferent eye, but always considered as a friend or an enemy. For this reason persons in great stations have seldom their true characters drawn till several years after their deaths. Their personal friendships and enmities must cease, and the parties they were engaged in be at an end, before their faults or their virtues can have justice done them. When writers have the least opportunity of knowing the truth, they are in the best disposition to tell it.
It is therefore the privilege of posterity to adjust the characters of illustrious persons, and to set matters right between those antagonists who by their rivalry for greatness divided a whole age into factions.

Joseph Addison (1672-1719) English essayist, poet, statesman
Essay (1711-06-26), The Spectator, No. 101
(Source)

The last line is sometimes shortened to:

It is the privilege of posterity to set matters right between those antagonists who, by their rivalry for greatness, divided a whole age.

Addison, Joseph -- Essay (1711-06-26), The Spectator, No. 101

Dave — Mon, 14 Jul 2025 18:13:39 +0000

Persons in great stations have seldom their true characters drawn till several years after their deaths. Their personal friendships and enmities must cease, and the parties they were engaged in be at an end, before their faults or their virtues can have justice done to them.

Joseph Addison (1672-1719) English essayist, poet, statesman
Essay (1711-06-26), The Spectator, No. 101
(Source)

Rogers, Will -- Column (1933-10-29), “Weekly Articles: How Writers Write” [No. 566]

Dave — Fri, 15 Nov 2024 22:10:10 +0000

Trouble with a lot of these biographers is, they go and lower the moral of character with a lot of facts. Nothing will spoil a big man’s life like too much truth.

Will Rogers (1879-1935) American humorist
Column (1933-10-29), “Weekly Articles: How Writers Write” [No. 566]
(Source)

McLaughlin, Mignon -- The Neurotic’s Notebook, ch. 3 (1963)

Dave — Thu, 24 Oct 2024 21:10:27 +0000

The total history of almost anyone would shock almost everyone.

Mignon McLaughlin (1913-1983) American journalist and author
The Neurotic’s Notebook, ch. 3 (1963)
(Source)

Carlyle, Thomas -- Essay (1830-11), “On History,” Fraser’s Magazine Vol. 2, No. 10.

Dave — Thu, 03 Oct 2024 21:59:39 +0000

History is the essence of innumerable Biographies.

Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) Scottish essayist and historian
Essay (1830-11), “On History,” Fraser’s Magazine Vol. 2, No. 10.
(Source)

Collected as "History," Critical and Miscellaneous Essays (1827-1855).

A year and a half later, in his essay "Biography" (first published in Fraser's Magazine, Vol. 5, No. 28 (1832-05)), as he was wont to do, Carlyle anonymously quoted himself ("'History,' it has been said, 'is the essence of innumerable Biographies.'").

Carlyle, Thomas -- Essay (1837-12-06), “On Sir Walter Scott” The London and Westminster Review, No. 12/55, Art. 2 (1838-01)

Dave — Thu, 28 Dec 2023 23:05:40 +0000

For there is no heroic poem in the world but is at bottom a biography, the life of a man; also, it may be said, there is no life of a man, faithfully recorded, but is a heroic poem of its sort, rhymed or unrhymed.

Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) Scottish essayist and historian
Essay (1837-12-06), “On Sir Walter Scott” The London and Westminster Review, No. 12/55, Art. 2 (1838-01)
(Source)

Review of J. G. Lockhart, Memoirs of the Life of Sir Walter Scott, Baronet, 6 vols. (1837). Collected in Carlyle, Critical and Miscellaneous Essays (1827-1855).

Carlyle, Thomas -- “Jean Paul Friedrich Richter,” Edinburgh Review No. 91, Art. 7 (1827-06)

Dave — Thu, 28 Oct 2021 19:56:26 +0000

Rich as we are in Biography, a well-written Life is almost as rare as a well-spent one.

Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) Scottish essayist and historian
“Jean Paul Friedrich Richter,” Edinburgh Review No. 91, Art. 7 (1827-06)
(Source)

A review of Heinrich Döring, Jean Paul Friedrich Richter's Life, with a Sketch of His Works (1826).

Ozick, Cynthia -- Interview by Tom Teicholz, Paris Review, “The Art of Fiction” #95 (Spring 1987)

Dave — Thu, 30 Sep 2021 14:33:07 +0000

After a certain number of years, our faces become our biographies. We get to be responsible for our faces.

Cynthia Ozick (b. 1928) American writer
Interview by Tom Teicholz, Paris Review, “The Art of Fiction” #95 (Spring 1987)
(Source)

See Camus and Orwell.

Discussion of similar quotations: When You Are Young, You Have the Face Your Parents Gave You. After You Are Forty, You Have the Face You Deserve – Quote Investigator.

Malamud, Bernard -- Dubin’s Lives, ch. 1 (1977)

Dave — Thu, 23 Sep 2021 15:12:29 +0000

The past exudes legend: one can’t make pure clay of time’s mud. There is no life that can be recaptured wholly; as it was. Which is to say that all biography is ultimately fiction.

Bernard Malamud (1914-1986) American author
Dubin’s Lives, ch. 1 (1977)
(Source)

Golding, William -- “Universal Pessimist, Cosmic Optimist,” Interview by MaryLynn Scott, Aurora Online (1990)

Dave — Thu, 19 Aug 2021 17:57:32 +0000

However you disguise novels, they are always biographies.

William Golding (1911-1983) British novelist, playwright, poet
“Universal Pessimist, Cosmic Optimist,” Interview by MaryLynn Scott, Aurora Online (1990)
(Source)

Guedalla, Philip -- “Literary Biography,” speech, quoted in The Observer (3 Mar 1929)

Dave — Thu, 12 Aug 2021 18:08:12 +0000

Biography is a very definite region, bounded on the north by history, on the south by fiction, on the east by obituary, and on the west by tedium.

Philip Guedalla (1889-1944) English barrister, epigrammatist, writer, biographer
“Literary Biography,” speech, quoted in The Observer (3 Mar 1929)
(Source)

Angelou, Maya -- “The Art of Fiction,” Paris Review, #116, Interview with George Plimpton (1990)

Dave — Thu, 10 Oct 2019 23:38:43 +0000

Never let the facts alone obscure the truth of your narrative. The truth is what your life really felt like.

Maya Angelou (1928-2014) American poet, memoirist, activist [b. Marguerite Ann Johnson]
“The Art of Fiction,” Paris Review, #116, Interview with George Plimpton (1990)
(Source)

Lowell, Amy -- “The Boston Athenaeum,” A Dome of Many-Coloured Glass (1912)

Dave — Fri, 14 Jul 2017 00:58:24 +0000

For books are more than books, they are the life
The very heart and core of ages past,
The reason why men lived and worked and died,
The essence and quintessence of their lives.

Amy Lowell (1874-1925) American poet
“The Boston Athenaeum,” A Dome of Many-Coloured Glass (1912)

Salinger, J. D. -- Catcher in the Rye, ch. 24 [Mr. Antolini] (1951)

Dave — Thu, 10 Mar 2016 17:14:06 +0000

Among other things, you’ll find that you’re not the first person who was ever confused and frightened and even sickened by human behavior. You’re by no means alone on that score, you’ll be excited and stimulated to know. Many, many men have been just as troubled morally and spiritually as you are right now. Happily, some of them kept records of their troubles. You’ll learn from them — if you want to. Just as someday, if you have something to offer, someone will learn something from you. It’s a beautiful reciprocal arrangement. And it isn’t education. It’s history. It’s poetry.

J. D. Salinger (1919-2010) American writer [Jerome David Salinger]
Catcher in the Rye, ch. 24 [Mr. Antolini] (1951)

Lewis, Sinclair -- Nobel Lecture (12 Dec 1930)

Dave — Tue, 18 Aug 2015 12:44:18 +0000

Fortune has dealt with me rather too well. I have known little struggle, not much poverty, many generosities. Now and then I have, for my books or myself, been somewhat warmly denounced — there was one good pastor in California who upon reading my Elmer Gantry desired to lead a mob and lynch me, while another holy man in the state of Maine wondered if there was no respectable and righteous way of putting me in jail. And, much harder to endure than any raging condemnation, a certain number of old acquaintances among journalists, what in the galloping American slang we call the “I Knew Him When Club,” have scribbled that since they know me personally, therefore I must be a rather low sort of fellow and certainly no writer. But if I have now and then received such cheering brickbats, still I, who have heaved a good many bricks myself, would be fatuous not to expect a fair number in return.

Sinclair Lewis (1885-1951) American novelist, playwright
Nobel Lecture (12 Dec 1930)

Twain, Mark -- The Autobiography of Mark Twain, Vol. 1 (2010)

Dave — Wed, 11 Mar 2015 12:26:07 +0000

What a wee little part of a person’s life are his acts and his words! His real life is led in his head, and is known to none but himself. All day long, and every day, the mill of his brain is grinding, and his thoughts (which are but the mute articulation of his feelings,) not those other things, are his history. His acts and his words are merely the visible thin crust of his world, with its scarred snow summits and its vacant wastes of water — and they are so trifling a part of his bulk! a mere skin enveloping it. The mass of him is hidden — it and its volcanic fires that toss and boil, and never rest, night nor day. These are his life, and they are not written, and cannot be written. Every day would make a whole book of eighty thousand words — three hundred and sixty-five books a year. Biographies are but the clothes and buttons of the man — the biography of the man himself cannot be written.

Mark Twain (1835-1910) American writer [pseud. of Samuel Clemens]
The Autobiography of Mark Twain, Vol. 1 (2010)
(Source)

Stowe, Harriet Beecher -- The Pearl of Orr’s Island (1862)

Dave — Wed, 26 Feb 2014 13:41:16 +0000

In the old times, women did not get their lives written, though I don’t doubt many of them were much better worth writing than the men’s.

Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811-1896) American author
The Pearl of Orr’s Island (1862)
(Source)

Johnson, Lyndon -- Editorial (1929-07-17), Southwest Texas State Teachers College College Star, San Marcos

Dave — Wed, 20 Feb 2013 16:45:46 +0000

Down with the debunking biographer. It now seems to be quite a thing to pull down the mighty from their seats and roll them in the mire. This practice deserves pronounced condemnation. Hero worship is a tremendous force in uplifting and strengthening. Humanity, let us have our heroes. Let us continue to believe that some have been truly great; that it lies within human ability to overcome temptations and trials; that it is sublime to suffer and be strong. Petty biographers with inferior souls and jealous hearts would rob us of these happy privileges. Sensationalism is alright for yellow journalism, but in biography we wish to see our famous men and women as they were and feel the power of the strength and beauty of their lives. Down with the debunking biographer.

Lyndon B. Johnson (1908-1973) American politician, educator, US President (1963-69)
Editorial (1929-07-17), Southwest Texas State Teachers College College Star, San Marcos

Quoted, in parts, in William C. Pool, Emmie Craddock, David Eugene Conrad, Lyndon Baines Johnson: The Formative Years, ch. 6 (1965) and Doris Kearns Goodwin, Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream, ch. 2 (1976).

Jefferson, Thomas -- Letter (1817-01-11) to John Adams

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

Say nothing of my religion. It is known to God and myself alone. Its evidence before the world is to be sought in my life: if it has been honest and dutiful to society the religion which has regulated it cannot be a bad one.

Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) American political philosopher, polymath, statesman, US President (1801-09)
Letter (1817-01-11) to John Adams
(Source)

Instructions he gave to a biographer.

Barrie, James -- The Little Minister, ch. 1 “The Love-Light” (1891)

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

The life of every man is a diary in which he means to write one story and writes another, and his humblest hour is when he compares the volume as it is with what he vowed to make it.

J. M. Barrie (1860-1937) Scottish novelist and dramatist [James Matthew Barrie]
The Little Minister, ch. 1 “The Love-Light” (1891)
(Source)