WIST Quotations

Carlin, George -- Show (1992-04-25), Jammin’ in New York, “The Planet Is Fine,” Paramount Theater, New York City (HBO)

Dave — Wed, 27 Aug 2025 17:15:51 +0000

The planet will be here for a long, long, long time after we’re gone, and it will heal itself, it will cleanse itself, ’cause that’s what it does. It’s a self-correcting system. The air and the water will recover, the Earth will be renewed.
And if it’s true that plastic is not degradable, well, the planet will simply incorporate plastic into a new paradigm: the Earth plus plastic. The planet doesn’t share our prejudice toward plastic. Plastic came out of the Earth. The Earth probably sees plastic as just another one of its children. Could be the only reason the Earth allowed us to be spawned from it in the first place. It wanted plastic for itself. Didn’t know how to make it. Needed us. Could be the answer to our age-old philosophical question, “Why are we here?”
“Plastic … assholes.”

George Carlin (1937–2008) American comedian
Show (1992-04-25), Jammin’ in New York, “The Planet Is Fine,” Paramount Theater, New York City (HBO)
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(Source (Video))

Emerson, Ralph Waldo -- Journal (1840-07-13/14)

Dave — Tue, 20 Dec 2016 04:02:46 +0000

We are all boarders on one table — White man, black man, ox and eagle, bee, & worm.

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American essayist, lecturer, poet
Journal (1840-07-13/14)
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Huxley, Aldous -- Island (1962)

Dave — Wed, 12 Nov 2014 13:52:36 +0000

Never give children a chance of imagining that anything exists in isolation. Make it plain from the very beginning that all living is relationship. Show them relationships in the woods, in the fields, in the ponds and streams, in the village and in the country around it. Rub it in.

Aldous Huxley (1894–1963) English novelist, essayist and critic
Island (1962)

Stevenson, Adlai -- Speech (1965-07-09), “Strengthening the International Development Institutions,” sec. 12, United Nations Economic and Social Council, Palais des Nations, Geneva, Switzerland

Dave — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 13:12:27 +0000

We travel together, passengers on a little spaceship, dependent upon its vulnerable reserve of air and soil; all committed for our safety to its security and peace; preserved from annihilation only by the care, the work, and I will say, the love we give our fragile craft. We cannot maintain it half fortunate, half miserable, half confident, half despairing, half slave — to the ancient enemies of mankind — half free in the liberation of resources undreamed of until this day. No craft, no crew, can travel safely with such vast contradictions. On their resolutions depends the survival of us all.

Adlai Stevenson II (1900–1965) American politician, diplomat, statesman
Speech (1965-07-09), “Strengthening the International Development Institutions,” sec. 12, United Nations Economic and Social Council, Palais des Nations, Geneva, Switzerland
(Source)

Stevenson was serving as UN Ambassador from the United States. He died of a heart attack on 1965-07-14, while in London after this trip. This was his last public address, and was read into the Congressional Record for the House of Representatives, 89th US Congress (1965-07-15) by Rep. Abraham Multer of New York.