WIST Quotations

Shakespeare, William -- Sonnet 94, ll. 13-14 (pub. 1609)

Dave — Mon, 08 Jun 2026 15:33:58 +0000

For sweetest things turn sourest by their deeds;
Lilies that fester smell far worse than weeds.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Sonnet 94, ll. 13-14 (pub. 1609)
(Source)

Fussell, Paul -- Wartime: Understanding and Behavior in the Second World War, ch. 18 (1989)

Dave — Thu, 23 Sep 2021 14:51:58 +0000

In war, it is not just the weak soldiers, or the sensitive ones, or the highly imaginative or cowardly ones, who will break down. Inevitably, all will break down if in combat long enough.

Paul Fussell (1924-2012) American cultural and literary historian, author, academic
Wartime: Understanding and Behavior in the Second World War, ch. 18 (1989)
(Source)

Adams, Douglas -- Dirk Gently No. 1, Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency, ch. 4 [Richard] (1987)

Dave — Mon, 08 Jun 2015 13:07:13 +0000

What I mean is that if you really want to understand something, the best way is to try and explain it to someone else. That forces you to sort it out in your mind. And the more slow and dim-witted your pupil, the more you have to break things down into more and more simple ideas. And that’s really the essence of programming. By the time you’ve sorted out a complicated idea into little steps that even a stupid machine can deal with, you’ve learned something about it yourself.

Douglas Adams (1952-2001) English author, humorist, screenwriter
Dirk Gently No. 1, Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency, ch. 4 [Richard] (1987)
(Source)

Tuchman, Barbara -- A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century, Foreward (1978)

Dave — Tue, 02 Jun 2015 13:12:28 +0000

When the gap between the ideal and real becomes too wide, the system breaks down.

Barbara W. Tuchman (1912-1989) American historian and author
A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century, Foreward (1978)
(Source)