WIST Quotations

Kerr, Jean -- Essay (1955-11), “Our Gingerbread Dream House,” Ladies Home Journal

Dave — Mon, 20 Apr 2026 19:48:11 +0000

In the beginning, we made the usual mistake of looking at houses we could afford. I am working on a proposition, hereafter to be known as Kerr’s law, which states in essence: All the houses you can afford to buy are depressing.

Jean Kerr (1922-2003) American author and playwright [b. Bridget Jean Collins]
Essay (1955-11), “Our Gingerbread Dream House,” Ladies Home Journal
(Source)

Reprinted as "The Kerr-Hilton" in Please Don't Eat the Daisies (1957).

Wilde, Oscar -- Essay (1891-02), “The Soul of Man Under Socialism,” Fortnightly Review, Vol. 49 (ns)

Dave — Tue, 03 Feb 2026 22:10:11 +0000

Sometimes the poor are praised for being thrifty. But to recommend thrift to the poor is both grotesque and insulting. It is like advising a man who is starving to eat less.

Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) Irish poet, wit, dramatist
Essay (1891-02), “The Soul of Man Under Socialism,” Fortnightly Review, Vol. 49 (ns)
(Source)

Keynes, John Maynard -- Treatise on Money, Book 6, ch. 30 (1930)

Dave — Sat, 11 Oct 2025 21:39:29 +0000

If Enterprise is afoot, Wealth accumulates whatever may be happening to Thrift; and if Enterprise is asleep, Wealth decays, whatever Thrift may be doing.

John Maynard Keynes (1883-1946) English economist
Treatise on Money, Book 6, ch. 30 (1930)
(Source)

Addison, Joseph -- Essay (1711-10-09), The Spectator, No. 191

Dave — Mon, 18 Aug 2025 18:01:45 +0000

The man who will live above his present circumstances is in great danger of living in a little time much beneath them; or as the Italian proverb runs, “The man who lives by hope, will die by hunger.”

Joseph Addison (1672-1719) English essayist, poet, statesman
Essay (1711-10-09), The Spectator, No. 191
(Source)

Adams, John -- Diary (1772, Spring), “Notes for a Oration at Braintree”

Dave — Wed, 09 Jul 2025 21:20:55 +0000

Wise and free Nations have made it their Rule, never to vote their Donations of Money to their Kings to enable them to carry on the Affairs of Government, until they had Opportunities to examine the State of the Nation, and to remonstrate against Grievances and demand and obtain the Redress of them.

John Adams (1735–1826) American lawyer, Founding Father, statesman, US President (1797–1801)
Diary (1772, Spring), “Notes for a Oration at Braintree”
(Source)

La Bruyere, Jean de -- The Characters [Les Caractères], ch. 6 “Of Gifts of Fortune [Des Biens de Fortune],” § 49 (6.49) (1688) [tr. Van Laun (1885)]

Dave — Tue, 23 Apr 2024 18:39:56 +0000

A man is rich whose income is larger than his expenses, and he is poor if his expenses are greater than his income.

[Celui-là est riche, qui reçoit plus qu’il ne consume; celui-là est pauvre, dont la dépense excède la recette.]

Jean de La Bruyère (1645-1696) French essayist, moralist
The Characters [Les Caractères], ch. 6 “Of Gifts of Fortune [Des Biens de Fortune],” § 49 (6.49) (1688) [tr. Van Laun (1885)]
(Source)

(Source (French)). Alternate translations:

He is rich whose Receipt is more than his Expences, and he is poor whose Expences are more than his Receipt.
[Bullord ed. (1696)]

He is rich, whose Income is more than his Expences; and he is poor whose Expences are more than his Income.
[Curll ed. (1713)]

He is rich, whose Income is more than his Expences; and he is poor whose Expences exceed his Income.
[Browne ed. (1752)]

That man is rich, who gets more than he spends; that man is poor, whose expenses exceed his receipts.
[tr. Stewart (1970)]

Franklin, Benjamin -- Poor Richard (1734 ed.)

Dave — Tue, 31 Oct 2023 17:18:41 +0000

He that is rich need not live sparingly, and he that can live sparingly need not be rich.

Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) American statesman, scientist, philosopher, aphorist
Poor Richard (1734 ed.)
(Source)

McLaughlin, Mignon -- The Neurotic’s Notebook, ch. 9 (1963)

Dave — Thu, 09 Dec 2021 15:15:58 +0000

Most of us could scrape by on twice our present income.

Mignon McLaughlin (1913-1983) American journalist and author
The Neurotic’s Notebook, ch. 9 (1963)
(Source)

Originally published in The Atlantic (1960).

Krugman, Paul -- “The Legacy of Destructive Austerity,” New York Times (20 Dec 2019)

Dave — Mon, 19 Jul 2021 22:23:56 +0000

Why is austerity in a depressed economy a bad idea? Because an economy is not like a household, whose income and spending are separate things. In the economy as a whole, my spending is your income and your spending is my income. What happens if everyone tries to cut spending at the same time, as was the case in the aftermath of the financial crisis? Everyone’s income falls.

Paul Krugman (b. 1953) American economist, author
“The Legacy of Destructive Austerity,” New York Times (20 Dec 2019)
(Source)

Taylor, Henry -- Notes from Life, “Of Money” (1853)

Dave — Wed, 13 Sep 2017 00:48:39 +0000

The art of living easily as to money, is to pitch your scale of living one degree below your means.

Henry Taylor (1800-1886) English dramatist, poet, bureaucrat, man of letters
Notes from Life, “Of Money” (1853)
(Source)

Greeley, Horace -- (Attributed)

Dave — Tue, 18 Jul 2017 04:19:21 +0000

Abstaining is favorable both to the head and the pocket.

Horace Greeley (1881-1872) American newspaper editor, reformer, politician
(Attributed)
(Source)

Quoted in Maturin Murray Ballou, Edge-Tools of Speech (1886).

Eisenhower, Dwight David -- White House Years: Waging Peace, 1956-1961 (1965)

Dave — Tue, 14 Jun 2016 19:39:35 +0000

We need an adequate defense, but every arms dollar we spend above adequacy has a long-term weakening effect upon the nation and its security.

Dwight David Eisenhower (1890-1969) American general, US President (1953-61)
White House Years: Waging Peace, 1956-1961 (1965)

Tyson, Neil deGrasse -- Real Time with Bill Maher, Ep. 223 (5 Aug 2011)

Dave — Fri, 19 Feb 2016 16:44:48 +0000

Do you remember the ’60s and ’70s? You didn’t have to go more than a week before there was an article in Life magazine — “The Home of Tomorrow,” “The City of Tomorrow,” “Transportation of Tomorrow.” All that ended. In the 1970s, after we stopped going to the Moon, it all ended. We stopped dreaming. And so I worry that decisions that Congress makes doesn’t factor in the consequences of those decisions on tomorrow. Tomorrow’s gone. They’re playing for the quarterly report, they’re playing for the next election cycle, and that is mortgaging the actual future of this nation, and the rest of the world is going to pass us by.

Neil deGrasse Tyson (b. 1958) American astrophysicist, author, orator
Real Time with Bill Maher, Ep. 223 (5 Aug 2011)
(Source)

Welles, Orson -- Comment to Henry Jaglom

Dave — Thu, 08 Jan 2015 14:08:29 +0000

The enemy of art is the absence of limitations.

Orson Welles (1915-1985) American writer, director, actor
Comment to Henry Jaglom

Quoted by Jaglom in his essay "The Independent Filmmaker" in Jason E. Quire, ed. The Movie Business Book (1992). See here for more information. Sometimes paraphrased in reverse ("The absence of limitations is the enemy of art").

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

Dave — Thu, 09 Jan 2014 13:47:55 +0000

ARCHITECT, n. One who drafts a plan of your house, and plans a draft of your money; who estimates the whole cost, and himself costs the whole estimate.

Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914?) American writer and journalist
“Architect,” The Cynic’s Word Book (1906)
(Source)

Included in The Devil's Dictionary (1911), but just the first clause.

Johnson, Lyndon -- Comment (1971) to Doris Kearns Goodwin

Dave — Wed, 13 Feb 2013 14:15:30 +0000

But now Nixon has come along and everything I’ve worked for is ruined. There’s a story in the paper every day about him slashing another one of my Great Society programs. I can just see him waking up in the morning, making that victory sign of his and deciding which program to kill. It’s a terrible thing for me to sit by and watch someone else starve my Great Society to death. She’s getting thinner and thinner and uglier and uglier all the time; now her bones are beginning to stick out and her wrinkles are beginning to show. Soon she’ll be so ugly that the American people will refuse to look at her; they’ll stick her in a closet to hide her away and there she’ll die. And when she dies, I, too, will die.

Lyndon B. Johnson (1908-1973) American politician, educator, US President (1963-69)
Comment (1971) to Doris Kearns Goodwin
(Source)

Quoted in Doris Kearns Goodwin, Lyndon Johnson and the American Dream, ch. 10 "Things Go Wrong" (1976). Kearns was an intern and staff member in the Johnson White House, and worked with him on his memoirs.

King, Martin Luther -- “Beyond Vietnam,” speech, Clergy and Laity Concerned, Riverside Church, New York City (4 Apr 1967)

Dave — Fri, 27 Jul 2012 12:39:35 +0000

A nation that continues year after year to spend more on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual doom.

Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968) American clergyman, civil rights leader, social activist, preacher
“Beyond Vietnam,” speech, Clergy and Laity Concerned, Riverside Church, New York City (4 Apr 1967)
(Source)

Reprinted (or the phrase repeated) in Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community? (1967) and The Trumpet of Conscience (1968). See also this.

Chittister, Joan -- “From Where I Stand,” column, National Catholic Reporter (17 Feb 2005)

Dave — Thu, 06 May 2010 19:19:24 +0000

National budgets are a nation’s theology walking.

Joan D. Chittister (b. 1936) American Benedictine nun, author and lecturer
“From Where I Stand,” column, National Catholic Reporter (17 Feb 2005)
(Source)

Eisenhower, Dwight David -- “The Chance for Peace,” address to American Society of Newspaper Editors, Washington (16 April 1953)

Dave — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 11:07:45 +0000

Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed. This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children.

The cost of one modern heavy bomber is this: a modern brick school in more than 30 cities. It is two electric power plants, each serving a town of 60,000 population. It is two fine, fully equipped hospitals. It is some 50 miles of concrete highway. We pay for a single fighter with a half million bushels of wheat. We pay for a single destroyer with new homes that could have housed more than 8,000 people.

This, I repeat, is the best way of life to be found on the road the world has been taking. This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron.

Dwight David Eisenhower (1890-1969) American general, US President (1953-61)
“The Chance for Peace,” address to American Society of Newspaper Editors, Washington (16 April 1953)

Also known as the "Cross of Iron" speech.

Rogers, Will -- Column (1933-02-24), “Daily Telegram”

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

The budget is a mythical bean bag. Congress votes mythical beans into it, and then tries to reach in and pull real beans out.

Will Rogers (1879-1935) American humorist
Column (1933-02-24), “Daily Telegram”
(Source)

Written while in Beverly Hills. Collected in The Autobiography of Will Rogers, ch. 18 (1949) [ed. Donald Day].

Dirksen, Everett -- (Attributed)

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

A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you’re talking real money.

Everett Dirksen (1896-1969) American politician
(Attributed)

Frequently attributed to Dirksen, but not found in his writings or speeches. An anonymous reference is made in "Topics of the Times," New York Times (10 Jan 1938): "Well, now, about this new budget. It's a billion here and a billion there, and by and by it begins to mount up into money."

Cicero, Marcus Tullius -- (Spurious)

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

The national budget must be balanced. The public debt must be reduced; the arrogance of the authorities must be moderated and controlled. Payments to foreign governments must be reduced, if the nation doesn’t want to go bankrupt. People must again learn to work, instead of living on public assistance.

Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 BC) Roman orator, statesman, philosopher
(Spurious)
(Source)

One of several related paraphrases of this "quote" from Taylor Caldwell's novel about Cicero, A Pillar of Iron, ch. 51 (1965):

Antonius heartily agreed with him [sc. Cicero] that the budget should be balanced, that the Treasury should be refilled, that public debt should be reduced, that the arrogance of the generals should be tempered and controlled, that assistance to foreign lands should be curtailed lest Rome become bankrupt, that the mobs should be forced to work and not depend on government for subsistence, and that prudence and frugality should be put into practice as soon as possible.

See here and here for more discussion.