WIST Quotations

Doctor Who (2005) -- 03×10 “Blink” (2007-06-09) [w. Steven Moffat]

Dave — Fri, 11 Oct 2024 20:52:00 +0000

THE DOCTOR: People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect, but actually, from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint, it’s more like a big ball of wibbly-wobbly … timey-wimey … stuff.

Doctor Who (2005-Present) British science fiction television series, revival (BBC)
03×10 “Blink” (2007-06-09) [w. Steven Moffat]
(Source)

(Source (Video); dialog verified)

Euripides -- Æolus [Αἴολος], frag. 32 (TGF)

Dave — Tue, 30 Apr 2024 15:16:26 +0000

A bad beginning makes a bad ending.

[κακῆς <ἀπ'> ἀρχῆς γίγνεται τέλος κακόν]

Euripides (485?-406? BC) Greek tragic dramatist
Æolus [Αἴολος], frag. 32 (TGF)
(Source)

Nauck frag. 32. (Source (Greek)). Alternate translation:

A bad ending comes from a bad beginning.
[tr. Collard & Cropp (2008)]

Pratchett, Terry -- Discworld No. 20, Hogfather (1996)

Dave — Fri, 15 Sep 2023 15:14:13 +0000

The philosopher Didactylos has summed up an alternative hypothesis as “Things just happen. What the hell.”

Terry Pratchett (1948-2015) English author
Discworld No. 20, Hogfather (1996)
(Source)

Coates, Ta-Nehisi -- Between the World and Me, ch. 1 (2015)

Dave — Tue, 26 Oct 2021 20:56:18 +0000

Race is the child of racism, not the father.

Ta-Nehisi Coates (b. 1975) American writer, journalist, educator
Between the World and Me, ch. 1 (2015)
(Source)

Coates continues:

And the process of naming "the people" has never been a matter of genealogy and physiognomy so much as one of hierarchy. Difference in hue and hair is old. But the belief in the preeminence of hue and hair, the notion that these factors can correctly organize a society and that they signify deeper attributes, which are indelible -- this is the new idea at the heart of these new people who have been brought up hopelessly, tragically, deceitfully, to believe that they are white.

Pratchett, Terry -- Discworld No. 11, Reaper Man (1991)

Dave — Mon, 29 May 2017 18:53:26 +0000

It was later that the story of Windle Poons really came to an end, if “story” means all that he did and caused and set in motion. In the Ramtop village where they dance the real Morris dance, for example, they believe that no one is finally dead until the ripples they cause in the world die away — until the clock he wound up winds down, until the wine she made has finished its ferment, until the crop they planted is harvested. The span of someone’s life, they say, is only the core of their actual existence.

Terry Pratchett (1948-2015) English author
Discworld No. 11, Reaper Man (1991)
(Source)

Bacon, Francis -- Instauratio Magna [The Great Instauration], Part 2 “Novum Organum [The New Organon],” Book 1, Aphorism # 46 (1620) [tr. Spedding (1858)]

Dave — Thu, 07 Jul 2016 17:38:15 +0000

And therefore it was a good answer that was made by one who when they showed him hanging in a temple a picture of those who had paid their vows as having escaped shipwreck, and would have him say whether he did not now acknowledge the power of the gods, — “Aye,” asked he again, “but where are they painted that were drowned after their vows?”

[Taque recte respondit ille, qui, cum suspensa tabula in templo ei monstraretur eorum qui vota solverant, quod naufragii periculo elapsi sint, atque interrogando premeretur, anne tum quidem Deorum numen agnosceret, quaesivit denuo, At ubi sunt illi depicti qui post vota nuncupata perierint?]

Francis Bacon (1561-1626) English philosopher, scientist, author, statesman
Instauratio Magna [The Great Instauration], Part 2 “Novum Organum [The New Organon],” Book 1, Aphorism # 46 (1620) [tr. Spedding (1858)]
(Source)

The reference is to Diagoras, in Cicero, De Natura Deorum, 3.37, or to Diogenes the Cynic, in Diogenes Laertius, Lives of Eminent Philosophers, 6.59.

(Source (Latin)). Alternate translations:

It was well answered by him who was shown in a temple the votive tablets suspended by such as had escaped the peril of shipwreck, and was pressed as to whether he would then recognise the power of the gods, by an inquiry; "But where are the portraits of those who have perished in spite of their vows?"
[tr. Wood (1831)]

And so he made a good answer, who, when he was shown, hung up in the temple, the votive tablets of those who had fulfilled their vows after escaping from shipwreck, and was pressed with the question, "Did he not then recognize the will of the gods?" asked, in his turn, "But where are the pictures of those who have perished, notwithstanding their vows?"
[tr. Johnson (1859)]

So when someone was shown a votive tablet in a temple dedicated, in fulfilment of a vow, by some men who had escaped the danger of shipwreck, and was pressed to say whether he would now recognise the divinity of the gods, he made a good reply, when he retorted: "Where are the offerings of those who made vows and perished?"
[tr. Silverthorne (2000)]

A man was shown a picture, hanging in a temple, of people who had made their vows and escaped shipwreck, and was asked ‘Now do you admit the power of the gods?’ He answered with a question: ‘Where are the pictures of those who made their vows and then drowned?’ It was a good answer!
[tr. Bennett (2017)]

Herbert, George -- Jacula Prudentum, or Outlandish Proverbs, Sentences, &c. (compiler), # 499 (1640 ed.)

Dave — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 14:44:30 +0000

For want of a naile the shoe is lost, for want of a shoe the horse is lost, for want of a horse the rider is lost.

George Herbert (1593-1633) Welsh priest, orator, poet.
Jacula Prudentum, or Outlandish Proverbs, Sentences, &c. (compiler), # 499 (1640 ed.)
(Source)

Emerson, Ralph Waldo -- Essay (1841), “Self-Reliance,” Essays: First Series, No. 2

Dave — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 13:57:43 +0000

Cause and Effect, the chancellors of God.

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) American essayist, lecturer, poet
Essay (1841), “Self-Reliance,” Essays: First Series, No. 2
(Source)

This essay was inspired by his reading of Walter Savage Landor in 1833, with passages pulled from his lecture "Individualism," last in his course on "The Philosophy of History" (1836–1837), with other passages from the lectures "School," "Genius," and "Duty" in his course on "Human Life" (1838–1839).