WIST Quotations

Tolstoy, Leo -- Path of Life [Calendar of Wisdom; Круг чтения], ch. 21 “Living in the Present,” sec. 6.2 (1903-1911) [(tr. Cote (2002)]

Dave — Mon, 25 May 2026 07:27:36 +0000

If you are able to see all the consequences of what you are doing, then what you are doing is not very important.

Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910) Russian novelist and moral philosopher
Path of Life [Calendar of Wisdom; Круг чтения], ch. 21 “Living in the Present,” sec. 6.2 (1903-1911) [(tr. Cote (2002)]
(Source)

Taleb, Nassim Nicholas -- The Black Swan, Part 1, ch. 1 “The Apprenticeship of an Empirical Skeptic” (2007)

Dave — Mon, 07 Apr 2025 17:01:53 +0000

History is opaque. You see what comes out, not the script that produces events, the generator of history. There is a fundamental incompleteness in your grasp of such events, since you do not see what’s inside the box, how the mechanisms work. What I call the generator of historical events is different from the events themselves, much as the minds of the gods cannot be read just by witnessing their deeds. You are very likely to be fooled about their intentions.

Nassim Nicholas Taleb (b. 1960) Lebanese-American essayist, statistician, risk analyst, aphorist
The Black Swan, Part 1, ch. 1 “The Apprenticeship of an Empirical Skeptic” (2007)
(Source)

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)]

Eliot, George -- Adam Bede, Book 1, ch. 16 “Links” [Mr. Irwine] (1859)

Dave — Fri, 19 May 2023 20:25:34 +0000

Consequences are unpitying.

George Eliot (1819-1880) English novelist [pseud. of Mary Ann Evans]
Adam Bede, Book 1, ch. 16 “Links” [Mr. Irwine] (1859)
(Source)

Eberhardt, Isabelle -- The Passionate Nomad: The Diary of Isabelle Eberhardt , “26 November 1901” (1987)[tr. de Voogd]

Dave — Fri, 12 May 2023 13:27:10 +0000

Oh, if at every moment of our lives we could know the consequences of some of the utterings, thoughts and deeds that seem so trivial and unimportant at the time! And should we not conclude from such examples that there is no such thing in life as unimportant moments devoid of meaning for the future?

Isabelle Eberhardt (1877-1904) Swiss-Russian explorer and author [Si Mahmoud Saadi]
The Passionate Nomad: The Diary of Isabelle Eberhardt , “26 November 1901” (1987)[tr. de Voogd]
(Source)

McLaughlin, Mignon -- The Neurotic’s Notebook, ch. 1 (1963)

Dave — Thu, 04 May 2023 15:16:13 +0000

If you made a list of reasons why any couple got married, and another list of reasons for their divorce, you’d have a hell of a lot of overlapping.

Mignon McLaughlin (1913-1983) American journalist and author
The Neurotic’s Notebook, ch. 1 (1963)
(Source)

Commager, Henry Steele -- The Nature and the Study of History, ch. 5 (1965)

Dave — Wed, 18 May 2022 15:49:41 +0000

Perhaps the most useful lesson the student of history can learn is to avoid oversimplification, and to accept the notion of multiple causation or to resign himself to the fact that as yet we do not know enough to explain the causes of things. To yearn for a single, and usually simple, explanation of the chaotic materials of the past, to search for a single thread in the most tangled of all skeins, is a sign of immaturity.

Henry Steele Commager (1902-1998) American historian, writer, activist
The Nature and the Study of History, ch. 5 (1965)
(Source)

Zelazny, Roger -- The Hand of Oberon, ch. 13 (1976)

Dave — Wed, 16 Feb 2022 20:52:32 +0000

Acts and their consequences are the things by which our fellows judge us. Anything else, and all that you get is a cheap feeling of moral superiority by thinking how you would have done something nicer if it had been you. So as for the rest, leave it to heaven. I’m not qualified.

Roger Zelazny (1937-1995) American writer
The Hand of Oberon, ch. 13 (1976)
(Source)

Taylor, A. J. P. -- “What Else Indeed?” New York Review of Books (5 Aug 1965)

Dave — Mon, 27 Sep 2021 17:57:16 +0000

Historians can sometimes explain, or at any rate discuss the immediate causes of some great event. Beyond that they can do little more than arrive at the platitude that every generation is, to some extent, responsible for what happened afterwards. In this way, we can finally reach the preposterous conclusion that the ancient Romans were responsible for the First World War, when they failed to civilize the Germans. This is sometimes called learning from history.

A. J. P. Taylor (1906-1990) British historian, journalist, broadcaster [Alan John Percivale Taylor]
“What Else Indeed?” New York Review of Books (5 Aug 1965)
(Source)

Hobbes, Thomas -- Leviathan, Part 1, ch. 11 (1651)

Dave — Fri, 06 Nov 2020 20:50:39 +0000

Ignorance of remote causes disposeth men to attribute all events to the causes immediate and instrumental: for these are all the causes they perceive.

Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) English philosopher
Leviathan, Part 1, ch. 11 (1651)
(Source)

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)

Zimmermann, J. G. -- Aphorisms and Reflections on Men, Morals and Things (1800)

Dave — Thu, 18 Aug 2016 00:21:53 +0000

There are few mortals so insensible that their affections cannot be gained by mildness; their confidence by sincerity; their hatred by scorn or neglect.

Johann Georg Zimmermann (1728-1795) Swiss philosophical writer, naturalist, physician
Aphorisms and Reflections on Men, Morals and Things (1800)
(Source)

Dante Alighieri -- The Divine Comedy [Divina Commedia], Book 3 “Paradiso,” Canto 1, l. 34 (1.34) (1320) [tr. Musa (1984)]

Dave — Wed, 01 Jun 2016 17:19:14 +0000

From one small spark can come a mighty blaze.

[Poca favilla gran fiamma seconda.]

Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) Italian poet
The Divine Comedy [Divina Commedia], Book 3 “Paradiso,” Canto 1, l. 34 (1.34) (1320) [tr. Musa (1984)]
(Source)

Dante, in a metaphorical prayer to Apollo, hoping his meager efforts describing Paradise will inspire better ones from future poets. The phrase has become proverbial in Italy.

(Source (Italian)). Alternate translations:

From a small spark
Great flame hath risen.
[tr. Cary (1814)]

The spark comes first, and then a mighty flame.
[tr. Bannerman (1850)]

A little spark is followed by great flame.
[tr. Longfellow (1867)]

A mighty flame follows a little spark.
[tr. Butler (1885)]

Great flame may follow from a spark but brief.
[tr. Minchin (1885)]

Great flame follows a little spark.
[tr. Norton (1892)]

A mighty flame followeth a tiny spark.
[tr. Wicksteed (1899)]

A great flame follows a little spark.
[tr. Sinclair (1939)]

A small spark kindles a great flame beyond.
[tr. Binyon (1943)]

From one small spark springs up a mighty flare.
[tr. Sayers/Reynolds (1962)]

Great flames are kindled where the small sparks fly.
[tr. Ciardi (1970)]

A great flame follows a little spark.
[tr. Singleton (1975)]

A little spark brings a great flame after it.
[tr. Sisson (1981)]

Great fire can follow a small spark.
[tr. Mandelbaum (1984)]

A tiny spark can result in a great flame.
[tr. Durling (2011)]

A great flame follows a tiny spark
[tr. Kline (2002)]

A minute spark precedes a towering flame.
[tr. Kirkpatrick (2007)]

Great fire leaps from the smallest spark.
[tr. Hollander/Hollander (2007)]

Tiny sparks can produce a noble flame.
[tr. Raffel (2010)]

A little spark, later a great flame.
[tr. Bang (2021)]

Wilcox, Ella Wheeler -- Poem (1896), “You Never Can Tell,” ll. 9-12, Custer And Other Poems

Dave — Mon, 21 Sep 2015 13:56:25 +0000

You never can tell when you do an act
Just what the result will be;
But with every deed you are sowing a seed,
Though the harvest you may not see.

Ella Wheeler Wilcox (1850-1919) American author, poet, temperance advocate, spiritualist
Poem (1896), “You Never Can Tell,” ll. 9-12, Custer And Other Poems
(Source)

Cowper, William -- The Task, 6.123 (1785)

Dave — Fri, 11 Sep 2015 14:50:05 +0000

Nature is but a name for an effect,
Whose cause is God.

William Cowper (1731-1800) English poet
The Task, 6.123 (1785)

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)

Butler, Samuel -- Life and Habit, ch. 8 (1877)

Dave — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 16:05:17 +0000

A hen is only an egg’s way of making another egg.

Samuel Butler (1835-1902) English novelist, satirist, scholar
Life and Habit, ch. 8 (1877)

Full text.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo -- “Natural Religion” (1861-02-03)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 19:00:00 +0000

Life is a perpetual instruction in cause and effect.

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) American essayist, lecturer, poet
“Natural Religion” (1861-02-03)

Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth -- “Table-Talk,” Driftwood (1857)

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

The Laws of Nature are just, but terrible. There is no weak mercy in them. Cause and consequence are inseparable and inevitable. The elements have no forbearance. The fire burns, the water drowns, the air consumes, the earth buries. And perhaps it would be well for our race if the punishment of crimes against the Laws of Man were as inevitable as the punishment of crimes against the Laws of Nature — were Man as unerring in his judgments as Nature.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882) American poet
“Table-Talk,” Driftwood (1857)
(Source)

Emerson, Ralph Waldo -- Essay (1860), “Worship,” The Conduct of Life, ch. 6

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 18:00:00 +0000

Shallow men believe in luck, believe in circumstances — it was somebody’s name, or he happened to be there at the time, or it was so then, and another day would have been otherwise. Strong men believe in cause and effect.

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) American essayist, lecturer, poet
Essay (1860), “Worship,” The Conduct of Life, ch. 6
(Source)

Based on a course of lectures, "The Conduct of Life," delivered in Pittsburg (1851-03).

Ingersoll, Robert Green -- Essay (1881-08) “The Christian Religion,” “Is All of the Bible Inspired?” ch. 2, North American Review, Vol. 133, No. 297

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

There are in nature neither rewards nor punishments — there are consequences.

Robert Green Ingersoll (1833-1899) American lawyer, freethinker, orator
Essay (1881-08) “The Christian Religion,” “Is All of the Bible Inspired?” ch. 2, North American Review, Vol. 133, No. 297
(Source)

Collected in Allen Thorndike Rice (ed.), The Christian Religion, ch. 1 (1882).

See Longfellow (1857).