WIST Quotations

Franklin, Benjamin -- Poor Richard (1740 ed.)

Dave — Thu, 24 Jul 2025 15:38:03 +0000

Thou hadst better eat salt with the Philosophers of Greece, than sugar with the Courtiers of Italy.

Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) American statesman, scientist, philosopher, aphorist
Poor Richard (1740 ed.)
(Source)

Abraham, Daniel -- Leviathan Wakes, ch. 36 (2011) [with Ty Franck]

Dave — Thu, 12 May 2022 14:21:29 +0000

“There’s a right thing to do,” Holden said.

“You don’t have a right thing, friend,” Miller said. “You’ve got a whole plateful of maybe a little less wrong.”

Daniel Abraham (b. 1969) American writer [pseud. James S. A. Corey (with Ty Franck), M. L. N. Hanover]
Leviathan Wakes, ch. 36 (2011) [with Ty Franck]
(Source)

Taylor, Barbara Brown -- Interview (2014-11-09), “Why Life Is Like a Sailboat Ride,” by Oprah Winfrey, Super Soul Sunday, 05×522, Oprah Winfrey Network

Dave — Fri, 03 Sep 2021 21:03:31 +0000

I think we’d like life to be a train. And you get on and pick a destination and get off. And it turns out to be a sailboat. And everyday, you have to see where the wind is and check the currents and see if there’s anybody else on the boat you can help out. But it is a sailboat ride. And the weather changes, and the currents change, and the wind changes. It’s not a train ride. That’s the hardest thing I’ve had to accept in my life. I just thought I had to pick the right train.

Barbara Brown Taylor (b. 1951) American minister, academic, author
Interview (2014-11-09), “Why Life Is Like a Sailboat Ride,” by Oprah Winfrey, Super Soul Sunday, 05×522, Oprah Winfrey Network
(Source)

Starts at 0:48 in the linked video. Usually just rendered to as "I think we'd like life to be a train ... but it turns out to be a sailboat."

Bourdain, Anthony -- Medium Raw, ch. 5 (2010)

Dave — Fri, 06 Aug 2021 14:44:16 +0000

I’m extremely skeptical of the “language of addiction.” I never saw heroin or cocaine as “my illness.” I saw them as some very bad choices that I walked knowingly into. I fucked myself — and, eventually, had to work hard to get myself un-fucked.

And I’m not going to tell you here how to live your life.

I’m just saying, I guess, that I got very lucky.

And luck is not a business model.

Anthony Bourdain (1956-2018) American chef, author, travel documentarian
Medium Raw, ch. 5 (2010)
(Source)

Galbraith, John Kenneth -- Letter (1962-03-02) to Pres. John Kennedy

Dave — Wed, 30 Jun 2004 19:51:52 +0000

Politics is not the art of the possible. It consists in choosing between the disastrous and the unpalatable.

John Kenneth Galbraith (1908-2006) Canadian-American economist, diplomat, author
Letter (1962-03-02) to Pres. John Kennedy
(Source)

Quoted in Galbraith, Ambassador’s Journal, ch. 15 (1969). On the need to seek a settlement with Hanoi over the growing conflict in Viet Nam.

"Politics is the art of the possible" was a comment by Otto von Bismarck.