WIST Quotations

Doyle, Arthur Conan -- Story (1890-02), “The Sign of the Four,” ch. 1 [Holmes], Lippincott’s Monthly Magazine, Vol. 45 (US) / 1 (UK)

Dave — Thu, 30 Apr 2026 21:11:20 +0000

I cannot live without brain-work. What else is there to live for? Stand at the window here. Was ever such a dreary, dismal, unprofitable world? See how the yellow fog swirls down the street and drifts across the dun-coloured houses. What could be more hopelessly prosaic and material? What is the use of having powers, doctor, when one has no field upon which to exert them? Crime is commonplace, existence is commonplace, and no qualities save those which are commonplace have any function upon earth.

Arthur Conan Doyle (1859–1930) British writer and physician
Story (1890-02), “The Sign of the Four,” ch. 1 [Holmes], Lippincott’s Monthly Magazine, Vol. 45 (US) / 1 (UK)

The original publication, and Doyle's manuscript (along with many other iterations across media) use "The Sign of the Four" as the title, while others (including the first book publications) use "The Sign of Four." The five-word form is used most commonly in the story, but the four-word form does show up. (More info.)

Published in novel form as The Sign of Four (1890-10).

Doyle, Arthur Conan -- Story (1886-04), “A Study in Scarlet,” Part 1, ch. 3 [Holmes], Beeton’s Christmas Annual, Vol. 28 (1887-11-21)

Dave — Thu, 22 Jan 2026 20:02:18 +0000

It was easier to know it than to explain why I know it. If you were asked to prove that two and two made four, you might find some difficulty, and yet you are quite sure of the fact.

Arthur Conan Doyle (1859–1930) British writer and physician
Story (1886-04), “A Study in Scarlet,” Part 1, ch. 3 [Holmes], Beeton’s Christmas Annual, Vol. 28 (1887-11-21)

Published in novel form 1888-07.

Milne, A. A. -- Winnie-the-Pooh, ch. 3 “Pooh and Piglet Go Hunting” (1926)

Dave — Tue, 25 Nov 2025 22:02:07 +0000

“Wait a moment,” said Winnie-the-Pooh, holding up his paw.
He sat down and thought, in the most thoughtful way he could think. Then he fitted his paw into one of the Tracks … and then he scratched his nose twice, and stood up.
“Yes,” said Winnie-the-Pooh.
“I see now,” said Winnie-the-Pooh.
“I have been Foolish and Deluded,” said he, “and I am a Bear of No Brain at All.”

A. A. Milne (1882–1956) English poet and playwright [Alan Alexander Milne]
Winnie-the-Pooh, ch. 3 “Pooh and Piglet Go Hunting” (1926)

Hugo, Victor -- Les Misérables, Part 2 “Cosette,” Book 7 “A Parenthesis,” ch. 8 (2.7.8) (1862) [tr. Donougher (2013)]

Dave — Mon, 03 Feb 2025 22:01:55 +0000

To be lost in thought is not to be idle. There is visible work and invisible work. To contemplate is to toil, to think is to do.

[On n’est pas inoccupé parce qu’on est absorbé. Il y a le labeur visible et le labeur invisible.
Contempler, c’est labourer; penser, c’est agir.]

Victor Hugo (1802–1885) French writer, journalist, human rights activist, politician
Les Misérables, Part 2 “Cosette,” Book 7 “A Parenthesis,” ch. 8 (2.7.8) (1862) [tr. Donougher (2013)]

(Source (French)). Alternate translations:

A man is not idle, because he is absorbed in thought. There is a visible labour and there is an invisible labour.
To meditate is to labour; to think is to act.
[tr. Wilbour (1862); Wilbour/Fahnestock/MacAfee (1987)]

To be absorbed is not to be unoccupied, there is an invisible as well as a visible labor.
To contemplate is to labor, to think is to act.
[tr. Wraxall (1862)]

One is not unoccupied because one is absorbed. There is visible labor and invisible labor.
To contemplate is to labor, to think is to act.
[tr. Hapgood (1887)]

One is not idle because one is absorbed. There is both visible and invisible labour. To contemplate is to toil, to think is to do.
[tr. Denny (1976)]

Weber, Max -- “Science as a Vocation [Wissenscahft als Beruf],” Speech, Munich University (1918) [tr. Gerth & Mills (1948)]

Dave — Fri, 07 Aug 2020 04:58:47 +0000

Ideas come when we do not expect them, and not when we are brooding and searching at our desks. Yet ideas would certainly not come to mind had we not brooded at our desks and searched for answers with passionate devotion.

Max Weber (1864–1920) German sociologist, philosopher, political economist [Maximilian Karl Emil Weber]
“Science as a Vocation [Wissenscahft als Beruf],” Speech, Munich University (1918) [tr. Gerth & Mills (1948)]

Alt. trans.:

"Ideas come when they are least expected, rather than while you are racking your brains at your desk. But, by the same token, they would not have made their appearance if we had not spent many hours pondering at our desks or brooding passionately over the problems facing us." [tr. Livingstone]
"[Ideas] come, at any rate, when one does not expect them, not while racking one's brains and pondering at one's desk. Of course, the ideas would not have occurred to us without our having been through the state of racking our brains and being engaged in impassioned questioning." [tr. Wells (2018)]

Emerson, Ralph Waldo -- Journal (1837-1862)

Dave — Mon, 26 Sep 2016 23:48:03 +0000

Value of a Journal. A sentence now; a sentence last year; a sentence yesterday. Tomorrow a question comes that for the first time brings together these three and shows them to be the three fractions of Unit.

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American essayist, lecturer, poet
Journal (1837-1862)

"Notebook Delta"

Emerson, Ralph Waldo -- Journal (1836)

Dave — Tue, 16 Aug 2016 00:43:30 +0000

Observe the invincible tendency of the mind to unify. It is a law of our constitution that we should not contemplate things apart without the effort to arrange them in order with known facts and ascribe them to the same law.

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American essayist, lecturer, poet
Journal (1836)

Barzun, Jacques -- Essay (1950-10-15), “The Educated Man,” Life Magazine

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

This is in fact the test and use of a man’s education, that he finds pleasure in the exercise of his mind.

Jacques Barzun (1907–2012) French-American historian, educator, polymath
Essay (1950-10-15), “The Educated Man,” Life Magazine

More commonly given as "The test and use of a man's education is that he finds pleasure in the exercise of his mind."

Essay collected, under the same name, in Barzun, Begin Here: The Forgotten Conditions of Teaching and Learning, ch. 15 (1991).