WIST Quotations https://wist.info Wish I'd Said That! Fri, 10 Jul 2026 22:26:27 +0000 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 https://wist.info/wp/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/little-w-little-box-60x60.jpg comment – WIST Quotations https://wist.info 32 32 43606282 Goncourt, The Brothers -- Idées et sensations (1866) https://wist.info/goncourt-brothers/48999/ https://wist.info/goncourt-brothers/48999/#respond Tue, 28 Sep 2021 16:54:53 +0000 Dave https://wist.info/?p=48999 A painting in a museum probably hears more foolish remarks than anything else in the world .

[Ce qui entend le plus de bêtises dans le monde est peut-être un tableau de musée.]


The Brothers Goncourt - Edmond (1822-96) & Jules (1830-70), French writers [a.k.a. J.E. de Goncourt]
Idées et sensations (1866)
    (Source)

Often mis-cited to just Edmond. Alternate translations:
  • "A painting in a museum hears more ridiculous opinions than anything else in the world."
  • "What hears the most stupid remarks in the world is perhaps a painting in a museum." [Source]
  • "Perhaps what hears the most nonsense in the world is a museum painting." [Source]
 ]]> https://wist.info/goncourt-brothers/48999/feed/ 0 48999 Fuller, Thomas (1654) -- Introductio ad Prudentiam, Vol. 1, # 575 (1725) https://wist.info/fuller-thomas-1654/25890/ https://wist.info/fuller-thomas-1654/25890/#respond Thu, 26 Jun 2014 12:13:27 +0000 Dave http://wist.info/?p=25890 As we must account for every idle Word, so must we likewise for every idle Silence.


Thomas Fuller (1654-1734) English physician, preacher, aphorist, writer
Introductio ad Prudentiam, Vol. 1, # 575 (1725)
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