WIST Quotations

Manning, Brennan -- The Ragamuffin Gospel, ch. 1 “Something is Radically Wrong” (1990)

Dave — Mon, 13 Apr 2026 20:12:46 +0000

When I get honest, I admit I am a bundle of paradoxes. I believe and I doubt, I hope and get discouraged, I love and I hate, I feel bad about feeling good, I feel guilty about not feeling guilty. I am trusting and suspicious. I am honest and I still play games. Aristotle said I am a rational animal; I say I am an angel with an incredible capacity for beer.

Brennan Manning (1934-2013) American author, laicized priest, theologian, speaker [Richard Francis Xavier Manning]
The Ragamuffin Gospel, ch. 1 “Something is Radically Wrong” (1990)
(Source)

Adams, Douglas -- The Salmon of Doubt, Part 1 “Life,” “For Children Only” (2002) [ed. Peter Guzzardi]

Dave — Wed, 12 Nov 2025 16:40:07 +0000

You will need to know the difference between Friday and a fried egg. It’s quite a simple difference, but an important one. Friday comes at the end of the week, whereas a fried egg comes out of a chicken. Like most things, of course, it isn’t quite that simple. The fried egg isn’t properly a fried egg until it’s been put in a frying pan and fried. This is something you wouldn’t do to a Friday, of course, though you might do it on a Friday. You can also fry eggs on a Thursday, if you like, or on a cooker. It’s all rather complicated, but it makes a kind of sense if you think about it for a while.

Douglas Adams (1952-2001) English author, humorist, screenwriter
The Salmon of Doubt, Part 1 “Life,” “For Children Only” (2002) [ed. Peter Guzzardi]
(Source)

Hoffer, Eric -- Passionate State of Mind, Aphorism 88 (1955)

Dave — Thu, 25 Sep 2025 17:28:29 +0000

Absolute power is partial to simplicity. It wants simple problems, simple solutions, simple definitions. It sees in complication a product of weakness — the torturous path compromise must follow.

Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
Passionate State of Mind, Aphorism 88 (1955)
(Source)

Heywood, John -- Proverbes, Part 2, ch. 5 (1546)

Dave — Sat, 06 Sep 2025 19:14:44 +0000

Much water goeth by the mill
That the miller knoweth not of.

John Heywood (1497?-1580?) English playwright and epigrammist
Proverbes, Part 2, ch. 5 (1546)
(Source)

See Shakespeare, Titus Andronicus, Act 2, sc. 7 (1588-1593): "More water glideth by the mill, / Than wots the miller of."

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

Dave — Mon, 21 Apr 2025 18:17:55 +0000

Categorizing is necessary for humans, but it becomes pathological when the category is seen as definitive, preventing people from considering the fuzziness of boundaries, let alone revising their categories.

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)

Rogers, Will -- Column (1933-01-04), “Daily Telegram: Will Rogers Interviews Forgotten Man”

Dave — Fri, 28 Feb 2025 18:51:04 +0000

What do you think of Technocracy?
Nothing you can’t spell will ever work.

Will Rogers (1879-1935) American humorist
Column (1933-01-04), “Daily Telegram: Will Rogers Interviews Forgotten Man”
(Source)

In later collections, only the answer is given.

Martin, George R. R. -- Interview (2014-04-23) by Mikal Gilmore, “The Rolling Stone Interview,” Rolling Stone

Dave — Mon, 30 Dec 2024 22:11:23 +0000

We’re all capable of doing great things, and of doing bad things. We have the angels and the demons inside of us, and our lives are a succession of choices. Look at a figure like Woodrow Wilson, one of the most fascinating presidents in American history. He was despicable on racial issues. He was a Southern segregationist of the worst stripe, praising D.W. Griffith and The Birth of a Nation. He effectively was a Ku Klux Klan supporter. But in terms of foreign affairs, and the League of Nations, he had one of the great dreams of our time. The war to end all wars — we make fun of it now, but God, it was an idealistic dream. If he’d been able to achieve it, we’d be building statues of him a hundred feet high, and saying, “This was the greatest man in human history: This was the man who ended war.” He was a racist who tried to end war. Now, does one cancel out the other? Well, they don’t cancel out the other. You can’t make him a hero or a villain. He was both. And we’re all both.

George R. R. Martin (b. 1948) American author and screenwriter [George Raymond Richard Martin]
Interview (2014-04-23) by Mikal Gilmore, “The Rolling Stone Interview,” Rolling Stone
(Source)

Nietzsche, Friedrich -- The Gay Science [Die fröhliche Wissenschaft], Book 4, § 282 (1882) [tr. Kaufmann (1974)]

Dave — Fri, 03 May 2024 16:39:22 +0000

There is something laughable about the sight of authors who enjoy the rustling folds of long and involved sentences: they are trying to cover up their feet.

[Man hat Etwas zum Lachen, diese Schriftsteller zu sehen, welche die faltigen Gewänder der Periode um sich rauschen machen: sie wollen so ihre Füsse verdecken.]

Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) German philosopher and poet
The Gay Science [Die fröhliche Wissenschaft], Book 4, § 282 (1882) [tr. Kaufmann (1974)]
(Source)

Also known as La Gaya Scienza, The Joyful Wisdom, or The Joyous Science.

(Source (German)). Alternate translations:

It is something laughable to see those writers who make the folding robes of their periods rustle around them: they want to cover their feet.
[tr. Common (1911)]

There is something laughable about those writers who make the folded drapery of their period rustle around them; they want to hide their feet.
[tr. Hill (2018)]

Hand, Learned -- “Sources of Tolerance,” speech, University of Pennsylvania Law School (1930-06)

Dave — Thu, 12 Oct 2023 19:16:00 +0000

Historians may be dogmatists, I know, though not so often now as when history was dogma. At least you will perhaps agree that even a smattering of history and especially of letters will go far to dull the edges of uncompromising conviction. No doubt one may quote history to support any cause, as the devil quotes scripture; but modern history is not a very satisfactory side-arm in political polemics; it grows less and less so.

Learned Hand (1872-1961) American jurist
“Sources of Tolerance,” speech, University of Pennsylvania Law School (1930-06)
(Source)

Collected in The Spirit of Liberty (1953).

Waugh, Evelyn -- Brideshead Revisited, Book 1, ch. 2 [Anthony Blanche] (1945)

Dave — Fri, 06 Oct 2023 16:51:04 +0000

Conversation, as I know it, is like juggling; up go the balls and the balloons and the plates, up and over, in and out, spinning and leaping, good solid objects that glitter in the footlights and fall with a bang if you miss them.

Evelyn Waugh (1903-1966) English novelist
Brideshead Revisited, Book 1, ch. 2 [Anthony Blanche] (1945)
(Source)

Gladwell, Malcolm -- Outliers: The Story of Success, ch. 5, sec. 10 (2008)

Dave — Mon, 30 Jan 2023 23:12:25 +0000

Those three things — autonomy, complexity, and a connection between effort and reward — are, most people will agree, the three qualities that work has to have if it is to be satisfying.

Malcolm Gladwell (b. 1963) Anglo-Canadian journalist, author, public speaker
Outliers: The Story of Success, ch. 5, sec. 10 (2008)
(Source)

Doyle, Arthur Conan -- “The Dancing Men” [Sherlock Holmes], The Strand Magazine (Dec 1903)

Dave — Fri, 20 Jan 2023 22:41:55 +0000

I have no desire to make mysteries, but it is impossible at the moment of action to enter into long and complex explanations.

Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930) British writer and physician
“The Dancing Men” [Sherlock Holmes], The Strand Magazine (Dec 1903)
(Source)

Reprinted as "The Adventure of the Dancing Men" in The Return of Sherlock Holmes, ch. 3 (1905).

Bacon, Francis -- Instauratio Magna [The Great Instauration], Part 3 “Parsceve ad Historiam Naturalem [Preparatory for Natural History],” “Aphorisms on the Composition of the Primary History,” # 4 (1622) [tr. Oxenford (1857)]

Dave — Wed, 30 Nov 2022 21:24:01 +0000

The world is not to be confined (as hitherto) within the straits of the intellect, but the intellect is to be enlarged to receive the image of the world, such as it is.

[Neque enim arctandus est mundus ad angustias intellectus (quod adhue factum est), sed expandendus intellectus et laxandus ad mundi imaginem recipiendam, qualis invenitur.]

Francis Bacon (1561-1626) English philosopher, scientist, author, statesman
Instauratio Magna [The Great Instauration], Part 3 “Parsceve ad Historiam Naturalem [Preparatory for Natural History],” “Aphorisms on the Composition of the Primary History,” # 4 (1622) [tr. Oxenford (1857)]
(Source)

(Source (Latin)). Alternate translations:

For the World ought not to be tyed into the straightness of the understanding (which hitherto hath been done) but our Intellect should be stretched and widened, so as to be capable of the Image of the World, such as we find it.
[Source (1670)]

For the world is not to be narrowed till it will go into the understanding (which has been done hitherto), but the understanding to be expanded and opened till it can take in the image of the world, as it is in fact.
[tr. Spedding/Ellis/Heath (c. 1900)]

Jefferson, Thomas -- Letter (1819-06-25) to Ezra Styles Ely

Dave — Mon, 10 Oct 2022 14:24:45 +0000

It is the speculations of crazy theologists which have made a Babel of a religion the most moral and sublime ever preached to man, and calculated to heal, and not to create differences. These religious animosities I impute to those who call themselves his ministers, and who engraft their casuistries on the stock of his simple precepts. I am sometimes more angry with them than is authorised by the blessed charities which he preached.

Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) American political philosopher, polymath, statesman, US President (1801-09)
Letter (1819-06-25) to Ezra Styles Ely
(Source)

Dyson, Freeman -- “Freeman Dyson: In Praise of Diversity,” Interview on A Glorious Accident, VPRO (Netherlands) (30 Aug 2016)

Dave — Mon, 22 Aug 2022 14:52:48 +0000

The things which we understand least are the quasars, but I don’t want to get into a technical discussion. But these are the most violent and most energetic objects in the universe, and they’re totally, still totally, mysterious, really. I mean, we know that they’re there, that’s all, and they’re not only there, they’re rather frequent; and nobody ever dreamed that they existed, until they were found. And even after they were found it took a long time before people took them seriously. Nature’s imagination is always richer than ours.

Freeman Dyson (1923-2020) English-American theoretical physicist, mathematician, futurist
“Freeman Dyson: In Praise of Diversity,” Interview on A Glorious Accident, VPRO (Netherlands) (30 Aug 2016)
(Source)

Schattschneider, E. E. -- Two Hundred Million Americans in Search of a Government (1969)

Dave — Tue, 16 Aug 2022 22:03:03 +0000

Democracy has no place for the kind of justice implied in an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. Democracy is a system for the resolution of conflict, not for vengeance. Simple black-white notions of right and wrong do not fit into democratic politics. Political controversies result from the fact that the issues are complex, and men may properly have differences of opinion about them. The most terrible of all over-simplifications is the notion that politics is a contest between good people and bad people.

E. E. Schattschneider (1892-1971) American political scientist [Elmer Eric Schattschneider]
Two Hundred Million Americans in Search of a Government (1969)
(Source)

Raskin, Jef -- Interview in Susan Lammers, Programmers At Work (1986)

Dave — Mon, 11 Jul 2022 17:17:25 +0000

Have you ever noticed that there are no Maytag user groups? Nobody needs a mutual support group to run a washing machine. You just put the clothes in, punch the button, and they get clean. To do information processing, I don’t want hardware and software; what I really want is an appliance to do my tasks.

Jef Raskin (1943-2005) American computer scientist, writer
Interview in Susan Lammers, Programmers At Work (1986)
(Source)

Abraham, Daniel -- Leviathan Wakes, ch. 41 (2011) [with Ty Franck]

Dave — Thu, 23 Jun 2022 17:09:48 +0000

Holden decided that he was okay with not feeling any remorse for them. The moral complexity of the situation had grown past his ability to process it, so he just relaxed in the warm glow of victory instead.

Daniel Abraham (b. 1969) American writer [pseud. James S. A. Corey (with Ty Franck), M. L. N. Hanover]
Leviathan Wakes, ch. 41 (2011) [with Ty Franck]
(Source)

Jefferson, Thomas -- Letter (1822-06-26) to Benjamin Waterhouse

Dave — Tue, 21 Jun 2022 16:12:46 +0000

But much I fear, that when this great truth shall be re-established, its votaries will fall into the fatal error of fabricating formulas of creed and confessions of faith, the engines which so soon destroyed the religion of Jesus, and made of Christendom a mere Aceldama; that they will give up morals for mysteries, and Jesus for Plato. How much wiser are the Quakers, who, agreeing in the fundamental doctrines of the gospel, schismatize about no mysteries, and, keeping within the pale of common sense, suffer no speculative differences of opinion, any more than of feature, to impair the love of their brethren. Be this the wisdom of Unitarians, this the holy mantle which shall cover within its charitable circumference all who believe in one God, and who love their neighbor!

Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) American political philosopher, polymath, statesman, US President (1801-09)
Letter (1822-06-26) to Benjamin Waterhouse
(Source)

Dostoyevsky, Fyodor -- The Idiot, Part 3, ch. 3 (1869) [tr. Martin (1915)]

Dave — Tue, 05 Oct 2021 20:42:24 +0000

We must never forget that human motives are generally far more complicated than we are apt to suppose, and that we can very rarely accurately describe the motives of another.

Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1821-1881) Russian novelist
The Idiot, Part 3, ch. 3 (1869) [tr. Martin (1915)]
(Source)

Alternate translation: "Don't let us forget that the motives of human actions are usually infinitely more complex and varied than we are apt to explain them afterwards, and can rarely be defined with certainty." [tr. Magarshack (1955)]

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

Dave — Mon, 20 Sep 2021 19:24:53 +0000

Knowledge breeds doubt, not certainty, and the more we know the more uncertain we become.

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)

Richardson, James -- “Vectors: 56 Aphorisms and Ten-second Essays,” Michigan Quarterly Review, # 7 (Spring 1999)

Dave — Tue, 14 Sep 2021 14:44:56 +0000

Our lives get complicated because complexity is so much simpler than simplicity.

James Richardson (b. 1950) American poet
“Vectors: 56 Aphorisms and Ten-second Essays,” Michigan Quarterly Review, # 7 (Spring 1999)
(Source)

Von Neumann, John -- Speech, Association for Computing Machinery inaugural conference, Columbia University, New York (15 Sep 1947)

Dave — Tue, 15 Jun 2021 14:41:55 +0000

If people do not believe that mathematics is simple, it is only because they do not realize how complicated life is.

John von Neumann (1903-1957) Hungarian-American mathematician, physicist, inventor, polymath [János "Johann" Lajos Neumann]
Speech, Association for Computing Machinery inaugural conference, Columbia University, New York (15 Sep 1947)
(Source)

Von Neumann insisted that ENIAC's command language could encompass all mathematics, given how only a thousand words could handle most needs of life, and mathematics was, he insisted, simpler than life. When the audience laughed, he replied with this comment. Quoted in Franz L. Alt, "Archaeology of computers: Reminiscences, 1945-1947," Communications of the ACM, Vol 15, #7 (Jul 1972).

Von Neumann, John -- (Attributed)

Dave — Tue, 08 Jun 2021 14:51:57 +0000

There probably is a God. Many things are easier to explain if there is than if there isn’t.

John von Neumann (1903-1957) Hungarian-American mathematician, physicist, inventor, polymath [János "Johann" Lajos Neumann]
(Attributed)
(Source)

As quoted in Norman Macrae, John Von Neumann: The Scientific Genius Who Pioneered the Modern Computer, Game Theory, Nuclear Deterrence and Much More (1992).

Von Neumann, John -- “The Mathematician” (1947)

Dave — Tue, 18 May 2021 16:29:14 +0000

I think that it is a relatively good approximation to truth — which is much too complicated to allow anything but approximations.

John von Neumann (1903-1957) Hungarian-American mathematician, physicist, inventor, polymath [János "Johann" Lajos Neumann]
“The Mathematician” (1947)
(Source)

Taylor, A. J. P. -- English History 1914-1945, “Revised Bibliography” (1965)

Dave — Mon, 26 Apr 2021 15:25:59 +0000

History gets thicker as it approaches recent times: more people, more events, and more books written about them. More evidence is preserved, often, one is tempted to say, too much. Decay and destruction have hardly begun their beneficent work.

A. J. P. Taylor (1906-1990) British historian, journalist, broadcaster [Alan John Percivale Taylor]
English History 1914-1945, “Revised Bibliography” (1965)
(Source)

Chesterfield (Lord) -- Letter to his son, #209 (19 Dec 1749)

Dave — Thu, 01 Apr 2021 17:25:01 +0000

We must not suppose that, because a man is a rational animal, he will, therefore, always act rationally; or, because he has such or such a predominant passion, that he will act invariably and consequentially in the pursuit of it. No, we are complicated machines; and though we have one main spring that gives motion to the whole, we have an infinity of little wheels, which, in their turns, retard, precipitate, and sometimes stop that motion.

Lord Chesterfield (1694-1773) English statesman, wit [Philip Dormer Stanhope]
Letter to his son, #209 (19 Dec 1749)
(Source)

Brilliant, Ashleigh -- Pot-Shots, #1960

Dave — Fri, 26 Mar 2021 18:56:16 +0000

My life is already complicated enough, without trying to introduce organization into it.

Ashleigh Brilliant (b. 1933) Anglo-American epigramist, aphorist, cartoonist
Pot-Shots, #1960

Teller, Edward -- Conversations on the Dark Secrets of Physics, ch. 10 (1991) [with Wendy Teller and Wilson Talley]

Dave — Tue, 09 Mar 2021 16:47:00 +0000

Physics is, hopefully, simple. Physicists are not.

Edward Teller (1908-2003) Hungarian-American theoretical physicist
Conversations on the Dark Secrets of Physics, ch. 10 (1991) [with Wendy Teller and Wilson Talley]
(Source)

Pope, Alexander -- “An Essay on Criticism” (1711)

Dave — Mon, 25 Jan 2021 18:40:53 +0000

Words are like Leaves; and where they most abound,
Much Fruit of Sense beneath is rarely found.

Alexander Pope (1688-1744) English poet
“An Essay on Criticism” (1711)
(Source)

Snicket, Lemony -- The Grim Grotto (2004)

Dave — Wed, 21 Oct 2020 16:14:01 +0000

“People aren’t either wicked or noble,” the hook-handed man said. “They’re like chef salads, with good things and bad things chopped and mixed together in a vinaigrette of confusion and conflict.”

Lemony Snicket (b. 1970) American author, screenwriter, musician (pseud. for Daniel Handler)
The Grim Grotto (2004)

House, Cory -- Twitter (12 Nov 2013)

Dave — Wed, 30 Sep 2020 20:11:00 +0000

Code is like humor. When you have to explain it, it’s bad.

Cory House (contemp.) American software architect, speaker, author
Twitter (12 Nov 2013)
(Source)

Brault, Robert -- (Attributed)

Dave — Tue, 22 Sep 2020 14:31:08 +0000

Everything we possess that is not necessary for life or happiness becomes a burden, and scarcely a day passes that we do not add to it.

Robert Brault (b. c. 1945) American aphorist, programmer
(Attributed)

Raymond, Eric S. -- The Cathedral & the Bazaar (1999)

Dave — Wed, 05 Aug 2020 22:20:34 +0000

Ugly programs are like ugly suspension bridges: they’re much more liable to collapse than pretty ones, because the way humans (especially engineer-humans) perceive beauty is intimately related to our ability to process and understand complexity.

Eric S. Raymond (b. 1957) American software developer, writer [a.k.a. ESR]
The Cathedral & the Bazaar (1999)

Palahniuk, Chuck -- Diary (2003)

Dave — Tue, 12 May 2020 19:38:39 +0000

Leonardo’s Mona Lisa is just a thousand thousand smears of paint. Michelangelo’s David is just a million hits with a hammer. We’re all of us a million bits put together the right way.

Chuck Palahniuk (b. 1962) American novelist and freelance journalist
Diary (2003)

Shaw, George Bernard -- Too True to Be Good, Act 3 (1932)

Dave — Mon, 11 May 2020 15:17:51 +0000

THE SERGEANT: When men and women pick one another up for just a bit of fun, they find they’ve picked up more than they bargained for, because men and women have a top story as well as a ground floor, and you can’t have the one without the other.

George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) Irish playwright and critic
Too True to Be Good, Act 3 (1932)
(Source)

Godard, Jean-Luc -- (Attributed)

Dave — Wed, 11 Mar 2020 20:39:47 +0000

Sometimes reality is too complex. Stories give it form.

Jean-Luc Godard (b. 1930) French-Swiss film director, screenwriter, critic
(Attributed)

Clifford, William Kingdon -- Quoted in A. D’Abro, The Evolution of Scientific Thought from Newton to Einstein, Part 4, ch. 37 (1927)

Dave — Fri, 14 Feb 2020 17:53:57 +0000

The name philosopher, which meant originally “lover of wisdom,” has come in some strange way to mean a man who thinks it is his business to explain everything in a certain number of large books. It will be found, I think, that in proportion to his colossal ignorance is the perfection and symmetry of the system which he sets up; because it is so much easier to put an empty room tidy than a full one.

William Kingdon Clifford (1845-1879) English mathematician and philosopher
Quoted in A. D’Abro, The Evolution of Scientific Thought from Newton to Einstein, Part 4, ch. 37 (1927)
(Source)

D'Abro says it comes from one of Clifford's essays, but the source does not appear online.

Bukowski, Charles -- Notes of a Dirty Old Man (1969)

Dave — Fri, 14 Feb 2020 17:33:44 +0000

An intellectual is a man who says a simple thing in a difficult way; an artist is a man who says a difficult thing in a simple way.

Charles Bukowski (1920-1994) German-American author, poet
Notes of a Dirty Old Man (1969)
(Source)

Hepburn, Audrey -- Quoted in David Hofstede, Audrey Hepburn: A Bio-bibliography (1994)

Dave — Thu, 16 Jan 2020 22:00:13 +0000

Living is like tearing through a museum. Not until later do you really start absorbing what you saw, thinking about it, looking it up in a book, and remembering — because you can’t take it in all at once.

Audrey Hepburn (1929-1993) Belgian-English actress
Quoted in David Hofstede, Audrey Hepburn: A Bio-bibliography (1994)
(Source)

Nietzsche, Friedrich -- “Schopenhauer as Educator,” ch. 1 (1874) [tr. Collins]

Dave — Tue, 27 Nov 2018 01:39:30 +0000

At bottom every man knows well enough that he is a unique human being, only once on this earth; and by no extraordinary chance will such a marvelously picturesque piece of diversity in unity as he is ever be put together a second time.

Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) German philosopher and poet
“Schopenhauer as Educator,” ch. 1 (1874) [tr. Collins]
(Source)

Lec, Stanislaw -- Unkempt Thoughts [Myśli nieuczesane] (1957) [tr. Gałązka (1962)]

Dave — Thu, 16 Mar 2017 17:18:44 +0000

Proverbs contradict each other. That is the wisdom of a nation.

Stanislaw Lec (1909-1966) Polish aphorist, poet, satirist
Unkempt Thoughts [Myśli nieuczesane] (1957) [tr. Gałązka (1962)]
(Source)

Bronowski, Jacob -- “The Abacus and the Rose” [Potts], Science and Human Values (1965 ed.)

Dave — Mon, 26 Dec 2016 19:02:53 +0000

There is no correct description of nature. Nature is more subtle, more deeply intertwined and more strangely integrated than any of our pictures of her — than any of our errors. It is not merely that our pictures are not full enough; each of our pictures in the end turns out to be so basically mistaken that the marvel is that it worked at all.

Jacob Bronowski (1908-1974) Polish-English humanist and mathematician
“The Abacus and the Rose” [Potts], Science and Human Values (1965 ed.)
(Source)

Carriger, Gail -- Curtsies & Conspiracies (2013)

Dave — Fri, 04 Nov 2016 03:06:14 +0000

“When did life get so complicated?” she wondered to Dimity.

“Boys,” said Dimity succinctly.

Gail Carriger (b. 1976) American archaeologist, author [pen name of Tofa Borregaard]
Curtsies & Conspiracies (2013)

Scalzi, John -- Zoe’s Tale (2008)

Dave — Wed, 21 Sep 2016 00:15:21 +0000

Sometimes I don’t know if my life is complicated, or if it’s that I just think too much about things.

John Scalzi (b. 1969) American writer
Zoe’s Tale (2008)

Twain, Mark -- Following the Equator, ch. 15, epigraph, “Pudd’nhead Wilson’s New Calendar” (1897)

Dave — Fri, 17 Jul 2015 17:12:12 +0000

Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; Truth isn’t.

Mark Twain (1835-1910) American writer [pseud. of Samuel Clemens]
Following the Equator, ch. 15, epigraph, “Pudd’nhead Wilson’s New Calendar” (1897)
(Source)

Sometimes paraphrased, "Why shouldn't truth be stranger than fiction? Fiction, after all, has to make sense." More on this quotation and its variants here.

See also Byron.

Eisenhower, Dwight David -- “Let’s Be Honest with Ourselves,” Reader’s Digest (Dec 1963)

Dave — Mon, 13 Apr 2015 11:53:53 +0000

The older I get, the more wisdom I find in the ancient rule of taking first things first — a process which often reduces the most complex human problems to manageable proportions.

Dwight David Eisenhower (1890-1969) American general, US President (1953-61)
“Let’s Be Honest with Ourselves,” Reader’s Digest (Dec 1963)

Ackoff, Russell -- “The future of operational research is past,” The Journal of the Operational Research Society, Vol 30, pp.93-104. (1979)

Dave — Thu, 19 Mar 2015 12:29:23 +0000

Managers are not confronted with problems that are independent of each other, but with dynamic situations that consist of complex systems of changing problems that interact with each other. I call such situations messes. Problems are extracted from messes by analysis. Managers do not solve problems, they manage messes.

Russell L. Ackoff (1919-2009) American organizational theorist, consultant, management scientist
“The future of operational research is past,” The Journal of the Operational Research Society, Vol 30, pp.93-104. (1979)

Twain, Mark -- The Autobiography of Mark Twain, Vol. 1 (2010)

Dave — Wed, 11 Mar 2015 12:26:07 +0000

What a wee little part of a person’s life are his acts and his words! His real life is led in his head, and is known to none but himself. All day long, and every day, the mill of his brain is grinding, and his thoughts (which are but the mute articulation of his feelings,) not those other things, are his history. His acts and his words are merely the visible thin crust of his world, with its scarred snow summits and its vacant wastes of water — and they are so trifling a part of his bulk! a mere skin enveloping it. The mass of him is hidden — it and its volcanic fires that toss and boil, and never rest, night nor day. These are his life, and they are not written, and cannot be written. Every day would make a whole book of eighty thousand words — three hundred and sixty-five books a year. Biographies are but the clothes and buttons of the man — the biography of the man himself cannot be written.

Mark Twain (1835-1910) American writer [pseud. of Samuel Clemens]
The Autobiography of Mark Twain, Vol. 1 (2010)
(Source)

Ackoff, Russell -- “The development of operations research as a science,” Operations Research (Jun 1956)

Dave — Thu, 22 Jan 2015 13:01:31 +0000

A problem never exists in isolation; it is surrounded by other problems in space and time. The more of the context of a problem that a scientist can comprehend, the greater are his chances of finding a truly adequate solution.

Russell L. Ackoff (1919-2009) American organizational theorist, consultant, management scientist
“The development of operations research as a science,” Operations Research (Jun 1956)

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Sr. -- Article (1859-02), “The Professor at the Breakfast-Table,” Atlantic Monthly

Dave — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 12:33:45 +0000

The longer I live, the more I am satisfied of two things: first, that the truest lives are those that are cut rose-diamond-fashion, with many facets answering to the many-planed aspects of the world about them; secondly, that society is always trying in some way or other to grind us down to a single flat surface.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809-1894) American poet, essayist, scholar
Article (1859-02), “The Professor at the Breakfast-Table,” Atlantic Monthly
(Source)

Collected in The Professor at the Breakfast-Table, ch. 2 (1859).

Tolstoy, Leo -- War and Peace, Book 15, ch. 1 (1865-1869) [tr. Maude/Maude (1952)]

Dave — Mon, 30 May 2011 07:32:56 +0000

But pure and complete sorrow is as impossible as pure and complete joy.

Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910) Russian novelist and moral philosopher
War and Peace, Book 15, ch. 1 (1865-1869) [tr. Maude/Maude (1952)]
(Source)

Alternate translation:

But pure, unmitigated grief is as impossible as pure and unmitigated joy.
[tr. Garnett (1889), Vol 3, Part 4, ch. 1]

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Jr. -- Letter (1902-10-24) to Lady Georgina Deffell Pollock

Dave — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 16:01:07 +0000

The only simplicity for which I would give a straw is that which is on the other side of the complex — not that which never has divined it.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (1841-1935) American jurist, Supreme Court Justice
Letter (1902-10-24) to Lady Georgina Deffell Pollock
(Source)

In context, criticizing those who praise simplicity (at least in literature, if not beyond), except that simplicity which results after a synthesis of the complex.

Collected in Mark Howe (ed.), Holmes-Pollock Letters: The Correspondence of Mr. Justice Holmes and Sir Frederick Pollock, 1874-1932 (1961).

This quotation is frequently misattributed to his father, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. It also has (at least two) incorrect variants that are seen more frequently on the Internet:

For the simplicity on this side of complexity, I wouldn't give you a fig. But for the simplicity on the other side of complexity, for that I would give you anything I have.

I wouldn’t give a fig for the simplicity on this side of complexity; I would give my right arm for the simplicity on the far side of complexity.

Gaiman, Neil -- American Gods, Part 2, ch. 13 [Sam] (2001)

Dave — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 14:43:16 +0000

I can believe things that are true and I can believe things that aren’t true and I can believe things where nobody knows if they’re true or not. I can believe in Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny and Marilyn Monroe and the Beatles and Elvis and Mister Ed. Listen — I believe that people are perfectible, that knowledge is infinite, that the world is run by secret banking cartels and is visited by aliens on a regular basis, nice ones who look like wrinkledy lemurs and bad ones who mutilate cattle and want our water and our women. I believe that the future sucks and I believe that the future rocks and I believe that one day White Buffalo Woman is going to come back and kick everyone’s ass. I believe that all men are just overgrown boys with deep problems communicating and that the decline of good sex in America is coincident with the decline in drive-in movie theaters from state to state. I believe that all politicians are unprincipled crooks and I still believe that they are better than the alternative. I believe that California is going to sink into the sea when the Big One comes, while Florida is going to dissolve into madness and alligators and toxic waste. I believe that antibacterial soap is destroying our resistance to dirt and disease so that one day we’ll all be wiped out by the common cold like the Martians in War of The Worlds. I believe that the greatest poets of the last century were Edith Sitwell and Don Marquis, that jade is dried dragon sperm, and that thousands of years ago in a former life I was a one-armed Siberian shaman. I believe that mankind’s destiny lies in the stars. I believe that candy really did taste better when I was a kid, that it’s aerodynamically impossible for a bumblebee to fly, that light is a wave and a particle, that there’s a cat in a box somewhere who’s alive and dead at the same time (although if they don’t ever open the box to feed it it’ll eventually just be two different kinds of dead), and that there are stars in the universe billions of years older than the universe itself. I believe in a personal god who cares about me and worries and oversees everything I do. I believe in an impersonal god who set the universe in motion and went off to hang with her girlfriends and doesn’t even know that I’m alive. I believe in an empty and godless universe of causal chaos, background noise, and sheer blind luck. I believe that anyone who says that sex is overrated just hasn’t done it properly. I believe that anyone who claims to know what’s going on will lie about the little things too. I believe in absolute honesty and sensible social lies too. I believe in a woman’s right to choose, a baby’s right to live, that while all human life is sacred there’s nothing wrong with the death penalty if you can trust the legal system implicitly, and that no one but a moron would ever trust the legal system. I believe that life is a game, that life is a cruel joke, and that life is what happens when you’re alive and that you might as well lie back and enjoy it.

Neil Gaiman (b. 1960) British author, screenwriter, fabulist
American Gods, Part 2, ch. 13 [Sam] (2001)
(Source)

Smith, Sydney -- Memoir of the Reverend Sydney Smith, by His Daughter, Lady Holland, Vol. 1, ch. 11 (1855)

Dave — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 10:10:31 +0000

He was a one-book man. Some men have only one book in them; others, a library.

Sydney Smith (1771-1845) English clergyman, essayist, wit
Memoir of the Reverend Sydney Smith, by His Daughter, Lady Holland, Vol. 1, ch. 11 (1855)
(Source)

Peter, Lawrence J. -- Peter’s Almanac, entry for 24 Sep. (1982).

Dave — Tue, 14 Aug 2007 14:33:10 +0000

Some problems are so complex that you have to be highly intelligent and well informed just to be undecided about them.

Lawrence J. Peter (1919-1990) American educator, management theorist
Peter’s Almanac, entry for 24 Sep. (1982).

Watterson, Bill -- Calvin and Hobbes (1993-09-21)

Dave — Tue, 21 Sep 2004 10:40:02 +0000

CALVIN: The more you know, the harder it is to take decisive action. Once you become informed, you start seeing complexities and shades of gray. You realize that nothing is as clear and simple as it first appears. Ultimately, knowledge is paralyzing. Being a man of action, I can’t afford to take that risk.

HOBBES: You’re ignorant, but at least you act on it.

Bill Watterson (b. 1958) American cartoonist
Calvin and Hobbes (1993-09-21)
(Source)

Mencken, H. L. -- “The Divine Afflatus,” New York Evening Mail (16 Nov 1917)

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

Explanations exist; they have existed for all time; there is always a well-known solution to every human problem — neat, plausible, and wrong.

H. L. Mencken (1880-1956) American writer and journalist [Henry Lewis Mencken]
“The Divine Afflatus,” New York Evening Mail (16 Nov 1917)
(Source)

Reprinted in Prejudices: Second Series (1920) and A Mencken Chrestomathy, ch. 25 (1949).

Variants:

"There is always an easy solution to every human problem -- neat, plausible, and wrong."
"For every complex problem, there is a solution that is simple, neat, and wrong."

Watterson, Bill -- Calvin and Hobbes (1992-09-19)

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

CALVIN: I’m a simple man, Hobbes.

HOBBES: You?? Yesterday you wanted a nuclear powered car that could turn into a jet with laser-guided heat-seeking missiles!

CALVIN: I’m a simple man with complex tastes.

Bill Watterson (b. 1958) American cartoonist
Calvin and Hobbes (1992-09-19)
(Source)

Hugo, Victor -- Les Misérables, Part 2 “Cosette,” Book 5 “Dark Hunt, Mute Mutts,” ch. 10 (2.5.10) (1862) [tr. Donougher (2013)]

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

The greatest follies, like the stoutest ropes, are often composed of a multitude of strands. Take the cable thread by thread, take separately each petty determining motive, and you can snap them one by one and say, “There’s no more to it than that!” Braid them and twist them together, and what you have is momentous.

[Les fortes sottises sont souvent faites, comme les grosses cordes, d’une multitude de brins. Prenez le câble fil à fil, prenez séparément tous les petits motifs déterminants, vous les cassez l’un après l’autre, et vous dites: Ce n’est que cela! Tressez-les et tordez-les ensemble, c’est une énormité.]

Victor Hugo (1802-1885) French writer
Les Misérables, Part 2 “Cosette,” Book 5 “Dark Hunt, Mute Mutts,” ch. 10 (2.5.10) (1862) [tr. Donougher (2013)]
(Source)

(Source (French)). Alternate translations:

Great blunders are often made, like large ropes, of a multitude of fibres. Take the cable thread by thread, take separately all the little determining motives, you break them one after another, and you say: that is all. Wind them and twist them together, they become an enormity.
[tr. Wilbour (1862)]

Great follies are often made, like stout ropes, of a multitude of fibers. Take the cable, thread by thread, catch hold of the small determining motives separately, and you break them one after the other, and say to yourself, “It is only that”; but twist them together and you have an enormity.
[tr. Wraxall (1862)]

The greatest follies are often composed, like the largest ropes, of a multitude of strands. Take the cable thread by thread, take all the petty determining motives separately, and you can break them one after the other, and you say, "That is all there is of it!" Braid them, twist them together; the result is enormous.
[tr. Hapgood (1887)]

The greatest blunders, like the thickest ropes, are often compounded of a multitude of strands. Take the rope apart, separate it into the small threads that compose it, and you can break them one by one. You think, 'That is all there was!' But twist them all together, and you have something tremendous.
[tr. Denny (1976)]

Great blunders are often made, like large ropes, of a multitude of fibers. Take the cable thread by thread, take all the little determining motives separately, you break them one after another, and you say: That is all it is. Braid them and twist them together, they become an enormity.
[tr. Wilbour/Fahnestock/MacAfee (1987)]

Hillesum, Etty -- Diary (1941-10-22)

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

Life cannot be captured in a few axioms. And that is just what I keep trying to do. But it won’t work, for life is full of endless nuances and cannot be captured in just a few formulae.

Esther "Etty" Hillesum (1914-1943) Dutch Jewish law graduate, writer, diarist
Diary (1941-10-22)
(Source)

Collected in An Interrupted Life [Het Verstoorde Leven] (1981) [tr. Pomerans (1983)].

Pratchett, Terry -- Good Omens, 6. “Saturday” (1990) [with Neil Gaiman]

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

“But the Great Plan can only be a tiny part of the overall ineffability,” said Crowley. “You can’t be certain that what’s happening right now isn’t exactly right, from an ineffable point of view.”
“It izz written!” bellowed Beelzebub.
“But it might be written differently somewhere else,” said Crowley. “Where you can’t read it.”
“In bigger letters,” said Aziraphale.
“Underlined,” Crowley added.
“Twice,” suggested Aziraphale.

Terry Pratchett (1948-2015) English author
Good Omens, 6. “Saturday” (1990) [with Neil Gaiman]
(Source)

Whitman, Walt -- “Song of Myself,” sec. 51, ll. 1324-26, Leaves of Grass, Book 3 (1855)

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

Do I contradict myself?
Very well then I contradict myself,
(I am large, I contain multitudes.)

Walt Whitman (1819-1892) American poet
“Song of Myself,” sec. 51, ll. 1324-26, Leaves of Grass, Book 3 (1855)
(Source)