WIST Quotations

Moliere -- Don Juan [Dom Juan], Act 3, sc. 1 (1665) [tr. Wilbur (2001)]

Dave — Thu, 06 Nov 2025 23:05:57 +0000

SGANARELLE: But one has to believe in something; what is it that you believe? […]

DON JUAN: I believe that two and two are four, Sganarelle, and that four and four are eight.

[SGANARELLE: Mais encore faut-il croire en quelque chose dans le monde : qu’est-ce donc que vous croyez? […]

DON JUAN: Je crois que deux et deux sont quatre, Sganarelle, et que quatre et quatre sont huit.]

Molière (1622-1673) French playwright, actor [stage name for Jean-Baptiste Poquelin]
Don Juan [Dom Juan], Act 3, sc. 1 (1665) [tr. Wilbur (2001)]
(Source)

This passage, where belief in folk spirits and bogeymen (or, alternately, math) is conflated with religious belief, was dropped from later performances, and is sometimes not included in text versions of the play (e.g., Clitandre (1672)).

(Source (French)). Other translations:

SGAN: People must believe something in this world. What do you believe? [...]
D JU: I believe that two and two are four, Sganarelle, and that twice four are eight.
[tr. Van Laun (1876)]

SGAN: One must believe in something here below. What do you believe in? [...]
JU: Well, I believe that two and two make four, Sganarelle, and that four and four make eight.
[tr. Wall (1879)]

SGAN: Now just tell me (for one must believe something) in what do you believe? [...]
D. JUAN: I believe two and two make four, Sganarelle, and that four and four are eight.
[tr. Waller (1904)]

SGANARELLE: But at least a man must believe in something here below. Now what do you believe in? [...]
DON JUAN: I believe that two and two make four, Sganarelle, and that twice four is eight.
[tr. Page (1908)]

SGANARELLE: A person must have faith in something. What do you believe? [...]
DON JUAN: I believe, Sganarelle, that two and two are four and four and four are eight.
[tr. Bermel (1987)]

Saint-Exupery, Antoine -- Le Petit Prince [The Little Prince] (1943)

Dave — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 10:06:35 +0000

Here is my secret. It is very simple. It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; What is essential is invisible to the eye.

[Voici mon secret. Il est très simple: on ne voit bien qu’avec le cœur. L’essentiel est invisible pour les yeux.]

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (1900-1944) French writer, aviator
Le Petit Prince [The Little Prince] (1943)

Alternate translations:

"Here is my secret. It is very simple: one sees well only with the heart. The essential is invisible to the eyes."
"The essential things in life are seen not with the eyes, but with the heart."

Stalin, Josef -- (Attributed)

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

A single death is a tragedy. A million deaths is a statistic.

Josef Stalin (1879-1953) Georgian revolutionary and Soviet dictator
(Attributed)

Alternate versions:

"Death of one man is a tragedy. Death of a million is a statistic."
"One death is a tragedy. A million deaths is just a statistic."
"When one dies, it is a tragedy. When a million die, it is a statistic."
"The death of one man is a tragedy, the death of millions is a statistic."

The actual quote (such as is supported) appears to be "When one man dies it is a tragedy, when thousands die it's statistics." It is found in David McCullough, Truman (1992), said by Stalin to Churchill in Tehran when the latter was concerned over the potential casualties of opening a second front in France prematurely. McCullough cites it to Anton Antonov-Ovseyenko, The Time of Stalin: Portrait of Tyranny (1981).

On the other hand, Mary Soames (Churchill's daughter) said in a BBC interview with Andrew Marr (11 Nov 2011) that she overhead Stalin say this to her father at Potsdam, when Churchill was upset over the death of a family friend and then apologized to Stalin given the high number of Russian war casualties.

The earliest mention of the quote and Stalin is a 28 Sep 1958 book review.

Compare to Erich Maria Remarque, Der schwarze Obelisk (1956): "Sonderbar, denke ich, wir alle haben doch so viele Tote im Kriege gesehen, und wir wissen, daß über zwei Millionen von uns nutzlos gefallen sind — warum sind wir da so erregt wegen eines einzelnen, und die zwei Millionen haben wir schon fast vergessen? Aber das ist wohl so, weil ein einzelner immer der Tod ist — und zwei Millionen immer nur eine Statistik." [Strangely, I think we all have seen so many dead in the war, and we know that more than two million of us are unvalued -- why we are so excited because of an individual, and we have two million almost forgotten already? But that is probably so because a single death is always a death -- and two million only a statistic.]

Also compare to a 1925 essay on French humor, "Französischer Witz," by Kurt Tucholsky, German journalist, pacifist, and satirist. He wrote of a diplomat in the French Ministry of Foreign affairs, who said: "The war? I cannot find it to be so bad! The death of one man: this is a catastrophe. Hundreds of thousands of deaths: that is a statistic!" ["Darauf sagt ein Diplomat vom Quai d'Orsay: «Der Krieg? Ich kann das nicht so schrecklich finden! Der Tod eines Menschen: das ist eine Katastrophe. Hunderttausend Tote: das ist eine Statistik!"]