WIST Quotations

Churchill, Winston -- Speech (1954-06-25), luncheon, White House, Washington, DC

Dave — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 14:40:57 +0000

To jaw-jaw is always better than to war-war.

Winston Churchill (1874–1965) British statesman and author
Speech (1954-06-25), luncheon, White House, Washington, DC
(Source)

On dealing with the Soviets.

Barry, Dave -- Dave Barry Turns 40, ch. 8 “Time Management” (1990)

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

Meetings are an addictive, highly self-indulgent activity that corporations and other large organizations habitually engage in only because they cannot actually masturbate.

Dave Barry (b. 1947) American humorist, author, columnist
Dave Barry Turns 40, ch. 8 “Time Management” (1990)
(Source)

Shyamalan, M. Night -- The Sixth Sense (1999)

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

COLE: We were supposed to draw a picture. Anything we wanted. I drew a man. He got hurt in the neck by another man with a screwdriver.

MALCOLM: You saw that on TV, Cole?

COLE: Everyone got upset. They had a meeting. Mom started crying. I don’t draw like that anymore.

MALCOLM: How do you draw now?

COLE: I draw — people smiling, dogs running, rainbows. They don’t have meetings about rainbows.

M. Night Shyamalan (b. 1970) Indian-American screenwriter, director
The Sixth Sense (1999)
(Source)

(Source (Video); dialog confirmed)

Allen, Fred -- Letter to William McChesney Martin (25 Jan 1940)

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

A conference is a gathering of important people who, singly, can do nothing, but together can decide that nothing can be done.

Fred Allen (1894–1956) American humorist [b. John Florence Sullivan]
Letter to William McChesney Martin (25 Jan 1940)
(Source)

The letter, to the then-President of the New York Stock Exchange, was written as an apology for a joke Allen had made about Wall Street, and was re-published in TIME magazine (4 Feb 1940).

Allen apparently used the line, and variations of it, at various times in his career. A variant more commonly quoted than the original shows up, without citation, in The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations:

Committee -- A group of men who individually can do nothing but as a group decide that nothing can be done.