WIST Quotations

Hesse, Herman -- Steppenwolf, “Treatise of the Steppenwolf,” ch. 2 (1927) [tr Breighton (1929)]

Dave — Fri, 27 Mar 2026 14:55:51 +0000

Now the bourgeois treasures nothing more highly than the self (rudimentary as his may be). And so at the cost of intensity, he achieves his own preservation and security. His harvest is a quiet mind which he prefers to being possessed by God, as he does comfort to pleasure, convenience to liberty, and a pleasant temperature to that deathly inner consuming fire. The bourgeois is consequently by nature a creature of weak impulses; anxious, fearful of giving himself away and easy to rule. Therefore, he has substituted majority for power, law for force, and the polling booth for responsibility.

[Der Bürger nun schätzt nichts höher als das Ich (ein nur rudimentär entwickeltes Ich allerdings). Auf Kosten der Intensität also erreicht er Erhaltung und Sicherheit, statt Gottbesessenheit erntet er Gewissensruhe, statt Lust Behagen, statt Freiheit Bequemlichkeit, statt tödlicher Glut eine angenehme Temperatur. Der Bürger ist deshalb seinem Wesen nach ein Geschöpf von schwachem Lebensantrieb, ängstlich, jede Preisgabe seiner selbst fürchtend, leicht zu regieren. Er hat darum an Stelle der Macht die Majorität gesetzt, an Stelle der Gewalt das Gesetz, an Stelle der Verantwortung das Abstimmungsverfahren.]

Herman Hesse (1877-1962) German-born Swiss poet, novelist, painter
Steppenwolf, “Treatise of the Steppenwolf,” ch. 2 (1927) [tr Breighton (1929)]
(Source)

Usually paraphrased down to:

The bourgeois prefers comfort to pleasure, convenience to liberty, and a pleasant temperature to the deathly inner consuming fire.

(Source (German)). Other translation:

Now the bourgeois values nothing higher than the ego (an only rudimentarily developed ego, to be sure). Thus at the expense of intensity he achieves preservation and security; instead of divine possession he reaps peace of mind, instead of pleasure, comfort, instead of freedom, convenience, instead of deadly heat a pleasant temperature. The bourgeois is therefor by nature a creature of weak life impulse, anxious, fearful of every expenditure of himself, easy to rule. Therefore he has put the majority in the place of power, in the place of power the law, in the place of accountability the ballot box.
[tr. Wayne (2010)]

Johnson, Samuel -- Essay (1753-06-26), The Adventurer, No. 67

Dave — Fri, 21 Nov 2025 23:53:08 +0000

Happiness is enjoyed only in proportion as it is known; and such is the state or folly of man, that it is known only by experience of its contrary: we who have long lived amidst the conveniencies of a town immensely populous, have scarce an idea of a place where desire cannot be gratified by money. In order to have a just sense of this artificial plenty, it is necessary to have passed some time in a distant colony, or those parts of our island which are thinly inhabited: he that has once known how many trades every man in such situations is compelled to exercise, with how much labour the products of nature must be accommodated to human use, how long the loss or defect of any common utensil must be endured, or by what awkward expedients it must be supplied, how far men may wander with money in their hands before any can sell them what they wish to buy, will know how to rate at its proper value the plenty and ease of a great city.

Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) English writer, lexicographer, critic
Essay (1753-06-26), The Adventurer, No. 67
(Source)

Doyle, Arthur Conan -- Story (1923-03), “The Adventure of the Creeping Man,” The Strand Magazine, Vol 65

Dave — Wed, 19 Nov 2025 17:15:48 +0000

It was one Sunday evening early in September of the year 1902 that I received one of Holmes’s laconic messages: “Come at once if convenient — if inconvenient come all the same. — S. H.”

Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930) British writer and physician
Story (1923-03), “The Adventure of the Creeping Man,” The Strand Magazine, Vol 65
(Source)

McLaughlin, Mignon -- The Neurotic’s Notebook, ch. 1 (1963)

Dave — Fri, 18 Oct 2024 18:33:08 +0000

The marriage of convenience has this to recommend it: we are better judges of convenience than we are of love.

Mignon McLaughlin (1913-1983) American journalist and author
The Neurotic’s Notebook, ch. 1 (1963)
(Source)

Mitchell, Margaret -- Gone with the Wind, Part 4. ch. 38 [Scarlett] (1936)

Dave — Wed, 04 Sep 2024 12:46:21 +0000

Death and taxes and childbirth! There’s never any convenient time for any of them!

Margaret Mitchell (1900-1949) American author and journalist.
Gone with the Wind, Part 4. ch. 38 [Scarlett] (1936)
(Source)

On death and taxes, see Bullock.

La Rochefoucauld, Francois -- Réflexions ou sentences et maximes morales [Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims], ¶1 (1665-1678) [tr. Tancock (1959)]

Dave — Fri, 23 Feb 2024 18:48:39 +0000

And it is not always because of valour or chastity that men are valiant or women chaste.

[Et ce n’est pas toujours par valeur et par chasteté que les hommes sont vaillants et que les femmes sont chastes.]

François VI, duc de La Rochefoucauld (1613-1680) French epigrammatist, memoirist, noble
Réflexions ou sentences et maximes morales [Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims], ¶1 (1665-1678) [tr. Tancock (1959)]
(Source)

Introduced in the 4th ed. (1665).

(Source (French)). Alternate translations:

It may be further affirmed, that Valour in Men, and Chastity in Women, two qualifications which make so much noise in the World, are the products of Vanity and Shame, and principally of their particular Temperaments.
[tr. Davies (1669), ¶94]

And we are much mistaken, if we think that Men are always stout from a principle of Valour, or Women chast from a principle of Modesty.
[tr. Stanhope (1694)]

It is not always from the principles of valour and chastity that men are valiant, and that women are chaste.
[pub. Donaldson (1783), ¶446]

It is not always from valor and from chastity that men are valiant, and that women are chaste.
[ed. Gowens (1851), ¶2]

It is not always from valour or from chastity that men are brave, and women chaste.
[tr. Bund/Friswell (1871)]

Men are not always brave because courageous, nor women chaste because virtuous.
[tr. Heard (1917)]

So it is not always courage that makes the hero, nor modesty the chaste woman.
[tr. Stevens (1939)]

It is not always valor which makes men valiant, nor chastity that renders women chaste.
[tr. FitzGibbon (1957)]

And it is not always through valor and chastity that men are valiant and women chaste.
[tr. Kronenberger (1959)]

It is not always because of bravery or chastity that men are brave, and women chaste.
[tr. Whichello (2016)]

Bierce, Ambrose -- “Bacchus,” The Cynic’s Word Book (1906)

Dave — Tue, 07 Nov 2023 23:28:32 +0000

BACCHUS, n. A convenient deity invented by the ancients as an excuse for getting drunk.

Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914?) American writer and journalist
“Bacchus,” The Cynic’s Word Book (1906)
(Source)

Included in The Devil's Dictionary (1911). Originally published in the "Devil's Dictionary" column in the San Francisco Wasp (1881-04-23).

Butler, Samuel -- Erewhon Revisited, ch. 11 (1901)

Dave — Tue, 16 Jun 2020 21:51:03 +0000

Belief like any other moving body follows the path of least resistance.

Samuel Butler (1835-1902) English novelist, satirist, scholar
Erewhon Revisited, ch. 11 (1901)
(Source)

Forster, E. M. -- A Passage to India, ch. 3 (1924)

Dave — Thu, 02 Aug 2018 00:26:43 +0000

Life never gives us what we want at the moment that we consider appropriate. Adventures do occur, but not punctually.

E. M. Forster (1879-1970) English novelist, essayist, critic, librettist [Edward Morgan Forster]
A Passage to India, ch. 3 (1924)
(Source)

Lewis, C.S. -- The Problem of Pain (1940)

Dave — Wed, 16 Dec 2015 14:47:30 +0000

The real trouble is that “kindness” is a quality fatally easy to attribute to ourselves on quite inadequate grounds. Everyone feels benevolent if nothing happens to be annoying him at the moment. Thus a man easily comes to console himself for all his other vices by a conviction that “his heart’s in the right place” and “he wouldn’t hurt a fly,” though in fact he has never made the slightest sacrifice for a fellow creature. We think we are kind when we are only happy: it is not so easy, on the same grounds, to imagine oneself temperate, chaste, or humble. You cannot be kind unless you have all the other virtues. If, being cowardly, conceited and slothful, you have never yet done a fellow creature great mischief, that is only because your neighbour’s welfare has not yet happened to conflict with your safety, self-approval, or ease. Every vice leads to cruelty.

C. S. Lewis (1898-1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
The Problem of Pain (1940)

Dylan, Bob -- “Brownsville Girl,” Knocked Out Loaded (1986)

Dave — Mon, 11 May 2015 12:47:47 +0000

You always said people don’t do what they believe in,
they just do what’s most convenient, then they repent.

Bob Dylan (b. 1941) American singer, songwriter
“Brownsville Girl,” Knocked Out Loaded (1986)

Publilius Syrus -- Sententiae [Moral Sayings], # 254 [tr. Lyman (1862)

Dave — Wed, 26 Jun 2013 21:34:31 +0000

Many consult their reputation; but few their conscience.

Publilius Syrus (d. 42 BC) Assyrian slave, writer, philosopher [less correctly Publius Syrus]
Sententiae [Moral Sayings], # 254 [tr. Lyman (1862)

King, Martin Luther -- Letter from Birmingham Jail (16 Apr 1963)

Dave — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 13:11:33 +0000

I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro’s great stumbling block in his stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen’s Counciler or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate, who is more devoted to “order” than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says: “I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I cannot agree with your methods of direct action”; who paternalistically believes he can set the timetable for another man’s freedom; who lives by a mythical concept of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait for a “more convenient season.” Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will.

Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968) American clergyman, civil rights leader, social activist, preacher
Letter from Birmingham Jail (16 Apr 1963)
(Source)

Stewart, Jon -- The Daily Show (2009-01-22)

Dave — Thu, 23 Apr 2009 11:59:56 +0000

If you don’t stick to your values when they are tested, they’re not values. They’re hobbies.

Jon Stewart (b. 1962) American satirist, comedian, and television host. [b. Jonathan Stuart Leibowitz]
The Daily Show (2009-01-22)

Adams, Douglas -- Last Chance to See, ch. 2 (1990) [with Mark Carwardine]

Dave — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 13:27:08 +0000

I am rarely happier than when spending entire day programming my computer to perform automatically a task that it would otherwise take me a good ten seconds to do by hand.

Douglas Adams (1952-2001) English author, humorist, screenwriter
Last Chance to See, ch. 2 (1990) [with Mark Carwardine]
(Source)

The source BBC Radio documentary (1989-11-01) can no longer be played at the BBC site.

Adams reading the 1992 audiobook can be heard here.