WIST Quotations

Taleb, Nassim Nicholas -- The Black Swan, Part 1, ch. 5 “Confirmation Shmonfirmation!” (2007)

Dave — Mon, 12 May 2025 18:00:07 +0000

But it remains the case that you know what is wrong with a lot more confidence than you know what is right.

Nassim Nicholas Taleb (b. 1960) Lebanese-American essayist, statistician, risk analyst, aphorist
The Black Swan, Part 1, ch. 5 “Confirmation Shmonfirmation!” (2007)
(Source)

Billings, Josh -- Everybody’s Friend, Or; Josh Billing’s Encyclopedia and Proverbial Philosophy of Wit and Humor, ch. 156 “Affurisms: Embers on the Harth” (1874)

Dave — Thu, 01 May 2025 17:17:06 +0000

We are never nearer right than we am when we fear we are rong.

[We are never nearer right than we are when we fear we are wrong.]

Josh Billings (1818-1885) American humorist, aphorist [pseud. of Henry Wheeler Shaw]
Everybody’s Friend, Or; Josh Billing’s Encyclopedia and Proverbial Philosophy of Wit and Humor, ch. 156 “Affurisms: Embers on the Harth” (1874)
(Source)

Democritus -- Frag. 73 (Diels) [tr. Freeman (1948)]

Dave — Tue, 13 Apr 2021 15:45:23 +0000

Virtuous love consists in decorous desire for the beautiful.

[Δίκαιος ἔρως ἀνυβρίστως ἐφίεσθαι τῶν καλῶν]

Democritus (c. 460 BC - c. 370 BC) Greek philosopher
Frag. 73 (Diels) [tr. Freeman (1948)]
(Source)

Diels citation "73. (87 N.) DEMOKRATES. 38."; collected in Joannes Stobaeus (Stobaios) Anthologium III, 5, 23. Freeman notes this as one of the Gnômae, from a collection called "Maxims of Democratês," but because Stobaeus quotes many of these as "Maxims of Democritus," they are generally attributed to the latter. Alternate translations:

"Rightful love is longing without violence for the noble." [tr. Barnes (1987)]
"Just lust is longing for noble things without arrogance." [tr. @sententiq (2018)]

Ebner-Eschenbach, Marie von -- Aphorisms, #67 (1880)

Dave — Mon, 15 Jun 2020 22:48:28 +0000

Even a stopped clock is right twice every day. After some years, it can boast of a long series of successes.

[Die still stehende Uhr, die täglich zwei Mal die richtige Zeit angezeigt hat, blickt nach Jahren auf eine lange Reihe von Erfolgen zurück.]

Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach (1830-1916) Austrian writer
Aphorisms, #67 (1880)
(Source)

Harris, Sydney J. -- (Attributed)

Dave — Mon, 10 Feb 2020 21:47:13 +0000

Maturity begins when we’re content to feel we’re right about something without feeling the necessity to prove someone else wrong.

Sydney J. Harris (1917-1986) Anglo-American columnist, journalist, author
(Attributed)

Frequently attributed to Harris, but the original source has not been found. Earliest citation I could find was in Reader's Digest (1973), where it is further credited to the Publishers-Hall Syndicate.

Stevenson, Robert Louis -- “Reflections and Remarks on Human Life,” #6 (1878)

Dave — Mon, 20 Nov 2017 17:34:06 +0000

It is the mark of a good action that it appears inevitable in retrospect.

Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–1894) Scottish essayist, novelist, poet
“Reflections and Remarks on Human Life,” #6 (1878)
(Source)

Kettering, Charles F. -- (Attributed)

Dave — Fri, 21 Aug 2015 14:59:00 +0000

People see the wrongness in an idea much quicker that the rightness.

Charles F. Kettering (1876-1958) American inventor, engineer, researcher, businessman
(Attributed)

Eisner, Elliot -- The Arts and the Creation of Mind, ch. 8 (2002)

Dave — Wed, 29 Jul 2015 16:00:54 +0000

One lesson the arts teach is that there can be more than one answer to a question and more than one solution to a problem; variability of outcome is okay. […] The arts teach children that their personal signature is important and that answers to questions and solutions to problems need not be identical. There is, in the arts, more than one interpretation to a musical score, more than one way to describe a painting or a sculpture, more than one appropriate form for a dance performance, more than one meaning for a poetic rendering of a person or a situation. In the arts diversity and variability are made central. That is one lesson that education can learn from the arts.

Elliot Eisner (1933-2014) Academic, researcher, professor of art and education
The Arts and the Creation of Mind, ch. 8 (2002)
(Source)

Variant: "The arts teach children that problems can have more than one solution; questions can have more than one answer. If they do anything, the arts embrace diversity of outcome."

Heywood, John -- Proverbes, Part 2, ch. 11 (1546)

Dave — Mon, 07 Oct 2013 12:18:12 +0000

This hitteth the naile on the hed.

John Heywood (1497?-1580?) English playwright and epigrammist
Proverbes, Part 2, ch. 11 (1546)
(Source)

Keynes, John Maynard -- (Misttributed)

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

It is better to be roughly right than to be precisely wrong.

John Maynard Keynes (1883-1946) English economist
(Misttributed)

Not attributed to Keynes until after his death. Actually from Carveth Read, Logic, deductive and inductive (1898): "It is better to be vaguely right than exactly wrong."