WIST Quotations

McRaney, David -- You Are Not So Smart, ch. 27 “Selling Out” (2011)

Dave — Fri, 20 Mar 2020 17:37:49 +0000

The very act of trying to run counter to the culture is what creates the next wave of culture people will in turn attempt to counter.

David McRaney (contemp.) American journalist, author, lecturer
You Are Not So Smart, ch. 27 “Selling Out” (2011)
(Source)

Tawney, R. H. -- The Acquisitive Century, ch. 3 “The Acquisitive Society” (1920)

Dave — Thu, 19 Jan 2017 19:50:24 +0000

Revolutions, as a long and bitter experience reveals, are apt to take their colour from the régime which they overthrow. Is it any wonder that the creed which affirms the absolute rights of property should sometimes be met with a counter-affirmation of the absolute rights of labour, less anti-social, indeed, and inhuman, but almost as dogmatic, almost as intolerant and thoughtless as itself.

R. H. Tawney (1880-1962) English writer, economist, historian, social critic [Richard Henry Tawney]
The Acquisitive Century, ch. 3 “The Acquisitive Society” (1920)
(Source)

Pratchett, Terry -- Discworld No. 29, Night Watch [Vimes] (2002)

Dave — Wed, 09 Sep 2015 14:46:27 +0000

Here’s some advice boy. Don’t put your trust in revolutions. They always come around again. That’s why they’re called revolutions.

Terry Pratchett (1948-2015) English author
Discworld No. 29, Night Watch [Vimes] (2002)
(Source)

Büchner, Karl Georg -- Danton’s Death, Act I (1835)

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

The Revolution is like Saturn — it eats its own children.

Karl Georg Büchner (1813-1837) German dramatist
Danton’s Death, Act I (1835)

Also attributed to Pierre Vergniaud, Girondin politician, speaking at the French National Assembly (16 Mar 1793): "Citizens, we now have cause to fear that the Revolution, like Saturn successively devouring his children, has finally given way to despotism and all the calamities that despotism implies."