WIST Quotations

Kerr, Jean -- Essay (1955-08-01), “Greenwich, Anyone?” Vogue Magazine

Dave — Mon, 30 Mar 2026 17:02:10 +0000

Oftentimes, in the evening after they have finished spreading the fertilizer, the writer and his wife sit on the fence — with a wonderful sense of “togetherness” — and listen to the magic symphony of the crickets.
I can understand that. Around our house, we’re pretty busy, and of course we’re not the least bit integrated, but nevertheless my husband and I often sit together in the deepening twilight and listen to the sweet, gentle slosh-click, slosh-click of the dishwasher. He smiles and I smile. Oh, it’s a golden moment.

Jean Kerr (1922-2003) American author and playwright [b. Bridget Jean Collins]
Essay (1955-08-01), “Greenwich, Anyone?” Vogue Magazine
(Source)

Collected in Please Don't Eat the Daisies (1957).

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)

Shakespeare, William -- Henry VI, Part 3, Act 3, sc. 5, l. 21ff (3.5.21-41) (1591)

Dave — Mon, 12 May 2025 16:49:49 +0000

KING HENRY: O God! Methinks it were a happy life
To be no better than a homely swain,
To sit upon a hill as I do now,
To carve out dials quaintly, point by point,
Thereby to see the minutes how they run:
How many makes the hour full complete,
How many hours brings about the day,
How many days will finish up the year,
How many years a mortal man may live.
When this is known, then to divide the times:
So many hours must I tend my flock,
So many hours must I take my rest,
So many hours must I contemplate,
So many hours must I sport myself,
So many days my ewes have been with young,
So many weeks ere the poor fools will ean,
So many years ere I shall shear the fleece;
So minutes, hours, days, months, and years,
Passed over to the end they were created,
Would bring white hairs unto a quiet grave.
Ah, what a life were this! How sweet, how lovely!

William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Henry VI, Part 3, Act 3, sc. 5, l. 21ff (3.5.21-41) (1591)
(Source)

"Ean" means to give birth to lambs.

Jacobs, Jane -- The Death and Life of Great American Cities, Part 4, ch. 22 (1961)

Dave — Mon, 23 Sep 2024 22:26:47 +0000

There are dangers in sentimentalizing nature. Most sentimental ideas imply, at bottom, a deep if unacknowledged disrespect. It is no accident that we Americans, probably the world’s champion sentimentalizers about nature, are at one and the same time probably the world’s most voracious and disrespectful destroyers of wild and rural countryside.

Jane Jacobs (1916-2006) American-Canadian journalist, author, urban theorist, activist
The Death and Life of Great American Cities, Part 4, ch. 22 (1961)
(Source)

Thomson, James -- The Seasons, “Spring” (1728)

Dave — Tue, 23 Jan 2024 19:47:16 +0000

An elegant Sufficiency, Content,
Retirement, rural Quiet, Friendship, Books,
Ease and alternate Labor, useful Life,
Progressive Virtue, and approving Heaven!

James Thomson (1700-1748) Scottish poet and playwright
The Seasons, “Spring” (1728)
(Source)

"The matchless joys of virtuous love" in a loving country family.

Krutch, Joseph Wood -- The Twelve Seasons, “June” (1949)

Dave — Tue, 31 May 2022 22:26:31 +0000

Children can be taken occasionally to the country to see what the sun looks like as they are taken now to see a hill or a mountain. Probably many of them will not want to go anyway, for the country will be to them only what it was to the London club man: “A damp sort of place where all sorts of birds fly about uncooked.”

Joseph Wood Krutch (1893-1970) American educator, writer, critic, naturalist
The Twelve Seasons, “June” (1949)
(Source)

The comment at the end is sometimes misattributed to Oscar Wilde. Further discussion of this quotation here: The Country: A Damp Sort of Place Where All Sorts of Birds Fly About Uncooked – Quote Investigator.