WIST Quotations

Broun, Heywood -- New York World (6 Feb 1928)

Dave — Wed, 24 May 2017 17:42:07 +0000

Just as every conviction begins as a whim so does every emancipator serve his apprenticeship as a crank. A fanatic is a great leader who is just entering the room.

Heywood Broun (1888-1939) American journalist, author
New York World (6 Feb 1928)
(Source)

Bell, Alexander Graham -- Interview, in Orison Swett Marden, How They Succeeded, ch. 2 (1901)

Dave — Thu, 07 Apr 2016 13:47:49 +0000

Perseverance must have some practical end, or it does not avail the man possessing it. A person without a practical end in view becomes a crank or an idiot. Such persons fill our asylums.

Alexander Graham Bell (1847-1922) Scottish-American scientist, inventor, engineer
Interview, in Orison Swett Marden, How They Succeeded, ch. 2 (1901)
(Source)

Heinlein, Robert A. -- Time Enough For Love [Lazarus Long] (1973)

Dave — Tue, 30 Jun 2015 15:37:09 +0000

Crazy — a nonscientific term meaning that the person to whom one applies that label has a world picture differing from the accepted one.

Robert A. Heinlein (1907-1988) American writer
Time Enough For Love [Lazarus Long] (1973)

Twain, Mark -- Following the Equator, ch. 53 (1897)

Dave — Fri, 26 Jun 2015 14:55:29 +0000

If the man doesn’t believe as we do, we say he is a crank, and that settles it. I mean it does nowadays, because now we can’t burn him.

Mark Twain (1835-1910) American writer [pseud. of Samuel Clemens]
Following the Equator, ch. 53 (1897)

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Sr. -- Article (1890-06), “Over the Teacups,” No. 7, Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 66

Dave — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 14:10:46 +0000

That is what you have to expect if you invent anything that puts an old machine out of fashion, or solve a problem that has puzzled all the world up to your time. There never was a religion founded but its Messiah was called a crank. There never was an idea started that woke up men out of their stupid indifference but its originator was spoken of as a crank.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809-1894) American poet, essayist, scholar
Article (1890-06), “Over the Teacups,” No. 7, Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 66
(Source)

Collected in Over the Teacups, ch. 7 (1891).