WIST Quotations

Jobs, Steve -- “To the Crazy Ones,” TV advertisement (1997)

Dave — Thu, 27 Aug 2020 18:40:49 +0000

Here’s to the crazy ones — the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes, the ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules, and they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them, because they change things, they push the human race forward. While some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the people who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world are the ones who do.

Steve Jobs (1955–2011) American computer inventor, entrepreneur
“To the Crazy Ones,” TV advertisement (1997)
(Source)

Often cited as a quotation from Steve Jobs, this was an Apple advertisement developed by Chiat/Day under the direction of Jobs after his return to the company in 1997, under the campaign "Think Different." The ad and its text was created by Chiat/Day talent like Craig Tanimoto, Rob Siltanen, and Ken Segall. (For more information on the ad's development, see Siltanen's article.)

Jobs did narrate the text at least once, but the original 1997 ad was voiced by Richard Dreyfuss.

Note: nearly all transcripts say, "But the only thing you can't do ..." while the word voiced is "About the only thing you can't do ...."

Carroll, Lewis -- (Spurious)

Dave — Mon, 03 Aug 2020 23:51:27 +0000

You’re mad, bonkers, off your head … but I’ll tell you a secret … all of the best people are.

Lewis Carroll (1832–1898) English writer and mathematician [pseud. of Rev. Charles Lutwidge Dodgson]
(Spurious)

This is attributed on many pages as a quote from Carroll's Alice in Wonderland. No such quote exists in the book, and the word "bonkers" does not appear until the 1940s. This appears to be a paraphrase of lines from the 2010 Tim Burton adaptation of Carroll's work (screenplay by Linda Woolverton):

HATTER: Have I gone mad?
ALICE: [checking his temperature] I'm afraid so. You're entirely bonkers. But I'll tell you a secret. All the best people are.

Aristophanes -- The Birds, ll. 812, 817-819 (414 BC) [tr. Warter (1830)]

Dave — Wed, 29 Apr 2020 15:39:01 +0000

EPOPS: Come let me see, what shall the name be for our city? […]
EUELPIDES: Hence, from the clouds, and these meteoric regions, some all-swelling name.
PISTHETAERUS: Would you “Cloud-cuckoo-land?”

Aristophanes (c. 450-c. 388 BC) Athenian comedic playwright
The Birds, ll. 812, 817-819 (414 BC) [tr. Warter (1830)]
(Source)

Alt. trans. [Hickie (1853)]
EPOPS: Come, let me see, what shall the name of our city be? [...]
EUEL.: Something very grand, from hence, from the clouds and elevated regions.
PISTH.: Would you "Cloud-cuckoo-town?"

Alt. trans. [Rogers (1906)]
CH.: Then let's consider what the name shall be.
CH.: Invent some fine
Magniloquent name, drawn from these upper spaces
And clouds.
PEI.: What think you of Cloudcuckoobury?

Alt. trans. [O'Neill (1938)]
LEADER OF THE CHORUS: Let's see. What shall our city be called? [...]
EUELPIDES: Some name borrowed from the clouds, from these lofty regions in which we dwell -- in short, some well-known name.
PISTHETAERUS: Do you like Nephelococcygia?

Faulkner, William -- As I Lay Dying (1930)

Dave — Tue, 03 Mar 2020 21:39:13 +0000

But I aint so sho that ere a man has the right to say what is crazy and what aint. It’s like there was a fellow in every man that’s done a-past the sanity or the insanity, that watches the sane and insane doings of that man with the same horror and the same astonishment.

William Faulkner (1897–1962) American novelist
As I Lay Dying (1930)
(Source)

Carroll, Lewis -- Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, ch. 6 “Pig and Pepper” (1865)

Dave — Sat, 24 Feb 2018 00:01:42 +0000

“But I don’t want to go among mad people,” Alice remarked.
”Oh, you can’t help that,” said the Cat: “we’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad.”
”How do you know I’m mad?” said Alice.
”You must be,” said the Cat, “or you wouldn’t have come here.”

Lewis Carroll (1832–1898) English writer and mathematician [pseud. of Rev. Charles Lutwidge Dodgson]
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, ch. 6 “Pig and Pepper” (1865)
(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)

Simon, Paul -- “Still Crazy After All These Years” (1975)

Dave — Thu, 12 Nov 2015 14:29:58 +0000

I met my old lover on the street today
She seemed so glad to see me; I just smiled
And we talked about the old times, and drank ourselves some beers
Still crazy after all these years.

Paul Simon (b. 1941) American musician, singer-songwriter.
“Still Crazy After All These Years” (1975)

Milligan, Spike -- (Attributed)

Dave — Thu, 06 Aug 2015 12:57:28 +0000

My father had a profound influence on me. He was a lunatic.

Terence Alan "Spike" Milligan (1918–2002) Anglo-Irish comedian, writer, actor
(Attributed)

Kettering, Charles F. -- Comment (1930)

Dave — Fri, 24 Jul 2015 15:40:06 +0000

Whenever you look at a piece of work and you think the fellow was crazy, then you want to pay some attention to that. One of you is likely to be, and you had better find out which one it is. It makes an awful lot of difference.

Charles F. Kettering (1876–1958) American inventor, engineer, researcher, businessman
Comment (1930)
(Source)

As attributed by Francis Davis, inventor of power steering.

Milligan, Spike -- (Attributed)

Dave — Thu, 09 Jul 2015 19:27:15 +0000

Blessed are the cracked, for they let in the light.

Terence Alan "Spike" Milligan (1918–2002) Anglo-Irish comedian, writer, actor
(Attributed)

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)

Whedon, Joss -- Firefly, 1×14 “Objects in Space” (13 Dec 2002)

Dave — Thu, 09 Apr 2015 12:48:27 +0000

WASH: Little River gets more colorful by the moment. What’ll she do next?

ZOE: Either blow us all up or rub soup in our hair. It’s a toss-up.

WASH: I hope she does the soup thing. It’s always a hoot and we don’t all die from it.

Joss Whedon (b. 1964) American screenwriter, author, producer [Joseph Hill Whedon]
Firefly, 1×14 “Objects in Space” (13 Dec 2002)

Brewster, Kingman -- “The Enduring American Press” symposium, Harvard (30 Oct 1964)

Dave — Mon, 12 Jan 2015 12:41:15 +0000

You and I know that there is a correlation between the creative and the screwball. So we must suffer the screwball gladly.

Kingman Brewster, Jr. (1919–1988) American educator, diplomat
“The Enduring American Press” symposium, Harvard (30 Oct 1964)

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).

~Other -- Stan Dunn

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

And that’s the world in a nutshell, an appropriate receptacle.

(Other Authors and Sources)
Stan Dunn