WIST Quotations

Racine, Jean -- Phèdre [Phædra], Act 4, sc. 2, l. 1094ff (1677-01-01) [tr. Boswell (1897)]

Dave — Fri, 19 Dec 2025 05:54:19 +0000

HIPPOLYTUS: Great crimes are never single, they are link’d
To former faults. He who has once transgress’d
May violate at last all that men hold
Most sacred; vice, like virtue, has degrees
Of progress; innocence was never seen
To sink at once into the lowest depths
Of guilt.

[HIPPOLYTE: Quelques crimes toujours precedent les grands crimes.
Quiconque a pu franchir les bornes légitimes
Peut violer enfin les droits les plus sacrés ;
Ainsi que la vertu, le crime a ses degrés ;
Et jamais on n’a vu la timide innocence
Passer subitement à l’extrême licence.]

Jean Racine (1639-1699) French dramatist
Phèdre [Phædra], Act 4, sc. 2, l. 1094ff (1677-01-01) [tr. Boswell (1897)]
(Source)

(Source (French)). Other translations:

Crime, like virtue, hath degrees; one single day can not make a bad man just; nor can the good, in such short season, pass suddenly to utter baseness.
[tr. Heron (1858), 3.1]

Some crimes always precede great crimes; whoever has overstepped the legitimate limits, may at last violate the most sacred rights; thus, as well as virtue, crime has its degrees, and we have never seen timid innocence pass suddenly into extreme licentiousness.
[tr. Mongan (1885)]

Some lesser crimes always precede great sin.
He who hath once the bounds of right transgressed
May violate the most sacred laws at last;
But even as virtue, vice hath its degrees,
And modest innocence one never sees
Pass suddenly to wanton ways and lewd.
[tr. Lockert (1936)]

A man who can transgress the lawful boundaries
may violate the most sacred rights in the end.
Like virtue, crime has its gradations;
Never has timid innocence
suddenly become extreme depravity.
[Unk.]

Crime like virtue has its degrees; and timid innocence was never known to blossom suddenly into extreme license.
[Bartlett's]

Fussell, Paul -- Class: A Guide Through the American Status System, ch. 6 (1983)

Dave — Tue, 25 May 2021 15:36:58 +0000

Anyone who doesn’t realize that, whether for their attenders or their conductors, colleges and universities are the current equivalent of salons and levees and courts should look harder. If no other institution here confers the titles of nobility forbidden by the Constitution, they do. Or something very much like it.

Paul Fussell (1924-2012) American cultural and literary historian, author, academic
Class: A Guide Through the American Status System, ch. 6 (1983)

Democritus -- Frag. 64 (Diels) [tr. Freeman (1948)]

Dave — Tue, 05 Jan 2021 16:24:33 +0000

Many much-learned men have no intelligence.

[Πολλοὶ πολυμαθέες νοῦν οὐκ ἔχουσιν.]

Democritus (c. 460 BC - c. 370 BC) Greek philosopher
Frag. 64 (Diels) [tr. Freeman (1948)]
(Source)

Diels citation "64. (190 N.) DEMOKRATES. 29."; collected in Joannes Stobaeus (Stobaios) Anthologium III, 4, 81. 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:

"There are many who know many things, yet are lacking in wisdom." [tr. Bakewell (1907)]
"Many who have learned much possess no sense." [tr. Barnes (1987)]
"Many who have learned a lot do not have a mind." [tr. @sentantiq (2018)]
"Many, though widely read, possess no sense." [Source]