WIST Quotations

Watterson, Bill -- Calvin and Hobbes (1993-11-16)

Dave — Tue, 12 May 2026 20:55:28 +0000

CALVIN: I don’t care about issues! I’ve got better things to do than argue with every wrong-headed crackpot with an ignorant opinion! I’m a busy man! I say, either agree with me or take a hike! I’m right, period! End of discussion!

Bill Watterson (b. 1958) American cartoonist
Calvin and Hobbes (1993-11-16)
(Source)

Watterson, Bill -- Calvin and Hobbes (1993-10-20)

Dave — Tue, 06 Jan 2026 20:52:19 +0000

CALVIN: Everybody seeks happiness! Not me, though! That’s the difference between me and the rest of the world! Happiness isn’t good enough for me! I demand euphoria!

Bill Watterson (b. 1958) American cartoonist
Calvin and Hobbes (1993-10-20)
(Source)

Martin, Judith -- “Miss Manners,” syndicated column (1993-03-07)

Dave — Mon, 24 Nov 2025 16:01:15 +0000

Contrary to rumor, bridesmaids are not obliged to entertain in honor of the bride, nor to wear clothes that they cannot afford and that make them look stupid.
And no, the bride does not have a “right” to demand either one because it is “her day.” Any sensible person who hears someone speaking in an imperious tone of “her day” would be wise to consider that it therefore isn’t going to be anyone else’s day, and to leave her to enjoy it alone.

Judith Martin (b. 1938) American author, journalist, etiquette expert [a.k.a. Miss Manners]
“Miss Manners,” syndicated column (1993-03-07)
(Source)

Peters, Ellis -- Cadfael Chronicles No. 3, One Corpse Too Many, ch. 12 (1979)

Dave — Thu, 05 Dec 2024 21:37:54 +0000

The trouble with me, he thought unhappily, is that I have been about the world long enough to know that God’s plans for us, however infallibly good, may not take the form that we expect and demand.

Ellis Peters (1913–1995) English writer, translator [pseud. of Edith Mary Pargeter, who also wrote under the names John Redfern, Jolyon Carr, Peter Benedict]
Cadfael Chronicles No. 3, One Corpse Too Many, ch. 12 (1979)
(Source)

Franklin, Benjamin -- Poor Richard (1733 ed.)

Dave — Tue, 18 Jul 2023 17:15:16 +0000

Mirth pleaseth some, to others ’tis offence,
Some commend plain conceit, some profound sense;
Some wish a witty Jest, some dislike that,
And most would have themselves they know not what.
Then he that would please all, and himself too,
Takes more in hand than he is like to do.

Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790) American statesman, scientist, philosopher, aphorist
Poor Richard (1733 ed.)
(Source)

Lec, Stanislaw -- More Unkempt Thoughts [Myśli nieuczesane nowe] (1964) [tr. Gałązka (1969)]

Dave — Tue, 15 Mar 2022 14:53:34 +0000

It is the high priests that make demands — not the gods they serve.

Stanislaw Lec (1909–1966) Polish aphorist, poet, satirist
More Unkempt Thoughts [Myśli nieuczesane nowe] (1964) [tr. Gałązka (1969)]
(Source)

Kipling, Rudyard -- School History, “Dane-Geld (A.D. 980-1016),” st. 3-4 (1911) [with C.R.L. Fletcher]

Dave — Tue, 11 Jul 2017 00:40:44 +0000

It is always a temptation to a rich and lazy nation,

To puff and look important and to say: —

“Though we know we should defeat you, we have not the time to meet you.

We will therefore pay you cash to go away.”

And that is called paying the Dane-geld;
But we’ve proved it again and again,
That if once you have paid him the Dane-geld
You never get rid of the Dane.

Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) English writer
School History, “Dane-Geld (A.D. 980-1016),” st. 3-4 (1911) [with C.R.L. Fletcher]
(Source)

King, Martin Luther -- Letter from Birmingham Jail (16 Apr 1963)

Dave — Fri, 24 Feb 2012 15:06:36 +0000

We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed. Frankly, I have yet to engage in a direct action campaign that was “well timed” in the view of those who have not suffered unduly from the disease of segregation. For years now I have heard the word “Wait!” It rings in the ear of every Negro with piercing familiarity. This “Wait” has almost always meant “Never.” We must come to see, with one of our distinguished jurists, that “justice too long delayed is justice denied.”

Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929–1968) American clergyman, civil rights leader, social activist, preacher
Letter from Birmingham Jail (16 Apr 1963)
(Source)

See Gladstone.

Douglass, Frederick -- Speech (1857-08-04) on West India Emancipation, Ontario County Agricultural Society Fairgrounds, Canandaigua, New York

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

Let me give you a word of the philosophy of reform. The whole history of the progress of human liberty shows that all concessions yet made to her august claims, have been born of earnest struggle. The conflict has been exciting, agitating, all-absorbing, and for the time being, putting all other tumults to silence. It must do this or it does nothing. If there is no struggle, there is no progress.
Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet depreciate agitation, are men who want crops without plowing up the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its many waters. This struggle may be a moral one; or it may be a physical one; or it may be both moral and physical; but it must be a struggle.

Frederick Douglass (1817–1895) American abolitionist, orator, writer
Speech (1857-08-04) on West India Emancipation, Ontario County Agricultural Society Fairgrounds, Canandaigua, New York
(Source)