WIST Quotations

Orwell, George -- Essay (1942-08), “Looking Back on the Spanish War,” ch. 3, New Road (1943-06)

Dave — Fri, 21 Nov 2025 16:32:43 +0000

One of the effects of safe and civilized life is an immense oversensitiveness which makes all the primary emotions seem somewhat disgusting. Generosity is as painful as meanness, gratitude as hateful as ingratitude.

George Orwell (1903–1950) English journalist, essayist, writer [pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair]
Essay (1942-08), “Looking Back on the Spanish War,” ch. 3, New Road (1943-06)
(Source)

Orwell, George -- Essay (1942-08), “Looking Back on the Spanish War,” ch. 1, New Road (1943-06)

Dave — Fri, 12 Sep 2025 15:06:23 +0000

One of the essential experiences of war is never being able to escape from disgusting smells of human origin.

George Orwell (1903–1950) English journalist, essayist, writer [pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair]
Essay (1942-08), “Looking Back on the Spanish War,” ch. 1, New Road (1943-06)
(Source)

Orwell, George -- Essay (1946-09), “Politics vs. Literature: An Examination of Gulliver’s Travels,” Polemic, No. 5

Dave — Fri, 11 Apr 2025 15:19:14 +0000

In the queerest way, pleasure and disgust are linked together. The human body is beautiful: it is also repulsive and ridiculous, a fact which can be verified at any swimming pool. The sexual organs are objects of desire and also of loathing, so much so that in many languages, if not in all languages, their names are used as words of abuse. Meat is delicious, but a butcher’s shop makes one feel sick: and indeed all our food springs ultimately from dung and dead bodies, the two things which of all others seem to us the most horrible. A child, when it is past the infantile stage but still looking at the world with fresh eyes, is moved by horror almost as often as by wonder — horror of snot and spittle, of the dogs’ excrement on the pavement, the dying toad full of maggots, the sweaty smell of grown-ups, the hideousness of old men, with their bald heads and bulbous noses.
In his endless harping on disease, dirt and deformity, Swift is not actually inventing anything, he is merely leaving something out.

George Orwell (1903–1950) English journalist, essayist, writer [pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair]
Essay (1946-09), “Politics vs. Literature: An Examination of Gulliver’s Travels,” Polemic, No. 5
(Source)

Chamfort, Nicolas -- Products of Perfected Civilization [Produits de la Civilisation Perfectionnée], Part 2 “Characters and Anecdotes [Caractères et Anecdotes],” ch. 5 (frag. 863) (1795) [tr. Dusinberre (1992)]

Dave — Mon, 12 Feb 2024 15:58:30 +0000

You should swallow a toad every morning, when going out into high society, so as to encounter nothing more disgusting during the day.

[Faudrait avaler un crapaud tous les matins, pour ne trouver plus rien de dégoûtant le reste de la journée, quand on devait la passer dans le monde.]

Nicolas Chamfort (1741–1794) French writer, epigrammist (b. Nicolas-Sébastien Roch)
Products of Perfected Civilization [Produits de la Civilisation Perfectionnée], Part 2 “Characters and Anecdotes [Caractères et Anecdotes],” ch. 5 (frag. 863) (1795) [tr. Dusinberre (1992)]
(Source)

Though usually attributed directly to Chamfort, he credits the phrase to a M. de Lassay.

(Source (French)). Alternate translations:

It would be necessary to swallow a toad every morning, in order not to find anything disgusting the rest of the day, when one has to spend it in the world.
[tr. Matthews (1877)]

One must swallow a toad every morning, when one has to go out in the world, so as not to find anything more disgusting during the day.
[tr. Merwin (1969)]

Swallow a toad in the morning and you will encounter nothing more disgusting the rest of the day.
[Source]

Leonardo da Vinci -- Notebooks, De Anatomia, folio A. 10 r. [tr. McCurdy (1939)]

Dave — Wed, 28 Sep 2022 22:36:29 +0000

Da Vinci Folio A. 10 r. Red bracket to the right side of the quoted text (which is written in mirrored form). (Source)

The art of procreation and the members employed therein are so repulsive, that if it were not for the beauty of the faces and the adornments of the actors and the pent-up impulse, nature would lose the human species.

[L’atto del coito e li membri a quello adoperati son di tanta bruttura che se non fussi le bellezze de’ volti e li ornamenti delli operanti e la frenata disposizione, la natura perderebbe la spezie umana.]

Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) Italian artist, engineer, scientist, polymath
Notebooks, De Anatomia, folio A. 10 r. [tr. McCurdy (1939)]
(Source)

Windsor Anatomical manuscript A., folio 10 r / R. L. 19009R (Source (Italian)). Other translations:

The act of procreation and everything that has any relation to it is so disgusting that human beings would soon die out if it were not a traditional custom and if there were no pretty faces and sensuous dispositions.
[tr. Brill (1916), after Freud (1910)]

The act of procreation and anything that has any relation to it is so disgusting that human beings would soon die out if there were no pretty faces and sensuous dispositions.
[Variant tr. Brill (1916), after Freud (1910)]

The act of procreation and everything connected with it is so disgusting that mankind would soon die out if it were not an old-established custom and if there were not pretty faces and sensuous natures.
[tr. Tyson (1961), after Freud (1910)]

The act of coition and the members employed are so ugly that but for the beauty of the faces, the adornments of their partners and the frantic urge, Nature would lose the human race.
[tr. Dalwood (1962) after Bataille (1957)]

The act of copulation and the members employed are so repulsive, that if it were not for the beauty of faces and the adornments of the actors and unbridled passion, nature would lose the human race.
[tr. Armstrong (2013), after Nancy (2009)]

Della Casa, Giovanni -- Galateo: Or, A Treatise on Politeness and Delicacy of Manners [Il Galateo overo de’ costumi], ch. 3 (1558) [tr. Peterson (1576)]

Dave — Mon, 19 Sep 2022 16:26:25 +0000

And when thou hast blowne thy nose, use not to open thy handkercheif, to glare uppon thy snot, as if yu hadst pearles and rubies fallen from thy braynes.

[Non si vuole anco, soffiato che tu ti sarai il naso, aprire il moccichino e guatarvi entro, come se perle o rubini ti dovessero esser discesi dal cielabro.]

Giovanni della Casa (1503–1556) Florentine poet, author, diplomat, bishop
Galateo: Or, A Treatise on Politeness and Delicacy of Manners [Il Galateo overo de’ costumi], ch. 3 (1558) [tr. Peterson (1576)]

(Source (Italian)). Other translations:

It is moreover extremely indecent [...], when you have blown your nose, to draw aside and examine the contents of your handkerchief; as if you expected pearls or rubies to distil from your brain.
[tr. Graves (1774)]

And when you have blown your nose you should not open your handkerchief and look inside, as if pearls or rubies might have descended from your brain.
[tr. Einsenbichler/Bartlett (1986)]

McCarthy, Cormac -- The Crossing (2010)

Dave — Mon, 09 Mar 2020 17:01:14 +0000

He said the wicked know that if the ill they do be of sufficient horror men will not speak against it. That men have just enough stomach for small evils and only these will they oppose.

Cormac McCarthy (1933–2023) American novelist, playwright, screenwriter
The Crossing (2010)
(Source)

Aristotle -- Parts of Animals [De Partibus Animalium], Book 1, part 5 (645a.15) (c. 350 BC) [tr. Ogle (1912)]

Dave — Mon, 27 Jan 2020 16:01:14 +0000

We therefore must not recoil with childish aversion from the examination of the humbler animals. Every realm of nature is marvelous: and as Heraclitus, when the strangers who came to visit him found him warming himself at the furnace in the kitchen and hesitated to go in, reported to have bidden them not to be afraid to enter, as even in that kitchen divinities were present, so we should venture on the study of every kind of animal without distaste; for each and all will reveal to us something natural and something beautiful.

Aristotle (384–322 BC) Greek philosopher
Parts of Animals [De Partibus Animalium], Book 1, part 5 (645a.15) (c. 350 BC) [tr. Ogle (1912)]
(Source)

Other translation:

For this reason we should not be childishly disgusted at the examination of the less valuable animals. For in all natural things there is something marvelous. Even as Heraclitus is said to have spoken to those strangers who wished to meet him but stopped as they were approaching when they saw him warming himself by the oven -- he bade them enter without fear, "for there are gods here too" -- so too one should approach research about each of the animals without disgust, since in every one there is something natural and good.
[tr. Lennox (2001)]

Fuller, Bryan -- American Gods, 1×03 “Head Full of Snow” (2017-05-14) [with Michael Green]

Dave — Wed, 24 May 2017 00:04:06 +0000

ZORYA POLUNOCHNAYA: Kissing is disgusting. But in a nice way, like bleu cheese or brandy.

Bryan Fuller (b. 1969) American screenwriter, television producer
American Gods, 1×03 “Head Full of Snow” (2017-05-14) [with Michael Green]
(Source)

This line does not appear in the original novel by Neil Gaiman.

De Sica, Vittorio -- In The Observer (1961)

Dave — Thu, 31 Mar 2016 13:59:31 +0000

Moral indignation is in most cases 2 percent moral, 48 percent indignation, and 50 percent envy.

Vittorio De Sica (1901–1974) Italian neorealist director and actor
In The Observer (1961)

See also H. G. Wells.

Bismarck, Otto von -- (Misattributed)

Dave — Fri, 24 Aug 2012 15:11:44 +0000

Laws, like sausages, cease to inspire respect in proportion as we know how they are made.

Otto von Bismarck (1815–1898) Prussian statesman
(Misattributed)

This and variants are attributed to Bismarck (with no citations and not earlier than the 1930s), as well as to Kaiser Wilhelm, Benjamin Disraeli, and French statesman Honoré Gabriel de Riqueti. Variations on this theme were popular in late 19th Century America.

The precise wording above does have a direct citation to Vermont lawyer and author John Godfrey Saxe, in University Chronicle, University of Michigan (1869-03-27).

Variants (usually attributed to Bismarck, again without citation):

"If you like laws and sausages, you should never watch either one being made."
"Laws are like sausages — it is best not to see them being made."
"Laws are like sausages. It is better not to see them being made."
"Laws are like sausages. You should never see them made."
"Laws are like sausages. You should never watch them being made."
"Law and sausage are two things you do not want to see being made."
"No one should see how laws or sausages are made."
"To retain respect for sausages and laws, one must not watch them in the making."
"The making of laws like the making of sausages, is not a pretty sight."
"Je weniger die Leute darüber wissen, wie Würste und Gesetze gemacht werden, desto besser schlafen sie nachts." [The less the people know about how sausages and laws are made, the better they sleep in the night.]

Wells, H.G. -- The Wife of Sir Isaac Harman, 9.2 (1914)

Dave — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 17:37:01 +0000

Moral indignation is jealousy with a halo.

H. G. Wells (1866–1946) British writer [Herbert George Wells]
The Wife of Sir Isaac Harman, 9.2 (1914)

Cicero, Marcus Tullius -- De Oratore [On the Orator, On Oratory], Book 3, ch. 25 (3.25) / sec. 100 (55 BC) [tr. Rackham (1942)]

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

Thus in all things the greatest pleasures are only narrowly separated from disgust.

[Sic omnibus in rebus, voluptatibus maximis fastidium finitimum est.]

Marcus Tullius Cicero (106–43 BC) Roman orator, statesman, philosopher
De Oratore [On the Orator, On Oratory], Book 3, ch. 25 (3.25) / sec. 100 (55 BC) [tr. Rackham (1942)]
(Source)

(Source (Latin)). Other translations:

Thus, generally speaking, Loathing borders upon the most pleasing Sensations.
[tr. Guthrie (1755)]

Thus, generally speaking, satiety borders upon the most pleasing sensations.
[Source (1808)]

In all other things, loathing still borders upon the most exquisite delights.
[tr. Watson (1860)]

The extremes of gratification and disgust are separated by the finest line of demarcation.
[tr. Calvert (1870)]

In everything we do, all our keenest pleasures end in satiety.
[ed. Harbottle (1906)]

In everything else, then, the greatest pleasure borders on aversion.
[tr. May/Wisse (2001)]