WIST Quotations

Burke, Edmund -- (Attributed)

Dave — Wed, 04 Jun 2025 15:02:35 +0000

If an idiot were to tell you the same story every day for a year, you would end by believing it.

Edmund Burke (1729-1797) Anglo-Irish statesman, orator, philosopher
(Attributed)
(Source)

Quoted without citation in John Frederick Boyes, Lacon in Council, "Literature, Poetry, Oratory, Genius, &c." (1865). That is the earliest reference I could find for this quote.

Sometimes misattributed to Horace Mann.

Colton, Charles Caleb -- Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Vol. 1, § 1 (1820)

Dave — Thu, 28 Sep 2023 15:42:51 +0000

It is almost as difficult to make a man unlearn his errors as his knowledge. Mal-information is more hopeless than non-information; for error is always more busy than ignorance. Ignorance is a blank sheet, on which we may write; but error is a scribbled one, on which we must first erase. Ignorance is contented to stand still with her back to the truth; but error is more presumptuous, and proceeds in the same direction. Ignorance has no light, but error follows a false one. The consequence is, that error, when she retraces her footsteps, has further to go, before she can arrive at the truth, than ignorance.

Charles Caleb "C. C." Colton (1780-1832) English cleric, writer, aphorist
Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Vol. 1, § 1 (1820)
(Source)

Malcolm X -- Speech, Audubon Ballroom, Harlem, New York (13 Dec 1964)

Dave — Fri, 20 Jan 2023 22:18:42 +0000

If you’re not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed, and loving the people who are doing the oppressing.

Malcolm X (1925-1965) American revolutionary, religious leader [b. Malcolm Little]
Speech, Audubon Ballroom, Harlem, New York (13 Dec 1964)
(Source)

Della Casa, Giovanni -- Galateo: Or, A Treatise on Politeness and Delicacy of Manners [Il Galateo overo de’ costumi], ch. 29 (1558) [tr. Graves (1774)]

Dave — Wed, 14 Dec 2022 16:21:27 +0000

By a pompous parade of words, some learned men have so managed it, that an unjust cause has often gained the victory, and reason submitted to sophistry and chicane.

[Gli uomini letterati, per pompa di parlare, fanno ben spesso che il torto vince, e che la ragione perde.]

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. 29 (1558) [tr. Graves (1774)]
(Source)

(Source (Italian)). Alternate translations:

But, we see that Learned men have suche art and cunning to persuade, and such filed wordes to serve their turne: that wrong doth carry the cause away, and Reason cannot prevaile.
[tr. Peterson (1576)]

Men of letters, with their parade of high-flown language, very often make the wrong to prevail and the right to succumb.
[ed. Harbottle (1897)]

We find that learned men, through their grandiose talk, very often manage to have the wrong side win and reason lose.
[tr. Eisenbichler/Bartlett (1986)]

Lippmann, Walter -- “What Modern Liberty Means,” Liberty and the News (1920)

Dave — Mon, 16 Aug 2021 17:34:41 +0000

There can be no liberty for a community which lacks the means by which to detect lies.

Walter Lippmann (1889-1974) American journalist and author
“What Modern Liberty Means,” Liberty and the News (1920)
(Source)

Lippmann, Walter -- A Preface to Politics, ch. 4 (1913)

Dave — Mon, 26 Jul 2021 14:53:31 +0000

Ours is a problem in which deception has become organized and strong; where truth is poisoned at its source; one in which the skill of the shrewdest brains is devoted to misleading a bewildered people.

Walter Lippmann (1889-1974) American journalist and author
A Preface to Politics, ch. 4 (1913)
(Source)

Snyder, Timothy -- On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century (2017)

Dave — Wed, 28 Apr 2021 13:58:26 +0000

You submit to tyranny when you renounce the difference between what you want to hear and what is actually the case. This renunciation of reality can feel natural and pleasant, but the result is your demise as an individual — and thus the collapse of any political system that depends upon individualism.

Timothy Snyder (b. 1969) American historian, author
On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century (2017)
(Source)

Hoffer, Eric -- Passionate State of Mind, Aphorism 260 (1955)

Dave — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 12:34:18 +0000

Propaganda does not deceive people; it merely helps them to deceive themselves.

Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
Passionate State of Mind, Aphorism 260 (1955)
(Source)

Hoffer, Eric -- True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements, Part 3, ch. 14, § 83 (3.14.83) (1951)

Dave — Fri, 25 Jun 2010 13:27:55 +0000

The truth seems to be that propaganda on its own cannot force its way into unwilling minds; neither can it inculcate something wholly new; nor can it keep people persuaded once they have ceased to believe. It penetrates only into minds already open, and rather than instill opinion it articulates and justifies opinions already present in the minds of its recipients. The gifted propagandist brings to a boil ideas and passions already simmering in the minds of his hearers. he echoes their innermost feelings. Where opinion is not coerced, people can be made to believe only in what they already “know.”

Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements, Part 3, ch. 14, § 83 (3.14.83) (1951)
(Source)

Jefferson, Thomas -- Letter (1807-06-14) to John Norvell

Dave — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 15:01:10 +0000

Perhaps an editor might begin a reformation in some such way as this. divide his paper into 4. chapters, heading the 1st. Truths. 2d. Probabilities. 3d. Possibilities. 4th. Lies. The 1st. chapter would be very short, as it would contain little more than authentic papers, and information from such sources as the editor would be willing to risk his own reputation for their truth. The 2d. would contain what, from a mature consideration of all circumstances, his judgment should conclude to be probably true. This however should rather contain too little than too much. The 3d. & 4th. should be professedly for those readers who would rather have lies for their money than the blank paper they would occupy.

Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) American political philosopher, polymath, statesman, US President (1801-09)
Letter (1807-06-14) to John Norvell
(Source)

Murrow, Edward R. -- Speech, The Family of Man Award, The Protestant Council of New York (Oct 1964)

Dave — Tue, 03 Mar 2009 10:52:12 +0000

The speed of communications is wondrous to behold. It is also true that speed can multiply the distribution of information that we know to be untrue. The most sophisticated satellite has no conscience. The newest computer can merely compound, at speed, the oldest problem in the relations between human beings and in the end the communicator will be confronted with the old problem of what to say and how to say it.

Edward R. Murrow (1908-1965) American journalist
Speech, The Family of Man Award, The Protestant Council of New York (Oct 1964)
(Source)

His last public speech. Reprinted in Alexander Kendrick, Prime Time: The Life of Edward R. Murrow (1969).

Russell, Bertrand -- Conquest of Happiness, Part 1, ch. 6 “Envy” (1930)

Dave — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 10:06:32 +0000

Why is propaganda so much more successful when it stirs up hatred than when it tries to stir up friendly feeling?

Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) English mathematician and philosopher
Conquest of Happiness, Part 1, ch. 6 “Envy” (1930)
(Source)

Johnson, Samuel -- Essay (1758-11-11), The Idler, No. 30

Dave — Thu, 14 Feb 2008 09:48:15 +0000

Among the calamities of war, may be justly numbered the diminution of the love of truth, by the falsehoods which interest dictates, and credulity encourages.

Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) English writer, lexicographer, critic
Essay (1758-11-11), The Idler, No. 30
(Source)

Watterson, Bill -- Calvin and Hobbes (1987-04-18)

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

CALVIN: Dad, how do people make babies?

CALVIN’S DAD: Most people just go to Sears, buy the kit, and follow the assembly instructions.

CALVIN: I came from Sears??

CALVIN’S DAD: No, you were a Blue Light Special at K Mart. Almost as good, and a lot cheaper.

CALVIN: AAUUGHHH!

CALVIN’S MOM [off panel]: Dear, what are you telling Calvin now?!

Bill Watterson (b. 1958) American cartoonist
Calvin and Hobbes (1987-04-18)
(Source)

Wills, Garry -- The Kennedy Imprisonment: A Meditation on Power, ch. 18 (1981)

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

This is always the danger with propaganda, that it becomes at last more credible to its disseminators than to its targets.

Garry Wills (b. 1934) American author, journalist, historian
The Kennedy Imprisonment: A Meditation on Power, ch. 18 (1981)
(Source)

Referring to US government efforts in the early 60s to paint Castro's regime in Cuba as weak, eventually leading to the US government itself thinking the regime could be easily toppled.