WIST Quotations

Carlyle, Thomas -- Lecture (1840-05-22), “The Hero as King,” Home House, Portman Square, London

Dave — Thu, 26 Mar 2026 16:11:06 +0000

Dupes indeed are many: but, of all dupes, there is none so fatally situated as he who lives in undue terror of being duped.

Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) Scottish essayist and historian
Lecture (1840-05-22), “The Hero as King,” Home House, Portman Square, London
(Source)

The lecture notes were collected by Carlyle into On Heroes, Hero-Worship, & the Heroic in History, Lecture 6 (1841).

Bierce, Ambrose -- “Patriot,” The Devil’s Dictionary (1911)

Dave — Tue, 11 Feb 2025 18:41:01 +0000

PATRIOT, n. One to whom the interests of a part seem superior to those of the whole. The dupe of statesmen and the tool of conquerors.

Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914?) American writer and journalist
“Patriot,” The Devil’s Dictionary (1911)
(Source)

Originally published in the "Cynic's Word Book" column in the New York American (1904-12-26) and the "Cynic's Dictionary" column in the San Francisco Examiner (1904-01-03).

Those newspaper versions also included:

A person whose zeal for the defense of his country’s altars and fires is not inconsistent with a fierce desire to cross the border to overturn the altars and extinguish the fires of another land.

See Bierce's definition of "Patriotism."

Mencken, H. L. -- A Little Book in C Major, ch. 6, § 1 (1916)

Dave — Tue, 09 Apr 2024 16:11:12 +0000

A man always blames the woman who fools him. In the same way he blames the door he walks into in the dark.

H. L. Mencken (1880-1956) American writer and journalist [Henry Lewis Mencken]
A Little Book in C Major, ch. 6, § 1 (1916)
(Source)

Repeated in A Book of Burlesques, ch. 12 "The Old Subject," § 6 (1924)] and Chrestomathy, ch. 30 "Sententiae" (1949).

Chesterton, Gilbert Keith -- Eugenics and Other Evils, ch. 1 (1922)

Dave — Mon, 19 Jul 2021 22:00:25 +0000

Evil always wins through the strength of its splendid dupes.

Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936) English journalist and writer
Eugenics and Other Evils, ch. 1 (1922)
(Source)

Lerner, Max -- Actions and Passions: Notes on the Multiple Revolution of Our Time (1949)

Dave — Thu, 02 Oct 2014 12:54:03 +0000

There is no crime in the cynical American calendar more humiliating than to be a sucker.

Maxwell "Max" Lerner (1902-1992) American journalist, columnist, educator
Actions and Passions: Notes on the Multiple Revolution of Our Time (1949)

Chamfort, Nicolas -- Products of Perfected Civilization [Produits de la Civilisation Perfectionée], Part 1 “Maxims and Thoughts [Maximes et Pensées],” ch. 5, ¶ 321 (1795) [tr. Parmée (2003), ¶ 205]

Dave — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 17:18:03 +0000

Education must be based on two things: ethics and prudence; ethics in order to develop your good qualities, prudence to protect you from other people’s bad ones. If you attach too great an importance to goodness, you produce credulous fools; if you’re too prudent, you produce self-serving, scheming rogues.

[L’Éducation doit porter sur deux bases, la morale et la prudence ; la morale, pour appuyer la vertu ; la prudence, pour vous défendre contre les vices d’autrui. En faisant pencher la balance du côté de la morale, vous ne faites que des dupes ou des martyrs; en la faisant pencher de l’autre côté, vous faites des calculateurs égoïstes.]

Nicolas Chamfort (1741-1794) French writer, epigrammist (b. Nicolas-Sébastien Roch)
Products of Perfected Civilization [Produits de la Civilisation Perfectionée], Part 1 “Maxims and Thoughts [Maximes et Pensées],” ch. 5, ¶ 321 (1795) [tr. Parmée (2003), ¶ 205]
(Source)

(Source (French)). Alternate translations:

Education must have two foundations -- morality as a support for virtue, prudence as a defence for self against the vices of others. By letting the balance incline to the side of morality, you only make dupes or martyrs; by letting it incline to the other, you make calculating egoists.
[tr. Hutchinson (1902)]

Education should rest on the dual support of moral philosophy and prudence, moral philosophy as the stay of virtue, and prudence as a shield against the vice in others. If you tip the scale on the moral side you will produce none but dupes and martyrs, and by tilting it in the other direction you will develop a quality of selfish calculation only.
[tr. Mathers (1926)]

Education should be constructed on two bases: morality and prudence. Morality in order to assist virtue, and prudence in order to defend you against the vices of others. In tipping the scales toward morality, you merely produce dupes and martyrs. In tipping it the other way, you produce egotistical schemers.
[tr. Merwin (1969)]

Education must have two foundations, morality and carefulness: morality to support virtue; carefulness to defend against others' vices. By inclining this balance to the side of morality, you only make dupes and martyrs; by inclining it to carefulness, you make calculating egoists.
[tr. Siniscalchi (1994)]

Fuller, Thomas (1654) -- Gnomologia: Adages and Proverbs (compiler), # 2281 (1732)

Dave — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 13:06:45 +0000

He that’s cheated twice by the same Man is an Accomplice with the Cheater.

Thomas Fuller (1654-1734) English physician, preacher, aphorist, writer
Gnomologia: Adages and Proverbs (compiler), # 2281 (1732)
(Source)