https://wist.info Wish I'd Said That! Fri, 21 Aug 2026 23:09:29 +0000 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.0.4 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=7.0.4 https://wist.info/wp/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/little-w-little-box-60x60.jpg https://wist.info 32 32 43606282 https://wist.info/bierce-ambrose/84987/ https://wist.info/bierce-ambrose/84987/#respond Tue, 14 Jul 2026 23:08:56 +0000 Dave https://wist.info/?p=84987 EPIDEMIC, n. A disease having a sociable turn and few prejudices.

Ambrose Bierce (1842–1914?) American writer and journalist
“Epidemic,” “Devil’s Dictionary” column, San Francisco Wasp (1883-04-28)
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Not collected in later books. ]]> https://wist.info/bierce-ambrose/84987/feed/ 0 84987 https://wist.info/harlan-john-marshall/44506/ https://wist.info/harlan-john-marshall/44506/#respond Tue, 01 Dec 2020 00:42:16 +0000 Dave https://wist.info/?p=44506 The liberty secured by the Constitution of the United States does not import an absolute right in each person to be at all times, and in all circumstances, wholly freed from restraint. […] Upon the principle of self-defense, of paramount necessity, a community has the right to protect itself against an epidemic of disease which threatens the safety of its members. […] In every well ordered society charged with the duty of conserving the safety of its members the rights of the individual in respect of his liberty may at times, under the pressure of great dangers, be subjected to such restraint, to be enforced by reasonable regulations, as the safety of the general public may demand.

John Marshall Harlan (1833–1911) American lawyer, politician, Supreme Court Justice (1877–1911)
Jacobson v. Massachusetts, 197 U.S. 11 (20 Feb 1905) [majority opinion]
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