WIST Quotations

De Quincey, Thomas -- Essay (1839-11), “Second Paper on Murder Considered as One of the Fine Arts,” Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, Vol. 46, No. 289

Dave — Mon, 05 Jan 2026 18:03:05 +0000

For if once a man indulges himself in murder, very soon he comes to think little of robbing; and from robbing he comes next to drinking and Sabbath-breaking, and from that to incivility and procrastination. Once begin upon this downward path, you never know where to stop. Many a man has dated his ruin from some murder or other that perhaps he thought little of the time.

Thomas De Quincey (1785-1859) English writer, essayist, literary critic
Essay (1839-11), “Second Paper on Murder Considered as One of the Fine Arts,” Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, Vol. 46, No. 289
(Source)

Berry, Wendell -- Speech (1968-02-10), “A Statement Against the War in Vietnam,” Kentucky Conference on the War and the Draft, University of Kentucky

Dave — Mon, 27 Oct 2025 17:37:16 +0000

If I solve my dispute with my neighbor by killing him, I have certainly solved the immediate dispute. If my neighbor was a scoundrel, then the world is no doubt better for his absence. But in killing my neighbor, though he may have been a terrible man who did not deserve to live, I have made myself a killer — and the life of my next neighbor is in greater peril than the life of the last.

Wendell Berry (b. 1934) American farmer, educator, poet, conservationist
Speech (1968-02-10), “A Statement Against the War in Vietnam,” Kentucky Conference on the War and the Draft, University of Kentucky
(Source)

Collected in The Long-Legged House, Part 2 (1969).

Moffat, Steven -- Coupling, 01×03 “Sex, Death and Nudity” (2000-05-26)

Dave — Wed, 29 Jan 2025 18:27:47 +0000

JEFF: You’re not ready for the Giggle Loop. […] Basically, it’s like a feedback loop. You’re somewhere quiet. There’s people. It’s a — it’s a solemn occasion. A wedding. No — it’s a minute’s silence for someone who’s died. […] Minute’s silence ticking away. Tick. Tick. Tick. The Giggle Loop begins. Suddenly, out of nowhere, this thought comes into your head: the worst thing I could possibly do during a minute’s silence is laugh. (Overturns an empty beer glass) And as soon as you think that, you almost do laugh, automatic reaction. But you don’t, you control yourself. You’re fine. Whoo — but then you think how terrible it would have been if you’d laughed out loud in the middle of a minute’s silence. And so you nearly do it again, only this time it’s a bigger laugh. (Stacks a beer glass on top of the first one) And then you think how awful this bigger laugh would have been. And so you nearly laugh again, only this time it’s a very big laugh. (Stacks another glass) It’s an enormous laugh! Let this bastard out, and you get whiplash! (Stacks another glass) Suddenly, you’re in the middle of this completely silent room (Stacks another glass) and your shoulders are going like you’re drilling the road! And what do you think of this situation? Oh, dear Christ, you think it’s funny!

Steven Moffat (b. 1961) Scottish television writer, producer
Coupling, 01×03 “Sex, Death and Nudity” (2000-05-26)

Slightly edited from the transcript at Wikiquote. as verified from the video. The transcript at IMDb is much rougher.

Arendt, Hannah -- Essay (1969-02-27), “Reflections on Violence,” The New York Review of Books

Dave — Thu, 27 May 2021 15:45:58 +0000

Still, the danger of the practice of violence, even if it moves consciously within a non-extremist framework of short-term goals, will always be that the means overwhelm the end. If goals are not achieved rapidly, the result will not merely be defeat but the introduction of the practice of violence into the whole body politic. Action is irreversible, and a return to the status quo in case of defeat is always unlikely. The practice of violence, like all action, changes the world, but the most probable change is a more violent world.

Hannah Arendt (1906-1975) German-American philosopher, political theorist
Essay (1969-02-27), “Reflections on Violence,” The New York Review of Books
(Source)

Revised and collected in On Violence, ch. 3 (1970).

Schlesinger, Arthur -- The Age of Roosevelt, ch. 33, sec. 8 (1960)

Dave — Thu, 30 Apr 2020 19:57:02 +0000

Political campaigns tend to be exercises in progressive degeneration. The steady increase, week after week, in excitement and strain and weariness produces an oversimplification of issues, an over dramatization of alternatives, a growing susceptibility to extreme and catastrophic statements. Candidates find themselves shouting things in the fall that they would never dream of whispering in the summer.

Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr. (1917-2007) American historian, author, social critic
The Age of Roosevelt, ch. 33, sec. 8 (1960)
(Source)

Fairlie, Henry -- “Can You Believe Your Eyes?” Horizon (Spring 1967)

Dave — Fri, 31 Mar 2017 21:55:58 +0000

Life is not made up of dramatic incidents — even the life of a nation. It is made up of slowly evolving events and processes, which newspapers, by a score of different forms of emphasis, can reasonably attempt to explore from day to day. But television news jerks from incident to incident. For the real world of patient and familiar arrangements, it substitutes an unreal world of constant activity, and the effect is already apparent in the way which the world behaves. It is almost impossible, these days, to consider any problem or any event except as a crisis; and, by this very way of looking at it, it in fact becomes a crisis.

Henry Fairlie (1924-1990) British journalist and social critic
“Can You Believe Your Eyes?” Horizon (Spring 1967)

Nicoll, James -- “OTT: If ye break faith with us who die,” rec.arts.sf.written, Usenet (27 Apr 2006)

Dave — Mon, 14 Mar 2016 14:46:57 +0000

It demonstrated that old adage: never bring a gun to a fight where the other guy has a time-machine and tomorrow’s newspapers.

James Nicoll (b. 1961) Canadian reviewer, editor
“OTT: If ye break faith with us who die,” rec.arts.sf.written, Usenet (27 Apr 2006)
(Source)

Shakespeare, William -- Henry VI, Part 3, Act 4, sc. 8, l. 7ff (4.8.7-8) (1590)

Dave — Thu, 09 Apr 2015 13:00:47 +0000

CLARENCE: A little fire is quickly trodden out,
Which, being suffered, rivers cannot quench.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Henry VI, Part 3, Act 4, sc. 8, l. 7ff (4.8.7-8) (1590)
(Source)

Miller, Olin -- (Attributed)

Dave — Thu, 19 Feb 2015 15:39:31 +0000

If you want to make an easy job seem mighty hard, just keep putting it off.

Olin Miller (fl. early 20th C) American humorist
(Attributed)

Butcher, Jim -- Cold Days, ch. 27 (2012)

Dave — Tue, 02 Sep 2014 12:16:48 +0000

No one just starts giggling and wearing black and signs up to become a villainous monster. How the hell do you think it happens? It happens to people. Just people. They make questionable choices, for what might be very good reasons. They make choice after choice, and none of them is slaughtering roomfuls of saints, or murdering hundreds of baby seals, or rubber-room irrational. But it adds up. And then one day they look around and realized that they’re so far over the line that they can’t remember where it was.

Jim Butcher (b. 1971) American author
Cold Days, ch. 27 (2012)
(Source)

Gracián, Baltasar -- The Art of Worldly Wisdom [Oráculo Manual y Arte de Prudencia], § 31 (1647) [tr. Jacobs (1892)]

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 19:00:00 +0000

Never open the door to a lesser evil, for other and greater ones invariably slink in after it.

[Nunca se le ha de abrir la puerta al menor mal, que siempre vendrán tras él otros muchos, y mayores, en celada.]

Baltasar Gracián y Morales (1601-1658) Spanish Jesuit priest, writer, philosopher
The Art of Worldly Wisdom [Oráculo Manual y Arte de Prudencia], § 31 (1647) [tr. Jacobs (1892)]
(Source)

(Source (Spanish)). Alternate translations:

We must not open the door to the least evil, for others, and those greater too, which lie in ambush come always after.
[Flesher ed. (1685)]

Never open the door to a small misfortune, for many more always creep in behind it, and greater ones, under its protection.
[tr. Fischer (1937)]

Never open the door to the least of evils, for many other, greater ones lurk outside.
[tr. Maurer (1992)]