WIST Quotations

Manning, Brennan -- All Is Grace: A Ragamuffin Memoir, ch. 19 (2011)

Dave — Mon, 08 Jun 2026 17:02:49 +0000

Grace is sufficient even though we huff and puff with all our might to try to find something or someone it cannot cover.

Brennan Manning (1934–2013) American author, laicized priest, theologian, speaker [Richard Francis Xavier Manning]
All Is Grace: A Ragamuffin Memoir, ch. 19 (2011)

Lincoln, Abraham -- Speech (1858-07-17), Springfield, Illinois

Dave — Sat, 10 May 2025 22:22:36 +0000

I adhere to the Declaration of Independence. If Judge Douglas and his friends are not willing to stand by it, let them come up and amend it. Let them make it read that all men are created equal except negroes. Let us have it decided whether the Declaration of Independence, in this blessed year of 1858, shall be thus amended. In his construction of the Declaration last year, he said it only meant that Americans in America were equal to Englishmen in England. Then, when I pointed out to him that by that rule he excludes the Germans, the Irish, the Portuguese, and all the other people who have come among us since the revolution, he reconstructs his construction. In his last speech he tells us it meant Europeans.
I press him a little further, and ask if it meant to include the Russians in Asia; or does he mean to exclude that vast population from the principles of our Declaration of Independence? I expect ere long he will introduce another amendment to his definition. He is not at all particular. He is satisfied with anything which does not endanger the nationalizing of negro slavery. It may draw white men down, but it must not lift negroes up.

Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) American lawyer, politician, US President (1861–65)
Speech (1858-07-17), Springfield, Illinois

Johnson, Lyndon -- Speech (1965-01-20), Inaugural Address, Washington, D. C.

Dave — Tue, 05 Nov 2024 15:24:12 +0000

Justice requires us to remember that when any citizen denies his fellow, saying, “His color is not mine,” or “His beliefs are strange and different,” in that moment he betrays America, though his forebears created this Nation.

Lyndon B. Johnson (1908–1973) American politician, educator, US President (1963–69)
Speech (1965-01-20), Inaugural Address, Washington, D. C.

This is in the formal text of the speech, delivered at the US Capitol building, but a review of the videos (1, 2, 3) shows this as part of a large section of the speech he skipped (from the end of the "AMERICAN COVENANT" section directly to the "AMERICAN BELIEF" section).

Baldwin, James -- Speech (1965-02-17), Opening Comments, “The American Dream is at the Expense of the American Negro,” debate with William F. Buckley, Jr., Cambridge University, England

Dave — Tue, 27 Oct 2020 18:10:56 +0000

It comes as a great shock around the age of 5, or 6, or 7, to discover that the flag to which you have pledged allegiance, along with everybody else, has not pledged allegiance to you.

James Baldwin (1924–1987) American novelist, playwright, activist
Speech (1965-02-17), Opening Comments, “The American Dream is at the Expense of the American Negro,” debate with William F. Buckley, Jr., Cambridge University, England

(Source (Video))

Rubin, Lillian -- Intimate Strangers: Men and Women Together (1983)

Dave — Tue, 13 Oct 2020 22:28:00 +0000

A set of beliefs is at once a way of seeing the world more clearly while, at the same time, foreclosing an alternative vision.

Lillian Rubin (1924–2014) American writer, professor, psychotherapist, sociologist
Intimate Strangers: Men and Women Together (1983)

Section reprinted as "The Sexual Dilemma" in Roberta Satow, Gender and Social Life (2000).

Adams, Gerry -- Daily Telegraph (11 Apr 1998)

Dave — Tue, 13 Sep 2016 04:06:24 +0000

Peace cannot be built on exclusion. That has been the price of the past 30 years.

Gerry Adams (b. 1948) Northern Irish politician, statesman [Gearóid Mac Ádhaimh]
Daily Telegraph (11 Apr 1998)

Francis I (Pope) -- Evangelii Gaudium, sec. 53 (24 Nov 2013)

Dave — Wed, 06 Aug 2014 13:11:24 +0000

Just as the commandment “Thou shalt not kill” sets a clear limit in order to safeguard the value of human life, today we also have to say “thou shalt not” to an economy of exclusion and inequality. Such an economy kills. How can it be that it is not a news item when an elderly homeless person dies of exposure, but it is news when the stock market loses two points? This is a case of exclusion. Can we continue to stand by when food is thrown away while people are starving? This is a case of inequality. Today everything comes under the laws of competition and the survival of the fittest, where the powerful feed upon the powerless. As a consequence, masses of people find themselves excluded and marginalized: without work, without possibilities, without any means of escape.

Francis I (1936–2025) Argentinian Catholic Pope (2013–2025) [b. Jorge Mario Bergoglio]
Evangelii Gaudium, sec. 53 (24 Nov 2013)

Wiman, George -- Wiman’s Theological Variant on Clarke’s Law, Stupid Evil Bastard, “A Christian asks, ‘I’m the bad guy? How did that happen?'”, Comment (3 May 2009)

Dave — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 12:48:27 +0000

Any sufficiently advanced prejudicial piety is indistinguishable from hatred.

George Wiman (contemp.) American blogger, computer technician
Wiman’s Theological Variant on Clarke’s Law, Stupid Evil Bastard, “A Christian asks, ‘I’m the bad guy? How did that happen?'”, Comment (3 May 2009)

Full text. See Clarke.