WIST Quotations

Einstein, Albert -- Essay (1953-05-23), “Aphorisms for Leo Baeck [Neun Aphorismen], No. 1, Essays Presented to Leo Baeck on the Occasion of His Eightieth Birthday (1954) [Einstein Archives 28-962]

Dave — Mon, 29 Jun 2026 22:08:04 +0000

I salute the man who is going through life always helpful, knowing no fear, and to whom aggressiveness and resentment are alien. Such is the stuff of which the great moral leaders are made who proffer consolation to mankind in their self-created miseries.

[Heil dem Manne, der stets helfend durchs Leben ging, keine Furcht kannte und dem jede Aggressivität und jedes Ressentiment fremd war! Von solchem Holz sind die Idealgestalten geschnitzt, die der Menschheit Trost bieten in den Situationen selbstgeschaffenen Leidens.]

Albert Einstein (1879-1955) German-American physicist
Essay (1953-05-23), “Aphorisms for Leo Baeck [Neun Aphorismen], No. 1, Essays Presented to Leo Baeck on the Occasion of His Eightieth Birthday (1954) [Einstein Archives 28-962]
(Source)

(Source (German))

Leo Baeck (1873-1956) was a noted a German rabbi, scholar, and theologian.

Billings, Josh -- Josh Billings’ Farmer’s Allminax, 1871-03 “Housekeer’s Guide” (1871 ed.)

Dave — Thu, 05 Feb 2026 23:36:28 +0000

To bring up a child in the way he should go, travel that way yourself once in a while.

Josh Billings (1818-1885) American humorist, aphorist [pseud. of Henry Wheeler Shaw]
Josh Billings’ Farmer’s Allminax, 1871-03 “Housekeer’s Guide” (1871 ed.)
(Source)

Johnson, Samuel -- Essay (1754-01-19), The Adventurer, No. 126

Dave — Fri, 23 Jan 2026 16:33:10 +0000

But there is a higher order of men so inspired with ardour, and so fortified with resolution, that the world passes before them without influence or regard: these ought to consider themselves as appointed the guardians of mankind: they are placed in an evil world, to exhibit publick examples of good life; and may be said, when they withdraw to solitude, to desert the station which Providence assigned them.

Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) English writer, lexicographer, critic
Essay (1754-01-19), The Adventurer, No. 126
(Source)

Goldsmith, Oliver -- “On Our Theaters,” The Bee, #11 (13 Oct 1759)

Dave — Thu, 14 Jul 2016 18:52:20 +0000

People seldom improve when they have no other model but themselves to copy.

Oliver Goldsmith (1730-1774) Irish poet, playwright, novelist
“On Our Theaters,” The Bee, #11 (13 Oct 1759)

Eisenhower, Dwight David -- Lecture (1950-03-23), Inaugural Gabriel Silver Lecture, Columbia University

Dave — Tue, 21 Jun 2016 19:11:35 +0000

The best foreign policy is to live our daily lives in honesty, decency, and integrity; at home, making our own land a more fitting habitation for free men; and abroad, joining with those of like mind and heart, to make of the world a place where all men can dwell in peace.

Dwight David Eisenhower (1890-1969) American general, US President (1953-61)
Lecture (1950-03-23), Inaugural Gabriel Silver Lecture, Columbia University

Eisenhower was President of Columbia University at the time. The quote was widely used in an "I Believe" advertisement for Eisenhower during the 1956 election.

(Sources 1 and 2)

Baretti, Giuseppe -- (Attributed)

Dave — Tue, 08 Mar 2016 15:15:23 +0000

I hate mankind, for I think myself one of the best of them, and I know how bad I am.

Giuseppe Baretti (1719-1789) Italian-English literary critic and translator [a.k.a. Joseph Baretti]
(Attributed)

Quoted in James Boswell, The Life of Samuel Johnson (1791).

Roosevelt, Eleanor -- India and the Awakening East, Conclusion (1953)

Dave — Wed, 25 Mar 2015 13:54:53 +0000

We must show by our behavior that we believe in equality and justice and that our religion teaches faith and love and charity to our fellow men. Here is where each of us has a job to do that must be done at home, because we can lose the battle on the soil of the United States just as surely as we can lose it in any one of the countries of the world.

Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962) First Lady of the US (1933–1945), politician, diplomat, activist
India and the Awakening East, Conclusion (1953)
(Source)

Roosevelt, Eleanor -- Memoir (1961), The Autobiography of Eleanor Roosevelt, Part 4, ch. 41 “Milestones”

Dave — Thu, 12 Feb 2015 14:51:35 +0000

It seems to me that America’s objective today should be to try to make herself the best possible mirror of democracy that she can. The people of the world can see what happens here. They watch us to see what we are going to do and how well we can do it. We are giving them the only possible picture of democracy that we can: the picture as it works in actual practice. This is the only way other peoples can see for themselves how it works; and can determine for themselves whether this thing is good in itself, whether it is better than they have, better than what other political and economic systems offer them.

Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962) First Lady of the US (1933–1945), politician, diplomat, activist
Memoir (1961), The Autobiography of Eleanor Roosevelt, Part 4, ch. 41 “Milestones”
(Source)

This text was not in her previous memoirs, but new to her compiled Autobiography.