WIST Quotations

Marlowe, Christopher -- The Tragicall History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus, Act 2, sc. 1 (sc. 5), l. 573ff (1594; 1604 “A” text)

Dave — Fri, 13 Feb 2026 00:22:08 +0000

FAUSTUS. Come, I think hell’s a fable.

MEPHISTOPHILES: Ay, think so still, till experience change thy mind.

Christopher "Kit" Marlowe (1564-1593) English dramatist and poet
The Tragicall History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus, Act 2, sc. 1 (sc. 5), l. 573ff (1594; 1604 “A” text)
(Source)

The "B" text (1594; 1616) as a slight variance in Faust's line:

FAUSTUS: I think hell's a mere fable.
MEPHISTOPHILES: Aye, think so still, till experience change thy mind.

Euripides -- Electra [Ἠλέκτρα], l. 743ff, Antistrophe 2 (c. 420 BC) [tr. Wilson (2016)]

Dave — Tue, 31 Dec 2024 18:30:26 +0000

CHORUS: But fairy tales that scare us humans
are useful for religion.

[ΧΟΡΟΣ: φοβεροὶ δὲ βροτοῖσι μῦ-
θοι κέρδος πρὸς θεῶν θεραπεί-
αν.]

Euripides (485?-406? BC) Greek tragic dramatist
Electra [Ἠλέκτρα], l. 743ff, Antistrophe 2 (c. 420 BC) [tr. Wilson (2016)]
(Source)

Following recounting of a story in which Zeus made the sun move backwards in the sky to punish Thyestes for his treachery.

(Source (Greek)). Alternate translations:

Fresh strength is added to religion's base
By fables which man's breast with terror fill.
[tr. Wodhull (1809)]

But tales that frighten men are profitable for service to the gods.
[tr. Coleridge (1891)]

But stories terrible to mortals are a gain for the worship of the gods.
[tr. Buckley (1892)]

Yet it may be the tale liveth, soul-affraying,
To bow us to Godward in lowly obeying.
[tr. Way (1896)]

Once, men told the tale, and trembled;
Fearing God.
[tr. Murray (1905)]

Such shocking myths are for the good of men, to frighten them into believing in the gods.
[tr. Theodoridis (2006)]

But tales which terrify mankind
are profitable and serve the gods.
[tr. Johnston (2009)]

Pratchett, Terry -- Discworld No. 20, Hogfather (1996)

Dave — Fri, 08 Sep 2023 14:18:04 +0000

But it was much earlier even than that when most people forgot that the very oldest stories are, sooner or later, about blood. Later on they took the blood out to make the stories more acceptable to children, or at least to the people who had to read them to children rather than the children themselves (who, on the whole, are quite keen on blood provided it’s being shed by the deserving), and then wondered where the stories went.

Terry Pratchett (1948-2015) English author
Discworld No. 20, Hogfather (1996)
(Source)

Twain, Mark -- (Misattributed)

Dave — Wed, 04 Aug 2021 05:36:32 +0000

If animals could speak, the dog would be a blundering outspoken fellow; but the cat would have the rare grace of never saying a word too much.

Mark Twain (1835-1910) American writer [pseud. of Samuel Clemens]
(Misattributed)

This quote is frequently attributed to Twain, but is instead a light paraphrase of the work Philip Gilbert Hamerton, who wrote in his essay "Cats":

If animals could speak as fabulists have feigned, the dog would be a blunt, blundering, outspoken, honest fellow, but the cat would have the rare talent of never saying a word too much.

Hamerton, Philip Gilbert -- Chapters on Animals, ch. 4 “Cats” (1877)

Dave — Tue, 02 Mar 2021 15:54:49 +0000

If animals could speak as fabulists have feigned, the dog would be a blunt, blundering, outspoken, honest fellow, but the cat would have the rare talent of never saying a word too much.

Philip Gilbert Hamerton (1834-1894) British artist, art critic and author.
Chapters on Animals, ch. 4 “Cats” (1877)
(Source)

A variant of this shows up in Agnes Repplier, The Cat (1912):

If animals could speak, the dog would be a blunt, blundering, outspoken, honest fellow; but the cat would have the rare grace of never saying a word too much.

This in turn seems to have been further reduced and misattributed to Mark Twain:

If animals could speak, the dog would be a blundering outspoken fellow; but the cat would have the rare grace of never saying a word too much.

Kipling, Rudyard -- A Book of Words, ch. 24 “Fiction” (1928)

Dave — Thu, 23 Feb 2017 17:00:47 +0000

For Fiction is Truth’s elder sister. Obviously. No one in the world knew what truth was till somebody had told a story.

Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) English writer
A Book of Words, ch. 24 “Fiction” (1928)

Kipling, Rudyard -- Something of Myself, ch. 15 (1937)

Dave — Wed, 11 Sep 2013 12:49:32 +0000

Every nation, like every individual, walks in a vain show — else it could not live with itself — but I never got over the wonder of a people who, having extirpated the aboriginals of their continent more completely than any modern race had ever done, honestly believed that they were a godly little New England community, setting examples to brutal mankind.

Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) English writer
Something of Myself, ch. 15 (1937)

Jefferson, Thomas -- Letter (1823-04-11) to John Adams

Dave — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 12:46:45 +0000

And the day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus, by the supreme being as his father in the womb of a virgin will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerva in the brain of Jupiter. But may we hope that the dawn of reason and freedom of thought in these United States will do away with this artificial scaffolding, and restore to us the primitive and genuine doctrines of this most venerated reformer of human errors.

Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) American political philosopher, polymath, statesman, US President (1801-09)
Letter (1823-04-11) to John Adams
(Source)