WIST Quotations

Russell, Bertrand -- Education and the Good Life, Part 2, ch. 5 “Play and Fancy” (1926)

Dave — Wed, 08 Apr 2026 16:26:43 +0000

It is a dangerous error to confound truth with matter-of-fact. Our life is governed not only by facts, but by hopes; the kind of truthfulness which sees nothing but facts is a prison for the human spirit. Dreams are only to be condemned when they are a lazy substitute for an effort to change reality; when they are an incentive, they are fulfilling a vital purpose in the incarnation of human ideals. To kill fancy in childhood is to make a slave to what exists, a creature tethered to earth and therefore unable to create heaven.

Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) English mathematician and philosopher
Education and the Good Life, Part 2, ch. 5 “Play and Fancy” (1926)
(Source)

On children's literature.

Ingersoll, Robert Green -- Lecture (1873-12) “Individuality,” Chicago Free Religious Society

Dave — Fri, 01 Aug 2025 16:51:05 +0000

When a fact can be demonstrated, force is unnecessary; when it cannot be demonstrated, an appeal to force is infamous. In the presence of the unknown all have an equal right to think.

Robert Green Ingersoll (1833-1899) American lawyer, freethinker, orator
Lecture (1873-12) “Individuality,” Chicago Free Religious Society
(Source)

Full title "Arraignment of the Church and a Plea for Individuality." Collected in The Gods and Other Lectures (1876).

Warren, Robert Penn -- Brother to Dragons, Foreword (1953)

Dave — Mon, 05 Feb 2024 18:50:36 +0000

Historical sense and poetic sense should not, in the end, be contradictory, for if poetry is the little myth we make, history is the big myth we live, and in our living, constantly remake.

Robert Penn Warren (1905-1989) American poet, novelist, literary critic
Brother to Dragons, Foreword (1953)
(Source)

Albee, Edward -- In Elenore Lester, “Albee: I’m Still in Process,” New York Times (1966-09-18)

Dave — Thu, 05 Oct 2023 05:48:27 +0000

A play is fiction — and fiction is fact distilled into truth.

Edward Albee (1928-2016) American playwright
In Elenore Lester, “Albee: I’m Still in Process,” New York Times (1966-09-18)
(Source)

When asked whether his plays were autobiographical.

Taylor, A. J. P. -- Trouble Makers: Dissent Over Foreign Policy 1792-1939 (1957)

Dave — Mon, 23 Aug 2021 17:51:40 +0000

Our task as historians is to make past conflicts live again; not to lament the verdict or to wish for a different one. It bewildered me when my old master A. F. Pribram, a very great historian, said in the nineteen-thirties: “It is still not decided whether the Habsburg monarchy could have found a solution for its national problems.” How can we decide about something that did not happen? Heaven knows, we have difficulty enough in deciding what did happen. Events decided that the Habsburgs had not found a solution for their national problems; that is all we know or need to know. Whenever I read the phrase: “whether so-and-so acted rightly must be left for historians to decide,” I close the book; the writer has moved from history to make-believe.

A. J. P. Taylor (1906-1990) British historian, journalist, broadcaster [Alan John Percivale Taylor]
Trouble Makers: Dissent Over Foreign Policy 1792-1939 (1957)
(Source)

Teller, Edward -- Conversations on the Dark Secrets of Physics, ch. 5 (1991) [with Wendy Teller, Wilson Talley]

Dave — Tue, 02 Mar 2021 14:30:57 +0000

A fact is a simple statement that everyone believes. It is innocent, unless found guilty. A hypothesis is a novel suggestion that no one wants to believe. It is guilty, until found effective.

Edward Teller (1908-2003) Hungarian-American theoretical physicist
Conversations on the Dark Secrets of Physics, ch. 5 (1991) [with Wendy Teller, Wilson Talley]
(Source)

Arendt, Hannah -- The Origins of Totalitarianism, Part 3, ch. 13 “Ideology and Terror” (1951)

Dave — Tue, 12 May 2020 20:01:22 +0000

The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the convinced Communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction (i.e., the reality of experience) and the distinction between true and false (i.e., the standards of thought) no longer exist.

Hannah Arendt (1906-1975) German-American philosopher, political theorist
The Origins of Totalitarianism, Part 3, ch. 13 “Ideology and Terror” (1951)
(Source)

Arendt, Hannah -- (Spurious)

Dave — Wed, 17 May 2017 15:44:15 +0000

One of the greatest advantages of the totalitarian elites of the twenties and thirties was to turn any statement of fact into a question of motive.

Hannah Arendt (1906-1975) German-American philosopher, political theorist
(Spurious)

This is frequently cited to Arendt, often to The Origins of Totalitarianism, (1951), but is not found as such in her works. The source appears to be a paraphrase of Arendt in a 1999 New Yorker article.

Stuart Elden suggested the following from The Origins of Totalitarianism, Part 3, ch. 11, might be original quotation the paraphrase was built on, though the overall meaning is different:

The elite is not composed of ideologists; its members’ whole education is aimed at abolishing their capacity for distinguishing between truth and falsehood, between reality and fiction. Their superiority consists in their ability immediately to dissolve every statement of fact into a declaration of purpose.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo -- Essay (1841), “Circles,” Essays: First Series, No. 10

Dave — Mon, 13 Feb 2017 16:20:42 +0000

No facts are to me sacred; none are profane; I simply experiment, an endless seeker, with no Past at my back.

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) American essayist, lecturer, poet
Essay (1841), “Circles,” Essays: First Series, No. 10
(Source)

Bronowski, Jacob -- Science and Human Values, Part 3: “The Sense of Human Dignity”, §1 (1956)

Dave — Tue, 20 Dec 2016 04:01:49 +0000

No fact in the world is instant, infinitesimal and ultimate, a single mark. There are, I hold, no atomic facts. In the language of science, every fact is a field — a crisscross of implications, those that lead to it and those that lead from it. We condense the laws around concepts. Science takes its coherence, its intellectual and imaginative strength together, from the concepts at which its laws cross, like knots in a mesh.

Jacob Bronowski (1908-1974) Polish-English humanist and mathematician
Science and Human Values, Part 3: “The Sense of Human Dignity”, §1 (1956)

Emerson, Ralph Waldo -- Journal (1831)

Dave — Wed, 24 Feb 2016 14:20:45 +0000

Every fact depends for its value on how much we already know.

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) American essayist, lecturer, poet
Journal (1831)

Bernard, Claude -- An Introduction to the Study of Experimental Medicine [Introduction à l’Étude de la Médecine Expérimentale] (1865)

Dave — Fri, 16 Jan 2015 13:14:49 +0000

When we meet a fact which contradicts a prevailing theory, we must accept the fact and abandon the theory, even when the theory is supported by great names and generally accepted.

Claude Bernard (1813-1878) French physiologist, scientist
An Introduction to the Study of Experimental Medicine [Introduction à l’Étude de la Médecine Expérimentale] (1865)

Tyson, Neil deGrasse -- Interview, “The Colbert Report, (10 Mar 2014)

Dave — Fri, 21 Mar 2014 13:36:49 +0000

You get to say the world is flat because we live in a country that guarantees your free speech, but it’s not a country that guarantees that anything you say is correct.

Neil deGrasse Tyson (b. 1958) American astrophysicist, author, orator
Interview, “The Colbert Report, (10 Mar 2014)
(Source)

Bolt, Robert -- A Man for All Seasons, play, Act 2 (1960)

Dave — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 12:10:51 +0000

MORE: I will not take the oath. I will not tell you why I will not.

NORFOLK: Then your reasons must be treasonable!

MORE: Not “must be”; may be.

NORFOLK: It’s a fair assumption!

MORE: The law requires more than an assumption; the law requires a fact.

Robert Bolt (1924-1995) English dramatist
A Man for All Seasons, play, Act 2 (1960)
(Source)

The 1966 film adaptation uses the same language.

Peres, Shimon -- (Attributed)

Dave — Thu, 23 Feb 2012 17:28:31 +0000

If a problem has no solution, it may not be a problem, but a fact, not to be solved, but to be coped with over time.

Shimon Peres (1923-2016) Polish-Israeli politician, statesman
(Attributed)

Widely attributed to Peres in different sources. Quoted in the Wall Street Journal (7 Feb 2001). Donald Rumsfeld says that Peres made the observation to him.

Vidal, Gore -- “French Letters: Theories of the New Novel,” Encounter (Dec 1967)

Dave — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 22:23:03 +0000

It is the spirit of the age to believe that any fact, no matter how suspect, is superior to any imaginative exercise, no matter how true.

Gore Vidal (1925-2012) American novelist, dramatist, critic
“French Letters: Theories of the New Novel,” Encounter (Dec 1967)

Wilcox, Ella Wheeler -- Poem (1906), “‘Credulity,'” st. 1-2, New Thought Pastels

Dave — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 10:26:30 +0000

If fallacies come knocking at my door,
I’d rather feed, and shelter full a score,
Than hide behind the black portcullis, doubt,
And run the risk of barring one Truth out.

And if pretension for a time deceive,
And prove me one too ready to believe,
Far less my shame, than if by stubborn act,
I brand as lie, some great colossal Fact.

Ella Wheeler Wilcox (1850-1919) American author, poet, temperance advocate, spiritualist
Poem (1906), “‘Credulity,'” st. 1-2, New Thought Pastels
(Source)