WIST Quotations

Mencken, H. L. -- A Little Book in C Major, ch. 5, § 5 (1916)

Dave — Wed, 05 Jun 2024 16:49:20 +0000

A celebrity is one who is known to many persons he is glad he doesn’t know.

H. L. Mencken (1880-1956) American writer and journalist [Henry Lewis Mencken]
A Little Book in C Major, ch. 5, § 5 (1916)
(Source)

Variants:

CELEBRITY. One who is known to many persons he is glad he doesn't know.
[A Book of Burlesques, "The Jazz Webster" (1924)]

A celebrity is one who is known to many persons he is glad he doesn’t know.
[Chrestomathy, ch. 30 "Sententiae" (1949)]

Tolstoy, Leo -- Letter to Nikolay Strakhov (1876)

Dave — Wed, 26 Jan 2022 15:53:32 +0000

Our profession is dreadful, writing corrupts the soul. Every author is surrounded by an aura of adulation which he nurses so assiduously that he cannot begin to judge his own worth or see when it starts to decline.

Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910) Russian novelist and moral philosopher
Letter to Nikolay Strakhov (1876)
(Source)

Quoted in Henri Troyat, Tolstoy (1967).

Butcher, Jim -- Ghost Story (2011)

Dave — Tue, 28 Oct 2014 12:00:31 +0000

“Star Trek?” I asked her. “Really?”
“What?” she demanded, bending unnaturally black eyebrows together.
“There are two kinds of people in the universe, Molly,” I said. “Star Trek fans and Star Wars fans. This is shocking.”
She sniffed. “This is the post-nerd-closet world, Harry. It’s okay to like both.”
“Blasphemy and lies,” I said.

Jim Butcher (b. 1971) American author
Ghost Story (2011)

Maugham, W. Somerset -- The Summing Up, ch. 23 (1938)

Dave — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 17:23:27 +0000

It is dangerous to let the public behind the scenes. They are easily disillusioned and then they are angry with you, for it was the illusion they loved.

W. Somerset Maugham (1874-1965) English novelist and playwright [William Somerset Maugham]
The Summing Up, ch. 23 (1938)
(Source)

Michelangelo -- (Attributed)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

If people knew how hard I work to get my mastery, it wouldn’t seem too wonderful after all.

Michelangelo (1475-1564) Italian artist, architect, poet [Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni]
(Attributed)

The earliest attributions only go back to the Twentieth Century (e.g., 1929) in non-academic contexts. No original source is known.

A related attribution, regarding the Sistine Chapel -- "If you knew how much work went into it, you would not call it genius." -- only can be found in the Twenty-First century (e.g., August 2001).