WIST Quotations

Franklin, Benjamin -- Poor Richard (1741 ed.)

Dave — Thu, 21 Aug 2025 15:40:57 +0000

The cringing Train of Pow’r, survey;
What Creatures are so low as they!
With what obsequiousness they bend!
To what vile actions condescend!
Their Rise is on their Meanness built,
And Flatt’ry is their smallest Guilt.

Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790) American statesman, scientist, philosopher, aphorist
Poor Richard (1741 ed.)

Billings, Josh -- Everybody’s Friend, Or; Josh Billing’s Encyclopedia and Proverbial Philosophy of Wit and Humor, ch. 281 “Variety: Bred and Butter” (1874)

Dave — Thu, 10 Jul 2025 20:50:09 +0000

Thare iz more weak men in this world than thare iz wicked ones.

[There are more weak men in this world than there are wicked ones.]

Josh Billings (1818–1885) American humorist, aphorist [pseud. of Henry Wheeler Shaw]
Everybody’s Friend, Or; Josh Billing’s Encyclopedia and Proverbial Philosophy of Wit and Humor, ch. 281 “Variety: Bred and Butter” (1874)

See also Catton (1953), and also this Billings.

Taleb, Nassim Nicholas -- The Black Swan, Part 2, ch. 12 “Epistemocracy, a Dream” (2007)

Dave — Mon, 30 Jun 2025 16:45:09 +0000

Alas, one cannot assert authority by accepting one’s own fallibility. Simply, people need to be blinded by knowledge — we are made to follow leaders who can gather people together because the advantages of being in groups trump the disadvantages of being alone. It has been more profitable for us to bind together in the wrong direction than to be alone in the right one. Those who have followed the assertive idiot rather than the introspective wise person have passed us some of their genes. This is apparent from a social pathology: psychopaths rally followers.

Nassim Nicholas Taleb (b. 1960) Lebanese-American essayist, statistician, risk analyst, aphorist
The Black Swan, Part 2, ch. 12 “Epistemocracy, a Dream” (2007)

Eisenhower, Dwight David -- Essay (1948-10), “An Open Letter to America’s Students,” Reader’s Digest

Dave — Tue, 06 Sep 2022 06:12:04 +0000

Never let yourself be persuaded that any one Great Man, any one leader, is necessary to the salvation of America. When America consists of one leader and 143,000,000 followers, it will no longer be America. Truly American leadership is not of any one man. It is of multitudes of men — and women.

Dwight David Eisenhower (1890–1969) American general, US President (1953–61)
Essay (1948-10), “An Open Letter to America’s Students,” Reader’s Digest

The quote can be found (without citation) in different locations with various numbers for the US population.

The letter was written while Eisenhower was President of Columbia University.

Foglio, Phil -- Agatha H. and the Siege of Mechanicsburg (2020) [with Kaja Foglio]

Dave — Mon, 04 Oct 2021 17:27:39 +0000

No, your seriously steeped-in-madness dabbler in the esoteric sciences usually finds themself taxed with a rag-tag collection of hangers-on, typically consisting of minions, constructs, adventurers, and those unique, unclassifiable, individuals whose raison d’être appears to be to remind us of what a strange world it is.

Phil Foglio (b. 1956) American writer, cartoonist
Agatha H. and the Siege of Mechanicsburg (2020) [with Kaja Foglio]

Apostolius, Michael -- Apostolius 9.18.12, Tilley F 304

Dave — Mon, 15 Jun 2020 23:42:07 +0000

The head of the fish is the first part to smell.

[Ἰχθὺς ἐκ τῆς κεφαλῆς ὄζειν ἄρχεται: ἐπὶ τῶν ἐπιστάτας φαύλους ἐχόντων]

Michael Apostolius (c. 1420 - c. 1480) Greek teacher, writer, copyist [Apostolius Paroemiographus, i.e., Apostolius the proverb-writer]
Apostolius 9.18.12, Tilley F 304

See Erasmus, Adages, Book 4, ch. 2, #97 [tr. Drysdall], who cites Apostolius, who appears to have been the first to record the proverb:

"The head of a fish begins to stink first." Used of bad rulers, whose contagion poisons the rest of the people. The expression seems to derive from the language of common people.

[Piscis primum a capite foetet ... Piscis a capite primum incipit putere. Dictum in malos principes, quorum contagione reliquum vulgus inficitur. Apparet ab idiotarum vulgo sumptum.]

Alt. trans.:

"Fish start to stink at the top: [this is a proverb] applied to people who have scoundrels for leaders." [tr. @sentantiq]
"The fish always stinks from the head downwards: The freshness of a dead fish can be judged from the condition of its head. Thus, when the responsible part (as the leaders of a country, etc.) is rotten, the rest will soon follow. ἰχθὺς ἐκ τῆς κεφαλῆς ὄζειν ἄρχεται, a fish begins to stink from the head." -- Jennifer Speake, ed., Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs (2015) [Source]

Bonhoeffer, Dietrich -- “On Stupidity” (1942)

Dave — Wed, 22 Mar 2017 16:13:24 +0000

The fact that the stupid person is often stubborn must not blind us to the fact that he is not independent. In conversation with him, one virtually feels that one is dealing not at all with him as a person, but with slogans, catchwords, and the like that have taken possession of him. He is under a spell, blinded, misused, and abused in his very being. Having thus become a mindless tool, the stupid person will also be capable of any evil and at the same time incapable of seeing that it is evil. This is where the danger of diabolical misuse lurks, for it is this that can once and for all destroy human beings.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906–1945) German Lutheran pastor, theologian, martyr
“On Stupidity” (1942)

Layton, Irving -- The Whole Bloody Bird, “Obs II” (1969)

Dave — Tue, 07 Feb 2017 17:52:27 +0000

Only the tiniest fraction of mankind want freedom. All the rest want someone to tell them they are free.

Irving Layton (1912–2006) Romanian-Canadian poet [b. Israel Pincu Lazarovitch]
The Whole Bloody Bird, “Obs II” (1969)

Orwell, George -- The Road to Wigan Pier, ch. 11 (1937)

Dave — Sat, 01 Oct 2016 05:25:16 +0000

As with the Christian religion, the worst advertisement for Socialism is its adherents.

George Orwell (1903–1950) English journalist, essayist, writer [pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair]
The Road to Wigan Pier, ch. 11 (1937)

Twain, Mark -- The Mysterious Stranger, ch. 9 (1916)

Dave — Thu, 05 May 2016 16:00:34 +0000

I know your race. It is made up of sheep. It is governed by minorities, seldom or never by majorities. It suppresses its feelings and its beliefs and follows the handful that makes the most noise. Sometimes the noisy handful is right, sometimes wrong; but no matter, the crowd follows it. The vast majority of the race, whether savage or civilized, are secretly kind-hearted and shrink from inflicting pain, but in the presence of the aggressive and pitiless minority they don’t dare to assert themselves. Think of it! One kind-hearted creature spies upon another, and sees to it that he loyally helps in iniquities which revolt both of them. Speaking as an expert, I know that ninety-nine out of a hundred of your race were strongly against the killing of witches when that foolishness was first agitated by a handful of pious lunatics in the long ago. And I know that even to-day, after ages of transmitted prejudice and silly teaching, only one person in twenty puts any real heart into the harrying of a witch. And yet apparently everybody hates witches and wants them killed. Some day a handful will rise up on the other side and make the most noise — perhaps even a single daring man with a big voice and a determined front will do it — and in a week all the sheep will wheel and follow him, and witch-hunting will come to a sudden end.

Mark Twain (1835–1910) American writer [pseud. of Samuel Clemens]
The Mysterious Stranger, ch. 9 (1916)

Asimov, Isaac -- The Stars in Their Courses (1974)

Dave — Tue, 03 May 2016 20:32:56 +0000

There is no belief, however foolish, that will not gather its faithful adherents who will defend it to the death.

Isaac Asimov (1920–1992) Russian-American author, polymath, biochemist
The Stars in Their Courses (1974)

Halberstam, David -- The Best and the Brightest, ch. 10 (1972)

Dave — Mon, 01 Feb 2016 14:51:49 +0000

A staff can be no better than the man it serves.

David Halberstam (1934–2997) American journalist and historian
The Best and the Brightest, ch. 10 (1972)

Wilson, Woodrow -- “Leaders of Men,” Commencement Address, University of Tennessee, Knoxville (17 Jun 1890)

Dave — Mon, 14 Dec 2015 15:57:34 +0000

I do not believe that any man can lead who does not act, whether it be consciously or unconsciously, under the impulse of a profound sympathy with those whom he leads — a sympathy which is insight — an insight which is of the heart rather than of the intellect.

Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924) US President (1913–20), educator, political scientist
“Leaders of Men,” Commencement Address, University of Tennessee, Knoxville (17 Jun 1890)

Eisenhower, Dwight David -- Speech, Republican State Chairmen, Denver (10 Sep 1955)

Dave — Thu, 17 Sep 2015 13:14:35 +0000

The job of getting people really wanting to do something is the essence of leadership. And one of the things a leader needs occasionally is the inspiration he gets from the people he leads. The old tactical textbooks say that the commander always visits his troops to inspire them to fight. I for one soon discovered that one of the reasons for my visiting the front lines was to get inspiration from the young American soldier. I went back to my job ashamed of my own occasional resentments or discouragements, which I probably — at least I hope I concealed them.

Dwight David Eisenhower (1890–1969) American general, US President (1953–61)
Speech, Republican State Chairmen, Denver (10 Sep 1955)