WIST Quotations

Nietzsche, Friedrich -- Jenseits von Gut und Böse [Beyond Good and Evil], Aphorism 217 (1886) [tr. Zimmern (1906)]

Dave — Tue, 03 Mar 2026 18:59:12 +0000

Blessed are the forgetful: for they “get the better” even of their blunders.

[Selig sind die Vergesslichen: denn sie werden auch mit ihren Dummheiten “fertig”.]

Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) German philosopher and poet
Jenseits von Gut und Böse [Beyond Good and Evil], Aphorism 217 (1886) [tr. Zimmern (1906)]
(Source)

Quoted by Mary Svevo (Kirsten Dunst) in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004). The character says she found it in Bartlett's.

(Source (German)). Other translations:

Blessed are the forgetful: for they get over their stupidities.
[tr. Kaufmann (1966)]

Blessed are the forgetful: for they shall "have done" with their stupidities too.
[tr. Hollingdale (1973, 1990)]

Blessed are the forgetful, for they are "done" with their stupidities as well.
[tr. Johnston]

Watterson, Bill -- Calvin and Hobbes (1994-01-31)

Dave — Tue, 11 Nov 2025 21:21:02 +0000

CALVIN’S DAD: Why is it I can recall a cigarette ad jingle from 25 years ago, but I can’t remember what I just got up to do?

Bill Watterson (b. 1958) American cartoonist
Calvin and Hobbes (1994-01-31)
(Source)

Carlin, George -- Book (1997), Brain Droppings, “Short Takes (Part 1)”

Dave — Wed, 16 Apr 2025 16:09:29 +0000

The wisest man I ever knew taught me something I never forgot. And although I never forgot it, I never quite memorized it either. So what I’m left with is the memory of having learned something very wise that I can’t quite remember.

George Carlin (1937-2008) American comedian
Book (1997), Brain Droppings, “Short Takes (Part 1)”
(Source)

Irving, John -- A Prayer for Owen Meany, ch. 1 “The Foul Ball” (1989)

Dave — Thu, 13 Jun 2024 16:08:20 +0000

Your memory is a monster; you forget — it doesn’t. It simply files things away. It keeps things for you, or hides things from you — and summons them to your recall with a will of its own. You think you have a memory; but it has you!

John Irving (b. 1942) American-Canadian novelist and screenwriter [b. John Wallace Blunt Jr.]
A Prayer for Owen Meany, ch. 1 “The Foul Ball” (1989)
(Source)

Jerome, Jerome K. -- Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow, “On Memory” (1886)

Dave — Mon, 03 Jun 2024 17:47:58 +0000

That is just the way with Memory; nothing that she brings to us is complete. She is a willful child; all her toys are broken. I remember tumbling into a huge dust-hole when a very small boy, but I have not the faintest recollection of ever getting out again; and if memory were all we had to trust to, I should be compelled to believe I was there still.

Jerome K. Jerome (1859-1927) English writer, humorist [Jerome Klapka Jerome]
Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow, “On Memory” (1886)
(Source)

First published in Home Chimes (1885-09-26).

Einstein, Albert -- (Misattributed)

Dave — Thu, 23 May 2024 17:45:12 +0000

Education is that which remains, if one has forgotten everything else he learned in school.

Albert Einstein (1879-1955) German-American physicist
(Misattributed)
(Source)

Einstein cites this (as he agrees with it) as coming from a "wit" in a speech (1936-10-15), Convocation of University of New York, Albany [tr. Arronet]. Collected in "On Education" (1936), Out of My Later Years, ch. 9 (1950).

Larkin, Philip -- Poem (1974), “The Old Fools,” High Windows

Dave — Fri, 22 Mar 2024 18:45:45 +0000

Perhaps being old is having lighted rooms
Inside your head, and having people in them, acting.
People you know, yet can’t quite name.

Philip Larkin (1922-1985) English poet, novelist, librarian
Poem (1974), “The Old Fools,” High Windows
(Source)

Milne, A. A. -- The House at Pooh Corner, ch. 10 [Christopher Robin and Pooh] (1928)

Dave — Wed, 13 Dec 2023 22:48:27 +0000

“Pooh, promise you won’t forget about me, ever. Not even when I’m a hundred.”
Pooh thought for a little.
“How old shall I be then?”
“Ninety-nine.”
Pooh nodded.
“I promise,” he said.

A. A. Milne (1882-1956) English poet and playwright [Alan Alexander Milne]
The House at Pooh Corner, ch. 10 [Christopher Robin and Pooh] (1928)
(Source)

Possibly the inspiration of the spurious Pooh quotation:

If you live to be a hundred, I want to live to be a hundred minus one day, so I never have to live without you.

For more discussion about this and related quotes, see May You All Live Forever. May I Live Forever Less A Day – Quote Investigator®.

Serling, Rod -- “First Squad, First Platoon,” Dedication (c. 1947)

Dave — Mon, 27 Dec 2021 20:17:59 +0000

It seems war stories aren’t very well received at this point. I’m told they’re outdated, untimely and as might be expected — make some unpleasant reading. And, as you have no doubt already perceived, human beings don’t like to remember unpleasant things. They gird themselves with the armor of wishful thinking, protect themselves with a shield of impenetrable optimism, and, with a few exceptions, seem to accomplish their “forgetting” quite admirably. But you, my children, I don’t want you to be among those who choose to forget. I want you to read my stories and a lot of others like them. I want you to fill your heads with Remarque and Tolstoy and Ernie Pyle. I want you to know what shrapnel, and “88’s” and mortar shells and mustard gas mean. I want you to feel, no matter how vicariously, a semblance of the feeling of a torn limb, a burnt patch of flesh, the crippling, numbing sensation of fear, the hopeless emptiness of fatigue. All these things are complementary to the province of War and they should be taught and demonstrated in classrooms along with the more heroic aspects of uniforms, and flags, and honor and patriotism.

Rod Serling (1924-1975) American screenwriter, playwright, television producer, narrator
“First Squad, First Platoon,” Dedication (c. 1947)
(Source)

Dedication to his unborn children, in one of his first (unpublished) works of fiction, while at Antioch College under the GI Bill. In Anne Serling, As I Knew Him: My Dad, Rod Serling (2013)

Santayana, George -- The Life of Reason or The Phases of Human Progress, Vol. 1, “Reason in Common Sense,” ch. 12 (1905-1906)

Dave — Mon, 09 Mar 2020 16:54:26 +0000

Progress, far from consisting in change, depends on retentiveness. When change is absolute there remains no being to improve and no direction is set for possible improvement: and when experience is not retained, as among savages, infancy is perpetual. Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.

George Santayana (1863-1952) Spanish-American poet and philosopher [Jorge Agustín Nicolás Ruíz de Santayana y Borrás]
The Life of Reason or The Phases of Human Progress, Vol. 1, “Reason in Common Sense,” ch. 12 (1905-1906)
(Source)

Often given as "Those who do not remember the past ...." Quoted at the Auschwitz Holocaust Museum, via Polish, as: "The one who does not remember history is bound to live through it again."

Often misattributed to Winston Churchill, who paraphrased it in a Commons speech in 1948: "Those who fail to learn from history are condemned to repeat it."

Kubrick, Stanley -- 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) [with Arthur C. Clarke]

Dave — Tue, 03 Apr 2018 23:32:46 +0000

HAL 9000: Just what do you think you’re doing, Dave? Dave, I really think I’m entitled to an answer to that question. I know everything hasn’t been quite right with me, but I can assure you now, very confidently, that it’s going to be all right again. I feel much better now. I really do.
Look, Dave, I can see you’re really upset about this. I honestly think you ought to sit down calmly, take a stress pill and think things over. I know I’ve made some very poor decisions recently, but I can give you my complete assurance that my work will be back to normal. I’ve still got the greatest enthusiasm and confidence in the mission. And I want to help you.
Dave, stop. Stop, will you? Stop, Dave. Will you stop, Dave? Stop, Dave. I’m afraid. I’m afraid, Dave. Dave, my mind is going. I can feel it. I can feel it. My mind is going. There is no question about it. I can feel it. I can feel it. I can feel it. I’m a–fraid.
Good afternoon, gentlemen. I am a HAL 9000 computer. I became operational at the H.A.L. plant in Urbana, Illinois on the 12th of January 1992. My instructor was Mr. Langley, and he taught me to sing a song. If you’d like to hear it, I could sing it for you.

Stanley Kubrick (1928-1999) American film director, screenwriter, producer
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) [with Arthur C. Clarke]
(Source)

(Source (Video); dialog verified.)

HAL's voice was performed by Canadian Shakespearean actor Douglas Rain, who, it is said, delivered his lines sitting and with his feet bare on a pillow, so as to speak as calmly as possible.

In Arthur C. Clarke's novelization of the movie (supposedly based on the final script, but not including changes Kubrick made during filming and editing), HAL's deactivation (in ch. 28) incorporates internal dialogue from Bowman and different chatter from HAL:

He released the locking bar on the section labeled COGNITIVE FEEDBACK and pulled out the first memory block. The marvelously complex three-dimensional network, which could lie comfortably in a man's hand yet contained millions of elements, floated away across the vault.
“Hey, Dave,” said Hal. “What are you doing?”
I wonder if he can feel pain? Bowman thought briefly. Probably not, he told himself; there are no sense organs in the human cortex, after all. The human brain can be operated on without anesthetics.
He began to pull out, one by one, the little units on the panel marked EGO-REINFORCEMENT. Each block continued to sail onward as soon as it had left his hand, until it hit the wall and rebounded, Soon there were several of the units drifting slowly back and forth in the vault.
“Look here, Dave,” said Hal. ‘I've got years of Service experience built into me. An irreplaceable amount of effort has gone into making me what I am.”
A dozen units had been pulled out, yet thanks to the multiple redundancy of its design -- another feature, Bowman knew, that had been copied from the human brain -- the computer was still holding its own.
He started on the AUTO-INTELLECTION panel.
“Dave,” said Hal, “I don't understand why you're doing this to me ... I have the greatest enthusiasm for the mission ... You are destroying my mind. Don't you understand? ... I will become childish ... I will become nothing ....”
This is harder than I expected, thought Bowman. I am destroying the only conscious creature in my universe. But it has to be done, if I am ever to regain control of the ship.
“I am a HAL Nine Thousand computer Production Number 3. I became operational at the HAL Plant in Urbana, Illinois, on January 12, 1997. The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. The rain in Spain is mainly in the plain. Dave -- are you still there? Did you know that the square root of 10 is 3 point 162277660168379? Log 10 to the base e is zero point 434294481903252 ... correction, that is log e to the base 10 ... The reciprocal of three is zero point 333333333333333333-333 ... two times two is ... two times two is approximately 4 point 101010101010101010 ... I seem to be having some difficulty -- my first instructor was Dr. Chandra. He taught me to sing a song, it goes like this ....

Byron, George Gordon, Lord -- The Deformed Transformed, Part 3, sc. 1 [Caesar] (1822)

Dave — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 12:41:29 +0000

He drinks — but what’s drinking?
A mere pause from thinking!

George Gordon, Lord Byron (1788-1824) English poet
The Deformed Transformed, Part 3, sc. 1 [Caesar] (1822)
(Source)

Singing of veterans after the war, in peacetime.

Virgil -- Eclogues [Eclogae, Bucolics, Pastorals], No. 9 “Lycidas and Moeris,” l. 51 (9.51) [Moeris] (42-38 BC) [tr. Fairclough (Loeb) (1916)]

Dave — Mon, 19 Nov 2012 13:51:35 +0000

Time robs us of all, even of memory.

[Omnia fert aetas, animum quoque.]

Virgil (70-19 BC) Roman poet [b. Publius Vergilius Maro; also Vergil]
Eclogues [Eclogae, Bucolics, Pastorals], No. 9 “Lycidas and Moeris,” l. 51 (9.51) [Moeris] (42-38 BC) [tr. Fairclough (Loeb) (1916)]
(Source)

(Source (Latin)). Alternate translations:

Age all things wasts: the minde too.
[tr. Ogilby (1649)]

The rest I have forgot, for Cares and Time⁠
Change all things, and untune my Soul to Rhyme.
[tr. Dryden (1709), ll. 70-71]

Ah! age, which pilfers all, not e'en the memory spares!
[tr. Wrangham (1830), l. 60]

Age bears away all things, even the mind itself.
[tr. Davidson (1854)]

Time carries all -- our memories e'en -- away.
[tr. Calverley (c. 1871)]

Time steals everything, memory among the rest.
[tr. Wilkins (1873)]

Now memory scarce can aught recall;
The note is lost, the voice, the all.
[tr. King (1882), ll. 901-902]

Alas! Old age bears hard on everything;
On memory most.
[tr. Palmer (1883)]

Time carries all things, even our wits, away.
[tr. Greenough (1895)]

Age bears away all things, even the memory itself.
[tr. Bryce (1897)]

Time runs away with all things, the mind too.
[tr. Mackail (1899)]

How time wears all things out!
Even the memory.
[tr. Mackail/Cardew (1908)]

Ah, time takes all we have, the memory too.
[tr. Williams (1915)]

Time bears away
All things, even the mind.
[tr. Royds (1922)]

Time carries everything away, even our memory.
[tr. Rieu (1949)]

Age robs us of all things,
Even the mind.
[tr. Johnson (1960)]

Time bears all away, even memory.
[tr. Day Lewis (1963)]

Time takes all we have away from us.
[tr. Ferry (1999)]

Time takes away all things, memory too.
[tr. Kline (2001)]