WIST Quotations

Orwell, George -- Essay (1946-04), “Politics and the English Language,” Horizon Magazine

Dave — Fri, 01 Nov 2024 19:57:01 +0000

Defenceless villages are bombarded from the air, the inhabitants driven out into the countryside, the cattle machine-gunned, the huts set on fire with incendiary bullets: this is called pacification. Millions of peasants are robbed of their farms and sent trudging along the roads with no more than they can carry: this is called transfer of population or rectification of frontiers. People are imprisoned for years without trial, or shot in the back of the neck or sent to die of scurvy in Arctic lumber camps: this is called elimination of unreliable elements. Such phraseology is needed if one wants to name things without calling up mental pictures of them.

George Orwell (1903-1950) English journalist, essayist, writer [pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair]
Essay (1946-04), “Politics and the English Language,” Horizon Magazine
(Source)

Millay, Edna St. Vincent -- “Spring,” ll. 13-15, Second April (1921)

Dave — Wed, 28 Feb 2024 21:44:36 +0000

Life in itself
Is nothing,
An empty cup, a flight of uncarpeted stairs.

Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892-1950) American poet
“Spring,” ll. 13-15, Second April (1921)
(Source)

Namier, Lewis -- “Symmetry and Repetition” (1941), Conflicts: Studies in Contemporary History (1942)

Dave — Thu, 22 Oct 2020 18:23:57 +0000

One would expect people to remember the past and to imagine the future. But in fact, when discoursing or writing about history, they imagine it in terms of their own experience, and when trying to gauge the future they cite supposed analogies from the past: till, by a double process of repetition, they imagine the past and remember the future.

Lewis B. Namier (1888-1960) Polish-British historian
“Symmetry and Repetition” (1941), Conflicts: Studies in Contemporary History (1942)

Kettering, Charles F. -- (Attributed)

Dave — Fri, 16 Oct 2015 13:07:11 +0000

A problem well stated is a problem half-solved.

Charles F. Kettering (1876-1958) American inventor, engineer, researcher, businessman
(Attributed)

Sometimes attributed to John Dewey.

Camus, Albert -- “Entre oui et non,” in L’Envers et l’endroit (1937)

Dave — Mon, 29 Sep 2014 12:43:48 +0000

Don’t let them tell us stories. Don’t let them say of the man sentenced to death “He is going to pay his debt to society,” but: “They are going to cut off his head.” It looks like nothing. But it does make a little difference.

Albert Camus (1913-1960) Algerian-French novelist, essayist, playwright
“Entre oui et non,” in L’Envers et l’endroit (1937)

Translated as "Between Yes and No", in World Review (Mar 1950).