- WIST is my personal collection of quotations, curated for thought, amusement, turn of phrase, historical significance, or sometimes just (often-unintentional) irony. Please feel free to browse and borrow.
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Popular Quotables
- “The Lesson for Today,” A Witness Tree (1942) (5,523)
- “Wealth and Poverty,” speech, National… (5,391)
- Agamemnon, ll. 175-183 [tr. Johnston (2007)] (5,355)
- Nobel prize acceptance speech (10 Dec 1962) (4,796)
- “The Triumph of Stupidity” (10 May 1933) (4,254)
- “In Search of a Majority,” Speech,… (3,611)
- “Get a Knife, Get a Dog, but Get Rid of… (3,430)
- “Hallowed Ground” (1825) (2,917)
- “On The Conduct of Life” (1822) (2,872)
- “The Historian as Participant,” Daedalus… (2,660)
Most Quoted Authors
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Adams, John • Bacon, Francis • Bible • Bierce, Ambrose • Billings, Josh • Butcher, Jim • Chesterton, Gilbert Keith • Churchill, Winston • Einstein, Albert • Eisenhower, Dwight David • Emerson, Ralph Waldo • Franklin, Benjamin • Fuller, Thomas (1654) • Gaiman, Neil • Galbraith, John Kenneth • Gandhi, Mohandas • Goethe, Johann von • Hazlitt, William • Heinlein, Robert A. • Hoffer, Eric • Huxley, Aldous • Ingersoll, Robert Green • James, William • Jefferson, Thomas • Johnson, Lyndon • Johnson, Samuel • Kennedy, John F. • King, Martin Luther • La Rochefoucauld, Francois • Lewis, C.S. • Lincoln, Abraham • Mencken, H.L. • Orwell, George • Pratchett, Terry • Roosevelt, Eleanor • Roosevelt, Theodore • Russell, Bertrand • Seneca the Younger • Shakespeare, William • Shaw, George Bernard • Stevenson, Adlai • Stevenson, Robert Louis • Twain, Mark • Watterson, Bill • Wilde, Oscar- Only the 45 most quoted authors are shown above. Full author list.
Recent Feedback
- 24-May-19 - Dave on Inaugural Address (20 Jan 1989).
- 16-May-19 - Mike Gaudioso on Inaugural Address (20 Jan 1989).
- 23-Apr-19 - Dave on Letter to Baron von Stein, Dammartin le St. Père (7 Jan 1814).
- 14-Apr-19 - Gastone Breccia on Letter to Baron von Stein, Dammartin le St. Père (7 Jan 1814).
- 9-Apr-19 - ***Dave Does the Blog on The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, ch. 2 (1876).
- 8-Apr-19 - Paraenesis votiva pro Pace Ecclesiae ad Theologos Augustanae Confessionis (1626) | WIST on Motto.
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Quotations about good cause
Note that not all quotations have been tagged, so the Search function may find additional quotations on this topic.
War is a grim, cruel business, a business justified only as a means of sustaining the forces of good against those of evil.
Dwight David Eisenhower (1890-1969) American general, US President (1953-61)
United War Fund appeal (11 Sep 1945)
(Source)
Those who seek absolute power, even though they seek it to do what they regard as good, are simply demanding the right to enforce their own version of heaven on earth. And let me remind you, they are the very ones who always create the most hellish tyrannies. Absolute power does corrupt, and those who seek it must be suspect and must be opposed.
Like other idealisms, patriotism varies from a noble devotion to a moral lunacy.
William Ralph Inge (1860-1954) English prelate [Dean Inge]
“Our Present Discontents,” Outspoken Essays: First Series (1919)
The essence of leadership is to get others to do something because they think you want it done and because they know it is worth while doing — that is what we are talking about.
Dwight David Eisenhower (1890-1969) American general, US President (1953-61)
Speech, Republican Campaign Picnic, Gettysburg (12 Sep 1956)
The struggle which is not joyous is the wrong struggle. The joy of the struggle is not hedonism and hilarity, but the sense of purpose, achievement, and dignity.
Germaine Greer (b. 1939) English reformer, author, educator
The Female Eunuch, Introduction (1970)
If it was a worthwhile fight, it didn’t matter who won; some good was sure to come of it.
Richard Brooks (1912-1992) American screenwriter, film director, novelist
Deadline: U.S.A. [film] (1952)
Line spoken by Ethyl Barrymore.
