WIST Quotations

Joubert, Joseph -- Pensées [Thoughts], ch. 14 “Des Gouvernements [On Governments],” ¶ 31 (1793; 1850 ed.) [tr. Attwell (1896), ¶ 199]

Dave — Tue, 10 Jun 2025 17:09:54 +0000

Imitate time. It destroys slowly. It undermines, wears, loosens, separates. It does not uproot.

[Imitez le temps: il détruit tout avec lenteur; il mine, il use, il déracine, il détache, et n’arrache pas.]

Joseph Joubert (1754-1824) French moralist, philosopher, essayist, poet
Pensées [Thoughts], ch. 14 “Des Gouvernements [On Governments],” ¶ 31 (1793; 1850 ed.) [tr. Attwell (1896), ¶ 199]
(Source)

(Source (French)). Alternate translations:

Imitate time: it destroys every thing slowly; it undermines, it wears away, it detaches, it does not wrench.
[tr. Calvert (1866), ch. 12]

Let time be your example; it destroys everything slowly; it undermines, wears out, uproots, detaches, and never tears away.
[tr. Lyttelton (1899), ch. 13, ¶ 10]

Imitate time. It destroys slowly. It eats away, it uses up, it uproots, it detaches and does not rip apart.
[tr. Auster (1983), 1793 entry]

Steinbeck, John -- Sweet Thursday, ch. 3, sec. 1 (1954)

Dave — Wed, 25 Jan 2023 20:34:34 +0000

Looking back, you can usually find the moment of the birth of new era, whereas, when it happened, it was one day hooked on the tail of another.

John Steinbeck (1902-1968) American writer
Sweet Thursday, ch. 3, sec. 1 (1954)
(Source)

Marshall, Thurgood -- Quoted in I. F. Stone’s Weekly (19 May 1958)

Dave — Wed, 21 Jul 2021 19:09:18 +0000

I am the world’s original gradualist. I just think ninety-odd years is gradual enough.

Thurgood Marshall (1908-1993) American lawyer, US Supreme Court Justice (1967-1991)
Quoted in I. F. Stone’s Weekly (19 May 1958)
(Source)

In response to Eisenhower's speech to the National Newspaper Publishers Association, where the President called for "patience and forbearance" on civil rights reform.

Also that year, during the effort by Autherine Lucy to be admitted to the segregated University of Alabama, Marshall similarly quipped, "Maybe you can't override prejudice overnight, but the Emancipation Proclamation was issued in 1864, ninety-odd years ago. I believe in gradualism, and I also believe that ninety-odd years is pretty gradual."