WIST Quotations

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Sr. -- Lecture (1842), “Homœopathy and Its Kindred Delusions,” Boston Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge

Dave — Mon, 28 Jul 2025 18:39:40 +0000

So long as the body is affected through the mind, no audacious device, even of the most manifestly dishonest character, can fail of producing occasional good to those who yield it an implicit or even a partial faith.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809–1894) American poet, essayist, scholar
Lecture (1842), “Homœopathy and Its Kindred Delusions,” Boston Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge
(Source)

Collected in Medical Essays, 1842-1882, ch. 1 (1891 ed.).

Klee, Paul -- Diary 3, #759 (1906-03)

Dave — Wed, 07 Oct 2020 15:14:51 +0000

To emphasize only the beautiful seems to me to be like a mathematical system that only concerns itself with positive numbers.

Paul Klee (1879–1940) Swiss-German artist
Diary 3, #759 (1906-03)
(Source)

Shaw, George Bernard -- Too True to Be Good, Act 3 (1932)

Dave — Mon, 11 May 2020 15:17:51 +0000

THE SERGEANT: When men and women pick one another up for just a bit of fun, they find they’ve picked up more than they bargained for, because men and women have a top story as well as a ground floor, and you can’t have the one without the other.

George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish playwright and critic
Too True to Be Good, Act 3 (1932)
(Source)

Krishnamurti, Jiddu -- Think on These Things, Part 1, ch. 3 (1963)

Dave — Fri, 07 Aug 2015 16:18:15 +0000

You must understand the whole of life, not just one little part of it. That is why you must read, that is why you must look at the skies, that is why you must sing and dance, and write poems and suffer and understand, for all that is life.

Jiddu Krishnamurti (1895–1986) Indian philosopher, mystic, orator
Think on These Things, Part 1, ch. 3 (1963)
(Source)