WIST Quotations

Austen, Jane -- Letter (1811-04-25) to Cassandra Austen

Dave — Thu, 08 Aug 2024 14:56:38 +0000

I give you joy of our new nephew, and hope if he ever comes to be hanged it will not be till we are too old to care about it.

Jane Austen (1775–1817) English author
Letter (1811-04-25) to Cassandra Austen

Austen, Jane -- Letter (1798-10-27) to Cassandra Austen

Dave — Tue, 07 May 2024 16:04:05 +0000

Next week shall begin my operations on my hat, on which you know my principal hopes of happiness depend.

Jane Austen (1775–1817) English author
Letter (1798-10-27) to Cassandra Austen

Teasdale, Sara -- “The Kiss,” Helen of Troy and Other Poems (1911)

Dave — Mon, 22 Apr 2024 20:55:51 +0000

For tho’ I know he loves me,
To-night my heart is sad;
His kiss was not so wonderful
As all the dreams I had.

Sara Teasdale (1884–1933) American lyrical poet
“The Kiss,” Helen of Troy and Other Poems (1911)

Young, Edward -- Poem (1743-12), “Night the 5th: The Relapse,” ll. 661-662, The Complaint: Or, Night Thoughts, Vol. 1 (1744)

Dave — Fri, 29 Dec 2023 21:51:23 +0000

Like our shadows,
Our wishes lengthen, as our sun declines.

Edward Young (1683–1765) English poet
Poem (1743-12), “Night the 5th: The Relapse,” ll. 661-662, The Complaint: Or, Night Thoughts, Vol. 1 (1744)

Twain, Mark -- (Attributed)

Dave — Wed, 09 Dec 2015 15:53:22 +0000

Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.

Mark Twain (1835–1910) American writer [pseud. of Samuel Clemens]
(Attributed)

Quoted in Gay Zenola MacLaren, Morally We Roll Along (1938). A recollection of something Twain said to the author when she was a child. For further discussion, see Quote Origin: Keep Away from People Who Try to Belittle Your Ambitions – Quote Investigator®.

Housman, A. E. -- “The Chestnut Casts His Flambeaux and the Flowers,” st. 3, Last Poems, # 9 (1922)

Dave — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 13:05:33 +0000

We for a certainty are not the first
Have sat in taverns while the tempest hurled
Their hopeful plans to emptiness, and cursed
Whatever brute and blackguard made the world.

A. E. Housman (1859–1936) English scholar and poet [Alfred Edward Housman]
“The Chestnut Casts His Flambeaux and the Flowers,” st. 3, Last Poems, # 9 (1922)

Hoffer, Eric -- True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements, Part 1, ch. 1, § 5 (1951)

Dave — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 17:41:48 +0000

When hopes and dreams are loose in the streets, it is well for the timid to lock doors, shutter windows and lie low until the wrath has passed. For there is often a monstrous incongruity between the hopes, however noble and tender, and the action which follows them. It is as if ivied maidens and garlanded youths were to herald the four horsemen of the apocalypse.

Eric Hoffer (1902–1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements, Part 1, ch. 1, § 5 (1951)

Shakespeare, William -- All’s Well That Ends Well, Act 2, sc. 1, l. 160ff (2.1.160-162) (1602?)

Dave — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 15:08:14 +0000

HELENA: Oft expectation fails and most oft there
Where most it promises, and oft it hits
Where hope is coldest and despair most fits.

William Shakespeare (1564–1616) English dramatist and poet
All’s Well That Ends Well, Act 2, sc. 1, l. 160ff (2.1.160-162) (1602?)