WIST Quotations

Addison, Joseph -- Essay (1711-05-24), The Spectator, No. 73

Dave — Mon, 16 Jun 2025 18:05:15 +0000

The truth of it is, there is not a more unhappy being than a superannuated idol.

Joseph Addison (1672-1719) English essayist, poet, statesman
Essay (1711-05-24), The Spectator, No. 73
(Source)

The essay in focuses in particular on women who are idolized by coteries of men around them.

Hubbard, Elbert -- An American Bible [ed. Alice Hubbard] (1918)

Dave — Fri, 13 Nov 2015 14:19:22 +0000

Anyone who idolizes you is going to hate you when he discovers that you are fallible. He never forgives. He has deceived himself, and he blames you for it.

Elbert Hubbard (1856-1915) American writer, businessman, philosopher
An American Bible [ed. Alice Hubbard] (1918)

Huxley, Aldous -- “Knowledge and Understanding,” Vedanta and the West (May-Jun 1956)

Dave — Wed, 05 Nov 2014 13:37:37 +0000

For at least two thirds of our miseries spring from human stupidity, human malice, and those great motivators and justifiers of malice and stupidity, idealism, dogmatism, and proselytizing zeal on behalf of religious or political idols.

Aldous Huxley (1894-1963) English novelist, essayist and critic
“Knowledge and Understanding,” Vedanta and the West (May-Jun 1956)
(Source)

Revision of a 1955 lecture given at the Vedanta Society of Southern California; this phrase, however, does not occur in it (the surrounding text is found around the 10:00 mark). Reprinted in Adonis and the Alphabet, and Other Essays (in the US Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow, and Other Essays) (1956).

Einstein, Albert -- “What I Believe,” Forum and Century (Oct 1930)

Dave — Tue, 07 May 2013 13:44:40 +0000

My political view is democracy. Everyone should be respected as an individual, but no one idolized.

Albert Einstein (1879-1955) German-American physicist
“What I Believe,” Forum and Century (Oct 1930)
(Source)

Variant: "My political ideal is that of democracy. Let every man be respected as an individual and no man idolized." "The World As I See It [Mein Weltbild]" [tr. Harris (1934)].

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Sr. -- Article (1872-05), “The Poet at the Breakfast-Table,” Atlantic Monthly

Dave — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 13:17:40 +0000

Men are idolaters, and want something to look at and kiss and hug, or throw themselves down before; they always did, they always will; and if you don’t make it of wood, you must make it of words, which are just as much used for idols as promissory notes are used for values.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809-1894) American poet, essayist, scholar
Article (1872-05), “The Poet at the Breakfast-Table,” Atlantic Monthly
(Source)

Collected in The Poet at the Breakfast-Table, ch. 5 (1872).

Shaw, George Bernard -- Man and Superman, “Maxims for Revolutionists: Idolatry” (1903)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

The savage bows down to idols of wood and stone: the civilized man to idols of flesh and blood.

George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) Irish playwright and critic
Man and Superman, “Maxims for Revolutionists: Idolatry” (1903)
(Source)