WIST Quotations

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Sr. -- Article (1890-06), “Over the Teacups,” No. 7, Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 65

Dave — Fri, 30 Dec 2016 01:43:06 +0000

What refuge is there for the victim who is oppressed with the feeling that there are a thousand new books he ought to read, while life is only long enough for him to attempt to read a hundred?

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809–1894) American poet, essayist, scholar
Article (1890-06), “Over the Teacups,” No. 7, Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 65
(Source)

Collected in Over the Teacups, ch. 7 (1891).

Verne, Jules -- From the Earth to the Moon (1865)

Dave — Sat, 13 Aug 2016 03:32:14 +0000

How many things have been denied one day, only to become realities the next!

Jules Verne (1828–1905) French novelist, poet, playwright
From the Earth to the Moon (1865)
(Source)

Escher, M. C. -- “The Impossible”

Dave — Fri, 04 Mar 2016 18:44:46 +0000

It sometimes seems to me that we are all afflicted with an urge and possessed by a longing for the impossible. The reality around us, the three-dimensional world surrounding us, is too common, too dull, too ordinary for us. We hanker after the unnatural or supernatural, that which does not exist, a miracle. As if that everyday reality isn’t enigmatic enough!

M. C. Escher (1898–1972) Dutch artist [Maurits Cornelius Escher]
“The Impossible”

Twain, Mark -- Following the Equator, ch. 15, epigraph, “Pudd’nhead Wilson’s New Calendar” (1897)

Dave — Fri, 17 Jul 2015 17:12:12 +0000

Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; Truth isn’t.

Mark Twain (1835–1910) American writer [pseud. of Samuel Clemens]
Following the Equator, ch. 15, epigraph, “Pudd’nhead Wilson’s New Calendar” (1897)
(Source)

Sometimes paraphrased, "Why shouldn't truth be stranger than fiction? Fiction, after all, has to make sense." More on this quotation and its variants here.

See also Byron.

Santayana, George -- (Attributed)

Dave — Thu, 18 Jun 2015 14:48:37 +0000

The Difficult is that which can be done immediately; the Impossible is that which takes a little longer.

George Santayana (1863–1952) Spanish-American poet and philosopher [Jorge Agustín Nicolás Ruíz de Santayana y Borrás]
(Attributed)

Quoted in Reader's Digest (Nov 1939), but without citation. The sentiment has a number of antecedents (see discussion here).

Santayana, George -- Dialogues in Limbo (1926)

Dave — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 13:01:58 +0000

All living souls welcome whatever they are ready to cope with; all else they ignore, or pronounce to be monstrous and wrong, or deny to be possible.

George Santayana (1863–1952) Spanish-American poet and philosopher [Jorge Agustín Nicolás Ruíz de Santayana y Borrás]
Dialogues in Limbo (1926)