WIST Quotations

Watterson, Bill -- Calvin and Hobbes (1990-10-18)

Dave — Tue, 31 Mar 2026 23:02:44 +0000

CALVIN: Hobbes, do you think our morality is defined by our actions, or by what’s in our hearts?

HOBBES: I think our actions show what’s in our hearts.

CALVIN: (after consideration) I resent that!

Bill Watterson (b. 1958) American cartoonist
Calvin and Hobbes (1990-10-18)
(Source)

Rogers, Will -- Column (1924-08-03), “Weekly Article: Random Shots at the News of a Week” [No. 86]

Dave — Fri, 01 Aug 2025 16:45:45 +0000

If you have a radio, the next three months is a good time to have it get out of fix. All you will hear from now until the 4th of November will be: “We must get our government out of the hands of predatory wealth.” “The good people of this great country are burdened to death with taxes; now what I intend to do is ….”
What he intends to do is try and get elected. That’s all any of them intend to do.

Will Rogers (1879-1935) American humorist
Column (1924-08-03), “Weekly Article: Random Shots at the News of a Week” [No. 86]
(Source)

Frame, Janet -- Faces in the Water, ch. 4 (1961)

Dave — Mon, 11 May 2020 18:19:08 +0000

“For your own good” is a persuasive argument that will eventually make a man agree to his own destruction.

Janet Frame (1924-2004) New Zealand author [pen name of Nene Janet Paterson Clutha]
Faces in the Water, ch. 4 (1961)

Pratchett, Terry -- Discworld No. 11, Reaper Man, ch. 16 (1991)

Dave — Mon, 25 Mar 2019 00:45:43 +0000

“They thought they were doing it for the best,” said Windle. “People often do. It’s amazing, the things that seem a good idea at the time.”

Terry Pratchett (1948-2015) English author
Discworld No. 11, Reaper Man, ch. 16 (1991)
(Source)

Wordsworth, William -- “Brave Schill! By Death Delivered, Take Thy Flight” (1809; pub. 1815)

Dave — Fri, 21 Jul 2017 20:40:26 +0000

… a noble aim,
Faithfully kept, is as a noble deed,
In whose pure sight all virtue doth succeed.

William Wordsworth (1770-1850) English poet
“Brave Schill! By Death Delivered, Take Thy Flight” (1809; pub. 1815)
(Source)

Sometimes misquoted "is a noble deed".

Carriger, Gail -- Imprudence (2016)

Dave — Thu, 30 Mar 2017 19:49:57 +0000

Forgive us immortals our sins of pride, child. We all age like cheese, growing strong and tasty but also covered in the mould of good intentions gone grey.

Gail Carriger (b. 1976) American archaeologist, author [pen name of Tofa Borregaard]
Imprudence (2016)

Johnson, Lyndon -- Quoted in George Christian, The President Steps Down, ch. 1, sec. 3 (1970).

Dave — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 14:08:38 +0000

Every President wants to do right.

Lyndon B. Johnson (1908-1973) American politician, educator, US President (1963-69)
Quoted in George Christian, The President Steps Down, ch. 1, sec. 3 (1970).
(Source)

Christian, who was Johnson's press secretary, says this was a frequent comment by Johnson, who would then go on to defend previous Administrations, Democratic and Republican, from the worst accusations of their then-detractors.

Roosevelt, Franklin Delano -- Speech (1936-06-27), Acceptance, Renomination for President, Democratic National Convention, Philadelphia

Dave — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 10:07:50 +0000

Governments can err, presidents do make mistakes, but the immortal Dante tells us that Divine justice weighs the sins of the cold-blooded and the sins of the warm-hearted on different scales. Better the occasional faults of a government that lives in a spirit of charity than the consistent omissions of a government frozen in the ice of its own indifference.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882–1945) American lawyer, politician, statesman, US President (1933–1945)
Speech (1936-06-27), Acceptance, Renomination for President, Democratic National Convention, Philadelphia
(Source)

(Source (Audio), 10:40)

Barrie, James -- The Little Minister, ch. 1 “The Love-Light” (1891)

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

The life of every man is a diary in which he means to write one story and writes another, and his humblest hour is when he compares the volume as it is with what he vowed to make it.

J. M. Barrie (1860-1937) Scottish novelist and dramatist [James Matthew Barrie]
The Little Minister, ch. 1 “The Love-Light” (1891)
(Source)