WIST Quotations

Hugo, Victor -- Speech (1848-09-15), “Plaidoyer contre la peine de mort [An argument against the death penalty],” Assemblée Constituante, Paris

Dave — Mon, 23 Feb 2026 22:17:33 +0000

Look, examine, reflect. You hold capital punishment up as an example. Why? Because of what it teaches. And just what is it that you wish to teach by means of this example? That thou shalt not kill. And how do you teach that “thou shalt not kill”? By killing.

[Voyez, examinez, réfléchissez. Vous tenez à l’exemple [de la peine de mort]. Pourquoi? Pour ce qu’il enseigne. Que voulez-vous enseigner avec votre exemple? Qu’il ne faut pas tuer. Et comment enseignez-vous qu’il ne faut pas tuer? En tuant.]

Victor Hugo (1802-1885) French writer
Speech (1848-09-15), “Plaidoyer contre la peine de mort [An argument against the death penalty],” Assemblée Constituante, Paris
(Source)

(Source (French)).

I have been unable to find the origin of the English translation that is widely used for this quotation (let alone an English record of the entire speech).

~Proverbs and Sayings -- Turkish Proverb

Dave — Sun, 21 Sep 2025 23:51:15 +0000

The forest was shrinking, but the trees kept voting for the axe because its handle was made of wood and they thought it was one of the them.

Proverbs, Sayings, and Adages
Turkish Proverb

While this particular phrasing is widely labeled online as a Turkish proverb, it is a fairly recent reformulation of a Talmudic or Turkish set of proverbs, and is not credited solely to the Turks.

The Babylonian Talmud (6th Century AD) includes a passage (Sanhedrin, Perek 4, 39B), indicating it was a common proverb:

As this is as people say: From and within the forest comes the ax to it, as the handle for the ax that chops the tree is from the forest itself.

As well as:

This is as people say: From and within the forest comes the ax to it, as King David was a descendant of Ruth the Moabite.

This phrase was brought into English in Rev. J. Ray's A Collection of English Proverbs (1678) as a "Hebrew Adage":

The axe goes to the wood, from whence it borrowed its helve: [the saying] is used against those who are injurious to those from whom they are derived, or from whom they have received their power.

Ray's work continued in reprint for over a century, well-establishing the phrase in English.

In a similar vein, Metin Yurtbaşı's Dictionary of Turkish Proverbs (1993) includes two such phrases, indexed under "Ingratitude". It attributes these back to Ebüzziya Tevfik, Durüb-ı, Emsâl-i Osmaniyye [Ottoman Proverbs] (1885). First:

They struck at the tree with an ax; and the tree said: “The handle is made from my body.”

[Ağaca balta vurmuşlar, “Sapı bedenimden” demiş.]

Second:

An ax went into the woods and its handle was of itself.

[Ormana (bir) balta girmiş sapı yine kendisinden (imiş).]

There are a variety of later uses, in books and then in social media, that further evolved the concept into the quotation that leads this entry, which was first tweeted by @mabarsayaaaaa (2018-02-24). In this more political form, it and further variants have also been credited as an African (Yoruba) proverb (often by African tweeters).

For more discussion of the background and origin of this quotation, see:

Russell, Bertrand -- Autobiography, Vol. 3: 1944-1969, ch. 1 “Return to England” (1969)

Dave — Wed, 27 Nov 2024 21:49:22 +0000

We sat in the plane while it slowly sank. Small boats assembled round it and presently we were told to jump into the sea and swim to a boat — which all the people in my part of the plane did. We later learned that all the nineteen passengers in the non-smoking compartment had been killed. When the plane had hit the water a hole had been made in the plane and the water had rushed in. I had told a friend at Oslo who was finding me a place that he must find me a place where I could smoke, remarking jocularly, ‘If I cannot smoke, I shall die’. Unexpectedly, this turned out to be true.

Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) English mathematician and philosopher
Autobiography, Vol. 3: 1944-1969, ch. 1 “Return to England” (1969)
(Source)

On a 1948 seaplane flight he took from Germany to Norway.

Bierce, Ambrose -- “Joss-sticks,” The Cynic’s Word Book (1906)

Dave — Tue, 15 Oct 2024 14:16:55 +0000

JOSS-STICKS, n. Small sticks burned by the Chinese in their pagan tomfoolery, in imitation of certain sacred rites of our holy religion.

Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914?) American writer and journalist
“Joss-sticks,” The Cynic’s Word Book (1906)
(Source)

Included in The Devil's Dictionary (1911). Originally published in the "Devil's Dictionary" column in the San Francisco Wasp (1886-01-09).

Jerome, Jerome K. -- Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog), ch. 6 (1889)

Dave — Mon, 14 Oct 2024 22:42:58 +0000

No, what was sad in his case was that he, who didn’t care for carved oak, should have his drawing-room paneled with it, while people who do care for it have to pay enormous prices to get it. It seems to be the rule of this world. Each person has what he doesn’t want, and other people have what he does want.

Jerome K. Jerome (1859-1927) English writer, humorist [Jerome Klapka Jerome]
Three Men in a Boat (To Say Nothing of the Dog), ch. 6 (1889)
(Source)

Havel, Vaclav -- Speech, accepting the “Open Society” Prize, Central European University (24 Jun 1999)

Dave — Fri, 24 Feb 2023 00:39:14 +0000

There are no exact directions. There are probably no directions at all. The only things that I am able to recommend at this moment are: a sense of humour; an ability to see the ridiculous and the absurd dimensions of things; an ability to laugh about others as well as about ourselves; a sense of irony; and, of everything that invites parody in this world. In other words: rising above things, or looking at them from a distance; sensibility to the hidden presence of all the more dangerous types of conceit in others, as well as in ourselves; good cheer; an unostentatious certainty of the meaning of things; gratitude for the gift of life and courage to assume responsibility for it; and, a vigilant mind.

Václav Havel (1936-2011) Czech playwright, essayist, dissident, politician
Speech, accepting the “Open Society” Prize, Central European University (24 Jun 1999)
(Source)

Nash, Ogden -- Commencement address at his daughter Linell’s boarding school

Dave — Fri, 04 Sep 2020 16:35:19 +0000

Among other things I think humor is a shield, a weapon, a survival kit. Not only has this brief span of ours been threatened by such perils not of our making such as fire and flood, Tyrannosaurus Rex, the black death, and hurricanes named after chorus girls, but we have been most ingenious in devising means for destroying each other, a habit we haven’t yet learned how to kick.

So here we are several billion of us, crowded into our global concentration camp for the duration. How are we to survive? Solemnity is not the answer, any more than witless and irresponsible frivolity is. I think our best chance lies in humor, which in this case means a wry acceptance of our predicament. We don’t have to like it but we can at least recognize its ridiculous aspects, one of which is ourselves.

Ogden Nash (1902-1971) American poet
Commencement address at his daughter Linell’s boarding school
(Source)

Quoted in Douglas M. Parker, Dana Giaoia, Ogden Nash: The Life and Work of America's Laureate of Light (2005).

Lovecraft, H. P. -- Letter to August W. Derleth (Jan 1928)

Dave — Tue, 11 Apr 2017 20:22:03 +0000

That sort of thing wears thin — for when one’s cynicism becomes perfect and absolute, there’s no longer anything amusing in the stupidity and hypocrisy of the herd. It is all to be expected — what else could human nature produce? — so irony annuls itself by means of its own victories!

H. P. Lovecraft (1890-1937) American fabulist [Howard Phillips Lovecraft]
Letter to August W. Derleth (Jan 1928)

Regarding Ambrose Bierce's Devil's Dictionary.

Estienne, Henri -- Les Prémices, ou Le I livre Des Proverbes epigrammatizez [The First Fruits, or the First Book of Epigrammatized Proverbs], ch. 4, ep. 4 (1594)

Dave — Thu, 13 Jun 2013 11:59:50 +0000

If youth knew; if age could.

[O si jeunesse scavoit,
O si vieillesse pouvoit.]

Henri Estienne (1528 or 1531-1598) French printer and classical scholar [a.k.a. Henricus Stephanus]
Les Prémices, ou Le I livre Des Proverbes epigrammatizez [The First Fruits, or the First Book of Epigrammatized Proverbs], ch. 4, ep. 4 (1594)
(Source)

Variants:

If youth only knew; if only age could.
If youth knew; if age could.
If only youth knew; if only age could.

Kierkegaard, Soren -- Either/Or, “Diapsalmata” (1843)

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

In a theatre it happened that a fire started off stage. The clown came out to tell the audience. They thought it was a joke and applauded. He told them again, and they became still more hilarious. This is the way, I suppose, that the world will be destroyed — amid the universal hilarity of wits and wags who think it is all a joke.

Søren Kierkegaard (1813-1855) Danish philosopher, theologian
Either/Or, “Diapsalmata” (1843)

Alternate translation: "It happened that a fire broke out backstage in a theater. The clown came out to inform the public. They thought it was a jest and applauded. He repeated his warning. They shouted even louder. So I think the world will come to an end amid the general applause from all the wits who believe that it is a joke."

Alternate translation: "A fire broke out backstage in a theatre. The clown came out to warn the public; they thought it was a joke and applauded. He repeated it; the acclaim was even greater. I think that's just how the world will come to an end: to the general applause of wits who believe it's a joke"

Watterson, Bill -- Calvin and Hobbes (1990-05-11)

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

CALVIN: I’d say that crossed the line from Ironic Coincidence to Evil Omen.

Bill Watterson (b. 1958) American cartoonist
Calvin and Hobbes (1990-05-11)
(Source)