WIST Quotations

Watterson, Bill -- Calvin and Hobbes (1990-11-21)

Dave — Tue, 02 Sep 2025 22:36:27 +0000

CALVIN: “Live for the moment” is my motto. You never know how long you’ve got! You could step into the road tomorrow and — WHAM — you get hit by a cement truck! Then you’d be sorry you put off your pleasures! That’s why I say “Live for the Moment.” What’s your motto?

HOBBES: “Look down the road.”

Bill Watterson (b. 1958) American cartoonist
Calvin and Hobbes (1990-11-21)
(Source)

Fuller, Thomas (1654) -- Introductio ad Prudentiam, Vol. 1, # 1757 (1725)

Dave — Wed, 07 May 2025 21:27:21 +0000

Since Life is so very short, live as much as thou canst in so short a Time.

Thomas Fuller (1654-1734) English physician, preacher, aphorist, writer
Introductio ad Prudentiam, Vol. 1, # 1757 (1725)
(Source)

Austen, Jane -- Letter (1799-01-21) to Cassandra Austen

Dave — Tue, 11 Jun 2024 16:25:18 +0000

I had a very pleasant evening, however, though you will probably find out that there was no particular reason for it; but I do not think it worth while to wait for enjoyment until there is some real opportunity for it.

Jane Austen (1775-1817) English author
Letter (1799-01-21) to Cassandra Austen
(Source)

Smith, Sydney -- Memoir of the Reverend Sydney Smith, by His Daughter, Lady Holland, Vol. 1, ch. 11 (1855)

Dave — Tue, 16 Jan 2024 22:31:06 +0000

Are you happy now? Are you likely to remain so till this evening? or next week? or next month? or next year? Then why destroy present happiness by a distant misery, which may never come at all, or you may never live to see it? for ever substantial grief has twenty shadows, and most of them shadows of your own making.

Sydney Smith (1771-1845) English clergyman, essayist, wit
Memoir of the Reverend Sydney Smith, by His Daughter, Lady Holland, Vol. 1, ch. 11 (1855)
(Source)

Advice for fighting melancholy / depression / anxiety by "taking short views of life" and not borrowing trouble.

Adams, Douglas -- Dirk Gently No. 2, The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul, ch. 4 (1988)

Dave — Wed, 19 Oct 2022 16:33:58 +0000

“Ah, I expect you’ll be wanting to pay for that paper, then, won’t you, Mr. Dirk, sir?” said the newsagent, trotting gently after him.
“Ah, Bates,” said Dirk loftily, “you and your expectations. Always expecting this and expecting that. May I recommend serenity to you? A life that is burdened with expectations is a heavy life. Its fruit is sorrow and disappointment. Learn to be one with the joy of the moment.”

Douglas Adams (1952-2001) English author, humorist, screenwriter
Dirk Gently No. 2, The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul, ch. 4 (1988)
(Source)

Brockenbrough, Martha -- Facebook (9 Aug 2016)

Dave — Thu, 18 Aug 2016 00:27:06 +0000

Maybe this is the chief thing the dog knows better than we do. There isn’t enough time in life to do anything but love and do our work with joy. We should sleep when we’re tired. Run with abandon. Always be happy to see each other. And never stop believing we will, someday, catch the squirrel.

Martha Brockenbrough (b. 1970) American writer
Facebook (9 Aug 2016)
(Source)

Sophocles -- Trachiniae, l. 943

Dave — Thu, 18 Aug 2016 00:26:21 +0000

Rash indeed is he who reckons on the morrow, or haply on days beyond it; for tomorrow is not, until today is past.

Sophocles (496-406 BC) Greek tragic playwright
Trachiniae, l. 943

Leacock, Stephen -- (Attributed)

Dave — Wed, 08 Jun 2016 14:58:16 +0000

Life, we learn too late, is in the living, in the tissue of each day and hour.

Stephen Leacock (1869-1944) Canadian economist, writer and humorist
(Attributed)

Howard, Robert E. -- “Queen of the Black Coast” (1934)

Dave — Mon, 09 May 2016 15:19:23 +0000

He shrugged his shoulders. “I have known many gods. He who denies them is as blind as he who trusts them too deeply. I seek not beyond death. It may be the blackness averred by the Nemedian skeptics, or Crom’s realm of ice and cloud, or the snowy plains and vaulted halls of the Nordheimer’s Valhalla. I know not, nor do I care. Let me live deep while I live; let me know the rich juices of red meat and stinging wine on my palate, the hot embrace of white arms, the mad exultation of battle when the blue blades flame and crimson, and I am content. Let teachers and priests and philosophers brood over questions of reality and illusion. I know this: if life is illusion, then I am no less an illusion, and being thus, the illusion is real to me. I live, I burn with life, I love, I slay, and am content.”

Robert E. Howard (1906-1936) American author
“Queen of the Black Coast” (1934)

Willson, Meredith -- The Music Man (1957)

Dave — Fri, 09 Oct 2015 16:47:25 +0000

MARIAN: No, please, not tonight. Maybe tomorrow.

HAROLD: Oh, my dear little librarian. You pile up enough tomorrows, and you’ll find you are left with nothing but a lot of empty yesterdays.

Meredith Willson (1902-1984) American composer, songwriter, flutist, conductor, playwright
The Music Man (1957)

Adams, Douglas -- Dirk Gently No. 2, The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul, ch. 4 [Dirk] (1988)

Dave — Mon, 15 Jun 2015 12:12:12 +0000

Ah, Bates, you and your expectations. Always expecting this and expecting that. May I recommend serenity to you? A life that is burdened with expectations is a heavy life. Its fruit is sorrow and disappointment. Learn to be one with the joy of the moment.

Douglas Adams (1952-2001) English author, humorist, screenwriter
Dirk Gently No. 2, The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul, ch. 4 [Dirk] (1988)
(Source)

Hemingway, Ernest -- Men at War, Introduction (1942)

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

Cowardice, as distinguished from panic, is almost always simply a lack of ability to suspend the functioning of the imagination. Learning to suspend your imagination and live completely in the very second of the present minute with no before and no after is the greatest gift a soldier can acquire.

Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961) American writer
Men at War, Introduction (1942)
(Source)

Chesterfield (Lord) -- Letter to his son, #131 (6 Nov 1747)

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

I recommend to you to take care of the minutes; for hours will take care of themselves.

Lord Chesterfield (1694-1773) English statesman, wit [Philip Dormer Stanhope]
Letter to his son, #131 (6 Nov 1747)
(Source)