WIST Quotations

Friedan, Betty -- The Feminine Mystique, ch. 14 (1963)

Dave — Thu, 17 Mar 2022 19:05:31 +0000

It is easier to live through someone else than to become complete yourself.

Betty Friedan (1921-2006) American writer, feminist, activist
The Feminine Mystique, ch. 14 (1963)
(Source)

Martial -- Epigrams [Epigrammata], Book 5, epigram 58 (5.58.7-8) (AD 90) [tr. Nisbet (2015)]

Dave — Fri, 13 Aug 2021 18:45:51 +0000

You’ll “start living tomorrow”? Start living today already, Postumus, you’re running out of time. Anyone with sense started living yesterday.

[Cras vives? hodie iam vivere, Postume, serum est:
Ille sapit, quisquis, Postume, vixit heri.]

Martial (AD c.39-c.103) Spanish Roman poet, satirist, epigrammatist [Marcus Valerius Martialis]
Epigrams [Epigrammata], Book 5, epigram 58 (5.58.7-8) (AD 90) [tr. Nisbet (2015)]
(Source)

(Source (Latin)). See a related sentiment by Martial in 1.15. Alternate translations:

Thou'lt live to morrow? -- 'tis too late to day:
Hee's wise who yesterday, I liv'd, can say.
[tr. Sherburne (1651)]

Thou'lt live tomorrow? -- this day's life's too late:
He's wise that lived before the present date.
[tr. Fletcher (1656)]

Tomorrow will I live, the fool does say;
Today itself's too late; the wise lived yesterday.
[tr. Cowley (1668), in Hay, "Appendix," ep. 59]

Today to live, ev'n that's too late I say.
The wiseman, Posthumus, liv'd Yesterday.
[tr. Oldmixon (1728)]

You will live, you say, tomorrow; it is late, Posthumus, to live today; he is wise who lived yesterday.
[tr. Amos (1858), ch. 3, ep. 46, noted as Martial Book 5, ep. 59]

You will live tomorrow: even today it is too late to begin to live. He is the wise man, Postumus, who lived yesterday.
[tr. Bohn's Classical (1859)]

To live today, Postumus, is already too late. He is wise, whoever he be, Postumus, who "lived" yesterday.
[tr. Ker (1919)]

"Tomorrow": -- nay, do not this moment delay.
The wise man is he who has lived yesterday.
[tr. Pott & Wright (1921)]

You'll live tomorrow? Now's too late, I say.
He's wise, my Postumus, who lived yesterday.
[tr. Francis & Tatum (1924), #255]

Yes, this is what wise Martial says,
Though in another way:
"It's much too late today to live!
The wise lived yesterday!"
[tr. Marcellino (1968), "To a Crass Procrastinator"]

"Tomorrow"? -- Postumus, today's too late.
The wise man, Postumus, lived yesterday.
[tr. Whigham (1987)]

Will you live tomorrow? It's already overlate, Postumus, to live today. He is wise, Postumus, who lived yesterday.
[tr. Shackleton Bailey (1993)]

Tomorrow? It’s already too late to live today:
He who lived yesterday, Postumus, he is wise.
[tr. Kline (2006)]

Forget tomorrow's teasing long delay.
To make life pleasant, dwell on yesterday.
[tr. Wills (2007)]

Will you live then? Today is late already.
He's wise who did his living yesterday.
[tr. McLean (2014)]

Believe me, wise men don’t say “I shall live to do that,”
Tomorrow’s life is too late; live today.

Lawrence, Jerome -- Auntie Mame, Act 2, sc. 6 (1956) [with Robert E. Lee]

Dave — Thu, 02 Jul 2020 22:10:28 +0000

MAME: Yes! Life is a banquet, and most poor sons-of-bitches are starving to death! Live!

Jerome Lawrence (1915-2004) American playwright and author [b. Jerome Lawrence Schwartz]
Auntie Mame, Act 2, sc. 6 (1956) [with Robert E. Lee]

Based on the novel Patrick Dennis, Auntie Mame (1955), turned first into this Broadway play by Lawrence and Lee, a 1958 movie, then the musical Mame (1966), followed by a movie of the musical (1974). The line is original with Lawrence and Lee.

Pasternak, Boris -- Doctor Zhivago [До́ктор Жива́го], Part 2, ch. 9 “Varykino,” sec. 14 [Yury to Larissa] (1955) [tr. Hayward & Harari (1958), UK ed.]

Dave — Wed, 01 Apr 2015 12:31:36 +0000

Man is born to live, not to prepare for life. Life itself — the gift of life — is such a breathtakingly serious thing! — Why substitute this childish harlequinade of adolescent fantasies, these schoolboy escapades?

Boris Pasternak (1890-1960) Russian poet, novelist, and literary translator
Doctor Zhivago [До́ктор Жива́го], Part 2, ch. 9 “Varykino,” sec. 14 [Yury to Larissa] (1955) [tr. Hayward & Harari (1958), UK ed.]
(Source)

Criticizing the immature aspirations of revolutionaries.

Alternate translation:

Man is born to live, not to prepare for life. Life itself, the phenomenon of life, the gift of life, is so breath-takingly serious! So why substitute this childish harlequinade of immature fantasies, these schoolboy escapades?
[tr. Hayward & Harari (1958), US ed.]

Man is born to live, not to prepare for life. And life itself, the phenomenon of life, the gift of life, is so thrillingly serious! Why then substitute for it a childish harlequinade of immature inventions, these escapes of Chekhovian schoolboys to America?
[tr. Pevear & Volokhonsky (2010)]

Radner, Gilda -- It’s Always Something, ch. 9 “The Wellness Community” (1989)

Dave — Mon, 17 Oct 2005 19:42:42 +0000

While we have the gift of life, it seems to me the only tragedy is to allow part of us to die — whether it is our spirit, our creativity, or our glorious uniqueness.

Gilda Radner (1946-1989) American comedian
It’s Always Something, ch. 9 “The Wellness Community” (1989)
(Source)

Roosevelt, Eleanor -- Essay (1951-12), “This I Believe: Growth that Starts from Thinking,” on Edward R. Murrow, This I Believe, CBS Radio

Dave — Wed, 12 May 2004 19:03:47 +0000

I think I am pretty much of a fatalist. You have to accept whatever comes and the only important thing is that you meet it with courage and with the best that you have to give.

Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962) First Lady of the US (1933–1945), politician, diplomat, activist
Essay (1951-12), “This I Believe: Growth that Starts from Thinking,” on Edward R. Murrow, This I Believe, CBS Radio
(Source)

(Source (Audio); start 3:51). The essay was read without a script.

Apparently this statement (or at least the "fatalist" part of it), coupled with her earlier in the broadcast saying she was unsure "whether I believe in a future life," caused something of a stir. The Archibishop of Los Angeles took it to mean that Roosevelt was an agnostic and publicly declared that she should not sit on the Commission of Civil Rights. Roosevelt clarified the statement in a "My Day" column (1951-12-18):

Of one thing I am quite sure, and that is that I never said I did not believe in immortality. That would not be true. What I was trying to say was that I, like a great many other people, could not definitely state what form immortality would take and that I did not see why people worried about this particular question. There I am a fatalist, for I do not believe in worrying about something I can do nothing about. The important thing is to live your life to the best of your ability here and to have faith that whatever happens hereafter is the will of God.

Collected in Edward P. Morgan (ed.), This I Believe (1952).