WIST Quotations

Orwell, George -- Essay (1947-03), “Lear, Tolstoy and the Fool,” Polemic Magazine, No. 7

Dave — Fri, 22 Aug 2025 15:50:31 +0000

There are people who are convinced of the wickedness both of armies and of police forces, but who are nevertheless much more intolerant and inquisitorial in outlook than the normal person who believes that it is necessary to use violence in certain circumstances. They will not say to somebody else, “Do this, that and the other or you will go to prison”, but they will, if they can, get inside his brain and dictate his thoughts for him in the minutest particulars.

George Orwell (1903-1950) English journalist, essayist, writer [pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair]
Essay (1947-03), “Lear, Tolstoy and the Fool,” Polemic Magazine, No. 7
(Source)

Collected in Inside the Whale, and Other Essays (1962).

Griswold, Whitney -- “Freedom, Security, and the University Tradition,” speech, Columbia University Bicentennial (1954-06-02)

Dave — Tue, 23 May 2023 00:03:54 +0000

A mind unfree, a mind possessed, dragooned, or indoctrinated, does not learn. It copies. Learning implies discovery. The unfree mind looks at maps but does not travel. It dares not. For at the edge of maps is the jumping-off place, full of dragons and sea serpents. The unfree mind stays home, locks the door, bars the shutters. It is a hero in a crowd, a coward in solitude; it is a slave and a sloth.

Whitney Griswold (1906–1963) American historian, educator [Alfred Whitney Griswold]
“Freedom, Security, and the University Tradition,” speech, Columbia University Bicentennial (1954-06-02)
(Source)

Reprinted in Griswold, In the University Tradition (1957).

Drummond, William -- Academical Questions, Preface (1805)

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

He, who will not reason, is a bigot; he, who cannot, is a fool; and he, who dares not, is a slave.

William Drummond of Logie-Almond (1770-1828) Scottish classical scholar, philosopher, diplomat, politician
Academical Questions, Preface (1805)
(Source)

Sometimes misattributed to Byron.