WIST Quotations

Wells, H.G. -- The First Men in the Moon, ch. 21 (1901)

Dave — Mon, 28 Apr 2025 18:26:51 +0000

Even if one has been to the moon, one has still to earn a living.

H. G. Wells (1866–1946) British writer [Herbert George Wells]
The First Men in the Moon, ch. 21 (1901)
(Source)

Billings, Josh -- Everybody’s Friend, Or; Josh Billing’s Encyclopedia and Proverbial Philosophy of Wit and Humor, ch. 156 “Affurisms: Embers on the Harth” (1874)

Dave — Thu, 17 Apr 2025 16:27:43 +0000

Mankind ain’t apt tew respekt verry mutch what they are familiar with, it iz what we don’t know, or kant see, that we hanker for.

[Mankind ain’t apt to respect very much what they are familiar with; it is what we don’t know, or can’t see, that we hanker for.]

Josh Billings (1818–1885) American humorist, aphorist [pseud. of Henry Wheeler Shaw]
Everybody’s Friend, Or; Josh Billing’s Encyclopedia and Proverbial Philosophy of Wit and Humor, ch. 156 “Affurisms: Embers on the Harth” (1874)
(Source)

La Bruyere, Jean de -- The Characters [Les Caractères], ch. 6 “Of Gifts of Fortune [Des Biens de Fortune],” § 51 (6.51) (1688) [tr. Stewart (1970)]

Dave — Tue, 25 Jun 2024 15:14:25 +0000

Man never gives up his desire for gain and aggrandizement; as death draws near, a prey to bile, with withered face and palsied legs, he will speak of my fortune, my situation.

[L’on ne se rend point sur le désir de posséder et de s’agrandir: la bile gagne, et la mort approche, qu’avec un visage flétri, et des jambes déjà faibles, l’on dit: ma fortune, mon établissement.]

Jean de La Bruyère (1645–1696) French essayist, moralist
The Characters [Les Caractères], ch. 6 “Of Gifts of Fortune [Des Biens de Fortune],” § 51 (6.51) (1688) [tr. Stewart (1970)]
(Source)

(Source (French)). Other translations:

There is no end to a Man's desire of growing rich and great; when the Cough seizes him, when Death approaches, his Face shrivel'd, and his Legs weak, he cries, My Fortune, my Establishment.
[Bullord ed. (1696)]

There is no end to a Man's Desire of growing rich and great; the Cough seizes him, Death approaches, his Face is shrivel'd, and his Legs weak, yet he cries, My Fortune, my Preferment.
[Curll ed. (1713)]

There is no end of desiring Riches and Grandeur; before the Rattle seizes him, and Death approaches, though his Face be shriveled, and his Legs totter, yet he is ever talking of, my Fortune, my Preferment.
[Browne ed. (1752)]

All that a man wishes for is riches and grandeur; he falls very ill, and death draws near, and though his face be shrivelled and his legs totter, yet he is still talking of his fortune and his post.
[tr. Van Laun (1885)]

Barzun, Jacques -- God’s Country and Mine, Part 3, ch. 12 (1954)

Dave — Mon, 22 Apr 2024 23:02:27 +0000

Many of us affect a tone of irony about gadgets, as if we lived always in realms above and dealt with trifles only during rare descents from sublime thoughts. The truth is that more and more of the important things in life turn on pinpoints. Our frustrations begin in trivialities — a telephone out of order, a car that will not start, a claim check whose number has been misread. The thing in cellophane that cannot be got at — plain to the sight but sealed like an egg — is the modern version of the torture of Tantalus. Catastrophes we will deal with like heroes, but the bottle top that defies us saps our morale, like the tiny arrows of the Lilliputians that maddened Gulliver and set his strength at naught.

Jacques Barzun (1907–2012) French-American historian, educator, polymath
God’s Country and Mine, Part 3, ch. 12 (1954)
(Source)

Jacobs, Jane -- Dark Age Ahead, ch. 4 “Science Abandoned” (2004)

Dave — Mon, 04 Mar 2024 18:33:18 +0000

To science, not even the bark of a tree or a drop of pond water is dull or a handful of dirt banal. They all arouse awe and wonder.

Jane Jacobs (1916–2006) American-Canadian journalist, author, urban theorist, activist
Dark Age Ahead, ch. 4 “Science Abandoned” (2004)
(Source)

Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth -- “Table-Talk”

Dave — Fri, 09 Jul 2021 15:02:45 +0000

The difference between a man of genius seen in his works and in person, is like that of a lighthouse seen by night and by day, — in the one case only a great fiery brain, in the other only a white tower.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882) American poet
“Table-Talk”
(Source)

Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth -- “Table-Talk”

Dave — Fri, 16 Apr 2021 16:18:31 +0000

Truths that startled the generation in which they were first announced become in the next age the commonplaces of conversation; as the famous airs of operas which thrilled the first audiences come to be played on hand-organs in the streets.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882) American poet
“Table-Talk”
(Source)

Miller, Henry -- Plexus, ch. 2 (1953)

Dave — Tue, 31 Mar 2020 21:37:45 +0000

The moment one gives close attention to anything, even a blade of grass, it becomes a mysterious, awesome, indescribably magnified world in itself.

Henry Miller (1891–1980) American novelist
Plexus, ch. 2 (1953)
(Source)

Sometimes misquoted as "magnificent world".

Brothers, Joyce -- “When Your Husband’s Affection Cools,” Good Housekeeping (May 1972)

Dave — Thu, 07 Dec 2017 00:18:38 +0000

Marriage is not just spiritual communion and passionate embraces; marriage is also three-meals-a-day and remembering to carry out the trash.

Joyce Brothers (1927–2013) American psychologist, television personality, advice columnist
“When Your Husband’s Affection Cools,” Good Housekeeping (May 1972)

Gaiman, Neil -- “This Much I Know,” The Guardian (2017-08-05)

Dave — Mon, 18 Sep 2017 22:21:19 +0000

Ever since I had dinner with Lou Reed I’ve tried to avoid meeting the people who would make me feel starstruck. It was a great dinner but by the end of it Lou Reed was no longer my hero, and I don’t have many heroes. I resolutely avoided meeting David Bowie, which became harder when I became friends with Duncan Jones, his son, and then got even harder when I moved to Woodstock and he lived around the corner. But I love the fact that the Bowie that I have is the Bowie in my head: a strange, evolving, absolutely fictional Bowie who became my hero when I was 11.

Neil Gaiman (b. 1960) British author, screenwriter, fabulist
“This Much I Know,” The Guardian (2017-08-05)
(Source)

Taylor, Jeremy -- (Attributed)

Dave — Wed, 19 Jul 2017 00:34:43 +0000

In self-examination, take no account of yourself by your thoughts and resolutions in the days of religion and solemnity; examine how it is with you in the days of ordinary conversation and in the circumstances of secular employment.

Jeremy Taylor (1613–1667) English cleric and author
(Attributed)
(Source)

Quoted in The Friends' Intelligencer (24 Jun 1882).

~Other -- “Fireball XL-5,” st. 3 (1962)

Dave — Tue, 05 Jan 2016 21:02:29 +0000

But though I’m not a spaceman,
Famous and renowned,
I’m just a guy that’s down to earth,
With both feet on the ground.
It’s all imagination,
I’ll never reach the stars.
My heart is still a fireball, a fireball,
Every time I gaze into your starry eyes.

(Other Authors and Sources)
“Fireball XL-5,” st. 3 (1962)
(Source)

Charles Blackwell (lyrics), Barry Gray (music), Don Spencer (vocals).

Laforgue, Jules -- “Complainte sur certains ennuis,” Les Complaintes (1885)

Dave — Wed, 31 Dec 2014 18:44:44 +0000

What a day-to-day affair life is.

Jules Laforgue (1860–1887) Franco-Uruguayan Symbolist poet
“Complainte sur certains ennuis,” Les Complaintes (1885)

Woolf, Virginia -- To the Lighthouse, Part 3, ch. 3 (1927)

Dave — Mon, 16 Jun 2014 12:39:20 +0000

What is the meaning of life? That was all — a simple question; one that tended to close in on one with years. The great revelation had never come. The great revelation perhaps never did come. Instead there were little daily miracles, illuminations, matches struck unexpectedly in the dark; here was one. This, that, and the other….

Virginia Woolf (1882–1941) English modernist writer [b. Adeline Virginia Stephen]
To the Lighthouse, Part 3, ch. 3 (1927)

Auden, W. H. -- “Herman Melville” (1939)

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

Evil is unspectacular and always human
And shares our bed and eats at our own table.

W. H. Auden (1907–1973) Anglo-American poet [Wystan Hugh Auden]
“Herman Melville” (1939)
(Source)

Keller, Helen -- “Optimism,” Part 1 (1903)

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

I long to accomplish a great and noble task; but it is my chief duty and joy to accomplish humble tasks as though they were great and noble. It is my service to think how I can best fulfil the demands that each day makes upon me, and to rejoice that others can do what I cannot. Green, the historian, tells us that the world is moved along, not only by the mighty shoves of its heroes, but also by the aggregate of the tiny pushes of each honest worker, and that thought alone suffices to guide me in this dark world and wide. I love the good that others do; for their activity is an assurance that whether I can help or not, the true and the good will stand sure.

Helen Keller (1880–1968) American author and lecturer
“Optimism,” Part 1 (1903)
(Source)

Often paraphrased as: "I long to accomplish a great and noble task, but it is my chief duty to accomplish humble tasks as though they were great and noble. The world is moved along, not only by the mighty shoves of its heroes, but also by the aggregate of the tiny pushes of each honest worker."