WIST Quotations

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, 15 May 2025 17:59:40 +0000

A man may git a big fut, or a pug noze, bi birthright, but nine-tenths ov hiz virtews are the effekt ov associashun or edukashun.

[A man may git a big foot, or a pug nose, by birthright, but nine-tenths of his virtues are the effect of association or education.]

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)

Martin, Steve -- L. A. Story (1991)

Dave — Mon, 15 Apr 2024 22:48:11 +0000

HARRIS: SanDeE*, your … your breasts feel weird.

SanDeE*: Oh, that’s ’cause they’re real.

Steve Martin (b. 1945) American comedian, actor, writer, producer, musician
L. A. Story (1991)
(Source)

(Source (Video))

Diamond, Jared -- “Choosing Success,” interview by Catherine Seip, National Review (30 Jun 2006)

Dave — Mon, 18 Jul 2022 14:58:26 +0000

Genocide is natural! Rape is natural! No, what’s natural is not necessarily good — often it’s repulsive. One of the most important functions of human society, and the driving force behind most political institutions, is to prevent humans from doing what comes naturally.

Jared Diamond (b. 1937) American geographer, historian, ornithologist, author
“Choosing Success,” interview by Catherine Seip, National Review (30 Jun 2006)
(Source)

Asimov, Isaac -- (Attributed)

Dave — Thu, 30 Sep 2021 14:11:09 +0000

There seems to be a feeling that anything that is natural is good. Strychnine is natural.

Isaac Asimov (1920-1992) Russian-American author, polymath, biochemist
(Attributed)

Aristotle -- Rhetoric [Ῥητορική; Ars Rhetorica], Book 1, ch. 1, sec. 12 (1.1.12) / 1355b.1 (350 BC) [tr. Roberts (1924)]

Dave — Fri, 26 Mar 2021 15:29:29 +0000

It is absurd to hold that a man ought to be ashamed of being unable to defend himself with his limbs but not of being unable to defend himself with reason when the use of reason is more distinctive of a human being than the use of his limbs.

[πρὸς δὲ τούτοις ἄτοπον εἰ τῷ σώματι μὲν αἰσχρὸν μὴ δύνασθαι βοηθεῖν ἑαυτῷ, λόγῳ δ᾽ οὐκ αἰσχρόν: ὃ μᾶλλον ἴδιόν ἐστιν ἀνθρώπου τῆς τοῦ σώματος χρείας.]

Aristotle (384-322 BC) Greek philosopher
Rhetoric [Ῥητορική; Ars Rhetorica], Book 1, ch. 1, sec. 12 (1.1.12) / 1355b.1 (350 BC) [tr. Roberts (1924)]
(Source)

(Source (Greek)). Alternate translations:

Absurd were it, if inability to defend oneself, in the case of the body be disgraceful, but in the case of the reason, which is more peculiarly the characteristic of man than the use of his body, be not disgraceful.
[Source (1847)]

It were absurd, if, while it is disgraceful for a man not to be able to assist himself by his person, it were not disgraceful to be unable to do this by his speech, which is more a peculiarity of man than the exercise of the body.
[tr. Buckley (1850)]

It would be absurd that, while incapacity for physical self-defence is a reproach, incapacity for mental defence should be none; mental effort being more distinctive of man than bodily effort.
[tr. Jebb (1873)]

It would be absurd if it were considered disgraceful not to be able to defend oneself with the help of the body, but not disgraceful as far as speech is concerned, whose use is more characteristic of man than that of the body.
[tr. Freese (1926)]

It would make no sense for an inability to defend oneself by physical means to be a source of shame, while an inability to defend oneself by verbal means was not, since the use of words is more specifically human than the use of the body.
[tr. Waterfield (2018)]

It is strange if it is a shameful thing not to be able to come to one's own aid with one's body but not a shameful thing to be unable to do so by means of argument, which is to a greater degree a human being's own than is the use of the body.
[tr. Bartlett (2019)]

Jarman, Derek -- At Your Own Risk: A Saint’s Testament (1992)

Dave — Tue, 26 May 2020 15:52:35 +0000

Heterosexuality isn’t normal. It’s just common.

Derek Jarman (1942-1994) English film director, gay rights activist, author
At Your Own Risk: A Saint’s Testament (1992)

Often attributed to Dorothy Parker.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo -- “Experience,” Essays: Second Series (1844)

Dave — Fri, 17 Aug 2018 22:40:17 +0000

Nature, as we know her, is no saint.

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) American essayist, lecturer, poet
“Experience,” Essays: Second Series (1844)
(Source)

La Follette, Suzanne -- (Attributed)

Dave — Mon, 20 Feb 2017 20:08:37 +0000

When once a social order is well established, no matter what injustice it involves, those who occupy a position of advantage are not long in coming to believe that it is the only possible and reasonable order.

Suzanne La Follette (1893-1983) American journalist, author, feminist
(Attributed)

Bronowski, Jacob -- Science and Human Values, Part 2 “The Habit of Truth”, §11 (1956)

Dave — Tue, 06 Dec 2016 04:32:51 +0000

In effect what Luther said in 1517 was that we may appeal to a demonstrable work of God, the Bible, to override any established authority. The Scientific Revolution begins when Nicolaus Copernicus implied the bolder proposition that there is another work of God to which we may appeal even beyond this: the great work of nature. No absolute statement is allowed to be out of reach of the test, that its consequence must conform to the facts of nature.

Jacob Bronowski (1908-1974) Polish-English humanist and mathematician
Science and Human Values, Part 2 “The Habit of Truth”, §11 (1956)

Emerson, Ralph Waldo -- Journal (1839-02-07)

Dave — Tue, 29 Nov 2016 05:30:03 +0000

In nature nothing is done but in the cheapest way.

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) American essayist, lecturer, poet
Journal (1839-02-07)
(Source)

Becker, Carl -- “The Art of Writing,” Detachment and the Writing of History [ed. Snyder (1958)]

Dave — Tue, 30 Sep 2014 12:58:06 +0000

If the thought or substance is fully mastered, the style will take care of itself. Good style in writing is like happiness in living — something that comes to you, if it comes at all, only if you are pre-occupied with something else: if you deliberately go after it, you will probably not get it.

Carl L. Becker (1873-1945) American historian
“The Art of Writing,” Detachment and the Writing of History [ed. Snyder (1958)]

Russell, Bertrand -- Lecture (1948-12-26), “Social Cohesion and Human Nature,” Reith Lecture, No. 1, BBC Radio

Dave — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 12:22:45 +0000

We now know that a life which goes excessively against natural impulse is one which is likely to involve effects of strain that may be quite as bad as indulgence in forbidden impulses would have been. People who live a life which is unnatural beyond a point are likely to be filled with envy, malice and all uncharitableness. They may develop strains of cruelty, or, on the other hand, they may so completely lose all joy in life that they have no longer any capacity for effort.

Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) English mathematician and philosopher
Lecture (1948-12-26), “Social Cohesion and Human Nature,” Reith Lecture, No. 1, BBC Radio
(Source)

As collected, with edits, in Authority and the Individual (1949).

Stevenson, Adlai -- Speech (1952-09-18), “The Atomic Future,” Bushnell Memorial Auditorium, Hartford, Connecticut

Dave — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 13:51:07 +0000

Nature is neutral. Man has wrested from nature the power to make the world a desert or to make the desert bloom. There is no evil in the atom; only in men’s souls.

Adlai Stevenson (1900–1965) American diplomat, statesman
Speech (1952-09-18), “The Atomic Future,” Bushnell Memorial Auditorium, Hartford, Connecticut
(Source)

Ingersoll, Robert Green -- Essay (1881-08) “The Christian Religion,” “Is All of the Bible Inspired?” ch. 2, North American Review, Vol. 133, No. 297

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

There are in nature neither rewards nor punishments — there are consequences.

Robert Green Ingersoll (1833-1899) American lawyer, freethinker, orator
Essay (1881-08) “The Christian Religion,” “Is All of the Bible Inspired?” ch. 2, North American Review, Vol. 133, No. 297
(Source)

Collected in Allen Thorndike Rice (ed.), The Christian Religion, ch. 1 (1882).

See Longfellow (1857).

Mill, John Stuart -- The Subjection of Women, ch. 1 (1869)

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

Some will object, that a comparison cannot fairly be made between the government of the male sex and the forms of unjust power which I have adduced in illustration of it, since these are arbitrary, and the effect of mere usurpation, while it on the contrary is natural. But was there ever any domination which did not appear natural to those who possessed it?

John Stuart Mill (1806-1873) English philosopher and economist
The Subjection of Women, ch. 1 (1869)
(Source)