WIST Quotations

Shakespeare, William -- Sir Thomas More, Act 2, sc. 4, l. 105ff (c. 1592)

Dave — Mon, 16 Feb 2026 16:19:08 +0000

SIR THOMAS MORE: Say now the king
(As he is clement, if th’ offender mourn)
Should so much come to short of your great trespass
As but to banish you, whether would you go?
What country, by the nature of your error,
Should give you harbor? Go you to France or Flanders,
To any German province, to Spain or Portugal,
Nay, any where that not adheres to England, —
Why, you must needs be strangers. Would you be pleased
To find a nation of such barbarous temper,
That, breaking out in hideous violence,
Would not afford you an abode on earth,
Whet their detested knives against your throats,
Spurn you like dogs, and like as if that God
Owed not nor made not you, nor that the claimants
Were not all appropriate to your comforts,
But chartered unto them, what would you think
To be thus used? This is the strangers’ case;
And this your mountanish inhumanity.

William Shakespeare (1564–1616) English dramatist and poet
Sir Thomas More, Act 2, sc. 4, l. 105ff (c. 1592)

Quelling rioting Englishmen who were demanding the expulsion of Flemish immigrants, telling them to consider what they themselves might do, and the conditions they might face, if they were forced to leave England.

The play was written by Anthony Munday and Henry Chettle, with revisions and edits by multiple writers. This particular scene and monologue are in what is considered to be Shakespeare's own hand.

Banksy -- Wall and Piece, “Rats” (2005)

Dave — Wed, 11 Jun 2025 15:53:25 +0000

They exist without permission. They are hated, hunted and persecuted. They live in quiet desperation amongst the filth. And yet they are capable of bringing entire civilisations to their knees. If you are dirty, insignificant and unloved then rats are the ultimate role model.

Banksy (b. 1974?) England-based pseudonymous street artist, political activist, film director
Wall and Piece, “Rats” (2005)

Shakespeare, William -- Julius Caesar, Act 1, sc. 2, l. 289ff (1.2.289-295) (1599)

Dave — Mon, 07 Apr 2025 15:25:13 +0000

CASSIUS: Did Cicero say anything?

CASCA: Ay, he spoke Greek.

CASSIUS: To what effect?

CASCA Nay, an I tell you that, I’ll ne’er look you i’ th’ face again. But those that understood him smiled at one another and shook their heads. But for mine own part, it was Greek to me.

William Shakespeare (1564–1616) English dramatist and poet
Julius Caesar, Act 1, sc. 2, l. 289ff (1.2.289-295) (1599)

Not origin, but likely popularizer of the phrase, "It's Greek to me." Similar phrases had been around since Roman days, and through the Medieval period. Many languages/cultures have similar idioms.

Martin, Judith -- Star-Spangled Manners, ch. 1 (2003)

Dave — Mon, 10 Feb 2025 18:03:20 +0000

Etiquette systems of one kind or another govern all social intercourse, formal and informal, which is why faulty ones are able to do so much damage. A system that denies the innate human need for dignity to specific categories of people, typically the poor and the enslaved, fosters incendiary resentment.

Judith Martin (b. 1938) American author, journalist, etiquette expert [a.k.a. Miss Manners]
Star-Spangled Manners, ch. 1 (2003)

Baldwin, James -- Comment (1963)

Dave — Wed, 07 Jun 2023 19:39:36 +0000

From my point of view, no label, no slogan, no party, no skin color, and indeed no religion is more important than the human being.

James Baldwin (1924–1987) American novelist, playwright, activist
Comment (1963)

Included in Karen Thorsen, et al., James Baldwin: The Price of the Ticket, film (1989), a film biography of Baldwin using extensive archival film of the author (the project was started before Baldwin's death, and Baldwin intended to direct it).

I have found, without good citation, two broader contexts for the quotation. First:

The very dangerous effort one has got to make, according to me, is to deal with other people as though they were simply human beings. To remember that no matter what the details of their lives may be like, or how different they may seem to you superficially, or what the social pressures outside of what the psychological pressures are within, to deal with this other human being precisely as though he or she was here for the first and only time. To deal with them in some way that you’d like them to deal with you, no matter the price. From my point of view, no label, no slogan, no party, no skin color, and indeed no religion, is more important than the human being. The human core in everybody, which liberates you and me, because when the chips are down this is all there is -- there isn’t anything else.

The second looks to be a paraphrase of the above:

We must all make the effort to deal with all people simply as human beings. From my point of view, no label, no slogan, no party, no skin color, and indeed no religion is more important than the human being. When the chips are down, this is all that matters.

Without better documentation, I cannot confirm either version.

Grafton, Sue -- “T” is for Trespass, ch. 9 (2007)

Dave — Fri, 03 Mar 2023 20:47:50 +0000

You can’t save others from themselves because those who make a perpetual muddle of their lives don’t appreciate your interfering with the drama they’ve created. They want your poor-sweet-baby sympathy, but they don’t want to change. This is a truth I never seem to learn.

Sue Grafton (1940–2017) American novelist, screenwriter
“T” is for Trespass, ch. 9 (2007)

Taylor, Barbara Brown -- An Altar in the World, ch. 7 (2009)

Dave — Fri, 05 Nov 2021 14:38:07 +0000

The hardest spiritual work in the world is to love the neighbor as the self — to encounter another human being not as someone you can use, change, fix, help, save, enroll, convince or control, but simply as someone who can spring you from the prison of yourself, if you will allow it.

Barbara Brown Taylor (b. 1951) American minister, academic, author
An Altar in the World, ch. 7 (2009)

Stanley, Jason -- How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them, ch. 7 (2018)

Dave — Thu, 21 Oct 2021 17:29:12 +0000

To describe someone as a “criminal” is both to mark that person with a terrifying permanent character trait and simultaneously to place the person outside the circle of “us.” They are criminals. We make mistakes.

Jason Stanley (b. 1969) American philosopher, epistemologist, academic
How Fascism Works: The Politics of Us and Them, ch. 7 (2018)

Marquis, Don -- “comforting thoughts,” archy does his part (1935)

Dave — Thu, 26 Aug 2021 00:37:26 +0000

boss there is always
a comforting thought
in time of trouble when
it is not our trouble.

Don Marquis (1878–1937) American journalist and humorist
“comforting thoughts,” archy does his part (1935)

Wodehouse, P. G. -- (Attributed)

Dave — Thu, 20 May 2021 19:14:01 +0000

I do not hate in the plural.

P. G. Wodehouse (1881–1975) Anglo-American humorist, playwright and lyricist [Pelham Grenville Wodehouse]
(Attributed)

When asked, as a former WWII internee, whether he hate the Germans (or the Nazis).

George Orwell, writing in 1945 a defense of Wodehouse's actions while an internee, quoted him in a more complex version of this:

I never was interested in politics. I’m quite unable to work up any kind of belligerent feeling. Just as I’m about to feel belligerent about some country I meet a decent sort of chap. We go out together and lose any fighting thoughts or feelings.

Jillette, Penn -- “I don’t know, so I’m an atheist libertarian,” Interview, CNN (16 Aug 2011)

Dave — Thu, 13 May 2021 16:03:33 +0000

Democracy without respect for individual rights sucks. It’s just ganging up against the weird kid, and I’m always the weird kid.

Penn Jillette (b. 1955) American stage magician, actor, musician, author
“I don’t know, so I’m an atheist libertarian,” Interview, CNN (16 Aug 2011)

Atran, Scott -- “Good Guys Kill Better,” Huffington Post (17 Mar 2012)

Dave — Tue, 11 May 2021 20:40:38 +0000

People in other cultures are generally thought to commit terrible acts for calculated reasons, underscored by some perverse morality that can be readily discounted, so that only the consequences of their actions should be judged, whereas for one’s own group motivation is, and what ought to, mostly count.

Scott Atran (b. 1952) American-French cultural anthropologist
“Good Guys Kill Better,” Huffington Post (17 Mar 2012)

Carter, Jimmy -- “A Statesman And a Man Of Faith,” interview by Don Lattin, San Francisco Chronicle (12 Jan 1997)

Dave — Thu, 14 Jan 2021 19:56:51 +0000

We have a tendency to condemn people who are different from us, to define their sins as paramount and our own sinfulness as being insignificant.

Jimmy Carter (b. 1924) American politician, US President (1977–1981), Nobel laureate [James Earl Carter, Jr.]
“A Statesman And a Man Of Faith,” interview by Don Lattin, San Francisco Chronicle (12 Jan 1997)

Straczynski, J. Michael "Joe" -- Babylon 5, 3×20 “And the Rock Cried Out, No Hiding Place” (14 Oct 1996)

Dave — Fri, 14 Aug 2020 01:55:01 +0000

DEXTER: Every day, here and at home, we are warned about the enemy. But who is the enemy? Is it the alien? Well, we are all alien to one another. Is it the one who believes differently than we do? No, oh no, my friends. The enemy is fear. The enemy is ignorance. The enemy is the one who tells you that you must hate that which is different. Because, in the end, that hate will turn on you. And that same hate will destroy you.

J. Michael (Joe) Straczynski (b. 1954) American screenwriter, producer, author [a/k/a "JMS"]
Babylon 5, 3×20 “And the Rock Cried Out, No Hiding Place” (14 Oct 1996)

La Follette, Suzanne -- Concerning Women, “The Beginnings of Emancipation” (1926)

Dave — Mon, 13 Feb 2017 17:17:50 +0000

Most people, no doubt, when they espouse human rights, make their own mental reservations about the proper application of the word “human.”

Suzanne La Follette (1893–1983) American journalist, author, feminist
Concerning Women, “The Beginnings of Emancipation” (1926)

Kropotkin, Peter -- Anarchist Morality (1909)

Dave — Thu, 01 Sep 2016 04:16:22 +0000

The more you are drawn to put yourself in the place of the other person, the more you feel the pain inflicted upon him, the insult offered him, the injustice of which he is a victim, the more you will be urged to act so that you may prevent the pain, insult, or injustice.

Peter Kropotkin (1842–1921) Russian activist, scientist, philosopher, anarchist
Anarchist Morality (1909)

Einstein, Albert -- Speech, French Philosophical Society, Paris (6 Apr 1922)

Dave — Tue, 26 Jan 2016 17:16:44 +0000

If my theory of relativity is proven successful, Germany will claim me as a German and France will declare that I am a citizen of the world. Should my theory prove untrue, France will say that I am a German and Germany will declare that I am a Jew.

Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-American physicist
Speech, French Philosophical Society, Paris (6 Apr 1922)

Francis I (Pope) -- Homily (22 May 2013)

Dave — Mon, 28 Sep 2015 14:28:16 +0000

The Lord created us in His image and likeness, and we are the image of the Lord, and He does good and all of us have this commandment at heart: do good and do not do evil. All of us. “But, Father, this is not Catholic! He cannot do good.” Yes, he can. He must. Not can: must! Because he has this commandment within him. Instead, this “closing off” that imagines that those outside, everyone, cannot do good is a wall that leads to war and also to what some people throughout history have conceived of: killing in the name of God. That we can kill in the name of God. And that, simply, is blasphemy. To say that you can kill in the name of God is blasphemy.

Francis I (1936–2025) Argentinian Catholic Pope (2013–2025) [b. Jorge Mario Bergoglio]
Homily (22 May 2013)

Markham, Edwin -- “Outwitted”, The Shoes of Happiness, and Other Poems (1913)

Dave — Fri, 13 Mar 2015 12:37:05 +0000

He drew a circle that shut me out —
Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout.
But Love and I had the wit to win:
We drew a circle that took him in.

Edwin Markham (1852–1940) American poet
“Outwitted”, The Shoes of Happiness, and Other Poems (1913)

Shakespeare, William -- Merchant of Venice, Act 3, sc. 1, l. 53ff (3.1.53-72) (1597)

Dave — Tue, 30 Apr 2013 13:34:01 +0000

SHYLOCK: He hath disgraced me and
hindered me half a million, laughed at my losses,
mocked at my gains, scorned my nation, thwarted
my bargains, cooled my friends, heated mine enemies —
and what’s his reason? I am a Jew. Hath not
a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions,
senses, affections, passions? Fed with the
same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to
the same diseases, healed by the same means,
warmed and cooled by the same winter and summer
as a Christian is? If you prick us, do we not
bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you
poison us, do we not die? And if you wrong us, shall
we not revenge? If we are like you in the rest, we will
resemble you in that. If a Jew wrong a Christian,
what is his humility? Revenge. If a Christian wrong
a Jew, what should his sufferance be by Christian
example? Why, revenge! The villainy you teach me I
will execute, and it shall go hard but I will better the
instruction.

William Shakespeare (1564–1616) English dramatist and poet
Merchant of Venice, Act 3, sc. 1, l. 53ff (3.1.53-72) (1597)

Ivins, Molly -- Essay (1987-09-11), “We the People,” Texas Observer

Dave — Thu, 16 Feb 2012 13:46:49 +0000

In my opinion, there’s not a thing wrong with the ideals and mechanisms outlined and the liberties set forth in the Constitution of the United States. The only problem was, the founders left a lot of people out of the Constitution. They left out poor people and black people and female people. It is possible to read the history of this country as one long struggle to extend the liberties established in our Constitution to everyone in America. And it still goes on today.

Molly Ivins (1944–2007) American writer, political columnist [Mary Tyler Ivins]
Essay (1987-09-11), “We the People,” Texas Observer

Collected in Molly Ivins Can't Say That, Can She? (1991).

Tutu, Desmond -- “And God Smiles,” Sermon, All Saints Church, Pasadena, California (6 Nov 2005)

Dave — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 03:09:59 +0000

This family has no outsiders. Everyone is an insider. When Jesus said, “I, if I am lifted up, will draw …” Did he say, “I will draw some”? “I will draw some, and tough luck for the others”? He said, “I, if I be lifted up, will draw all.” All! All! All! — Black, white, yellow; rich, poor; clever, not so clever; beautiful, not so beautiful. All! All! It is radical. All! Saddam Hussein, Osama bin Laden, Bush — all! All! All are to be held in this incredible embrace. Gay, lesbian, so-called “straight;” all! All! All are to be held in the incredible embrace of the love that won’t let us go.

Desmond Tutu (1931–2021) South African cleric, Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town, Nobel Laureate
“And God Smiles,” Sermon, All Saints Church, Pasadena, California (6 Nov 2005)

The Bible passage referenced is John 12:32.

Baldwin, James -- “Letter from a Region of My Mind,” The New Yorker (17 Nov 1962)

Dave — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 12:47:05 +0000

I do not know many Negroes who are eager to be “accepted” by white people, still less to be loved by them; they, the blacks, simply don’t wish to be beaten over the head by the whites every instant of our brief passage on this planet. White people will have quite enough to do in learning how to accept and love themselves and each other, and when they have achieved this — which will not be tomorrow and may very well be never — the Negro problem will no longer exist, for it will no longer be needed.

James Baldwin (1924–1987) American novelist, playwright, activist
“Letter from a Region of My Mind,” The New Yorker (17 Nov 1962)

Republished as "Down at the Cross: Letter from a Region in My Mind" in The Fire Next Time (1963)

Fuller, Thomas (1654) -- Introductio ad Prudentiam, Vol. 1, # 780 (1725)

Dave — Thu, 27 Jan 2011 15:27:11 +0000

Imitate what is good wheresoever thou findest it, though among Turks, Jews, Pagans, or even Papists. And abominate Evil, though in thy nearest Relation.

Thomas Fuller (1654–1734) English physician, preacher, aphorist, writer
Introductio ad Prudentiam, Vol. 1, # 780 (1725)

Ingersoll, Robert Green -- Lecture (1874-05-03), “Heretics and Heresies,” Free Religious Society, Kingsbury Hall, Chicago

Dave — Fri, 22 Oct 2010 13:36:18 +0000

Whoever has an opinion of his own, and honestly expresses it, will be guilty of heresy. Heresy is what the minority believe; it is the name given by the powerful to the doctrine of the weak.

Robert Green Ingersoll (1833–1899) American lawyer, freethinker, orator
Lecture (1874-05-03), “Heretics and Heresies,” Free Religious Society, Kingsbury Hall, Chicago

Collected in The Gods and Other Lectures (1876).

Pratchett, Terry -- Discworld No. 13, Small Gods [Simony] (1992)

Dave — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 12:51:48 +0000

“You’re not one of us.”
“I don’t think I’m one of them, either,” said Brutha. “I’m one of mine.”

Terry Pratchett (1948–2015) English author
Discworld No. 13, Small Gods [Simony] (1992)

Doctor Who (1963) -- 12×01 “Robot,” Part 3 (1975-01-11) [w. Terrance Dicks]

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

THE BRIGADIER: Well, naturally enough, the only country that could be trusted with such a role was Great Britain.

THE DOCTOR: Naturally. I mean, the rest were all foreigners.

THE BRIGADIER: Exactly.

Doctor Who (1963–1989) British science fiction television series, original run (BBC)
12×01 “Robot,” Part 3 (1975-01-11) [w. Terrance Dicks]

(Source (Video))

Parker, Robert -- A Savage Place, ch. 12 (1981)

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

Candy smiled at me a little. “Look,” she said. “You’re a good guy. I know you care about me, but you’re a white male, you can’t understand a minority situation. It’s not your fault.”
[…] When the beer came, I drank about a quarter of it and said to Candy, “Extend that logic, and we eventually have to decide that no one can understand anyone. Maybe the matter of understanding has been overrated. Maybe I don’t have to understand your situation to sympathize with it, to help you alter it, to be on your side. I’ve never experienced starvation either, but I’m opposed to it. When I encounter it, I try to alleviate it. I sympathize with its victims. The question of whether I understand it doesn’t arise.”
She shook her head. “That’s different,” she said.
“Maybe it isn’t. Maybe civilization is possible, if at all, only because people can care about conditions they haven’t experienced. Maybe you need understanding like a fish needs a bicycle.”
“You’re quite thoughtful,” she said, “for a man your size.”
“You’ve never been my size,” I said. “You wouldn’t understand.”

Robert B. Parker (1932–2010) American writer
A Savage Place, ch. 12 (1981)