WIST Quotations

Rushdie, Salman -- Speech (2012-05-06), Arthur Miller Freedom to Write Lecture, PEN World Voices Festival, New York City

Dave — Wed, 15 Jul 2026 18:25:47 +0000

At its most effective, the censor’s lie actually succeeds in replacing the artist’s truth. That which is censored is thought to have deserved censorship. Boat-rocking is deplored.

Salman Rushdie (b. 1947) Indian novelist
Speech (2012-05-06), Arthur Miller Freedom to Write Lecture, PEN World Voices Festival, New York City
(Source)

Printed as an essay (2012-05-11), "On Censorship," The New Yorker magazine.

Mencken, H. L. -- A Little Book in C Major, ch. 5, § 29 (1916)

Dave — Tue, 27 Feb 2024 17:35:58 +0000

The objection to a scandal-monger is not that she tells of racy doings, but that she pretends to be indignant about them.

H. L. Mencken (1880–1956) American writer and journalist [Henry Lewis Mencken]
A Little Book in C Major, ch. 5, § 29 (1916)
(Source)

Chamfort, Nicolas -- Products of Perfected Civilization [Produits de la Civilisation Perfectionée], Part 1 “Maxims and Thoughts [Maximes et Pensées],” ch. 2, ¶ 115 (1795) [tr. Parmée (2003), ¶ 95]

Dave — Mon, 29 Jan 2024 16:27:43 +0000

In order to not find life unbearable, you must accept two things: the ravages of time, and the injustices of man.

[Il y a deux choses auxquelles il faut se faire, sous peine de trouver la vie insupportable. Ce sont les injures du tems et les injustices des hommes.]

Nicolas Chamfort (1741–1794) French writer, epigrammist (b. Nicolas-Sébastien Roch)
Products of Perfected Civilization [Produits de la Civilisation Perfectionée], Part 1 “Maxims and Thoughts [Maximes et Pensées],” ch. 2, ¶ 115 (1795) [tr. Parmée (2003), ¶ 95]
(Source)

(Source (French)). Alternate translations:

There are two things to which we must become inured on pain of finding life intolerable: the outrages of time and man's injustice.
[tr. Mathers (1926)]

There are two things that one must get used to or one will find life unendurable: the damages of time and the injustices of men.
[tr. Merwin (1969)]

There are two things that a man must reconcile himself to, or he will find life unbearable: they are the injuries of time and the injuries of men.
[tr. Siniscalchi (1994)]

Holland, Barbara -- Endangered Pleasures, “Wearing Fur”(1995)

Dave — Mon, 28 Feb 2022 15:20:53 +0000

Of course, there are those who don’t eat lamb chops, for moral reasons. There are also those who rise before daybreak and leap into a cold shower in February; those hwo disapprove of idleness, gin rummy, slang, dancing, unauthorized sex, naps, socialism, and Jacuzzis for moral reasons. They enjoy it; moral indignation is a pleasure, often the only pleasure, in many lives. It’s also one of the few pleasures people feel obliged to force on other people.

Barbara Holland (1933–2010) American author
Endangered Pleasures, “Wearing Fur”(1995)
(Source)

Blume, Judy -- “Judy Blume Talks about Censorship”

Dave — Fri, 26 Mar 2021 04:25:23 +0000

I believe that censorship grows out of fear, and because fear is contagious, some parents are easily swayed. Book banning satisfies their need to feel in control of their children’s lives. This fear is often disguised as moral outrage. They want to believe that if their children don’t read about it, their children won’t know about it. And if they don’t know about it, it won’t happen.

Judy Blume (b. 1938) American writer
“Judy Blume Talks about Censorship”
(Source)

Lewis, Sinclair -- Main Street, ch. 31, sec. 2 (1920)

Dave — Tue, 13 Oct 2015 17:30:05 +0000

There are two insults which no human being will endure: The assertion that he hasn’t a sense of humor, and the doubly impertinent assertion that he has never known trouble.

Sinclair Lewis (1885–1951) American novelist, playwright
Main Street, ch. 31, sec. 2 (1920)
(Source)

Barbauld, Anna -- “An Inquiry into those Kinds of Distress which Excite Agreeable Sensations” (1773)

Dave — Mon, 06 Apr 2015 12:11:12 +0000

The awakenings of remorse, virtuous shame and indignation, the glow of moral approbation,– if they do not lead to action, grow less and less vivid every time they recur, till at length the mind grows absolutely callous.

Anna Laetitia Barbauld (1743–1825) English woman of letters, educator, editor [née Aikin]
“An Inquiry into those Kinds of Distress which Excite Agreeable Sensations” (1773)

Churchill, Winston -- Debate, House of Commons (13 Oct 1943)

Dave — Fri, 28 Mar 2014 12:10:59 +0000

Everyone is in favor of free speech. Hardly a day passes without its being extolled, but some people’s idea of it is that they are free to say what they like, but if anyone says anything back, that is an outrage.

Winston Churchill (1874–1965) British statesman and author
Debate, House of Commons (13 Oct 1943)
(Source)

More discussion of this quotation: If Anyone Says Anything Back, That Is an Outrage – Quote Investigator.

Stevenson, Robert Louis -- Essay (1878-03), “Crabbed Age and Youth,” Cornhill Magazine, Vol. 37

Dave — Wed, 30 Oct 2013 13:46:53 +0000

When the torrent sweeps the man against a boulder, you must expect him to scream, and you need not be surprised if the scream is sometimes a theory. Shelley, chafing at the Church of England, discovered the cure of all evils in universal atheism. Generous lads irritated at the injustices of society, see nothing for it but the abolishment of everything and Kingdom Come of anarchy. Shelley was a young fool; so are these cocksparrow revolutionaries. But it is better to be a fool than to be dead. It is better to emit a scream in the shape of a theory than to be entirely insensible to the jars and incongruities of life and take everything as it comes in a forlorn stupidity.

Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–1894) Scottish essayist, novelist, poet
Essay (1878-03), “Crabbed Age and Youth,” Cornhill Magazine, Vol. 37
(Source)

Collected in Virginibus Puerisque and Other Papers, ch. 2 (1881)

Eldridge, Paul -- Maxims for a Modern Man, #2743 (1965)

Dave — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 12:38:13 +0000

Moral indignation is one of envy’s stylish disguises.

Paul Eldridge (1888–1982) American educator, novelist, poet
Maxims for a Modern Man, #2743 (1965)
(Source)

See Wells.

Stowe, Harriet Beecher -- Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Conclusion (1852)

Dave — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 13:27:13 +0000

Facts too shocking to be contemplated occasionally force their way to the public ear, and the comment that one often hears made on them is more shocking than the thing itself. It is said, “Very likely such cases may now and then occur, but they are no sample of general practice.” If the laws of New England were so arranged that a master could now and then torture an apprentice to death, would it be received with equal composure? Would it be said, “These cases are rare, and no samples of general practice”? This injustice is an inherent one in the slave system, — it cannot exist without it.

Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811–1896) American author
Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Conclusion (1852)
(Source)

Halifax, George Savile, Marquis of -- “Of Anger,” Political, Moral, and Miscellaneous Thoughts and Reflections (1750)

Dave — Tue, 27 May 2008 12:32:57 +0000

Anger is never without an Argument, but seldom with a good one.

George Savile, Marquis of Halifax (1633–1695) English politician and essayist
“Of Anger,” Political, Moral, and Miscellaneous Thoughts and Reflections (1750)
(Source)