WIST Quotations

Addison, Joseph -- Essay (1711-10-09), The Spectator, No. 191

Dave — Mon, 18 Aug 2025 18:01:45 +0000

The man who will live above his present circumstances is in great danger of living in a little time much beneath them; or as the Italian proverb runs, “The man who lives by hope, will die by hunger.”

Joseph Addison (1672–1719) English essayist, poet, statesman
Essay (1711-10-09), The Spectator, No. 191

Sarton, May -- Journal of a Solitude, “February 4th” (1973)

Dave — Tue, 19 Oct 2021 14:22:21 +0000

It occurs to me that there is a proper balance between not asking enough of oneself and asking or expecting too much. It may be that I set my sights too high and so repeatedly end a day in depression. Not easy to find the balance, for it one does not have wild dreams of achievement, there is no spur even to get the dishes washed. One must think like a hero to behave like a merely decent human being.

May Sarton (1912–1995) Belgian-American poet, novelist, memoirist [pen name of Eleanore Marie Sarton]
Journal of a Solitude, “February 4th” (1973)

Merton, Thomas -- “Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander”

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

The rush and pressure of modern life are a form, perhaps the most common form, of its innate violence. To allow oneself to be carried away by a multitude of conflicting concerns, to surrender to too many demands, to commit oneself to too many projects, to want to help everyone in everything is to succumb to violence.

Thomas Merton (1915–1968) French-American religious and writer [a.k.a. Fr. M. Louis]
“Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander”