WIST Quotations

Pratchett, Terry -- Discworld No. 22, The Last Continent (1998)

Dave — Sat, 14 Feb 2026 19:30:08 +0000

There were times that called for mindless, terror-filled panic, and times that called for measured, considered, thoughtful panic.

Terry Pratchett (1948-2015) English author
Discworld No. 22, The Last Continent (1998)
(Source)

McLaughlin, Mignon -- The Neurotic’s Notebook, ch. 4 (1963)

Dave — Mon, 09 Jun 2025 16:25:57 +0000

“Pull yourself together” is seldom said to anyone who can.

Mignon McLaughlin (1913-1983) American journalist and author
The Neurotic’s Notebook, ch. 4 (1963)
(Source)

Nin, Anais -- Diary (1947-02)

Dave — Wed, 11 Sep 2024 17:33:14 +0000

Anxiety is love’s greatest killer. It creates the failures. It makes others feel as you might when a drowning man holds on to you. You want to save him, but you know he will strangle you with his panic.

Anaïs Nin (1903-1977) Catalan-Cuban-French author, diarist
Diary (1947-02)
(Source)

Heinlein, Robert A. -- Starship Troopers, ch. 13 [Hughes] (1959)

Dave — Wed, 29 May 2024 16:04:02 +0000

Bugs, Mr. Rico! Zillions of ’em!

Robert A. Heinlein (1907-1988) American writer
Starship Troopers, ch. 13 [Hughes] (1959)
(Source)

Reporting to Lieutenant Juan Rico an Arachnid assault while on Planet P. The line is not in the 1997 movie.

Holland, Barbara -- Bingo Night at the Fire Hall (1997)

Dave — Wed, 17 Nov 2021 16:44:26 +0000

I have ferreted out the alarm clock, plugged it in, and set it, musing on the word “alarm” and why the world must be wakened daily to cries of panic and danger.

Barbara Holland (1933-2010) American author
Bingo Night at the Fire Hall (1997)
(Source)

MacDonald, George -- The Princess and the Goblin, ch. 14 (1872)

Dave — Tue, 22 Jun 2021 17:28:29 +0000

It was foolish indeed — thus to run farther and farther from all who could help her, as if she had been seeking a fit spot for the goblin-creature to eat her in at his leisure; but that is the way fear serves us: it always sides with the thing we are afraid of.

George MacDonald (1824-1905) Scottish novelist, poet
The Princess and the Goblin, ch. 14 (1872)
(Source)

Orlin, Ben -- “What It Feels Like to Be Bad at Math,” Slate (29 Apr 2013)

Dave — Mon, 26 Apr 2021 22:25:01 +0000

Failure isn’t about a lack of “natural intelligence,” whatever that is. Instead, failure is born from a messy combination of bad circumstances: high anxiety, low motivation, gaps in background knowledge. Most of all, we fail because, when the moment comes to confront our shortcomings and open ourselves up to teachers and peers, we panic and deploy our defenses instead.

Ben Orlin (b. c. 1988) American math teacher, author
“What It Feels Like to Be Bad at Math,” Slate (29 Apr 2013)
(Source)

Originally posted on his blog: What It Feels Like to Be Bad at Math – Math with Bad Drawings.

Brilliant, Ashleigh -- Pot-Shots, #1032

Dave — Fri, 19 Feb 2021 13:53:02 +0000

Please remain calm — it’s no use both of us being hysterical at the same time.

Ashleigh Brilliant (b. 1933) Anglo-American epigramist, aphorist, cartoonist
Pot-Shots, #1032

Nin, Anais -- Diary (1947-02)

Dave — Fri, 25 May 2018 22:34:16 +0000

Anaïs Nin (1903-1977) Catalan-Cuban-French author, diarist
Diary (1947-02)
(Source)

Bacon, Francis -- De Augmentis Scientiarum [Advancement of Learning], Part 2, “Fortitudo” (1605)

Dave — Fri, 22 Jul 2016 04:29:56 +0000

Nothing is terrible except fear itself.

[Nil terribile nisi ipse timor.]

Francis Bacon (1561-1626) English philosopher, scientist, author, statesman
De Augmentis Scientiarum [Advancement of Learning], Part 2, “Fortitudo” (1605)

Eisenhower, Dwight David -- Speech, Republican National Committee Meeting (17 Apr 1956)

Dave — Tue, 12 Jan 2016 13:52:59 +0000

As long as I am back in my military life for a second, I should like to observe one thing about leadership that one of the great has said — Napoleon. He said, the great leader, the genius in leadership, is the man who can do the average thing when everybody else is going crazy.

Dwight David Eisenhower (1890-1969) American general, US President (1953-61)
Speech, Republican National Committee Meeting (17 Apr 1956)

Waters, Sarah -- In “Ten Rules for Writing Fiction,” The Guardian (20 Feb 2010)

Dave — Wed, 19 Nov 2014 13:30:30 +0000

Don’t panic. Midway through writing a novel, I have regularly experienced moments of bowel-curdling terror, as I contemplate the drivel on the screen before me and see beyond it, in quick succession, the derisive reviews, the friends’ embarrassment, the failing career, the dwindling income, the repossessed house, the divorce … Working doggedly on through crises like these, however, has always got me there in the end. Leaving the desk for a while can help. Talking the problem through can help me recall what I was trying to achieve before I got stuck. Going for a long walk almost always gets me thinking about my manuscript in a slightly new way. And if all else fails, there’s prayer. St Francis de Sales, the patron saint of writers, has often helped me out in a crisis. If you want to spread your net more widely, you could try appealing to Calliope, the muse of epic poetry, too.

Sarah Waters (b. 1966) Welsh novelist
In “Ten Rules for Writing Fiction,” The Guardian (20 Feb 2010)
(Source)

Liddell Hart, B. H. -- Strategy, ch. 15 (1954)

Dave — Thu, 04 Sep 2014 10:44:04 +0000

A strategist should think in terms of paralyzing, not of killing. Even on the lower plane of warfare, a man killed is merely one man less, whereas a man unnerved is a highly infectious carrier of fear, capable of spreading an epidemic of panic. … The sword drops from a paralyzed hand.

B. H. Liddell Hart (1895-1970) English soldier, military historian (Basil Henry Liddell Hart)
Strategy, ch. 15 (1954)

Adams, John -- (Attributed)

Dave — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 14:31:40 +0000

Mankind is naturally divided into three sorts; one third of them are animated at the first appearance of danger, and will press forward to meet and examine it; another third are alarmed by it, but will neither advance nor retreat, till they know the nature of it, but stand to meet it. The remaining third will run or fly upon the first thought of it.

John Adams (1735–1826) American lawyer, Founding Father, statesman, US President (1797–1801)
(Attributed)

In R. W. Emerson, Journal (Aug 1851).

Stevenson, Robert Louis -- Essay (1878-04), “Æs Triplex,” Cornhill Magazine, Vol. 37

Dave — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 10:50:22 +0000

We do not go to cowards for tender dealing; there is nothing so cruel as panic; the man who has least fear for his own carcase, has most time to consider others.

Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–1894) Scottish essayist, novelist, poet
Essay (1878-04), “Æs Triplex,” Cornhill Magazine, Vol. 37
(Source)

Collected in Virginibus Puerisque and Other Papers, ch. 5 (1881).

Serling, Rod -- Twilight Zone, 1×02 “The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street” (4 Mar 1960)

Dave — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 09:13:58 +0000

NARRATOR: The tools of conquest do not necessarily come with bombs and explosions and fallout. There are weapons that are simply thoughts, attitudes, prejudices — to be found in the minds of men. For the record, prejudices can kill and suspicion can destroy, and a thoughtless, frightened search for a scapegoat has a fallout all its own — for the children and the children yet unborn. And the pity of it is that these things cannot be confined to … the Twilight Zone.

Rod Serling (1924-1975) American screenwriter, playwright, television producer, narrator
Twilight Zone, 1×02 “The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street” (4 Mar 1960)

Roosevelt, Franklin Delano -- Speech (1933-03-04), Inaugural Address, Washington, D.C.

Dave — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 19:18:10 +0000

So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself — nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882–1945) American lawyer, politician, statesman, US President (1933–1945)
Speech (1933-03-04), Inaugural Address, Washington, D.C.
(Source)

(Source (Audio); dialog verified)

See Bacon.

Watterson, Bill -- Calvin and Hobbes (1992-05-21)

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

HOBBES: Have you an idea for your story yet?

CALVIN: No, I’m waiting for inspiration. You can’t just turn on creativity like a faucet. You have to be in the right mood.

HOBBES: What mood is that?

CALVIN: Last-minute panic.

Bill Watterson (b. 1958) American cartoonist
Calvin and Hobbes (1992-05-21)
(Source)