WIST Quotations

Billings, Josh -- Josh Billings’ Farmer’s Allminax, 1877-02 (1877 ed.)

Dave — Thu, 09 Jul 2026 17:36:46 +0000

Life aint mutch more than a farce enny how, but it iz quite necessary that the play should go on, and the farce be well ackted.

[Life ain’t much more than a farce anyhow, but it is quite necessary that the play should go on, and the farce be well-acted.]

Josh Billings (1818–1885) American humorist, aphorist [pseud. of Henry Wheeler Shaw]
Josh Billings’ Farmer’s Allminax, 1877-02 (1877 ed.)
(Source)

See Cicero (44 BC), Shakespeare (1599), Heywood (1612), O'Casey (c. 1940), Brooks (1970), Watterson (1993).

Russell, Bertrand -- Conquest of Happiness, Part 2, ch. 13 “Family” (1930)

Dave — Wed, 10 Dec 2025 18:41:09 +0000

To be happy in this world, especially when youth is past, it is necessary to feel oneself not merely an isolated individual whose day will soon be over, but part of the stream of life flowing on from the first germ to the remote and unknown future.

Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) English mathematician and philosopher
Conquest of Happiness, Part 2, ch. 13 “Family” (1930)
(Source)

Heywood, Thomas -- Apology for Actors, “The Author to his Booke” (1612)

Dave — Sun, 21 Sep 2025 00:38:42 +0000

The world’s a theatre, the earth a stage,
Which God and Nature do with actors fill.
Kings have their entrance in due equipage,
And some there parts play well, and others ill.

The best no better are (in this theater),
Where every humor’s fitted in his kinde;
This a true subiect acts, and that a traytor,
The first applauded, and the last confin’d;

This plays an honest man, and that a knave,
A gentle person this, and he a clowne,
One man is ragged, and another brave:
All men have parts, and each man acts his own.

Thomas Heywood (1570s-1641) English playwright, actor, author
Apology for Actors, “The Author to his Booke” (1612)
(Source)

See Cicero (44 BC), Shakespeare (1599), Billings (1877), O'Casey (c. 1940), Brooks (1970), Watterson (1993).

Ackoff, Russell -- “The future of operational research is past,” The Journal of the Operational Research Society, Vol 30 (1979)

Dave — Thu, 26 Mar 2015 12:43:12 +0000

When a mess, which is a system of problems, is taken apart, it loses its essential properties and so does each of its parts. The behavior of a mess depends more on how the treatment of its parts interact than how they act independently of each other. A partial solution to a whole system of problems is better than whole solutions of each of its parts taken separately.

Russell L. Ackoff (1919–2009) American organizational theorist, consultant, management scientist
“The future of operational research is past,” The Journal of the Operational Research Society, Vol 30 (1979)

Shakespeare, William -- As You Like It, Act 2, sc. 7, l. 146ff (2.7.146-149) (1599)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 19:00:00 +0000

JAQUES:All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players.
They have their exits and their entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts ….

William Shakespeare (1564–1616) English dramatist and poet
As You Like It, Act 2, sc. 7, l. 146ff (2.7.146-149) (1599)
(Source)

See Cicero (44 BC), Heywood (1612), Billings (1877), O'Casey (c. 1940), Brooks (1970), Watterson (1993).