WIST Quotations

Nash, Ogden -- Poem (1930-12-27), “More About People,” The New Yorker

Dave — Mon, 21 Apr 2025 18:43:19 +0000

If you don’t want to work, you have to work to earn enough money so that you won’t have to work.

Ogden Nash (1902-1971) American poet
Poem (1930-12-27), “More About People,” The New Yorker
(Source)

Collected in Many Long Years Ago (1945).

Burns, George -- Interview (1988-11-02), “Gracie Allen Still Steals the Show,” by Mervyn Rothstein, New York Times

Dave — Mon, 17 Mar 2025 17:39:09 +0000

If it’s a good script I’ll do it. And if it’s a bad script, and they pay me enough, I’ll do it.

George Burns (1896-1996) American comedian
Interview (1988-11-02), “Gracie Allen Still Steals the Show,” by Mervyn Rothstein, New York Times
(Source)

Most often cited from its reprint in the Paris International Herald Tribune (1988-11-09); at this time, the New York Times was part owner of the IHT (with the Washington Post and Whitney communications.

Taleb, Nassim Nicholas -- The Bed of Procrustes: Philosophical and Practical Aphorisms, “Ethics” (2010)

Dave — Mon, 30 Dec 2024 22:03:04 +0000

For soldiers, we use the term “mercenary,” but we absolve employees of responsibility with “everybody needs to make a living.”

Nassim Nicholas Taleb (b. 1960) Lebanese-American essayist, statistician, risk analyst, aphorist
The Bed of Procrustes: Philosophical and Practical Aphorisms, “Ethics” (2010)
(Source)

Carlyle, Thomas -- Past and Present, Book 1, ch. 3 “Manchester Insurrection” (1843)

Dave — Thu, 12 Dec 2024 21:22:54 +0000

“A fair day’s-wages for a fair day’s-work:” it is as just a demand as Governed men ever made of Governing. It is the everlasting right of man. Indisputable as Gospels, as arithmetical multiplication-tables: it must and will have itself fulfilled.

Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) Scottish essayist and historian
Past and Present, Book 1, ch. 3 “Manchester Insurrection” (1843)
(Source)

Heinlein, Robert A. -- Revolt in 2100, ch. 10 (1953)

Dave — Sat, 26 Aug 2017 22:37:32 +0000

From the standpoint of a professional military man there is one good thing about revolutions: the opportunities for swift promotion are excellent . . . even if the pay is inclined to be irregular.

Robert A. Heinlein (1907-1988) American writer
Revolt in 2100, ch. 10 (1953)
(Source)