WIST Quotations

Colton, Charles Caleb -- Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Vol. 2, § 20 (1822)

Dave — Tue, 16 Apr 2024 14:28:31 +0000

Pedantry crams our heads with learned lumber, and takes out our brains to make room for it.

Charles Caleb "C. C." Colton (1780-1832) English cleric, writer, aphorist
Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Vol. 2, § 20 (1822)
(Source)

Colton, Charles Caleb -- Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Vol. 1, § 48 (1820)

Dave — Fri, 11 Feb 2022 19:17:04 +0000

Pedantry prides herself on being wrong by rules; while common sense is contented to be right without them.

Charles Caleb "C. C." Colton (1780-1832) English cleric, writer, aphorist
Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Vol. 1, § 48 (1820)
(Source)

Moliere -- Les Femmes Savantes [The Learned Ladies], Act 4, sc. 3 (1692) [tr. Van Laun (1876)]

Dave — Fri, 19 Jun 2020 19:35:35 +0000

CLITANDRE: A learned fool is more foolish than an ignorant fool.

[Un sot savant est sot plus qu’un sot ignorant.]

Molière (1622-1673) French playwright, actor [stage name for Jean-Baptiste Poquelin]
Les Femmes Savantes [The Learned Ladies], Act 4, sc. 3 (1692) [tr. Van Laun (1876)]
(Source)

(Source (French)). Other translations:

A learned Fool is more foolish than an ignorant Fool.
[tr. Clitandre (1739)]

A learned fool is more of a fool than an ignorant one.
[tr. Wall (1879), The Learned Women]

A learned fool is more foolish than an ignorant one.
[tr. Matthew (1890), The Blue-Stockings]

The learned fool is a far greater fool than the fool of ignorance.
[tr. Wormeley (1895), The Female Pedants]

A learned fool is a bigger fool than an ignorant one.
[tr. Waller (1903)]

There's no fool like a learned fool.
[tr. Page (1908)]

A learned fool is more foolish than an ignorant fool.
[tr. Marks (2018)]

Nash, Ogden -- “The Purist”

Dave — Thu, 25 Aug 2016 04:59:35 +0000

I give you now Professor Twist,
A conscientious scientist.
Trustees exclaimed, “He never bungles!”
And sent him off to distant jungles.
Camped on a tropic riverside,
One day he missed his loving bride.
She had, the guide informed him later,
Been eaten by an alligator.
Professor Twist could not but smile.
“You mean,” he said, “a crocodile.”

Ogden Nash (1902-1971) American poet
“The Purist”

Chesterfield (Lord) -- Letter to his son, #128 (9 Oct 1747)

Dave — Fri, 29 Jan 2016 16:35:18 +0000

As I have often told you, politeness and good beeding are absolutely necessary to adorn any, or all other good qualities or talents. Without them, no knowledge, no perfection whatever, is seen in its best light. The scholar, without good breeding, is a pedant; the philosopher, a cynic; the soldier, a brute; and every man disagreeable.

Lord Chesterfield (1694-1773) English statesman, wit [Philip Dormer Stanhope]
Letter to his son, #128 (9 Oct 1747)
(Source)

Swift, Jonathan -- A Treatise on Good Manners and Good Breeding (1754)

Dave — Thu, 17 Sep 2015 13:12:21 +0000

Pedantry is properly the over-rating of any kind of knowledge we pretend to.

Jonathan Swift (1667-1745) English writer and churchman
A Treatise on Good Manners and Good Breeding (1754)

Maugham, W. Somerset -- A Writer’s Notebook (1949)

Dave — Fri, 27 Mar 2015 12:24:04 +0000

If forty million people say a foolish thing it does not become a wise one, but the wise man is foolish to give them the lie.

W. Somerset Maugham (1874-1965) English novelist and playwright [William Somerset Maugham]
A Writer’s Notebook (1949)

An entry dated 1901. More discussion about this quotation: If Fifty Million People Say a Foolish Thing, It Is Still a Foolish Thing – Quote Investigator

Emerson, Ralph Waldo -- Essay (1841), “Self-Reliance,” Essays: First Series, No. 2

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

A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) American essayist, lecturer, poet
Essay (1841), “Self-Reliance,” Essays: First Series, No. 2
(Source)

This thought continues here.

This essay was inspired by his reading of Walter Savage Landor in 1833, with passages pulled from his lecture "Individualism," last in his course on "The Philosophy of History" (1836–1837), with other passages from the lectures "School," "Genius," and "Duty" in his course on "Human Life" (1838–1839).

Chesterfield (Lord) -- Letter to his son, #142 (22 Feb 1748)

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

Wear your learning, like your watch, in a private pocket; and do not pull it out and strike it, merely to show that you have one. If you are asked what o’clock it is, tell it; but do not proclaim it hourly and unasked, like the watchman.

Lord Chesterfield (1694-1773) English statesman, wit [Philip Dormer Stanhope]
Letter to his son, #142 (22 Feb 1748)
(Source)