WIST Quotations

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)

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

Rothfuss, Patrick -- The Name of the Wind, ch. 92 “The Music That Plays” [Bast] (2007)

Dave — Thu, 06 Apr 2023 15:00:24 +0000

You see, there’s a fundamental connection between seeming and being. Every Fae child knows this, but you mortals never seem to see. We understand how dangerous a mask can be. We all become what we pretend to be.

Patrick Rothfuss (b. 1973) American author
The Name of the Wind, ch. 92 “The Music That Plays” [Bast] (2007)

Auden, W. H. -- “One of the Family” (1965), Forewords and Afterwords (1973)

Dave — Fri, 25 Sep 2020 21:45:50 +0000

Young people, who are still uncertain of their identity, often try on a succession of masks in the hope of finding the one which suits them — the one, in fact, which is not a mask.

W. H. Auden (1907–1973) Anglo-American poet [Wystan Hugh Auden]
“One of the Family” (1965), Forewords and Afterwords (1973)

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)

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