WIST Quotations

Jerome, Jerome K. -- “Clocks,” Diary of a Pilgrimage, and Six Other Essays (1891)

Dave — Mon, 29 Jan 2024 16:59:34 +0000

There are two kinds of clocks. There is the clock that is always wrong, and that knows it is wrong, and glories in it; and there is the clock that is always right — except when you rely upon it, and then it is more wrong than you would think a clock could be in a civilized country.

Jerome K. Jerome (1859-1927) English writer, humorist [Jerome Klapka Jerome]
“Clocks,” Diary of a Pilgrimage, and Six Other Essays (1891)
(Source)

Cox, Marcelene -- “Ask Any Woman” column, Ladies’ Home Journal (1951-09)

Dave — Tue, 17 Jan 2023 20:53:43 +0000

The number of times the toast falls butter side down increases in direct proportion to the value of the rug or the price of the butter.

Marcelene Cox (1900-1998) American writer, columnist, aphorist
“Ask Any Woman” column, Ladies’ Home Journal (1951-09)
(Source)

A variant on the Butter-Side-Down Law.

Paglia, Camille -- Sexual Personae, ch. 2 (1990)

Dave — Tue, 26 Jan 2021 21:45:08 +0000

Cats are autocrats of naked self-interest. They are both amoral and immoral, consciously breaking rules. Their “evil” look at such times is no human projection: the cat may be the only animal who savors the perverse or reflects upon it.

Camille Paglia (b. 1947) American feminist academic and social critic
Sexual Personae, ch. 2 (1990)
(Source)

Brown, Rita Mae -- Venus Envy, ch. 21 (1993)

Dave — Mon, 23 Oct 2017 23:22:16 +0000

Normal is the average of deviance.

Rita Mae Brown (b. 1944) American author, playwright
Venus Envy, ch. 21 (1993)
(Source)

Aaronovitch, Ben -- Foxglove Summer (2014)

Dave — Wed, 10 Feb 2016 15:06:40 +0000

“So the moon effects magic, why?”

“I’m working on several theories,” I said. “But I’m currently favoring the hypothesis that the moon has a seemingly arbitrary effect on magic because it likes to piss me off.”

“That’s a theory with a high degree of applicability to other spheres of life,” he said.

“Yes, it is,” I said, and we spontaneously fist bumped.

Ben Aaronovitch (b. 1964) British author
Foxglove Summer (2014)