WIST Quotations

Milne, A. A. -- When We Were Very Young, “Halfway Down,” st. 1 (1924)

Dave — Tue, 10 Feb 2026 21:31:34 +0000

Halfway down the stairs
Is a stair
Where I sit.
There isn’t any
Other stair
Quite like
It.
I’m not at the bottom,
I’m not at the top;
So this is the stair
Where
I always
Stop.

A. A. Milne (1882-1956) English poet and playwright [Alan Alexander Milne]
When We Were Very Young, “Halfway Down,” st. 1 (1924)
(Source)

Shakespeare, William -- All’s Well That Ends Well, Act 2, sc. 3, l. 136ff (2.3.136-137) (1602?)

Dave — Wed, 10 Aug 2022 14:07:27 +0000

KING: From lowest place when virtuous things proceed,
The place is dignified by the doer’s deed.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
All’s Well That Ends Well, Act 2, sc. 3, l. 136ff (2.3.136-137) (1602?)
(Source)

Lerner, Alan Jay -- “Camelot” [Arthur], Camelot(1960; 1967)

Dave — Tue, 26 Jan 2021 17:28:45 +0000

In short, there’s simply not
A more congenial spot
For happily-ever-aftering than here
In Camelot.

Alan Jay Lerner (1918-1986) American dramatist, lyricist, composer
“Camelot” [Arthur], Camelot(1960; 1967)
(Source)

Based on T.H. White, The Once and Future King (1958).

Fromm, Erich -- The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness, ch. 10 (1973)

Dave — Mon, 02 Apr 2018 15:39:59 +0000

Man is the only animal who does not feel at home in nature, who can feel evicted from paradise, the only animal for whom his own existence is a problem that he has to solve and from which he cannot escape.

Erich Fromm (1900-1980) American psychoanalyst and social philosopher
The Anatomy of Human Destructiveness, ch. 10 (1973)
(Source)

Sometimes elided, "Man is the only animal for whom his own existence is a problem he has to solve."

Sutherland, George -- Euclid v. Ambler Realty Co., 272 U.S. 365, 388 (1926)

Dave — Tue, 19 Aug 2014 12:36:19 +0000

A nuisance may be merely a right thing in the wrong place — like a pig in the parlor instead of the barnyard.

George Sutherland (1862-1942) Anglo-American jurist, Supreme Court Justice (1922-1938)
Euclid v. Ambler Realty Co., 272 U.S. 365, 388 (1926)

Roosevelt, Eleanor -- (Attributed)

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

No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.

Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962) First Lady of the US (1933–1945), politician, diplomat, activist
(Attributed)

Sometimes cited to her autobiography This is My Story (1937), but not found in that book. It seems to have been inspired by a comment she made in 1935: "A snub is the effort of a person who feels superior to make someone else feel inferior. To do so, he has to find someone who can be made to feel inferior." The quotation was in its present form (and attributed to her) by 1940. More information here.