WIST Quotations

Hugo, Victor -- Les Misérables, Part 5 “Jean Valjean,” Book 1 “The War Between Four Walls,” ch. 21 (5.1.21) (1862) [tr. Hapgood (1887)]

Dave — Mon, 16 Jun 2025 18:40:16 +0000

There are people who observe the rules of honor as one observes the stars, from a great distance.

[Il y a des gens qui observent les règles de l’honneur comme on observe les étoiles, de très loin.]

Victor Hugo (1802-1885) French writer
Les Misérables, Part 5 “Jean Valjean,” Book 1 “The War Between Four Walls,” ch. 21 (5.1.21) (1862) [tr. Hapgood (1887)]
(Source)

Combeferre, on those leaders who had promised on their honor to support the barricades but were nowhere to be seen when the government troops attacked.

(Source (French)). Alternate translations:

There are people who observe the rules of honour as we observe the stars, from afar off.
[tr. Wilbour (1862)]

They are people who observe the rules of honor as they do the stars, a long distance off.
[tr. Wraxall (1862)]

There are people who observe the rules of honour as we do the stars, from a very long way off.
[tr. Denny (1976)]

There are people who observe the rules of honour as we observe the stars, from far off.
[tr. Wilbour/Fahnestock/MacAfee (1987)]

Commager, Henry Steele -- Essay (1949-11-05), “What Ideas Are Safe?” Saturday Review

Dave — Wed, 30 Mar 2022 16:03:55 +0000

If we establish a standard of safe thinking, we will end up with no thinking at all. That is the only “safe” way, and that is, needless to say, the most precarious, dangerous, of all ways.

Henry Steele Commager (1902-1998) American historian, writer, activist
Essay (1949-11-05), “What Ideas Are Safe?” Saturday Review
(Source)

Collected in Freedom and Order (1966).

Hammarskjold, Dag -- Speech, 180th Anniversary of the Virginia Declaration of Rights, Williamsburg (15 May 1956)

Dave — Tue, 22 Jul 2014 13:06:35 +0000

It is when we all play safe that we create a world of utmost insecurity.

Dag Hammarskjöld (1905-1961) Swedish diplomat, author, UN Secretary-General (1953-61)
Speech, 180th Anniversary of the Virginia Declaration of Rights, Williamsburg (15 May 1956)
(Source)