WIST Quotations

Repplier, Agnes -- “Agrippina,” Essays in Idleness (1893)

Dave — Thu, 13 Jul 2023 16:53:56 +0000

She has frolicsome moods, in which a thimble, a shoe-buttoner, a scrap of paper, or a piece of string will drive her wild with delight; she has moods of inflexible gravity, in which she stares solemnly at her favorite ball rolling over the carpet, without stirring one lazy limb to reach it. “Have I seen this foolish toy before?” she seems to be asking herself with musing austerity; “and can it be possible that there are cats who run after such frivolous trifles? Vanity of vanities, and all is vanity, save only to lie upon the hearth-rug, and be warm, and think grave thoughts to feed a serious soul.”

Agnes Repplier (1855-1950) American writer
“Agrippina,” Essays in Idleness (1893)
(Source)

Montagu, Ashley -- Growing Young (1981)

Dave — Tue, 17 Aug 2021 20:12:19 +0000

The ability to play is one of the principal criteria of mental health.

Ashley Montagu (1905-1999) British-American anthropologist and humanist [b. Israel Ehrenberg, a/k/a Montague Francis Ashley-Montagu]
Growing Young (1981)
(Source)

In the 2nd edition (1989), Montagu rephrased this a bit less prosaically: "Play is, of course, among the clearest of neotenous behavioral traits; it is the neoteny of the intellect, a principal criterion of mental health." Montagu uses the term "neoteny" to mean "growing young."

Fuller, Thomas (1654) -- Gnomologia: Adages and Proverbs (compiler), # 3680 (1732)

Dave — Tue, 01 Jun 2021 20:14:29 +0000

Nothing’s more playful than a young Cat, nor more grave than an old One.

Thomas Fuller (1654-1734) English physician, preacher, aphorist, writer
Gnomologia: Adages and Proverbs (compiler), # 3680 (1732)
(Source)

Robbins, Tom -- Still Life with Woodpecker, ch. 12 (1980)

Dave — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 09:32:06 +0000

Humanity has advanced, when it has advanced, not because it has been sober, responsible and cautious, but because it has been playful, rebellious, and immature.

Tom Robbins (b. 1932) American novelist
Still Life with Woodpecker, ch. 12 (1980)
(Source)