WIST Quotations

Huxley, Aldous -- Essay (1927-10), “A Note on Eugenics,” Proper Studies (1927)

Dave — Fri, 24 Oct 2025 15:40:52 +0000

States function as smoothly as they do, because the greater part of the population is not very intelligent, dreads responsibility, and desires nothing better than to be told what to do. Provided the rulers do not interfere with its material comforts and its cherished beliefs, it is perfectly happy to let itself be ruled.

Aldous Huxley (1894–1963) English novelist, essayist and critic
Essay (1927-10), “A Note on Eugenics,” Proper Studies (1927)
(Source)

Huxley was somewhat sympathetic to eugenicist arguments, though pessimistic about addressing them. He used this observation as an argument against eugenic attempts to "improve" humanity, because increasing the "superior" part of the population would disrupt states and society through their increased ambition. The passage continues:

The socially efficient and the intellectually gifted are precisely those who are not content to be ruled, but are ambitious either to rule or to live in an anti-social solitude. A state with a population consisting of nothing but these superior people could not hope to last for a year.

An abridged version of the essay appeared in Vanity Fair (1927-10), but did not include this passage.

Jacobs, Jane -- The Death and Life of Great American Cities, Foreword (1993 ed.)

Dave — Mon, 12 Aug 2024 18:19:44 +0000

Whenever and wherever societies have flourished and prospered rather than stagnated and decayed, creative and workable cities have been at the core of the phenomenon. Decaying cities, declining economies, and mounting social troubles travel together. The combination is not coincidental.

Jane Jacobs (1916–2006) American-Canadian journalist, author, urban theorist, activist
The Death and Life of Great American Cities, Foreword (1993 ed.)
(Source)

Mill, John Stuart -- On Liberty, ch. 5 “Applications” (1859)

Dave — Tue, 12 Jul 2022 18:24:11 +0000

A State which dwarfs its men, in order that they may be more docile instruments in its hands even for beneficial purposes — will find that with small men no great thing can really be accomplished; and that the perfection of machinery to which it has sacrificed everything, will in the end avail it nothing, for want of the vital power which, in order that the machine might work more smoothly, it has preferred to banish.

John Stuart Mill (1806–1873) English philosopher and economist
On Liberty, ch. 5 “Applications” (1859)
(Source)

Closing words of the book.

Diamond, Jared -- Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed (2005)

Dave — Tue, 18 Jan 2022 16:58:13 +0000

People often ask, “What is the single most important environmental / population problem facing the world today?” A flip answer would be, “The single most important problem is our misguided focus on identifying the single most important problem!”

Jared Diamond (b. 1937) American geographer, historian, ornithologist, author
Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed (2005)
(Source)

Brown, A. Whitney -- The Big Picture: An American Commentary (1991)

Dave — Fri, 23 Sep 2016 23:32:17 +0000

There are a billion people in China. It’s not easy to be an individual in a crowd of more than a billion people. Think of it. More than a BILLION people. That means even if you’re a one-in-a-million type of guy, there are still a thousand guys exactly like you.

A. Whitney Brown (b. 1952) American comic actor, writer
The Big Picture: An American Commentary (1991)

Orwell, George -- Essay (1945-05), “Notes on Nationalism,” Polemic Magazine (1945-10)

Dave — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 14:05:39 +0000

By “nationalism” I mean first of all the habit of assuming that human beings can be classified like insects and that whole blocks of millions or tens of millions of people can be confidently labeled “good” or “bad.” But secondly — and this is much more important — I mean the habit of identifying oneself with a single nation or other unit, placing it beyond good and evil and recognizing no other duty than that of advancing its interests.

George Orwell (1903–1950) English journalist, essayist, writer [pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair]
Essay (1945-05), “Notes on Nationalism,” Polemic Magazine (1945-10)
(Source)

Ellis, Havelock -- “The Individual and the Race,” Little Essays of Love and Virtue (1922)

Dave — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 13:00:16 +0000

All civilization has from time to time become a thin crust over a volcano of revolution.

Havelock Ellis (1859–1939) British sexologist, physician, social reformer [Henry Havelock Ellis]
“The Individual and the Race,” Little Essays of Love and Virtue (1922)
(Source)

In a passage describing the cost of population growth under the Biblical commandment of "Be ye fruitful and multiply." The above is only a fraction of the sentence, which reads in full:

It has meant that all civilisation has from time to time become a thin crust over a volcano of revolution, and the human race has gone on lightly dancing there, striving to forget that ancient warning from a soul of things even deeper than the voice of Jehovah: "At the hand of man will I require the life of man."