WIST Quotations

Armour, Richard -- Book (1960), The Classics Reclassified, “Homer”

Dave — Wed, 04 Nov 2026 23:46:52 +0000

Almost nothing is known about Homer, which explains why so much has been written about him.

Richard Armour (1906–1989) American poet and author
Book (1960), The Classics Reclassified, “Homer”

See Swift (1733).

L'Engle, Madeleine -- Speech (1983-11-16), “Dare To Be Creative,” Lecture, Library of Congress, Washington, DC

Dave — Wed, 18 Feb 2026 20:51:48 +0000

Many years ago, when A Wrinkle in Time was being rejected by publisher after publisher, I wrote in my journal, “I will rewrite for months or even years for an editor who sees what I am trying to do in this book and wants to make it better and stronger. But I will not, I cannot diminish and mutilate it for an editor who does not understand it and wants to weaken it.”
Now, the editors who did not understand the book and wanted the problem of evil soft peddled had every right to refuse to publish the book, as I had, sadly, the right and obligation to try to be true to it. If they refused it out of honest conviction, that was honorable. If they refused it for fear of trampling on someone else’s toes, that was, alas, the way of the world.

Madeleine L'Engle (1918–2007) American writer
Speech (1983-11-16), “Dare To Be Creative,” Lecture, Library of Congress, Washington, DC

Martial -- Epigrams [Epigrammata], Book 8, epigram 20 (8.20) (AD 94) [tr. McLean (2014)]

Dave — Fri, 21 Jul 2023 20:56:33 +0000

You write two hundred lines a day, but don’t recite.
Varus, you are wise, if none too bright.

[Cum facias versus nulla non luce ducenos,
Vare, nihil recitas. Non sapis, atque sapis.]

Martial (AD c.39-c.103) Spanish Roman poet, satirist, epigrammatist [Marcus Valerius Martialis]
Epigrams [Epigrammata], Book 8, epigram 20 (8.20) (AD 94) [tr. McLean (2014)]

"To Varus." See also 2.88.

(Source (Latin)). Other translations:

Each day you make two hundred verses, sott,
But none recite: you're wise, and you are nott.
[16th C Manuscript]

You make two hundred verses in a trice;
But publish none: -- The man is mad and wise.
[tr. Hay (1755)]

You countless verses pen, each morn you rise;
Yet none recite: how witty, and how wise!
[tr. Elphinston (1782), Book 12, ep. 8]

Though you write two hundred verses every day, Varus, you recite nothing in public. You are unwise, and yet you are wise.
[tr. Bohn's Classical (1859)]

Varus writes facile verse and keeps it mum.
He's weakly garrulous, and wisely dumb.
[tr. Street (1907)]

Every day Varus writes
Scores of verses, I've heard:
But he never recites.
He's both wise and absurd.
[tr. Nixon (1911), "The Wisest Fool"]

Although no day passes but you compose two hundred verses, Varus, you recite none of them. You have no wit -- and yet are wise.
[tr. Ker (1919)]

You write a hundred lines a day?
That means a crazy brain.
And yet you publish none, you say;
That shows that you are sane.
[tr. Pott & Wright (1921), "The Wise Fool"]

Varus, two hundred lines each day that flies
You write and burn. How foolish -- and how wise!
[tr. Francis & Tatum (1924), ep. 401]

Although you write two hundred lines
Of poetry each day,
You shun our constant plea to let us
Hear your poetry.
Two hundred verses every day,
And I, with luck, one line!
You can't be good, though very good
Of you, sir, to decline!
[tr. Marcellino (1968)]

Although you make two hundred verses every day, Varus, you never recite. You are a fool, and you are no fool.
[tr. Shackleton Bailey (1993)]

He turns out verses by the ton,
But never publishes a one.
He is too dumb to be a poet,
But wise enough in fact to know it.
[tr. Wills (2007)]

Though Varus daily sits and writes --
Two hundred lines! -- he neither tries
To publish verses nor recites.
He's not too witty, but he's wise.
[tr. Barth]

Byron, George Gordon, Lord -- “English Bards and Scotch Reviewers,” l. 51ff (1809)

Dave — Thu, 06 Jul 2023 14:30:52 +0000

‘Tis pleasant, sure, to see one’s name in print;
A Book’s a Book, altho’ there’s nothing in’t.

George Gordon, Lord Byron (1788–1824) English poet
“English Bards and Scotch Reviewers,” l. 51ff (1809)

Feynman, Richard -- “Cargo Cult Science,” commencement address, California Institute of Technology (1974)

Dave — Wed, 22 Jan 2020 17:09:15 +0000

Details that could throw doubt on your interpretation must be given, if you know them. You must do the best you can — if you know anything at all wrong, or possibly wrong — to explain it. If you make a theory, for example, and advertise it, or put it out, then you must also put down all the facts that disagree with it, as well as those that agree with it. There is also a more subtle problem. When you have put a lot of ideas together to make an elaborate theory, you want to make sure, when explaining what it fits, that those things it fits are not just the things that gave you the idea for the theory; but that the finished theory makes something else come out right, in addition. In summary, the idea is to try to give all of the information to help others to judge the value of your contribution; not just the information that leads to judgment in one particular direction or another.

Richard Feynman (1918–1988) American physicist
“Cargo Cult Science,” commencement address, California Institute of Technology (1974)

Millay, Edna St. Vincent -- Letter (1927-05-25) to Cora B. Millay

Dave — Tue, 03 Sep 2013 13:10:45 +0000

A person who publishes a book wilfully appears before the populace with his pants down.

Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892–1950) American poet
Letter (1927-05-25) to Cora B. Millay

Letter to her mother trying to calm Cora's nerves about sister Kathleen's impending first book of poetry. The letter is collected in Letters of Edna St. Vincent Millay (1952) [ed. Allan Ross MacDougall].

This passage is almost universally misquoted as "A person who publishes a book wilfully appears before the public with his pants down" (italics mine).

Another variant appears here. It shortens the first sentence, and then pulls in (and re-genders) two sentences from later in the letter:

A writer appears before the public with his pants down. If it is a good book, nothing can hurt him. If it is a bad book, nothing can help him.

Johnson, Samuel -- Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets, “Milton” (1781)

Dave — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 12:16:06 +0000

If nothing may be published but what civil authority shall have previously approved, power must always be the standard of truth.

Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) English writer, lexicographer, critic
Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets, “Milton” (1781)

Also known as Lives of English Poets and Lives of the Poets.

In the full passage, Johnson notes the dangers of both a censored and uncensored press.

Valéry, Paul -- “Au sujet du ‘Cimetière marin,'” La Nouvelle Revue Française (Mar 1933)

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

In the eyes of those lovers of perfection, a work is never finished — a word that for them has no sense — but abandoned; and this abandonment, whether to the flames or to the public (and which is the result of weariness or an obligation to deliver) is a kind of an accident to them, like the breaking off of a reflection, which fatigue, irritation, or something similar has made worthless.

[Aux yeux de ces amateurs d’inquiétude et de perfection, un ouvrage n’est jamais achevé, – mot qui pour eux n’a aucun sens, – mais abandonné ; et cet abandon, qui le livre aux flammes ou au public (et qu’il soit l’effet de la lassitude ou de l’obligation de livrer) est une sorte d’accident, comparable à la rupture d’une réflexion, que la fatigue, le fâcheux ou quelque sensation viennent rendre nulle.]

Paul Valéry (1871–1945) French poet, critic, author, polymath
“Au sujet du ‘Cimetière marin,'” La Nouvelle Revue Française (Mar 1933)

Often rendered as: "A poem is never finished, only abandoned."

Alt. trans.: "In the eyes of those who anxiously seek perfection, a work is never truly completed -- a word that for them has no sense -- but abandoned; and this abandonment, of the book to the fire or to the public, whether due to weariness or to a need to deliver it for publication, is a sort of accident, comparable to the letting-go of an idea that has become so tiring or annoying that one has lost all interest in it." [tr. Maggio]

In the same vein, in "Recollections," Valery wrote: "A work is never completed except by some accident such as weariness, satisfaction, the need to deliver, or death: for, in relation to who or what is making it, it can only be one stage in a series of inner transformations."

Also attributed to W. H. Auden, Oscar Wilde, and Jean Cocteau, For more discussion of the origin of this phrase, see here.