WIST Quotations

Santayana, George -- The Life of Reason, vol. 3 “Reason in Religion,” ch. 1 (1905)

Dave — Fri, 28 Feb 2025 00:52:48 +0000

What religion a man shall have is a historical accident, quite as much as what language he shall speak. In the rare circumstances where a choice is possible, he may, with some difficulty, make an exchange; but even then he is only adopting a new convention which may be more agreeable to his personal temper but which is essentially as arbitrary as the old.

George Santayana (1863–1952) Spanish-American poet and philosopher [Jorge Agustín Nicolás Ruíz de Santayana y Borrás]
The Life of Reason, vol. 3 “Reason in Religion,” ch. 1 (1905)
(Source)

Gaiman, Neil -- Blog entry (2004-11-17), “Politics, Portugal and No Gumbo-Limbo Trees”

Dave — Mon, 22 Nov 2021 19:51:29 +0000

If pressed to pick a political system, I think that some country or other ought to try jury duty as a way of picking its politicians: if your name gets picked, and you can’t come up with a good enough excuse, you’ll have to give up four or five years of your life to helping run the country, which avoids the main problem of politics as I see it, which is that the kind of people you have to choose between and vote for are the kind of people who actually think that they ought to be running things. If you have a country and want to try this as a political system, let me know how it works out.

Neil Gaiman (b. 1960) British author, screenwriter, fabulist
Blog entry (2004-11-17), “Politics, Portugal and No Gumbo-Limbo Trees”
(Source)

Stout, Rex -- Champagne for One, ch. 5 [Wolfe] (1958)

Dave — Fri, 05 Nov 2021 16:36:59 +0000

In a world that operates largely at random, coincidences are to be expected, but any one of them must always be mistrusted.

Rex Stout (1886–1975) American writer
Champagne for One, ch. 5 [Wolfe] (1958)
(Source)

Chesterfield (Lord) -- Letter to his son, #205 (5 Dec 1749)

Dave — Thu, 25 Mar 2021 21:46:18 +0000

Such closet politicians never fail to assign the deepest motives for the most trifling actions; instead of often ascribing the greatest actions to the most trifling causes, in which they would be much seldomer mistaken. They read and write of kings, heroes, and statesmen, as never doing any thing but upon the deepest principles of sound policy. But those who see and observe kings, heroes and statesmen, discover that they have headaches, indigestions, humours, and passions, just like other people; every one of which, in their turns, determine their wills, in defiance of their reason.

Lord Chesterfield (1694–1773) English statesman, wit [Philip Dormer Stanhope]
Letter to his son, #205 (5 Dec 1749)
(Source)

Young, Andrew -- Interview by Peter Ross Range, Playboy (Jul 1977)

Dave — Thu, 25 Feb 2021 21:39:52 +0000

It’s a blessing to die for a cause, because you can so easily die for nothing.

Andrew Young (b. 1932) American politician, diplomat, activist
Interview by Peter Ross Range, Playboy (Jul 1977)
(Source)

Pratchett, Terry -- Discworld No. 32, A Hat Full of Sky [Miss Level] (2004)

Dave — Wed, 23 Sep 2015 13:15:09 +0000

There isn’t a way things should be. There’s just what happens, and what we do.

Terry Pratchett (1948–2015) English author
Discworld No. 32, A Hat Full of Sky [Miss Level] (2004)
(Source)

Hart, Ian -- “Between the Idea and Reality, The Case for Qualitative Research,” ITForum Paper #20 (Mar 1997)

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

There’s a statistical theory that if you gave a million monkeys typewriters and set them to work, they’d eventually come up with the complete works of Shakespeare. Thanks to the Internet, we now know this isn’t true.

Ian Hart (contemp.) Australian media academic, documentary producer
“Between the Idea and Reality, The Case for Qualitative Research,” ITForum Paper #20 (Mar 1997)
(Source)