WIST Quotations

Doyle, Arthur Conan -- Story (1891-09), “A Case of Identity,” [Holmes], The Strand Magazine, Vol. 2, No. 3

Dave — Thu, 20 Aug 2026 22:59:34 +0000

My dear fellow, life is infinitely stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent. We would not dare to conceive the things which are really mere commonplaces of existence. If we could fly out of that window hand in hand, hover over this great city, gently remove the roofs, and peep in at the queer things which are going on, the strange coincidences, the plannings, the cross-purposes, the wonderful chains of events, working through generations, and leading to the most outré results, it would make all fiction with its conventionalities and foreseen conclusions most stale and unprofitable.

Arthur Conan Doyle (1859–1930) British writer and physician
Story (1891-09), “A Case of Identity,” [Holmes], The Strand Magazine, Vol. 2, No. 3
(Source)

Collected in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, No. 3 (1892).

Watterson, Bill -- Calvin and Hobbes (1995-11-03)

Dave — Tue, 18 Aug 2026 21:44:46 +0000

CALVIN: (watching TV) Why isn’t my life like this situation comedy? Why don’t I have a bunch of friends with nothing to do but drop by and instigate wacky adventures? Why aren’t my conversations peppered with spontaneous witticisms? Why don’t my friends demonstrate heartfelt concern for my well-being when I have problems?

HOBBES: Why don’t you know any gorgeous babes?

CALVIN: I gotta get my life some writers.

Bill Watterson (b. 1958) American cartoonist
Calvin and Hobbes (1995-11-03)
(Source)

Doyle, Arthur Conan -- Story (1891-08), “The Red-Headed League,” The Strand Magazine, Vol. 2, No. 2

Dave — Thu, 23 Jul 2026 23:36:07 +0000

“You will remember that I remarked the other day, just before we went into the very simple problem presented by Miss Mary Sutherland, that for strange effects and extraordinary combinations we must go to life itself, which is always far more daring than any effort of the imagination.”
“A proposition which I took the liberty of doubting.”
“You did, Doctor, but none the less you must come round to my view, for otherwise I shall keep on piling fact upon fact on you until your reason breaks down under them and acknowledges me to be right.”

Arthur Conan Doyle (1859–1930) British writer and physician
Story (1891-08), “The Red-Headed League,” The Strand Magazine, Vol. 2, No. 2
(Source)

Collected in The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, No. 2.

Billings, Josh -- Josh Billings’ Farmer’s Allminax, 1877-05 “Artikles Ov Faith” (1877 ed.)

Dave — Thu, 16 Jul 2026 16:44:57 +0000

Man kant make cirkumstanses, but he kan take them bi the horns, insted ov the tale.

[Man can’t make circumstances, but he can take them by the horns, instead of the tail.]

Josh Billings (1818–1885) American humorist, aphorist [pseud. of Henry Wheeler Shaw]
Josh Billings’ Farmer’s Allminax, 1877-05 “Artikles Ov Faith” (1877 ed.)
(Source)

Watterson, Bill -- Calvin and Hobbes (1994-03-04)

Dave — Tue, 23 Jun 2026 20:33:30 +0000

CALVIN: It offends the human ego that nature is indifferent to us. Nature doesn’t care if people live or die. It refuses to be tamed. It does whatever it wants and acts like people don’t matter. It won’t confirm our right to be here. That drives people crazy. We can’t stand being ignored. It’s insulting and … hey!

HOBBES: YAWWNN. [wanders off]

CALVIN: I think that’s also why some people don’t like cats.

Bill Watterson (b. 1958) American cartoonist
Calvin and Hobbes (1994-03-04)
(Source)

Adams, Douglas -- Hitchhiker’s Guide No. 5, Mostly Harmless, ch. 17 (1992)

Dave — Wed, 01 Apr 2026 19:12:10 +0000

“So what’s the point of showing me something I can’t see?”
“So that you understand that just because you see something, it doesn’t mean to say it’s there. And if you don’t see something, it doesn’t mean to say it’s not there. It’s only what your senses bring to your attention.”

Douglas Adams (1952–2001) English author, humorist, screenwriter
Hitchhiker’s Guide No. 5, Mostly Harmless, ch. 17 (1992)
(Source)

Random and the bird Guide.

Carlyle, Thomas -- Lecture (1840-05-22), “The Hero as King,” Home House, Portman Square, London

Dave — Thu, 19 Mar 2026 20:06:10 +0000

Truly it is a sad thing for a people, as for a man, to fall into Scepticism, into dilettantism, insincerity; not to know Sincerity when they see it. For this world, and for all worlds, what curse is so fatal? The heart lying dead, the eye cannot see.

Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish essayist and historian
Lecture (1840-05-22), “The Hero as King,” Home House, Portman Square, London
(Source)

The lecture notes were collected by Carlyle into On Heroes, Hero-Worship, & the Heroic in History, Lecture 6 (1841).

Montaigne, Michel de -- Essays, Book 2, ch. 17 (2.17), “Of Presumption [De la Presomption]” (1578) [tr. Cohen (1958)]

Dave — Thu, 12 Mar 2026 20:49:26 +0000

Not being able to control events, I control myself, and adapt myself to them if they do not adapt themselves to me.

[Ne pouvant regler les evenemens, je me regle moy-mesme : & m’applique à eux, s’ils ne s’appliquent à moy.]

Michel de Montaigne (1533–1592) French essayist
Essays, Book 2, ch. 17 (2.17), “Of Presumption [De la Presomption]” (1578) [tr. Cohen (1958)]
(Source)

This essay appeared in the 1st (1580) edition, and was expanded in succeeding editions. This passage was added in the 2nd (1588) edition.

(Source (French)). Other translations:

Being unable to direct events, I governe my selfe; and if they apply not themselves to me, I apply my selfe to them.
[tr. Florio (1603)]

Not being to govern events I govern myself, and apply myself to them, if they do not apply themselves to me.
[tr. Cotton (1686)]

Not being able to govern events, I govern myself, and apply myself to them, if they will not apply themselves to me.
[tr. Cotton/Hazlitt (1877)]

Being unable to regulate events, I regulate myself, and adapt myself to them if they do not adapt themselves to me.
[tr. Ives (1925)]

Not being able to rule events, I rule myself, and adapt myself to them if they do not adapt themselves to me.
[tr. Frame (1943)]

Not being able to control events I control myself: if they will not adapt to me then I adapt to them.
[tr. Screech (1987)]

Since I cannot control events, I take control of myself and suit myself to them, if they do not suit me.
[tr. Atkinson/Sices (2012)]

Doyle, Arthur Conan -- Story (1886-04), “A Study in Scarlet,” Part 2, ch. 7 [Holmes], Beeton’s Christmas Annual, Vol. 28 (1887-11-21)

Dave — Thu, 26 Feb 2026 22:08:59 +0000

“What you do in this world is a matter of no consequence,” returned my companion, bitterly. “The question is, what can you make people believe that you have done?”

Arthur Conan Doyle (1859–1930) British writer and physician
Story (1886-04), “A Study in Scarlet,” Part 2, ch. 7 [Holmes], Beeton’s Christmas Annual, Vol. 28 (1887-11-21)
(Source)

After the police had taken credit for the capture of the murderer.

Published in novel form 1888-07.

Billings, Josh -- Josh Billings’ Farmer’s Allminax, 1871-06 (1871 ed.)

Dave — Thu, 26 Feb 2026 18:40:08 +0000

The man who wont beleave enny thing he kant see, aint so wize az a mule, for they will kick at a thing in the dark.

[The man who won’t believe anything he can’t see, ain’t so wise as a mule, for they will kick at a thing in the dark.]

Josh Billings (1818–1885) American humorist, aphorist [pseud. of Henry Wheeler Shaw]
Josh Billings’ Farmer’s Allminax, 1871-06 (1871 ed.)
(Source)

Russell, Bertrand -- Education and the Good Life, Part 2, ch. 11 “Affection and Sympathy” (1926)

Dave — Wed, 25 Feb 2026 17:19:17 +0000

I have known some pacifists who wished history taught without reference to wars, and thought that children should be kept as long as possible ignorant of the cruelty in the world. But I cannot praise the “fugitive and cloistered virtue” that depends upon absence of knowledge. As soon as history is taught at all, it should be taught truthfully. If true history contradicts any moral we wish to teach, our moral must be wrong, and we had better abandon it. I quite admit that many people, including some of the most virtuous, find facts inconvenient, but that is due to a certain feebleness in their virtue. A truly robust morality can only be strengthened by the fullest knowledge of what really happens in the world.

Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) English mathematician and philosopher
Education and the Good Life, Part 2, ch. 11 “Affection and Sympathy” (1926)
(Source)

Adams, Douglas -- Hitchhiker’s Guide No. 4, So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish, ch. 11 [Arthur] (1984)

Dave — Wed, 18 Feb 2026 20:45:36 +0000

Grown men, he told himself, in flat contradiction of centuries of accumulated evidence about the way grown men behave, do not behave like this.

Douglas Adams (1952–2001) English author, humorist, screenwriter
Hitchhiker’s Guide No. 4, So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish, ch. 11 [Arthur] (1984)
(Source)

Rickover, Hyman -- Speech (1954-03-16), “Administering a Large Military Development Project,” US Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, California

Dave — Mon, 09 Feb 2026 19:08:44 +0000

Sit down before fact with an open mind. Be prepared to give up every preconceived notion. Follow humbly wherever and to whatever abyss Nature leads, or you learn nothing. Don’t push out figures when the facts are going in the opposite direction.

Hyman Rickover (1900–1986) Polish-American naval engineer, admiral [b. Chaim Gdala Rykower]
Speech (1954-03-16), “Administering a Large Military Development Project,” US Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey, California
(Source)

Watterson, Bill -- Calvin and Hobbes (1991-03-03)

Dave — Tue, 03 Feb 2026 20:45:32 +0000

CALVIN: Isn’t it strange that evolution would give us a sense of humor? When you think about it, it’s weird that we have a physiological response to absurdity. We laugh at nonsense. We like it. We think it’s funny. Don’t you think it’s odd that we appreciate absurdity? Why would we develop that way? How does it benefit us?

HOBBES: I suppose if we couldn’t laugh at things that don’t make sense, we couldn’t react to a lot of life.

CALVIN: (after a pause) I can’t tell if that’s funny or really scary.

Bill Watterson (b. 1958) American cartoonist
Calvin and Hobbes (1991-03-03)
(Source)

See Dr. Seuss (1983), Ricky Gervais (2013).

Watterson, Bill -- Calvin and Hobbes (1987-12-21)

Dave — Wed, 24 Dec 2025 21:58:32 +0000

CALVIN: This whole Santa Claus thing just doesn’t make sense. Why all the secrecy? Why all the mystery? If the guy exists, why doesn’t he ever show himself and prove it? And if he doesn’t exist, what’s the meaning of all this?

HOBBES: I dunno … isn’t this a religious holiday?

CALVIN: Yeah, but actually, I’ve got the same questions about God.

Bill Watterson (b. 1958) American cartoonist
Calvin and Hobbes (1987-12-21)
(Source)

Roosevelt, Eleanor -- Column (1940-05-17), “My Day”

Dave — Tue, 16 Dec 2025 18:22:00 +0000

For years I have hoped that we could stop war as an instrument for settling any national and international difficulties. I have worked for it and shall continue to work for it. However, one has to face the world as it is and, without discarding one’s ideals, meet the realities of the day and keep on working for what one hopes will be a better future.

Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962) First Lady of the US (1933–1945), politician, diplomat, activist
Column (1940-05-17), “My Day”
(Source)

Orwell, George -- Essay (1942-08), “Looking Back on the Spanish War,” ch. 4, Such, Such Were the Joys, essay 8 (1953)

Dave — Fri, 12 Dec 2025 18:33:21 +0000

Nazi theory indeed specifically denies that such a thing as “the truth” exists. There is, for instance, no such thing as “science.” There is only “German science,” “Jewish science” etc. The implied objective of this line of thought is a nightmare world in which the Leader, or some ruling clique, controls not only the future but the past. If the Leader says of such and such an event, “It never happened” — well, it never happened. If he says that two and two are five — well, two and two are five. This prospect frightens me much more than bombs — and after our experiences of the last few years that is not a frivolous statement.

George Orwell (1903–1950) English journalist, essayist, writer [pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair]
Essay (1942-08), “Looking Back on the Spanish War,” ch. 4, Such, Such Were the Joys, essay 8 (1953)
(Source)

This is a central theme in his later novel, Nineteen Eighty-Four.

Ivins, Molly -- Essay (1987-03), “Killing the Messenger,” The Progressive

Dave — Wed, 22 Oct 2025 15:11:50 +0000

The odd thing about these television discussions designed to “get all sides of the issue” is that they do not feature a spectrum of people with different views on reality. Rather, they frequently give us a face-off between those who see reality and those who have missed it entirely. In the name of objectivity, we are getting fantasy-land.

Molly Ivins (1944–2007) American writer, political columnist [Mary Tyler Ivins]
Essay (1987-03), “Killing the Messenger,” The Progressive
(Source)

Collected in Molly Ivins Can't Say That, Can She? (1991).

Hoffer, Eric -- Passionate State of Mind, Aphorism 88 (1955)

Dave — Thu, 25 Sep 2025 17:28:29 +0000

Absolute power is partial to simplicity. It wants simple problems, simple solutions, simple definitions. It sees in complication a product of weakness — the torturous path compromise must follow.

Eric Hoffer (1902–1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
Passionate State of Mind, Aphorism 88 (1955)
(Source)

Shakespeare, William -- Richard II, Act 1, sc. 3, l. 301ff (1.3.301-310) (1595)

Dave — Mon, 22 Sep 2025 15:48:11 +0000

BOLINGBROKE: O, who can hold a fire in his hand
By thinking on the frosty Caucasus?
Or cloy the hungry edge of appetite
By bare imagination of a feast?
Or wallow naked in December snow
By thinking on fantastic summer’s heat?
O no, the apprehension of the good
Gives but the greater feeling to the worse.
Fell sorrow’s tooth doth never rankle more
Than when he bites but lanceth not the sore.

William Shakespeare (1564–1616) English dramatist and poet
Richard II, Act 1, sc. 3, l. 301ff (1.3.301-310) (1595)
(Source)

Kesey, Ken -- One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Part 1 (1962)

Dave — Wed, 17 Sep 2025 17:07:24 +0000

But it’s the truth even if it didn’t happen.

Ken Kesey (1935–2001) American novelist, essayist, countercultural figure
One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, Part 1 (1962)
(Source)

Carlyle, Thomas -- Sartor Resartus, Book 1, ch. 8 (1834)

Dave — Thu, 28 Aug 2025 15:59:50 +0000

Strange enough how creatures of the human-kind shut their eyes to plainest facts; and by the mere inertia of Oblivion and Stupidity, live at ease in the midst of Wonders and Terrors. But indeed man is, and was always, a blockhead and dullard; much readier to feel and digest, than to think and consider.

Thomas Carlyle (1795–1881) Scottish essayist and historian
Sartor Resartus, Book 1, ch. 8 (1834)
(Source)

Quoting Herr Teufelsdröckh.

This chapter first appeared in Fraser's Magazine for Town and Country, Vol. 8, No. 48 (1833-12).

Ingersoll, Robert Green -- Lecture (1877-06-23), “The Ghosts,” Carson Theater, Carson City, Nevada

Dave — Fri, 22 Aug 2025 22:43:38 +0000

Education is the most radical thing in the world.
To teach the alphabet is to inaugurate a revolution.
To build a schoolhouse is to construct a fort.
Every library is an arsenal filled with the weapons and ammunition of Progress, and every fact is a monitor with sides of iron and a turret of steel.

Robert Green Ingersoll (1833–1899) American lawyer, freethinker, orator
Lecture (1877-06-23), “The Ghosts,” Carson Theater, Carson City, Nevada
(Source)

Collected in The Ghosts, and Other Lectures (1878)

La Rochefoucauld, Francois -- Réflexions ou sentences et maximes morales [Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims], ¶174 (1665-1678) [tr. Tancock (1959)]

Dave — Fri, 01 Aug 2025 17:53:31 +0000

Our minds are better employed in bearing the misfortunes that do befall us than in foreseeing those that may.

[Il vaut mieux employer notre esprit à supporter les infortunes qui nous arrivent qu’à prévoir celles qui nous peuvent arriver.]

François VI, duc de La Rochefoucauld (1613–1680) French epigrammatist, memoirist, noble
Réflexions ou sentences et maximes morales [Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims], ¶174 (1665-1678) [tr. Tancock (1959)]
(Source)

Appeared in the 1st edition as this variant:

[Il vaut mieux employer notre son esprit à supporter les infortunes qui arrivent qu’à pénétrer celles qui peuvent arriver.]

(Source (French)). Other translations:

A mans Wits are Employed to better purpose in bearing up under the misfortunes that lie upon him at present, than in foreseeing those that may come upon him hereafter.
[tr. Stanhope (1694), ¶175]

It is a better employment of the understanding to bear the misfortunes that actually befal us, than to penetrate into those that may.
[pub. Donaldson (1783), ¶463; ed. Lepoittevin-Lacroix (1797), ¶167]

The understanding is better employed in bearing actual misfortune, than in penetrating into that which possibly may befal us.
[ed. Carvill (1835), ¶393]

It is better to employ; our minds in supporting the misfortunes which actually happen, than in anticipating those which may happen to us.
[ed. Gowens (1851), ¶177]

It is far better to accustom our mind to bear the ills we have than to speculate on those which may befall us.
[tr. Bund/Friswell (1871), ¶174]

We make better use of our abilities by endeavoring to bear our misfortunes, than in seeking to forestall possible catastrophes.
[tr. Heard (1917), ¶174]

It is better to devote our minds to endurance of present misfortunes than to anticipation of those which the future may bring.
[tr. Stevens (1939), ¶174]

Our wits are better employed in helping us endure present misfortunes than in anticipating those that may yet be to come.
[tr. FitzGibbon (1957), ¶174]

It is better for our minds to help us bear existing misfortunes than prevent possible future ones.
[tr. Kronenberger (1959), ¶174]

It is better to employ our mind in bearing misfortunes which actually happen to us, than in predicting those which could occur in future.
[tr. Whichello (2016) ¶174]

James, Henry -- Essay (1874-04), “Iwan Turgéniew,” sec. 3, North American Review, Vol. 98, Art. 4

Dave — Wed, 16 Jul 2025 22:00:54 +0000

The world as it stands is no illusion, no phantasm, no evil dream of a night; we wake up to it again for ever and ever; we can neither forget it nor deny it nor dispense with it.

Henry James (1843–1916) American writer
Essay (1874-04), “Iwan Turgéniew,” sec. 3, North American Review, Vol. 98, Art. 4
(Source)

Reviewing Ivan Turgenev's Frühlingsfluthen and Ein König Lear des Dorfes (1873). Collected in French Poets and Novelists, "Ivan Turgénieff," sec. 3 (1878)

Bierce, Ambrose -- “Really,” The Devil’s Dictionary (1911)

Dave — Tue, 08 Jul 2025 18:46:00 +0000

REALLY, adv. Apparently.

Ambrose Bierce (1842–1914?) American writer and journalist
“Really,” The Devil’s Dictionary (1911)
(Source)

Originally published in the "Cynic's Dictionary" column in the San Francisco Examiner.

Bierce, Ambrose -- “Reality,” The Devil’s Dictionary (1911)

Dave — Tue, 01 Jul 2025 17:33:58 +0000

REALITY, n. The dream of a mad philosopher.

Ambrose Bierce (1842–1914?) American writer and journalist
“Reality,” The Devil’s Dictionary (1911)
(Source)

Originally published in the "Cynic's Dictionary" column in the San Francisco Examiner.

Bierce, Ambrose -- “Rational,” The Devil’s Dictionary (1911)

Dave — Tue, 10 Jun 2025 15:00:20 +0000

RATIONAL, adj. Devoid of all delusions save those of observation, experience and reflection.

Ambrose Bierce (1842–1914?) American writer and journalist
“Rational,” The Devil’s Dictionary (1911)
(Source)

Originally published in the "Cynic's Dictionary" column in the San Francisco Examiner.

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Sr. -- Article (1890-01), “Over the Teacups,” No. 2, Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 65

Dave — Mon, 09 Jun 2025 16:14:54 +0000

Old age is like an opium-dream. Nothing seems real except what is unreal.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809–1894) American poet, essayist, scholar
Article (1890-01), “Over the Teacups,” No. 2, Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 65
(Source)

Collected in Over the Teacups, ch. 2 (1891)

Banksy -- Wall and Piece, “Cops” (2005)

Dave — Wed, 04 Jun 2025 15:40:34 +0000

There are no exceptions to the rule that everyone thinks they’re an exception to the rules.

Banksy (b. 1974?) England-based pseudonymous street artist, political activist, film director
Wall and Piece, “Cops” (2005)
(Source)

Chamfort, Nicolas -- Products of Perfected Civilization [Produits de la Civilisation Perfectionée], Part 1 “Maxims and Thoughts [Maximes et Pensées],” ch. 1, ¶ 76 (1795) [tr. Mathers (1926)]

Dave — Mon, 26 May 2025 18:10:01 +0000

Nature meant there to be illusions for the wise as well as the foolish, so that the wise should not be made too unhappy by their wisdom.

[La Nature a voulu que les illusions fussent pour les sages comme pour les fous, afin que les premiers ne fussent pas trop malheureux par leur propre sagesse.]

Nicolas Chamfort (1741–1794) French writer, epigrammist (b. Nicolas-Sébastien Roch)
Products of Perfected Civilization [Produits de la Civilisation Perfectionée], Part 1 “Maxims and Thoughts [Maximes et Pensées],” ch. 1, ¶ 76 (1795) [tr. Mathers (1926)]
(Source)

(Source (French)). Alternate translations:

It is nature’s will that wise men have their illusions as well as fools, to the end that they be not made too unhappy by their own wisdom.
[tr. Hutchinson (1902)]

Nature intended illusions for the wise as well as for fools, lest the former should be rendered too miserable by their wisdom.
[tr. Merwin (1969)]

Nature wanted wise men to have as many illusions as fools, so that they wouldn't become too unhappy through their wisdom.
[tr. Siniscalchi (1994)]

Nature has decreed that wise men and fools both have illusions; this is to prevent the wise man from becoming too unhappy as a result of his wisdom.
[tr. Parmée (2003), ¶62]

Taylor, Barbara Brown -- Interview (2006-06-08) by Bob Abernathy, PBS

Dave — Tue, 22 Apr 2025 18:41:57 +0000

What I mean by that, I think, is that much of religion, much of the religion I was schooled in, was about putting myself away, aside, behind me in order to become something holier and closer to God. In other words, to draw nearer to the Really Real I needed to be less me. Perhaps it was a midlife revelation or just wearing out on that that led me to a different understanding — that my humanity was God’s chief gift to me, and that if I was going to find the Really Real it was going to be within that and not separating myself from that. I don’t know if it makes sense. But it meant that the holiest thing I could be was the flawed human being God had made me to be.

Barbara Brown Taylor (b. 1951) American minister, academic, author
Interview (2006-06-08) by Bob Abernathy, PBS
(Source)

Taleb, Nassim Nicholas -- The Black Swan, Part 1, ch. 1 “The Apprenticeship of an Empirical Skeptic” (2007)

Dave — Mon, 21 Apr 2025 18:17:55 +0000

Categorizing is necessary for humans, but it becomes pathological when the category is seen as definitive, preventing people from considering the fuzziness of boundaries, let alone revising their categories.

Nassim Nicholas Taleb (b. 1960) Lebanese-American essayist, statistician, risk analyst, aphorist
The Black Swan, Part 1, ch. 1 “The Apprenticeship of an Empirical Skeptic” (2007)
(Source)

Franklin, Benjamin -- Poor Richard (1739 ed.)

Dave — Thu, 17 Apr 2025 15:04:26 +0000

Historians relate, not so much what is done, as what they would have believed.

Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790) American statesman, scientist, philosopher, aphorist
Poor Richard (1739 ed.)
(Source)

Hoffer, Eric -- Passionate State of Mind, Aphorism 61 (1955)

Dave — Thu, 10 Apr 2025 17:21:46 +0000

The weakness of a soul is proportionate to the number of truths that must be kept from it.

Eric Hoffer (1902–1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
Passionate State of Mind, Aphorism 61 (1955)
(Source)

Taleb, Nassim Nicholas -- Fooled by Randomness, Part 1, ch. 2 (2001)

Dave — Mon, 10 Mar 2025 18:01:27 +0000

Unlike a well-defined, precise game like Russian roulette, where the risks are visible to anyone capable of multiplying and dividing by six, one does not observe the barrel of reality.

Nassim Nicholas Taleb (b. 1960) Lebanese-American essayist, statistician, risk analyst, aphorist
Fooled by Randomness, Part 1, ch. 2 (2001)
(Source)

Dick, Philip K. -- Speech (1978) “How To Build A Universe That Doesn’t Fall Apart Two Days Later”

Dave — Wed, 29 Jan 2025 23:15:51 +0000

The basic tool for the manipulation of reality is the manipulation of words. If you can control the meaning of words, you can control the people who must use the words.

Philip K. Dick (1928–1982) American writer
Speech (1978) “How To Build A Universe That Doesn’t Fall Apart Two Days Later”
(Source)

First collected in Dick's I Hope I Shall Arrive Soon (1985) [ed. Mark Hurst and Paul Williams], where it serves as the introduction.

Lawrence Sutin, editor of The Shifting Realities of Philip K. Dick (1995) (where this is reprinted) suggests this speech was "likely never delivered."

Bolt, Robert -- A Man for All Seasons, play, Act 2 (1960)

Dave — Tue, 07 Jan 2025 21:16:00 +0000

CRANMER: Then the matter is capable of question?

MORE: Certainly.

CRANMER: But that you owe obedience to your King is not capable of question. So weigh a doubt against a certainty — and sign.

MORE: Some men think the Earth is round, others think it flat; it is a matter capable of question. But if it is flat, will the King’s command make it round? And if it is round, will the King’s command flatten it? No, I will not sign.

Robert Bolt (1924–1995) English dramatist
A Man for All Seasons, play, Act 2 (1960)

Bolt's 1966 film adaptation uses the same language.

Wilde, Oscar -- The Picture of Dorian Gray, ch. 19 [Lord Harry] (1891)

Dave — Mon, 23 Dec 2024 18:06:38 +0000

The books that the world calls immoral are books that show the world its own shame.

Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish poet, wit, dramatist
The Picture of Dorian Gray, ch. 19 [Lord Harry] (1891)
(Source)

Addison, Joseph -- Essay (1712-10-09), The Spectator, No. 505

Dave — Fri, 01 Nov 2024 19:50:32 +0000

Among those evils which befall us, there are many which have been more painful to us in the prospect than by their actual pressure.

Joseph Addison (1672–1719) English essayist, poet, statesman
Essay (1712-10-09), The Spectator, No. 505
(Source)

Watterson, Bill -- Calvin and Hobbes (1989-10-29)

Dave — Tue, 29 Oct 2024 17:01:01 +0000

CALVIN: Dad, how come old photographs are always black and white? Didn’t they have color film back then?

CALVIN’S DAD: Sure they did. In fact, those old photographs are in color. It’s just the world was black and white then.

CALVIN: Really?

CALVIN’S DAD: Yep. The world didn’t turn color until sometime in the 1930s, and it was pretty grainy color for a while, too.

CALVIN: That’s really weird.

CALVIN’S DAD: Well, truth is stranger than fiction.

CALVIN: But then why are old paintings in color?! If the world was black and white, wouldn’t artists have painted it that way?

CALVIN’S DAD: Not necessarily. A lot of great artists were insane.

CALVIN: But … but how could they have painted in color anyway? Wouldn’t their paints have been shades of gray back then?

CALVIN’S DAD: Of course, but they turned colors like everything did in the ’30s.

CALVIN: So why didn’t old black and white photos turn color, too?

CALVIN’S DAD: Because they were color pictures of black and white, remember?

CALVIN [Later, in a tree]: The world is a complicated place, Hobbes.

HOBBES: Whenever it seems that way, I take a nap in a tree and wait for dinner.

Bill Watterson (b. 1958) American cartoonist
Calvin and Hobbes (1989-10-29)
(Source)

Thoreau, Henry David -- A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers, “Wednesday” (1849)

Dave — Thu, 24 Oct 2024 19:50:34 +0000

This world is but canvass to our imaginations.

Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) American philosopher and writer
A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers, “Wednesday” (1849)
(Source)

Parker, Trey -- South Park, 11×12 “Imaginationland Episode III” (2007-10-31) [with Matt Stone, Brian Graden]

Dave — Fri, 18 Oct 2024 14:26:35 +0000

KYLE: It’s all real. Think about it. Haven’t Luke Skywalker and Santa Claus affected your lives more than most real people in this room? I mean, whether Jesus is real or not, he’s had a bigger impact on the world than any of us have. And the same could be said of Bugs Bunny and Superman and Harry Potter. They’ve changed my life, changed the way I act on the Earth. Doesn’t that make them kind of “real”? They might be imaginary, but they’re more important than most of us here. And they’re all gonna be around long after we’re dead. So in a way, those things are more realer than any of us.

Trey Parker (b. 1969) American actor, animator, writer, musician [Randolph Severn "Trey" Parker III]
South Park, 11×12 “Imaginationland Episode III” (2007-10-31) [with Matt Stone, Brian Graden]
(Source)

(Source (Video))

Landon, Letitia Elizabeth -- Romance and Reality, Vol. 1, ch. 13 (1831)

Dave — Thu, 26 Sep 2024 13:25:09 +0000

The old proverb, applied to fire and water, may, with equal truth, be applied to the imagination — it is a good servant, but a bad master.

Letitia Elizabeth Landon (1802–1838) English poet and novelist [a/k/a L.E.L.]
Romance and Reality, Vol. 1, ch. 13 (1831)
(Source)

See Christie.

Shakespeare, William -- Macbeth, Act 2, sc. 1, l. 44ff (2.1.44-53) (1606)

Dave — Mon, 23 Sep 2024 21:47:28 +0000

Is this a dagger which I see before me,
The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee.
I have thee not, and yet I see thee still.
Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible
To feeling as to sight? Or art thou but
A dagger of the mind, a false creation
Proceeding from the heat-oppressèd brain?
I see thee yet, in form as palpable
As this which now I draw.

William Shakespeare (1564–1616) English dramatist and poet
Macbeth, Act 2, sc. 1, l. 44ff (2.1.44-53) (1606)
(Source)

Feynman, Richard -- The Feynman Lectures on Physics, Vol. 2, ch. 20 “Solutions of Maxwell’s Equations in Free Space,” sec. 20–3 “Scientific Imagination” (1964)

Dave — Thu, 29 Aug 2024 20:58:28 +0000

And so our kind of imagination is quite a difficult game. One has to have the imagination to think of something that has never been seen before, never been heard of before. At the same time the thoughts are restricted in a strait jacket, so to speak, limited by the conditions that come from our knowledge of the way nature really is. The problem of creating something which is new, but which is consistent with everything which has been seen before, is one of extreme difficulty.

Richard Feynman (1918–1988) American physicist
The Feynman Lectures on Physics, Vol. 2, ch. 20 “Solutions of Maxwell’s Equations in Free Space,” sec. 20–3 “Scientific Imagination” (1964)
(Source)

Jacobs, Jane -- “Social Uses of Power,” panel discussion, New School for Social Research, New York (1965-11-15)

Dave — Tue, 20 Aug 2024 17:40:36 +0000

Power is supposed to be so corrupt. I don’t think it’s so much corrupt, in the usual sense of the word, as stupid and unrealistic. The more power a person has, the further he gets from reality.

Jane Jacobs (1916–2006) American-Canadian journalist, author, urban theorist, activist
“Social Uses of Power,” panel discussion, New School for Social Research, New York (1965-11-15)
(Source)

Collected in Elizabeth Janeway, ed., The Writer's World (1969). See Acton.

Degas, Edgar -- Quoted in Georges Jeanniot, “Souvenirs sur Degas [Memories of Degas],” La Revue Universelle (1933-10-15)

Dave — Thu, 15 Aug 2024 15:03:27 +0000

It is very good to copy what one sees; it is much better to draw what you can’t see any more but is in your memory. It is a transformation in which imagination and memory work together. You only reproduce what struck you, that is to say the necessary. There your memories and your fantasy are freed from the tyranny exercised by nature.

[C’est très bien de copier ce qu’on voit, c’est beaucoup mieux de dessiner ce que l’on ne voit plus que dans son mémoire. C’est une transformation pendant laquelle l’ingéniosité collabore avec la mémoire. Vous ne reproduisez que ce qui vous a frappé, c’est-à-dire le nécessaire. Là, vos souvenirs et votre fantaisie sont libérés de la tyrannie qu’exerce la nature.]

Edgar Degas (1834–1917) French Impressionist artist [b. Hilaire-Germain-Edgar De Gas]
Quoted in Georges Jeanniot, “Souvenirs sur Degas [Memories of Degas],” La Revue Universelle (1933-10-15)
(Source)

The quotation is often cited to Maurice Sérullaz, L'univers de Degas (1979), but Sérullaz says he is requoting Degas from Swiss-French Impressionist painter Pierre-Georges Jeanniot.

Byron, George Gordon, Lord -- Don Juan, Canto 7, st. 2 (1823)

Dave — Wed, 24 Jul 2024 16:23:32 +0000

But ne’ertheless I hope it is no crime
To laugh at all things — for I wish to know
What, after all, are all things — but a show?

George Gordon, Lord Byron (1788–1824) English poet
Don Juan, Canto 7, st. 2 (1823)
(Source)

Bellow, Saul -- Henderson the Rain King, ch. 18 [King Dahfu] (1959)

Dave — Thu, 18 Jul 2024 15:42:27 +0000

All human accomplishment has the same origin, identically. Imagination is a force of nature. Is this not enough to make a person full of ecstasy? Imagination, imagination, imagination. It converts to actual. It sustains, it alters, it redeems!

Saul Bellow (1915–2005) Canadian-American writer
Henderson the Rain King, ch. 18 [King Dahfu] (1959)
(Source)

Whitehead, Alfred North -- Process and Reality: An Essay in Cosmology, Preface (1929)

Dave — Wed, 17 Jul 2024 19:28:02 +0000

How shallow, puny, and imperfect are efforts to sound the depths in the nature of things. In philosophical discussion, the merest hint of dogmatic certainty as to finality of statement is an exhibition of folly.

Alfred North Whitehead (1861–1947) English mathematician and philosopher
Process and Reality: An Essay in Cosmology, Preface (1929)
(Source)

The book is a collection of his Gifford Lectures, University of Edinburgh (1927-1928).

Wilder, Thornton -- “The Art of Fiction No. 16,” interview by Richard H. Goldstone, The Paris Review (1956, Winter)

Dave — Fri, 24 May 2024 16:11:52 +0000

A dramatist is one who believes that the pure event, an action involving human beings, is more arresting than any comment that can be made upon it. On the stage it is always now; the personages are standing on that razor edge, between the past and the future, which is the essential character of conscious being; the words are rising to their lips in immediate spontaneity. […] The theater is supremely fitted to say: “Behold! These things are.”

Thornton Wilder (1897–1975) American novelist and playwright
“The Art of Fiction No. 16,” interview by Richard H. Goldstone, The Paris Review (1956, Winter)
(Source)

Collected in Jackson Bryer, ed., Conversations with Thornton Wilder (1992).

Jacobs, Jane -- “Downtown Is for People,” Fortune (1958-04)

Dave — Mon, 29 Apr 2024 22:54:02 +0000

Designing a dream city is easy; rebuilding a living one takes imagination.

Jane Jacobs (1916–2006) American-Canadian journalist, author, urban theorist, activist
“Downtown Is for People,” Fortune (1958-04)
(Source)

Closing words of the essay.

Originally reprinted in the magazine's topical collection, The Exploding Metropolis (1958). Later collected in Samuel Zipp and Nathan Storring, eds., Vital Little Plans: The Short Works of Jane Jacobs (2016).

Russell, Bertrand -- “Is There a God?” (1952)

Dave — Wed, 24 Apr 2024 21:01:08 +0000

However that may be, it is always disastrous when governments set to work to uphold opinions for their utility rather than for their truth. As soon as this is done it becomes necessary to have a censorship to suppress adverse arguments, and it is thought wise to discourage thinking among the young for fear of encouraging “dangerous thoughts.” When such mal-practices are employed against religion as they are in Soviet Russia, the theologians can see that they are bad, but they are still bad when employed in defence of what the theologians think good. Freedom of thought and the habit of giving weight to evidence are matters of far greater moral import than the belief in this or that theological dogma. On all these grounds it cannot be maintained that theological beliefs should be upheld for their usefulness without regard to their truth.

Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) English mathematician and philosopher
“Is There a God?” (1952)
(Source)

Essay commissioned by Illustrated magazine in 1952, but never published there. First publication in Russell, Last Philosophical Testament, 1943-68 (1997) [ed. Slater/Köllner].

Nin, Anais -- “Winter of Artifice” (1945)

Dave — Thu, 21 Mar 2024 14:08:03 +0000

To fight a real sorrow, a real loss, a real insult, a real disillusion, a real treachery was infinitely less difficult than to spend a night without sleep struggling with ghosts. The imagination is far better at inventing tortures than life because the imagination is a demon within us and it knows where to strike, where it hurts.

Anaïs Nin (1903–1977) Catalan-Cuban-French author, diarist
“Winter of Artifice” (1945)
(Source)

McCarthy, Cormac -- All the Pretty Horses (1992)

Dave — Wed, 14 Feb 2024 21:22:15 +0000

Scars have the strange power to remind us that our past is real. The events that cause them can never be forgotten, can they?

Cormac McCarthy (1933–2023) American novelist, playwright, screenwriter
All the Pretty Horses (1992)
(Source)

Oliver, Mary -- “The First Time Percy Came Back,” A Thousand Mornings (2012)

Dave — Wed, 24 Jan 2024 23:08:02 +0000

And now you’ll be telling stories
of my coming back
and they won’t be false, and they won’t be true,
but they’ll be real.

Mary Oliver (1935–2019) American poet
“The First Time Percy Came Back,” A Thousand Mornings (2012)
(Source)

Mill, John Stuart -- On Liberty, ch. 2 (1859)

Dave — Wed, 24 Jan 2024 03:38:44 +0000

It is a piece of idle sentimentality that truth, merely as truth, has any inherent power denied to error, of prevailing against the dungeon and the stake. Men are not more zealous for truth than they often are for error, and a sufficient application of legal or even of social penalties will generally succeed in stopping the propagation of either. The real advantage which truth has, consists in this, that when an opinion is true, it may be extinguished once, twice, or many times, but in the course of ages there will generally be found persons to rediscover it, until some one of its reappearances falls on a time when from favourable circumstances it escapes persecution until it has made such head as to withstand all subsequent attempts to suppress it.

John Stuart Mill (1806–1873) English philosopher and economist
On Liberty, ch. 2 (1859)
(Source)

Lessing, Gotthold -- Nathan the Wise [Nathan der Weise], Act 4, sc. 4 [Templar] (1779) [tr. Reich (1860)]

Dave — Wed, 20 Dec 2023 05:07:43 +0000

The worst of superstitions is, to think
Your own to be the most endurable.
[…] Yours, the only one,
to which dim-sighted mankind may be trusted,
Till they can bear the brighter light of truth.

[Der Aberglauben schlimmster ist, den seinen
Für den erträglichern zu halten […] dem allein
Die blöde Menschheit zu vertrauen, bis
Sie hellern Wahrheitstag gewöhne.]

Gotthold Lessing (1729–1781) German playwright, philosopher, dramaturg, writer
Nathan the Wise [Nathan der Weise], Act 4, sc. 4 [Templar] (1779) [tr. Reich (1860)]
(Source)

Some of the translations leave out the second part.

(Source (German)). Other translations:

The worst of superstitions is to think
One's own most bearable.
[tr. Taylor (1790)]

That superstition is the worst of all
Which thinks itself the easiest to be borne --
[...] And to trust
To it alone a blind humanity
Till it is used to truth's more brilliant light.
[tr. Boylan (1878)]

The very worst
Of superstitions is, to hold one's own
The most endurable [...]
That only to entrust
Purblind humanity, till it learn to bear
The light of truth's clear day.
[tr. Corbett (1883)]

The worst of superstitions is, to think
One's own the most supportable. [...]
To it alone trust simple human-kind
Until to truth's bright rays it grows accustomed.
[tr. Jacks (1894)]

The worst of superstitions is to deem
Our special chains the most endurable --
[...] And to these alone
To trust purblind humanity until
Its eye can bear the brilliant noon of truth.
[tr. Maxwell (1917)]

The worst superstition is to consider one's own superstition the more tolerable one [...] to which alone to entrust weak-minded mankind until it will grow used to the brighter light of truth.
[tr. Reinhardt (1950)]

That superstition
Is worst which takes itself to be of all
The most endurable [...] and to which alone one may
Entrust dull-witted humankind, till it's
Accustomed to the brighter light of truth.
[tr. Morgan (1955)]

The most bigoted of superstitions is to hold one's own faith to be the only right one [...] which poor, blind men must trust until they see the light.
[tr. Ade (1972)]

Stott, William -- Documentary Expression and Thirties America, ch. 15 (1973)

Dave — Fri, 03 Nov 2023 17:36:12 +0000

That the world can be improved and yet must be celebrated as it is are contradictions. The beginning of maturity may be the recognition that both are true.

William M. Stott (b. 1940) American diplomat, academic in American Studies and English, author
Documentary Expression and Thirties America, ch. 15 (1973)
(Source)

Closing words of the book.

Russell, Bertrand -- Interview by Woodrow Wyatt, BBC TV (1959)

Dave — Wed, 27 Sep 2023 21:32:43 +0000

I think [the effects of religion] have been bad because it was held important that people should believe something for which there did not exist good evidence and that falsified everybody’s thinking, falsified systems of education, and set up also, what I think a complete moral heresy: namely, that it is right to believe certain things, and wrong to believe certain others, apart from the question of whether the things in question are true or false.

Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) English mathematician and philosopher
Interview by Woodrow Wyatt, BBC TV (1959)
(Source)

Collected in Bertrand Russell's BBC Interviews (1959) [UK] and Bertrand Russell Speaks His Mind (1960) [US]. Reprinted (abridged) in The Humanist (1982-11/12), and in Russell Society News, #37 (1983-02).

Chamfort, Nicolas -- Products of Perfected Civilization [Produits de la Civilisation Perfectionée], Part 1 “Maxims and Thoughts [Maximes et Pensées],” ch. 8, ¶ 482 (1795) [tr. Hutchinson (1902)]

Dave — Mon, 31 Jul 2023 18:43:57 +0000

Were a historian like Tacitus to write a history of the best of our kings, giving an exact account of all the tyrannical acts and abuses of authority, the majority of which lie buried in the profoundest obscurity, there would be few reigns which would not inspire us with the same horror as that of Tiberius.

[Si un historien, tel que Tacite, eût écrit l’histoire de nos meilleurs rois, en faisant un relevé exact de tous les actes tyranniques, de tous les abus d’autorité, dont la plupart sont ensevelis dans l’obscurité la plus profonde, il y a peu de règnes qui ne nous inspirassent la même horreur que celui de Tibère.]

Nicolas Chamfort (1741–1794) French writer, epigrammist (b. Nicolas-Sébastien Roch)
Products of Perfected Civilization [Produits de la Civilisation Perfectionée], Part 1 “Maxims and Thoughts [Maximes et Pensées],” ch. 8, ¶ 482 (1795) [tr. Hutchinson (1902)]
(Source)

(Source (French)). Other translations:

If such an historian as Tacitus had written the chronicle of our nobler kings, making an exact statement of all those tyrannical actions and abuses of authority which are now for the most part buried in deep darkness, few of their reigns would inspire less horror than that of Tiberius.
[tr. Mathers (1926)]

If a historian such as Tacitus had written the histories of our best kings, with precise accounts of their tyrannical actions, and all their abuses of authority, most of which have been buried in the deepest obscurity, there are few reigns that would not arouse in us the same horror as that of Tiberius.
[tr. Merwin (1969)]

If a chronicler such as Tacitus had written the history of our best kings, preparing an exact amount of all tyrannical acts, of all the abuses of authority, of which the majority are concealed by fathomless obscurity, there would be few reigns which would [not?] inspire us with the same horror as that of Tiberius.
[tr. Pearson (1973)]

Joubert, Joseph -- Pensées [Thoughts], 1806 [tr. Auster (1983)]

Dave — Tue, 18 Jul 2023 14:48:10 +0000

History. We want to find moral lessons in it, but its only lessons are of politics, military art, etc.

Joseph Joubert (1754–1824) French moralist, philosopher, essayist, poet
Pensées [Thoughts], 1806 [tr. Auster (1983)]
(Source)

I have been unable to find an analog in other translations, or in the original French.

Chamfort, Nicolas -- Products of Perfected Civilization [Produits de la Civilisation Perfectionée], Part 1 “Maxims and Thoughts [Maximes et Pensées],” ch. 6, ¶ 391 (1795) [tr. Merwin (1969)]

Dave — Mon, 03 Jul 2023 23:07:43 +0000

Love is more pleasant than marriage for the same reason that novels are more amusing than history.

[L’amour plaît plus que le mariage, par la raison que les romans sont plus amusants que l’histoire.]

Nicolas Chamfort (1741–1794) French writer, epigrammist (b. Nicolas-Sébastien Roch)
Products of Perfected Civilization [Produits de la Civilisation Perfectionée], Part 1 “Maxims and Thoughts [Maximes et Pensées],” ch. 6, ¶ 391 (1795) [tr. Merwin (1969)]
(Source)

(Source (French)). Other translations:

Love gives greater pleasure than marriage for the same reason that romances are more amusing than history.
[tr. Hutchinson (1902), "The Cynic's Breviary"]

Love is a pleasanter thing than marriage, for the same reason that the Romans are more amusing than History.
[tr. Mathers (1926)]

Love is more pleasant than marriage for the same reason that novels are more pleasant than history.
[Siniscalchi (1994)]

Melville, Herman -- The Encantadas, Sketch 8 (1854)

Dave — Wed, 21 Jun 2023 13:50:18 +0000

One knows not whether nature doth not impose some secrecy upon him who has been privy to certain things. At least, it is to be doubted whether it be good to blazon such. If some books are deemed most baneful and their sale forbid, how, then, with deadlier facts, not dreams of doting men? Those whom books will hurt will not be proof against events. Events, not books, should be forbid.

Herman Melville (1819–1891) American writer
The Encantadas, Sketch 8 (1854)
(Source)

Russell, Bertrand -- “Censorship by Progressives,” New York American (1934-10-11)

Dave — Thu, 25 May 2023 14:48:51 +0000

To understand the actual world as it is, not as we should wish it to be, is the beginning of wisdom.

Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) English mathematician and philosopher
“Censorship by Progressives,” New York American (1934-10-11)
(Source)

Chamfort, Nicolas -- Products of Perfected Civilization [Produits de la Civilisation Perfectionée], Part 1 “Maxims and Thoughts [Maximes et Pensées],” ch. 2, ¶ 153 (1795) [tr. Parmée (2003), ¶ 123]

Dave — Mon, 22 May 2023 23:35:55 +0000

Pleasures may be based on illusion; happiness must be based on truth.

[Le plaisir peut s’appuyer sur l’illusion; mais le bonheur repose sur la vérité.]

Nicolas Chamfort (1741–1794) French writer, epigrammist (b. Nicolas-Sébastien Roch)
Products of Perfected Civilization [Produits de la Civilisation Perfectionée], Part 1 “Maxims and Thoughts [Maximes et Pensées],” ch. 2, ¶ 153 (1795) [tr. Parmée (2003), ¶ 123]
(Source)

(Source (French)). Other translations:

Pleasure may rest upon illusion, but felicity must repose upon truth.
[tr. Mathers (1926), # 153]

Pleasure may be be based on illusion, but happiness rests on truth.
[tr. Merwin (1969)]

Pleasure can be based on illusion, but happiness is founded on truth.
[tr. Pearson (1973)]

Pleasure may be based on illusion, but happiness rests on truth.
[tr. Epstein (1991)]

Variants:

"Pleasure can be supported by an illusion; but happiness rests upon truth."
"Pleasure may come from illusion, but happiness can come only of reality."

Weil, Simone -- Gravity and Grace [La Pesanteur et la Grâce], “Evil” (1947) [ed. Thibon] [tr. Crawford/von der Ruhr (1952)]

Dave — Mon, 22 May 2023 19:25:28 +0000

Imaginary evil is romantic and varied; real evil is gloomy, monotonous, barren, boring. Imaginary good is boring; real good is always new, marvelous, intoxicating.

Simone Weil (1909–1943) French philosopher
Gravity and Grace [La Pesanteur et la Grâce], “Evil” (1947) [ed. Thibon] [tr. Crawford/von der Ruhr (1952)]
(Source)

Speaking of the portrayal of good and evil in literature.

Colbert, Stephen -- Remarks, White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner, Washington, DC (2006-04-29)

Dave — Tue, 02 May 2023 16:20:29 +0000

Reality has a well-known liberal bias.

Stephen Colbert (b. 1964) American political satirist, writer, comedian
Remarks, White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner, Washington, DC (2006-04-29)
(Source)

Colbert was speaking in his faux conservative persona, as on his Colbert Report show on Comedy Central.

Child, Lydia Maria -- Letters from New-York, # 1, 1841-08-19 (1843)

Dave — Wed, 12 Apr 2023 15:40:19 +0000

There was a time when all these things would have passed me by, like the flitting figures of a theatre, sufficient for the amusement of an hour. But now, I have lost the power of looking merely on the surface. Everything seems to me to come from the Infinite, to be filled with the Infinite, to be tending toward the Infinite. Do I see crowds of men hastening to extinguish a fire? I see not merely uncouth garbs, and fantastic, flickering lights, of lurid hue, like a trampling troop of gnomes — but straightway my mind is filled with thoughts about mutual helpfulness, human sympathy, the common bond of brotherhood, and the mysteriously deep foundations on which society rests; or rather, on which it now reels and totters.

Lydia Maria Child (1802–1880) American abolitionist, activist, journalist, suffragist
Letters from New-York, # 1, 1841-08-19 (1843)
(Source)

Rothfuss, Patrick -- The Name of the Wind, ch. 2 “A Beautiful Day” (2007)

Dave — Mon, 10 Apr 2023 14:59:51 +0000

It was one of those perfect autumn days so common in stories and so rare in the real world.

Patrick Rothfuss (b. 1973) American author
The Name of the Wind, ch. 2 “A Beautiful Day” (2007)
(Source)

Rothfuss, Patrick -- The Name of the Wind, ch. 45 “Interlude — Some Tavern Tale” [Kvothe] (2007)

Dave — Mon, 27 Mar 2023 17:04:12 +0000

Clean, quick, and easy as lying. We know how it ends practically before it starts. That’s why stories appeal to us. They give us the clarity and simplicity our real lives lack.

Patrick Rothfuss (b. 1973) American author
The Name of the Wind, ch. 45 “Interlude — Some Tavern Tale” [Kvothe] (2007)
(Source)

Watterson, Bill -- Commencement Address, Kenyon College (20 May 1990)

Dave — Wed, 22 Mar 2023 14:49:43 +0000

So, what’s it like in the real world? Well, the food is better, but beyond that, I don’t recommend it.

Bill Watterson (b. 1958) American cartoonist
Commencement Address, Kenyon College (20 May 1990)
(Source)

Levine, Emily -- “A Theory of Everything,” TED Talk, Monterey, California (Feb 2002)

Dave — Wed, 28 Dec 2022 21:23:54 +0000

When you’re surrounded by people who share the same set of assumptions as you, you start to think that’s reality.

Emily Levine (1944–2019) American humorist, writer, actress, speaker
“A Theory of Everything,” TED Talk, Monterey, California (Feb 2002)
(Source)

Dyson, Freeman -- Infinite in All Directions, Part 1, ch. 3 “Manchester and Athens” (1988)

Dave — Mon, 07 Nov 2022 17:46:03 +0000

I hope that the notion of a final statement of the laws of physics will prove as illusory as the notion of a formal decision process for all mathematics. If it should turn out that the whole of physical reality can be described by a finite set of equations, I would be disappointed, I would feel that the Creator had been uncharacteristically lacking in imagination.

Freeman Dyson (1923–2020) English-American theoretical physicist, mathematician, futurist
Infinite in All Directions, Part 1, ch. 3 “Manchester and Athens” (1988)
(Source)

Based on his Gifford Lectures, Aberdeen, Scotland (Apr-Nov 1985).

Dyson, Freeman -- “Freeman Dyson: In Praise of Diversity,” Interview on A Glorious Accident, VPRO (Netherlands) (30 Aug 2016)

Dave — Mon, 22 Aug 2022 14:52:48 +0000

The things which we understand least are the quasars, but I don’t want to get into a technical discussion. But these are the most violent and most energetic objects in the universe, and they’re totally, still totally, mysterious, really. I mean, we know that they’re there, that’s all, and they’re not only there, they’re rather frequent; and nobody ever dreamed that they existed, until they were found. And even after they were found it took a long time before people took them seriously. Nature’s imagination is always richer than ours.

Freeman Dyson (1923–2020) English-American theoretical physicist, mathematician, futurist
“Freeman Dyson: In Praise of Diversity,” Interview on A Glorious Accident, VPRO (Netherlands) (30 Aug 2016)
(Source)

Morrison, Grant -- “SUPERMAN and THE AUTHORITY annotations Pt 2,” blog entry (16 Feb 2022)

Dave — Fri, 12 Aug 2022 20:52:44 +0000

This is a purely a personal bias but the desire to compel fantasy worlds to conform to the allegedly superior rules of grim reality can feel to me like a form of memetic colonialism I’ve generally found distasteful ….

Grant Morrison (b. 1960) Scottish comic book writer and playwright
“SUPERMAN and THE AUTHORITY annotations Pt 2,” blog entry (16 Feb 2022)
(Source)

Wilbur, Richard -- “The Bottles Become New, Too” (1953), Responses: Prose Pieces, 1953-1976 (1976)

Dave — Thu, 04 Aug 2022 16:12:06 +0000

The relation between the artist and reality is an oblique one, and indeed there is no good art which is not consciously oblique. If you respect the reality of the world, you know that you can approach that reality only by indirect means.

Richard Wilbur (1921–2017) American poet, literary translator
“The Bottles Become New, Too” (1953), Responses: Prose Pieces, 1953-1976 (1976)
(Source)

Originally published in Quarterly Review of Literature, Vol. 7, No. 3 (1953).

Serling, Rod -- Quoted in Anne Serling, As I Knew Him: My Dad, Rod Serling (2013)

Dave — Tue, 19 Jul 2022 15:51:01 +0000

Apparently, on the screen, I look tall, dark, and close to omniscient, issuing jeopardy-laden warnings through gritted teeth. And then they look at me [in person] and say, “Why, God, this kid is five-foot-five, he’s got a broken nose, and looks about as foreboding as a bank teller on a lunch break.”

Rod Serling (1924–1975) American screenwriter, playwright, television producer, narrator
Quoted in Anne Serling, As I Knew Him: My Dad, Rod Serling (2013)
(Source)

Halsey, Margaret -- No Laughing Matter (1977)

Dave — Thu, 12 May 2022 14:34:20 +0000

The people who say you are not facing reality actually mean that you are not facing their idea of reality. Reality is above all else a variable, and nobody is qualified to say that he or she knows exactly what it is. As a matter of fact, with a firm enough commitment, you can sometimes create a reality which did not exist before. Protestantism itself is proof of that.

Margaret Halsey (1910–1997) American writer
No Laughing Matter (1977)
(Source)

Lec, Stanislaw -- Unkempt Thoughts [Myśli nieuczesane] (1957) [tr. Gałązka (1962)]

Dave — Tue, 29 Mar 2022 14:44:55 +0000

Satirists, be careful. In the 1931 film by René Clair, Vive la Liberte, a song says, “Work is freedom.” In 1940 the sign on the gates to Auschwitz said: “Arbeit macht frei.”

Stanislaw Lec (1909–1966) Polish aphorist, poet, satirist
Unkempt Thoughts [Myśli nieuczesane] (1957) [tr. Gałązka (1962)]
(Source)

Serling, Rod -- Quoted in Anne Serling, As I Knew Him: My Dad, Rod Serling (2013)

Dave — Tue, 08 Mar 2022 16:08:00 +0000

A Martian can say things that a Republican or a Democrat can’t.

Rod Serling (1924–1975) American screenwriter, playwright, television producer, narrator
Quoted in Anne Serling, As I Knew Him: My Dad, Rod Serling (2013)
(Source)

On being able to slip more controversial television script ideas past networks and sponsors if done in a science fiction or fantasy setting.

Dinesen, Isak -- “The Deluge at Norderney,” Seven Gothic Tales [Kasparson] (1934)

Dave — Wed, 02 Mar 2022 15:24:16 +0000

Few people can say of themselves that they are free of the belief that this world which they see around them is in reality the work of their own imagination. Are we pleased with it, proud of it, then?

Isak Dinesen (1885–1962) Danish writer [pseud. of Karen Christence, Countess Blixen]
“The Deluge at Norderney,” Seven Gothic Tales [Kasparson] (1934)
(Source)

Tolkien, J.R.R. -- (Misattributed)

Dave — Thu, 17 Feb 2022 17:52:34 +0000

A single dream is more powerful than a thousand realities.

J.R.R. Tolkien (1892–1973) English writer, fabulist, philologist, academic [John Ronald Reuel Tolkien]
(Misattributed)

Frequently misattributed to J. R. R. Tolkien, most likely because it was used as copy on the Tom Jung's classic movie poster for Ralph Bakshi's The Lord of the Rings film (1978). The origin of the phrase seems to be from Nathaniel Hawthorne, Fanshawe (1828): "If his inmost heart could have been laid open, there would have been discovered that dream of undying fame, which, dream as it is, is more powerful than a thousand realities."

More discussion on this quotation here: Not a Tolkien quote: "A single dream is more powerful than a thousand realities." TThnsdwohatdw, Part 3. - thetolkienist.com.

Hawthorne, Nathaniel -- Fanshawe, ch. 2 (1828)

Dave — Thu, 10 Feb 2022 16:21:27 +0000

If his inmost heart could have been laid open, there would have been discovered that dream of undying fame, which, dream as it is, is more powerful than a thousand realities.

Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804–1864) American writer
Fanshawe, ch. 2 (1828)
(Source)

Zelazny, Roger -- Sign of the Unicorn (1972)

Dave — Thu, 10 Feb 2022 00:37:27 +0000

“Yes,” he said. “But I wonder … I’ve a peculiar feeling that I may never see you again. It is as if I were one of those minor characters in a melodrama who gets shuffled offstage without ever learning how things turn out.”

“I can appreciate the feeling,” I said. “My own role sometimes makes me want to strangle the author. But look at it this way: inside stories seldom live up to one’s expectations. Usually they are grubby little things, reducing down to the basest of motives when all is known. Conjectures and illusions are often the better possessions.”

Roger Zelazny (1937–1995) American writer
Sign of the Unicorn (1972)
(Source)

Bill Roth speaking with Corwin.

Adams, Abigail -- Letter to Hannah Lincoln (5 Oct 1761)

Dave — Tue, 01 Feb 2022 21:56:20 +0000

Many of our disappointments and much of our unhappiness arise from our forming false notions of things and persons. We strangely impose upon ourselves; we create a fairyland of happiness. Fancy is fruitful and promises fair, but, like the dog in the fable, we catch at a shadow, and when we find the disappointment, we are vexed, not with ourselves, who are really the imposters, but with the poor, innocent thing or person of whom we have formed such strange ideas.

Abigail Adams (1744–1818) American correspondent, First Lady (1797–1801)
Letter to Hannah Lincoln (5 Oct 1761)
(Source)

Orwell, George -- Essay (1946-03-22), “In Front of Your Nose,” “As I Please” column, Tribune Newspaper

Dave — Wed, 05 Jan 2022 22:16:06 +0000

The point is that we are all capable of believing things which we know to be untrue, and then, when we are finally proved wrong, impudently twisting the facts so as to show that we were right. Intellectually, it is possible to carry on this process for an indefinite time: the only check on it is that sooner or later a false belief bumps up against solid reality, usually on a battlefield.

George Orwell (1903–1950) English journalist, essayist, writer [pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair]
Essay (1946-03-22), “In Front of Your Nose,” “As I Please” column, Tribune Newspaper
(Source)

Allingham, Margery -- Traitor’s Purse (1941)

Dave — Tue, 04 Jan 2022 20:13:15 +0000

His mistaken belief in his own superiority cut him off from reality as completely as if he were living in a colored glass jar.

Margery Allingham (1904–1966) English writer
Traitor’s Purse (1941)
(Source)

Haskell, Molly -- From Reverence to Rape: The Treatment of Women in the Movies (3rd ed, 2016; orig 1973)

Dave — Tue, 09 Nov 2021 16:02:35 +0000

There are two cinemas: the films we have actually seen and the memories we have of them. The gap between the two widens over the years.

Molly Haskell (b. 1939) American feminist film critic and author.
From Reverence to Rape: The Treatment of Women in the Movies (3rd ed, 2016; orig 1973)
(Source)

Taylor, Barbara Brown -- Leaving Church: A Memoir of Faith, Part 1 (2006)

Dave — Fri, 22 Oct 2021 20:06:22 +0000

I know that the Bible is a special kind of book, but I find it as seductive as any other. If I am not careful, I can begin to mistake the words on the page for the realities they describe. I can begin to love the dried ink marks on the page more than I love the encounters that gave rise to them. If I am not careful, I can decide that I am really much happier reading my Bible than I am entering into what God is doing in my own time and place, since shutting the book to go outside will involve the very great risk of taking part in stories that are still taking shape. Neither I nor anyone else knows how these stories will turn out, since at this point they involve more blood than ink. The whole purpose of the Bible, it seems to me, is to convince people to set the written word down in order to become living words in the world for God’s sake. For me, this willing conversion of ink back to blood is the full substance of faith.

Barbara Brown Taylor (b. 1951) American minister, academic, author
Leaving Church: A Memoir of Faith, Part 1 (2006)
(Source)

See Holmes.

Lippmann, Walter -- (Attributed)

Dave — Mon, 20 Sep 2021 18:27:45 +0000

We are all captives of the picture in our head — our belief that the world we have experienced is the world that really exists.

Walter Lippmann (1889–1974) American journalist and author
(Attributed)

Rand, Ayn -- “The Objectivist Ethics,” University of Wisconsin Symposium on “Ethics in Our Time” (9 Feb 1961)

Dave — Thu, 05 Aug 2021 16:59:03 +0000

He is free to make the wrong choice, but not free to succeed with it. He is free to evade reality, he is free to unfocus his mind and stumble blindly down any road he pleases, but not free to avoid the abyss he refuses to see. Knowledge, for any conscious organism, is the means of survival; to a living consciousness, every “is” implies an “ought.” Man is free to choose not to be conscious, but not free to escape the penalty of unconsciousness: destruction. Man is the only living species that has the power to act as his own destroyer — and that is the way he has acted through most of his history.

Ayn Rand (1905–1982) Russian-American writer, philosopher
“The Objectivist Ethics,” University of Wisconsin Symposium on “Ethics in Our Time” (9 Feb 1961)
(Source)

Possibly the source of the attributed-but-unlocated Rand quotation "You can avoid reality, but you cannot avoid the consequences of avoiding reality." See also Stamp. More discussion about this quotation and related ones here.

Taylor, A. J. P. -- (Attributed)

Dave — Wed, 04 Aug 2021 04:53:56 +0000

Freedom does not always win. This is one of the bitterest lessons of history.

A. J. P. Taylor (1906–1990) British historian, journalist, broadcaster [Alan John Percivale Taylor]
(Attributed)

Taylor, Barbara Brown -- Interview (2013-12-19), “Material Faith,” by Meghan Larissa Good, The Other Journal, No. 23

Dave — Fri, 23 Jul 2021 16:00:53 +0000

Divine reality is not way up in the sky somewhere; it is readily available in the encounters of everyday life, which make hash of my illusions that I can control the ways God comes to me.

Barbara Brown Taylor (b. 1951) American minister, academic, author
Interview (2013-12-19), “Material Faith,” by Meghan Larissa Good, The Other Journal, No. 23
(Source)

Nightingale, Florence -- (Attributed)

Dave — Thu, 01 Jul 2021 19:30:03 +0000

The true foundation of theology is to ascertain the character of God. It is by the aid of Statistics that law in the social sphere can be ascertained and codified, and certain aspects of the character of God thereby revealed. The study of statistics is thus a religious service.

Florence Nightingale (1820–1910) English social reformer, statistician, founder of modern nursing
(Attributed)

Attributed in F.N. David in Games, Gods, and Gambling: A History of Probability and Statistical Ideas (1962).

There is a related variant of this quote: "To understand God's thoughts we must study statistics, for these are the measure of his purpose." This appears to be a paraphrase by Francis Galton of her beliefs (in full in Karl Pearson, Life of Francis Galton, Vol. 2, ch. 13, sec. 1 (1924)). While Galton is describing her beliefs, the quotation is often rewritten from third to first person, as though it were something she said.

Mosteller, Frederick -- (Attributed)

Dave — Wed, 23 Jun 2021 17:30:41 +0000

While it is easy to lie with statistics, it is even easier to lie without them.

Frederick Mosteller (1916–2006) American statistician, academic
(Attributed)

Wylie, Philip Gordon -- When Worlds Collide (1933) [with Edwin Balmer]

Dave — Mon, 21 Jun 2021 14:27:24 +0000

What egotism, what stupid vanity, to suppose that a thing could not happen because you could not conceive it!

Philip Wylie (1902–1971) American author
When Worlds Collide (1933) [with Edwin Balmer]
(Source)

Taylor, A. J. P. -- (Attributed)

Dave — Mon, 14 Jun 2021 14:53:16 +0000

History is not another name for the past, as many people imply. It is the name for stories about the past.

A. J. P. Taylor (1906–1990) British historian, journalist, broadcaster [Alan John Percivale Taylor]
(Attributed)

Rubin, Theodore Isaac -- One to One (1983)

Dave — Mon, 07 Jun 2021 15:21:00 +0000

The problem is not that there are problems. The problem is expecting otherwise and thinking that having problems is a problem.

Theodore Isaac Rubin (1923–2019) American psychiatrist and author
One to One (1983)

Pratchett, Terry -- Discworld No. 27, The Last Hero [Leonard] (2001)

Dave — Tue, 01 Jun 2021 18:56:22 +0000

I have no use for people who have learned the limits of the possible.

Terry Pratchett (1948–2015) English author
Discworld No. 27, The Last Hero [Leonard] (2001)
(Source)

See also Clarke.

Von Neumann, John -- “The Mathematician” (1947)

Dave — Tue, 18 May 2021 16:29:14 +0000

I think that it is a relatively good approximation to truth — which is much too complicated to allow anything but approximations.

John von Neumann (1903–1957) Hungarian-American mathematician, physicist, inventor, polymath [János "Johann" Lajos Neumann]
“The Mathematician” (1947)
(Source)

Broun, Heywood -- “Nonsenseorship” (1922)

Dave — Thu, 29 Apr 2021 23:03:20 +0000

A censor is a man who has read about Joshua and forgotten about Canute. The censor believes that he can hold back the mighty traffic of life with a tin whistle and a raised right hand. For, after all, it is life with which he quarrels.

Heywood Broun (1888–1939) American journalist, author
“Nonsenseorship” (1922)
(Source)

Snyder, Timothy -- On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century (2017)

Dave — Wed, 28 Apr 2021 13:58:26 +0000

You submit to tyranny when you renounce the difference between what you want to hear and what is actually the case. This renunciation of reality can feel natural and pleasant, but the result is your demise as an individual — and thus the collapse of any political system that depends upon individualism.

Timothy Snyder (b. 1969) American historian, author
On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century (2017)
(Source)

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

Dave — Tue, 30 Mar 2021 16:07:05 +0000

The primary aim of propaganda is, of course, to influence contemporary opinion, but those who rewrite history do probably believe with part of their minds that they are actually thrusting facts into the past. When one considers the elaborate forgeries that have been committed in order to show that Trotsky did not play a valuable part in the Russian civil war, it is difficult to feel that the people responsible are merely lying. More probably they feel that their own version was what happened in the sight of God, and that one is justified in rearranging the records accordingly.

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

Arendt, Hannah -- Lecture (1971), “Thinking and Moral Considerations,” Social Research (1971 Fall)

Dave — Thu, 18 Mar 2021 20:12:22 +0000

Clichés, stock phrases, adherence to conventional, standardized codes of expression and conduct have the socially recognized function of protecting us against reality, that is, against the claim on our thinking attention that all events and facts make by virtue of their existence.

Hannah Arendt (1906–1975) German-American philosopher, political theorist
Lecture (1971), “Thinking and Moral Considerations,” Social Research (1971 Fall)
(Source)

Referring to Adolf Eichmann's use of "cliché-ridden language" as a sign of his "thoughtlessness."

Collected in The Life of the Mind, Part 1 "Thinking," Introduction (1974).

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

Dave — Tue, 16 Mar 2021 18:10:35 +0000

In nationalist thought there are facts which are both true and untrue, known and unknown. A known fact may be so unbearable that it is habitually pushed aside and not allowed to enter into logical processes, or on the other hand it may enter into every calculation and yet never be admitted as a fact, even in one’s own mind.

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

Cicero, Marcus Tullius -- Laelius De Amicitia [Laelius on Friendship], ch. 26 / sec. 98 (44 BC)

Dave — Mon, 08 Mar 2021 19:03:22 +0000

Few are those who wish to be endowed with virtue rather than to seem so.

[Virtute enim ipsa non tam multi praediti esse quam videri volunt.]

Marcus Tullius Cicero (106–43 BC) Roman orator, statesman, philosopher
Laelius De Amicitia [Laelius on Friendship], ch. 26 / sec. 98 (44 BC)

Common translation. Alternates:

"For not so many desire to be endowed with virtue itself, as to seem to be so." [tr. Edmonds (1871)]
"For there are not so many possessed of virtue as there are that desire to seem virtuous." [tr. Peabody (1887)]
"For many wish not so much to be, as to seem to be, endowed with real virtue." [tr. Falconer (1923)]

Snicket, Lemony -- The Carnivorous Carnival (2002)

Dave — Wed, 03 Mar 2021 14:14:58 +0000

One of the most troublesome things in life is that what you do or do not want has very little to do with what does or does not happen.

Lemony Snicket (b. 1970) American author, screenwriter, musician (pseud. for Daniel Handler)
The Carnivorous Carnival (2002)

Colbert, Stephen -- Interview with Ron Suskind (13 Jul 2006)

Dave — Wed, 10 Feb 2021 22:16:35 +0000

The problem with evidence is it doesn’t always support your opinion.

Stephen Colbert (b. 1964) American political satirist, writer, comedian
Interview with Ron Suskind (13 Jul 2006)
(Source)

Twain, Mark -- Note (1893-07-04), Mark Twain’s Notebook, ch. 21 “In Vienna” (1935) [ed. Albert Bigelow Paine]

Dave — Fri, 05 Feb 2021 19:38:11 +0000

Truth is mighty and will prevail. There is nothing wrong with this, except that it ain’t so.

Mark Twain (1835–1910) American writer [pseud. of Samuel Clemens]
Note (1893-07-04), Mark Twain’s Notebook, ch. 21 “In Vienna” (1935) [ed. Albert Bigelow Paine]
(Source)

While summering in Kaltenleutgeben, Austria.

The core phrase, from the Latin "Magna est veritas et prævalebit," was first formulated in English by Thomas Brooks. An earlier variant can be found in Cicero, Pro Caelio Rufo (56 BC): "How great is the power of truth" [O magna vis veritas].

Arendt, Hannah -- Interview (1973-10) with Roger Errera, Office de Radiodiffusion-Télévision Française (ORTF)

Dave — Thu, 21 Jan 2021 19:12:40 +0000

If everybody always lies to you, the consequence is not that you believe the lies, but rather that nobody believes anything any longer. This is because lies, by their very nature, have to be changed, and a lying government has constantly to rewrite its own history. On the receiving end you get not only one lie — a lie which you could go on for the rest of your days — but you get a great number of lies, depending on how the political wind blows. And a people that no longer can believe anything cannot make up its mind. It is deprived not only of its capacity to act but also of its capacity to think and to judge. And with such a people you can then do what you please.

Hannah Arendt (1906–1975) German-American philosopher, political theorist
Interview (1973-10) with Roger Errera, Office de Radiodiffusion-Télévision Française (ORTF)
(Source)

Parts of this interview were turned into an episode of the French TV series "Un certain regard," directed by Jean-Claude Lubtchansky, first broadcast 1974-07-06.

This section was published in The New York Review of Books (1978-10-26).

Hofstadter, Douglas -- “The Paranoid Style in American Politics,” Herbert Spencer Lecture, Oxford (Nov 1963)

Dave — Wed, 30 Dec 2020 20:19:15 +0000

We are all sufferers from history, but the paranoid is a double sufferer, since he is afflicted not only by the real world, with the rest of us, but by his fantasies as well.

Douglas R. Hofstadter (b. 1945) American academic, cognitive scientist, author
“The Paranoid Style in American Politics,” Herbert Spencer Lecture, Oxford (Nov 1963)
(Source)

Reprinted in Harpers (Nov 1964).

Democritus -- Frag. 0 (Diels) [tr. Bakewell (1907)]

Dave — Tue, 22 Dec 2020 21:49:22 +0000

By convention sweet is sweet, by convention bitter is bitter, by convention hot is hot, by convention cold is cold, by convention color is color. But in reality there are atoms and the void. That is, the objects of sense are supposed to be real and it is customary to regard them as such, but in truth they are not. Only the atoms and the void are real.

[νόμωι (γάρ φησι) γλυκὺ καὶ νόμωι πικρόν, νόμωι θερμόν, νόμωι ψυχρόν, νόμωι χροιή, ἐτεῆι δὲ ἄτομα καὶ κενόν]

Democritus (c. 460 BC - c. 370 BC) Greek philosopher
Frag. 0 (Diels) [tr. Bakewell (1907)]
(Source)

Cited to Tetralogies of Thrasyllus, 9; Sext. Emp. Math VII 135. Other translations:

"Sweet exists by convention, bitter by convention, colour by convention; atoms and Void (alone) exist in reality ... We know nothing accurately in reality, but (only) as it changes according to the bodily condition, and the constitution of those things that flow upon (the body) and impinge upon it." [tr. Freeman (1948), frag. 9]
"By convention sweet is sweet, bitter is bitter, hot is hot, cold is cold, color is color; but in truth there are only atoms and the void." [tr. Durant, from Bakewell]

Orwell, George -- Essay (1946-01), “The Prevention of Literature,” Polemic Magazine

Dave — Wed, 28 Oct 2020 17:19:21 +0000

From the totalitarian point of view history is something to be created rather than learned. A totalitarian state is in effect a theocracy, and its ruling caste, in order to keep its position, has to be thought of as infallible. But since, in practice, no one is infallible, it is frequently necessary to rearrange past events in order to show that this or that mistake was not made, or that this or that imaginary triumph actually happened. Then again, every major change in policy demands a corresponding change of doctrine and a revelation of prominent historical figures.
This kind of thing happens everywhere, but is clearly likelier to lead to outright falsification in societies where only one opinion is permissible at any given moment. Totalitarianism demands, in fact, the continuous alteration of the past, and in the long run probably demands a disbelief in the very existence of objective truth.

George Orwell (1903–1950) English journalist, essayist, writer [pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair]
Essay (1946-01), “The Prevention of Literature,” Polemic Magazine
(Source)

Pratchett, Terry -- Discworld No. 8, Guards! Guards! (1989)

Dave — Tue, 22 Sep 2020 14:11:55 +0000

If there was anything that depressed him more than his own cynicism, it was that quite often it still wasn’t as cynical as real life.

Terry Pratchett (1948–2015) English author
Discworld No. 8, Guards! Guards! (1989)
(Source)

Vimes, reflecting.

DeKnight, Steven S. -- Angel, 4×01 “Deep Down” (6 Oct 2002)

Dave — Mon, 24 Aug 2020 19:58:07 +0000

ANGEL: Nothing in the world is the way it ought to be. It’s harsh, and cruel. But that’s why there’s us, champions. Doesn’t matter where we come from, what we’ve done or suffered, or even if we make a difference. We live as though the world is as it should be, to show it what it can be.

Steven S. DeKnight (b. 1964) American television screenwriter, producer
Angel, 4×01 “Deep Down” (6 Oct 2002)

Menen, Aubrey -- Rama Retold, Book 3, ch. 7 [Valmiki] (1954)

Dave — Thu, 02 Jul 2020 22:43:00 +0000

There are three things which are real: God, human folly, and laughter. Since the first two pass our comprehension, we must do what we can with the third.

Aubrey Menen (1912–1989) British writer, novelist, satirist, theatre critic
Rama Retold, Book 3, ch. 7 [Valmiki] (1954)
(Source)

This book is a modern retelling of part of the Ramayana.

A variant of this was inscribed on a silver beer mug given on a gift that President John F Kennedy gave to David Powers:

There are three things which are real:
God, human folly and laughter.
The first two are beyond our comprehension
So we must do what we can with the third.

Palahniuk, Chuck -- Diary (2003)

Dave — Wed, 27 May 2020 14:35:15 +0000

An artist’s job is to make order out of chaos. You collect details, look for a pattern, and organize. You make sense out of senseless facts. You puzzle together bits of everything. You shuffle and reorganize. Collage. Montage. Assemble.

Chuck Palahniuk (b. 1962) American novelist and freelance journalist
Diary (2003)

Arendt, Hannah -- Origins of Totalitarianism, Part 3, ch. 13 “Ideology and Terror” (1951)

Dave — Tue, 12 May 2020 20:01:22 +0000

The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the convinced Communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction (i.e., the reality of experience) and the distinction between true and false (i.e., the standards of thought) no longer exist.

Hannah Arendt (1906–1975) German-American philosopher, political theorist
Origins of Totalitarianism, Part 3, ch. 13 “Ideology and Terror” (1951)
(Source)

Hurston, Zora Neale -- Letter to Countee Cullen (5 Mar 1943)

Dave — Fri, 03 Apr 2020 18:03:01 +0000

You are right in assuming that I am indifferent to the pattern of things. I am. I have never liked stale phrases and bodyless courage. I have the nerve to walk my own way, however hard, in my search for reality, rather than climb upon the rattling wagon of wishful illusions.

Zora Neale Hurston (1891–1960) American writer, folklorist, anthropologist
Letter to Countee Cullen (5 Mar 1943)
(Source)

Billings, Josh -- Everybody’s Friend, Or; Josh Billing’s Encyclopedia and Proverbial Philosophy of Wit and Humor, “Lobstir Sallad” (1874)

Dave — Thu, 02 Apr 2020 13:59:35 +0000

I make this distinkshun between charakter and reputashun — reputashun iz what the world thinks ov us, charakter is what the world knows of us.

[I make this distinction between character and reputation — reputation is what the world thinks of us, character is what the world knows of us.]

Josh Billings (1818–1885) American humorist, aphorist [pseud. of Henry Wheeler Shaw]
Everybody’s Friend, Or; Josh Billing’s Encyclopedia and Proverbial Philosophy of Wit and Humor, “Lobstir Sallad” (1874)
(Source)

Santayana, George -- Platonism and the Spiritual Life (1927)

Dave — Thu, 19 Mar 2020 17:35:04 +0000

The world is not respectable; it is mortal, tormented, confused, deluded forever; but it is shot through with beauty, with love, with glints of courage and laughter; and in these, the spirit blooms timidly, and struggles to be a light amid the thorns.

George Santayana (1863–1952) Spanish-American poet and philosopher [Jorge Agustín Nicolás Ruíz de Santayana y Borrás]
Platonism and the Spiritual Life (1927)
(Source)

Godard, Jean-Luc -- (Attributed)

Dave — Wed, 11 Mar 2020 20:39:47 +0000

Sometimes reality is too complex. Stories give it form.

Jean-Luc Godard (b. 1930) French-Swiss film director, screenwriter, critic
(Attributed)

Brown, Rita Mae -- In Her Day, Preface, “A Note to the Feminist Reader” (1976)

Dave — Mon, 24 Feb 2020 20:35:56 +0000

In art as in politics we must deal with people as they are, not as we wish them to be. Only by working with the real can you get closer to the ideal.

Rita Mae Brown (b. 1944) American author, playwright
In Her Day, Preface, “A Note to the Feminist Reader” (1976)
(Source)

Bird, Brad -- “How Pixar Conquered the Planet,” The Guardian (12 Nov 2004)

Dave — Wed, 19 Feb 2020 18:16:56 +0000

There is a contingent of the digital-effects community to whom that is the holy grail — to create photographically real humans. To me that is the dumbest goal that you could possibly have. What’s wonderful about the medium of animation isn’t recreating reality. It’s distilling it.

Brad Bird (b. 1957) American director, animator and screenwriter [Phillip Bradley Bird]
“How Pixar Conquered the Planet,” The Guardian (12 Nov 2004)
(Source)

Macaulay, Thomas Babington -- “Machiavelli,” Edinburgh Review (Mar 1827)

Dave — Thu, 23 Jan 2020 17:11:57 +0000

We give the highest and the most peculiar praise to the precepts of Machiavelli, when we say that they may frequently be of real use in regulating conduct — not so much because they are more just, or more profound, than those which might be culled from other authors as because they can be more readily applied to the problems of real life.

Thomas Babington Macaulay (1800–1859) English writer and politician
“Machiavelli,” Edinburgh Review (Mar 1827)
(Source)

Review of Œvres complètes de Machiavel, J. V. Perier ed. (1825). Quotations of Machiavelli can be found here.

McLuhan, Marshall -- In the Montreal Gazette (16 May 1975)

Dave — Wed, 08 Jan 2020 18:31:55 +0000

Television brought the brutality of war into the comfort of the living room. Vietnam was lost in the living rooms of America — not the battlefields of Vietnam.

Marshall McLuhan (1911–1980) Canadian philosopher, communication theorist, educator
In the Montreal Gazette (16 May 1975)

Butler, Samuel -- Erewhon, ch. 3 “Up the River” (1872)

Dave — Mon, 28 Oct 2019 21:23:28 +0000

There are few of us who are not protected from the keenest pain by our inability to see what it is that we have done, what we are suffering, and what we truly are. Let us be grateful to the mirror for revealing to us our appearances only.

Samuel Butler (1835–1902) English novelist, satirist, scholar
Erewhon, ch. 3 “Up the River” (1872)
(Source)

De Botton, Alain -- The Consolations of Philosophy, ch. 3 “Consolation for Frustration”(2000)

Dave — Thu, 10 Oct 2019 23:34:08 +0000

Reason allows us to determine when our wishes are in irrevocable conflict with reality, and then bids us to submit ourselves willingly, rather than angrily or bitterly, to necessities. We may be powerless to alter certain events, but we remain free to choose our attitude towards them, and it is in our spontaneous acceptance of necessity that we find our distinctive freedom.

Alain de Botton (b. 1969) Swiss-British author
The Consolations of Philosophy, ch. 3 “Consolation for Frustration”(2000)
(Source)

Bird, Brad -- The Incredibles (2004)

Dave — Wed, 04 Sep 2019 18:35:13 +0000

BOB: You know I’m retired from hero work.
EDNA: As am I, Robert, yet here we are!

Brad Bird (b. 1957) American director, animator and screenwriter [Phillip Bradley Bird]
The Incredibles (2004)
(Source)

Wharton, Edith -- French Ways and Their Meaning, ch. 4 “Intellectual Honesty” (1919)

Dave — Thu, 11 Apr 2019 00:49:22 +0000

What Mr. Howells said of the American theater is true of the whole American attitude toward life. “A tragedy with a happy ending” is exactly what the child wants before he goes to sleep: the reassurance that “all’s well with the world” as he lies in his cozy nursery. It is a good thing that the child should receive this reassurance; but as long as he needs it he remains a child, and the world he lives in is a nursery-world. Things are not always and everywhere well with the world, and each man has to find it out as he grows up. It is the finding out that makes him grow, and until he has faced the fact and digested the lesson he is not grown up — he is still in the nursery.

Edith Wharton (1862–1937) American novelist
French Ways and Their Meaning, ch. 4 “Intellectual Honesty” (1919)
(Source)

Commenting on William Dean Howells' comment to her on American taste in theater and drama: "What the American public wants is a tragedy with a happy ending."

De Botton, Alain -- The Consolations of Philosophy, ch. 1 “Consolation for Unpopularity” (2000)

Dave — Fri, 01 Mar 2019 02:23:29 +0000

The validity of an idea or action is determined not by whether it is widely believed or widely reviled but by whether it obeys the rules of logic. It is not because an argument is denounced by a majority that it is wrong nor, for those drawn to heroic defiance, that it is right.

Alain de Botton (b. 1969) Swiss-British author
The Consolations of Philosophy, ch. 1 “Consolation for Unpopularity” (2000)

Eco, Umberto -- Foucault’s Pendulum, ch. 87 (1988) [tr. W. Weaver (1989)]

Dave — Sun, 27 Jan 2019 06:33:37 +0000

I believe that you can reach the point where there is no longer any difference between developing the habit of pretending to believe and developing the habit of believing.

Umberto Eco (1932–2016) Italian semiotician, essayist, philosopher, novelist
Foucault’s Pendulum, ch. 87 (1988) [tr. W. Weaver (1989)]
(Source)

See also Hawthorne.

Dick, Philip K. -- “How To Build A Universe That Doesn’t Fall Apart Two Days Later” (1978)

Dave — Sat, 19 Jan 2019 05:05:53 +0000

It was always my hope in writing novels and stories which asked the question, “what is reality?”, to someday get an answer. This was the hope of most of my readers, too. Years passed. I wrote over thirty novels and over a hundred stories and I still couldn’t figure out what was real. One day a girl college student in Canada asked me to define reality for her, for a paper she was writing for her philosophy class. She wanted a one-sentence answer. I thought about it and finally said, “Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn’t go away.” That’s all I could come up with. That was back in 1972. Since then I haven’t been able to define reality any more lucidly.

Philip K. Dick (1928–1982) American writer
“How To Build A Universe That Doesn’t Fall Apart Two Days Later” (1978)

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

Dave — Fri, 03 Aug 2018 15:22:53 +0000

Although endlessly brooding on power, victory, defeat, revenge, the nationalist is often somewhat uninterested in what happens in the real world. What he wants is to feel that his own unit is getting the better of some other unit, and he can more easily do this by scoring off an adversary than by examining the facts to see whether they support him.

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

Snyder, Timothy -- On Tyranny, ch. 10 (2017)

Dave — Thu, 07 Jun 2018 21:20:48 +0000

Believe in truth. To abandon facts is to abandon freedom. If nothing is true, then no one can criticize power because there is no basis upon which to do so. If nothing is true, then all is spectacle. The biggest wallet pays for the most blinding lights.

Timothy Snyder (b. 1969) American historian, author
On Tyranny, ch. 10 (2017)
(Source)

De Botton, Alain -- The Consolations of Philosophy, ch. 3 “Consolation For Frustration” (2000)

Dave — Thu, 02 Nov 2017 18:35:25 +0000

Though the terrain of frustration may be vast — from a stubbed toe to an untimely death — at the heart of every frustration lies a basic structure: the collision of a wish with an unyielding reality.

Alain de Botton (b. 1969) Swiss-British author
The Consolations of Philosophy, ch. 3 “Consolation For Frustration” (2000)

Omar Khayyam -- Rubáiyát [رباعیات] [tr. FitzGerald, 3rd ed. (1872), # 99]

Dave — Tue, 15 Aug 2017 03:08:46 +0000

Ah Love! could you and I with Him conspire
To grasp this sorry Scheme of Things entire,
Would not we shatter it to bits — and then
Re-mould it nearer to the Heart’s Desire!

Omar Khayyám (1048–1123) Persian poet, mathematician, philosopher, astronomer [عمر خیام]
Rubáiyát [رباعیات] [tr. FitzGerald, 3rd ed. (1872), # 99]
(Source)

Also used in FitzGerald, 4th ed. (1879); 5th ed. (1889).

Other translations:

Ah, Love! could thou and I with Fate conspire
To grasp this sorry Scheme of Things entire,
Would not we shatter it to bits -- and then
Re-mould it nearer to the Heart's Desire!
[tr. FitzGerald, 1st ed. (1859), # 73]

Ah Love! could you and I with Fate conspire
To grasp this sorry Scheme of Things entire,
Would not we shatter it to bits -- and then
Re-mould it nearer to the Heart's Desire!
[tr. FitzGerald, 2nd ed. (1868), # 108]

If I, like God, were master of the heavens, I would blot them from the world, and fashion new skies beneath which free man might gain his heart's desire.
[tr. McCarthy (1879), # 378] (1888)]

Had I the right great Allah to advise,
I would bid him sweep away this earth and skies,
And build a better, where, unclogged and free,
The clear soul might essay her high emprise.
[tr. Whinfield (1882), # 200]

Had I the power great Allah to advise,
I'd bid him sweep away this earth and skies,
And build a better, where, unclogged and free,
The clear soul might achieve her high emprise.
[tr. Whinfield (1883), # 379]

Oh that to Heaven's Control I might aspire,
And sweep away this Universe Entire,
Then from the Ruins build another World,
Where Man might sometimes reach his Heart's Desire.
[tr. Garner (1887), 2.8]

If I like God o'er Heaven's high fate could reign,
I'd sweep away the present Heaven's domain,
And from its ruins such a new one build
That an honest heart its wish could aye attain!
[tr. M. K. (1888)]

If only I controlled God's Universe,
Would I not wipe away these faulty Heavens
And build from nothing a true Paradise
Where all souls could achieve their hearts' desire.
[tr. Graves & Ali-Shah (1967), # 105]

If the firmament were in my hand as in God's,
I would have razed it from the midst:
I would have made another firmament such that
The free of heart might easily attain their desire.
[tr. Avery/Heath-Stubbs (1979), # 25]

Like God, if this world I could control
Eliminating the world would be my role
I would create the world anew, whole
Such that the free soul would attain desired goal.
[tr. Shahriari (1998), literal]

Bibesco, Elizabeth -- Haven (1951)

Dave — Thu, 25 May 2017 16:50:06 +0000

A wise man weaves a philosophy out of each acceptance life forces upon him.

Elizabeth Bibesco (1897–1945) Romanian-English writer
Haven (1951)
(Source)

Lincoln, Abraham -- (Attributed)

Dave — Wed, 17 May 2017 00:03:26 +0000

Perhaps a man’s character is like a tree, and his reputation like its shadow; the shadow is what we think of it; the tree is the real thing.

Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) American lawyer, politician, US President (1861–65)
(Attributed)

In Noah Brooks "Lincoln's Imagination," _Scribner's Monthly (Aug 1879).

Fairlie, Henry -- “Can You Believe Your Eyes?” Horizon (Spring 1967)

Dave — Fri, 31 Mar 2017 21:55:58 +0000

Life is not made up of dramatic incidents — even the life of a nation. It is made up of slowly evolving events and processes, which newspapers, by a score of different forms of emphasis, can reasonably attempt to explore from day to day. But television news jerks from incident to incident. For the real world of patient and familiar arrangements, it substitutes an unreal world of constant activity, and the effect is already apparent in the way which the world behaves. It is almost impossible, these days, to consider any problem or any event except as a crisis; and, by this very way of looking at it, it in fact becomes a crisis.

Henry Fairlie (1924–1990) British journalist and social critic
“Can You Believe Your Eyes?” Horizon (Spring 1967)

Emerson, Ralph Waldo -- Essay (1841), “Circles,” Essays: First Series, No. 10

Dave — Mon, 13 Feb 2017 16:20:42 +0000

No facts are to me sacred; none are profane; I simply experiment, an endless seeker, with no Past at my back.

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American essayist, lecturer, poet
Essay (1841), “Circles,” Essays: First Series, No. 10
(Source)

Goethe, Johann von -- Sprüche in Prosa: Maximen und Reflexionen [Proverbs in Prose: Maxims and Reflections] (1833) [tr. Saunders (1893), “Life and Character,” #383]

Dave — Wed, 25 Jan 2017 18:35:22 +0000

Every man hears only what he understands.

[Es hört doch jeder nur, was er versteht.]

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German poet, statesman, scientist
Sprüche in Prosa: Maximen und Reflexionen [Proverbs in Prose: Maxims and Reflections] (1833) [tr. Saunders (1893), “Life and Character,” #383]
(Source)

Posthumous, on "Literature and Life." (Source (German)). Other translations:

A man hears only that which he understands.
[tr. Rönnfeldt (1900)]

For surely everyone only hears what he understands.
[tr. Stopp (1995), "Posthumous," #887]

Bronowski, Jacob -- “The Abacus and the Rose” [Potts], Science and Human Values (1965 ed.)

Dave — Mon, 26 Dec 2016 19:02:53 +0000

There is no correct description of nature. Nature is more subtle, more deeply intertwined and more strangely integrated than any of our pictures of her — than any of our errors. It is not merely that our pictures are not full enough; each of our pictures in the end turns out to be so basically mistaken that the marvel is that it worked at all.

Jacob Bronowski (1908–1974) Polish-English humanist and mathematician
“The Abacus and the Rose” [Potts], Science and Human Values (1965 ed.)
(Source)

Kierkegaard, Soren -- (Misattributed)

Dave — Fri, 09 Dec 2016 01:49:28 +0000

Life is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced.

Søren Kierkegaard (1813–1855) Danish philosopher, theologian
(Misattributed)

Misattributed to Kierkegaard by Cyril Connolly, Horizon, vol. 11 (1945). More properly attributed to Jacobus Johannes van der Leeuw (1893–1934), The Conquest of Illusion, ch. 1: "The mystery of life in not a problem to be solved, it is a reality to be experienced."

Bronowski, Jacob -- Science and Human Values, Part 2 “The Habit of Truth”, §11 (1956)

Dave — Tue, 06 Dec 2016 04:32:51 +0000

In effect what Luther said in 1517 was that we may appeal to a demonstrable work of God, the Bible, to override any established authority. The Scientific Revolution begins when Nicolaus Copernicus implied the bolder proposition that there is another work of God to which we may appeal even beyond this: the great work of nature. No absolute statement is allowed to be out of reach of the test, that its consequence must conform to the facts of nature.

Jacob Bronowski (1908–1974) Polish-English humanist and mathematician
Science and Human Values, Part 2 “The Habit of Truth”, §11 (1956)

Brust, Steven -- The Phoenix Guards (1991)

Dave — Thu, 24 Nov 2016 06:15:16 +0000

It remains true, however, that an inconveniently placed railing or sharp corner will not remove itself from the path of a drunkard, even if that drunkard is unaware of the obstacles on the path he has set for himself; in other words, no matter to what degree we are oblivious to the world, it makes its own choices as to how oblivious it will be to us.

Steven Brust (b. 1955) American writer, systems programmer
The Phoenix Guards (1991)

Sagan, Carl -- Contact, novel (1997) [film screenplay by J. Hart and M. Goldenberg]

Dave — Fri, 11 Nov 2016 20:37:45 +0000

DRUMLIN: I know you must think this is all very unfair. Maybe that’s an understatement. What you don’t know is I agree. I wish the world was a place where fair was the bottom line, where the kind of idealism you showed at the hearing was rewarded, not taken advantage of. Unfortunately, we don’t live in that world.

ARROWAY: Funny, I’ve always believed that the world is what we make of it.

Carl Sagan (1934–1996) American scientist and writer
Contact, novel (1997) [film screenplay by J. Hart and M. Goldenberg]
(Source)

Adams, Douglas -- Hitchhiker’s Guide No. 2, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, ch. 19 (1980)

Dave — Tue, 20 Sep 2016 04:02:50 +0000

It is known that there are an infinite number of worlds, simply because there is an infinite amount of space for them to be in. However, not every one of them is inhabited. Therefore, there must be a finite number of inhabited worlds. Any finite number divided by infinity is as near to nothing as makes no odds, so the average population of all the planets in the Universe can be said to be zero. From this it follows that the population of the whole Universe is also zero, and that any people you may meet from time to time are merely the products of a deranged imagination.

Douglas Adams (1952–2001) English author, humorist, screenwriter
Hitchhiker’s Guide No. 2, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, ch. 19 (1980)
(Source)

Mankiewicz, Joseph -- (Attributed)

Dave — Fri, 16 Sep 2016 00:55:43 +0000

The difference between life and the movies is that a script needs to make sense, and life doesn’t.

Joseph Mankiewicz (1909–1993) American screenwriter, director, producer
(Attributed)

See Twain.

Verne, Jules -- The Fur Country (1873)

Dave — Fri, 09 Sep 2016 23:29:44 +0000

Reality provides us with facts so romantic that imagination itself could add nothing to them.

Jules Verne (1828–1905) French novelist, poet, playwright
The Fur Country (1873)

King, Stephen -- Misery (1987)

Dave — Thu, 25 Aug 2016 04:58:32 +0000

In a book, all would have gone according to plan. … but life was so fucking untidy — what could you say for an existence where some of your most crucial conversations of your life took place when you needed to take a shit, or something? An existence where there weren’t even any chapters?

Stephen King (b. 1947) American author
Misery (1987)

Gervais, Ricky -- Twitter (11 Sep 2012)

Dave — Fri, 19 Aug 2016 01:22:42 +0000

Your God is the best God.
In fact, he’s the only God.
All other Gods are ridiculous, made up rubbish.
Not yours though. Yours is real.

Ricky Gervais (b. 1961) English comedian, actor, director, writer
Twitter (11 Sep 2012)
(Source)

Bacon, Francis -- De Augmentis Scientiarum [Advancement of Learning], Book 2, ch. 21, #9 (1605)

Dave — Fri, 12 Aug 2016 02:16:16 +0000

We are much beholden to Machiavel and others, that write what men do, and not what they ought to do.

Francis Bacon (1561–1626) English philosopher, scientist, author, statesman
De Augmentis Scientiarum [Advancement of Learning], Book 2, ch. 21, #9 (1605)

Corless, Roger -- The Vision of Buddhism: the Space under the Tree, Part 2 “The Space” (1989)

Dave — Mon, 11 Jul 2016 16:24:32 +0000

We make ourselves miserable by first closing ourselves off from reality and then collecting this and that in an attempt to make ourselves happy by possessing happiness. But happiness is not something I have, it is something I myself want to be. Trying to be happy by accumulating possessions is like trying to satisfy hunger by taping sandwiches all over my body.

Roger J. Corless (1938–2007) Anglo-American religious academic, Buddhist scholar, ecumenicist
The Vision of Buddhism: the Space under the Tree, Part 2 “The Space” (1989)
(Source)

Frequently misattributed to George Carlin (with "all over your body").

Verne, Jules -- Around the World in Eighty Days (1873)

Dave — Sat, 11 Jun 2016 21:51:13 +0000

Anything one man can imagine, other men can make real.

Jules Verne (1828–1905) French novelist, poet, playwright
Around the World in Eighty Days (1873)

Howard, Robert E. -- “Queen of the Black Coast” (1934)

Dave — Mon, 09 May 2016 15:19:23 +0000

He shrugged his shoulders. “I have known many gods. He who denies them is as blind as he who trusts them too deeply. I seek not beyond death. It may be the blackness averred by the Nemedian skeptics, or Crom’s realm of ice and cloud, or the snowy plains and vaulted halls of the Nordheimer’s Valhalla. I know not, nor do I care. Let me live deep while I live; let me know the rich juices of red meat and stinging wine on my palate, the hot embrace of white arms, the mad exultation of battle when the blue blades flame and crimson, and I am content. Let teachers and priests and philosophers brood over questions of reality and illusion. I know this: if life is illusion, then I am no less an illusion, and being thus, the illusion is real to me. I live, I burn with life, I love, I slay, and am content.”

Robert E. Howard (1906–1936) American author
“Queen of the Black Coast” (1934)

Lewis, C.S. -- Miracles (1947)

Dave — Wed, 20 Apr 2016 14:13:49 +0000

It is a profound mistake to imagine that Christianity ever intended to dissipate the bewilderment and even the terror, the sense of our own nothingness, which come upon us when we think about the nature of things. It comes to intensify them. Without such sensations there is no religion. Many a man, brought up in the glib profession of some shallow form of Christianity, who comes through reading Astronomy to realise for the first time how majestically indifferent most reality is to man, and who perhaps abandons his religion on that account, may at that moment be having his first genuinely religious experience.

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
Miracles (1947)

Escher, M. C. -- “The Impossible”

Dave — Fri, 04 Mar 2016 18:44:46 +0000

It sometimes seems to me that we are all afflicted with an urge and possessed by a longing for the impossible. The reality around us, the three-dimensional world surrounding us, is too common, too dull, too ordinary for us. We hanker after the unnatural or supernatural, that which does not exist, a miracle. As if that everyday reality isn’t enigmatic enough!

M. C. Escher (1898–1972) Dutch artist [Maurits Cornelius Escher]
“The Impossible”

Asimov, Isaac -- Nightfall (1990) [with Robert Silverberg]

Dave — Mon, 18 Jan 2016 16:53:53 +0000

So the universe is not quite as you thought it was. You’d better rearrange your beliefs, then. Because you certainly can’t rearrange the universe.

Isaac Asimov (1920–1992) Russian-American author, polymath, biochemist
Nightfall (1990) [with Robert Silverberg]
(Source)

Church, Francis -- “Is There a Santa Claus?” The New York Sun (21 Sep 1897)

Dave — Thu, 24 Dec 2015 19:29:05 +0000

Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies! You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas Eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if they did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that’s no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.

You may tear apart the baby’s rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived, could tear apart. Only faith, fancy, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, Virginia, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.

Francis Pharcellus Church (1839–1906) American publisher and editor
“Is There a Santa Claus?” The New York Sun (21 Sep 1897)

Keyes, Daniel -- Flowers for Algernon (novel) (1966)

Dave — Mon, 02 Nov 2015 14:26:21 +0000

Now I understand one of the important reasons for going to college and getting an education is to learn that the things you’ve believed in all your life aren’t true, and that nothing is what it appears to be.

Daniel F. Keyes (1927–2014) American author
Flowers for Algernon (novel) (1966)

Aaronovitch, Ben -- Rivers of London [Midnight Riot] (2011)

Dave — Wed, 07 Oct 2015 13:17:56 +0000

“You put a spell on the dog,” I said as we left the house.
“Just a small one,” said Nightingale.
“So magic is real,” I said. “Which makes you a … what?”
“A wizard.”
“Like Harry Potter?”
Nightingale sighed. “No,” he said. “Not like Harry Potter.”
“In what way?”
“I’m not a fictional character,” said Nightingale.

Ben Aaronovitch (b. 1964) British author
Rivers of London [Midnight Riot] (2011)

Marias, Javier -- “Javier Marías, The Art of Fiction No. 190,” Interview with Sarah Fay, The Paris Review (Winter 2006)

Dave — Thu, 24 Sep 2015 13:54:53 +0000

Life is a very bad novelist. It is chaotic and ludicrous.

Javier Marías (b. 1951) Spanish novelist, translator, columnist
“Javier Marías, The Art of Fiction No. 190,” Interview with Sarah Fay, The Paris Review (Winter 2006)
(Source)

See also Twain.

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)

Coon, Gene -- Star Trek, 3×06 “Spectre of the Gun” (25 Oct 1968) [writing as Lee Cronin]

Dave — Mon, 21 Sep 2015 14:02:37 +0000

SPOCK: Physical reality is consistent with universal laws. Where the laws do not operate, there is no reality.

Gene L. Coon (1924–1973) American screenwriter and television producer
Star Trek, 3×06 “Spectre of the Gun” (25 Oct 1968) [writing as Lee Cronin]

Vaneigem, Raoul -- The Revolution of Everyday Life, 1.1 (1967)

Dave — Thu, 06 Aug 2015 13:22:32 +0000

There are more truths in twenty-four hours of a man’s life than in all the philosophies.

Raoul Vaneigem (b. 1934) Belgian writer
The Revolution of Everyday Life, 1.1 (1967)

Twain, Mark -- Following the Equator, ch. 15, epigraph, “Pudd’nhead Wilson’s New Calendar” (1897)

Dave — Fri, 17 Jul 2015 17:12:12 +0000

Truth is stranger than fiction, but it is because Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities; Truth isn’t.

Mark Twain (1835–1910) American writer [pseud. of Samuel Clemens]
Following the Equator, ch. 15, epigraph, “Pudd’nhead Wilson’s New Calendar” (1897)
(Source)

Sometimes paraphrased, "Why shouldn't truth be stranger than fiction? Fiction, after all, has to make sense." More on this quotation and its variants here.

See also Byron.

Shakespeare, William -- Hamlet, Act 1, sc. 5, l. 187ff (1.5.187-188) (c. 1600)

Dave — Thu, 16 Jul 2015 13:34:52 +0000

HAMLET: There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.

William Shakespeare (1564–1616) English dramatist and poet
Hamlet, Act 1, sc. 5, l. 187ff (1.5.187-188) (c. 1600)
(Source)

Plato -- The Republic, 7.514

Dave — Thu, 11 Jun 2015 13:16:16 +0000

Those who are destitute of philosophy may be compared to prisoners in a cave, who are only able to look in one direction because they are bound, and who have a fire behind them and a wall in front. Between them and the wall there is nothing; all that they see are shadows of themselves, and of objects behind them, cast on the wall by the light of the fire. Inevitably they regard these shadows as real, and have no notion of the objects to which they are due. At last, some man succeeds in escaping from the cave to the light of the sun; for the first time he sees real things, and becomes aware that he had hitherto been deceived by shadows. If he is the sort of philosopher who is fit to become a guardian, he will feel it is his duty to those who were formerly his fellow prisoners to go down again into the cave, instruct them as to the truth, and show them the way up. But he will have difficulty in persuading them, because, coming out of the sunlight, he will see shadows less clearly than they do, and will seem to them stupider than before his escape.

Plato (c.428–347 BC) Greek philosopher
The Republic, 7.514

Summ. Bertrand Russell, A History of Western Philosophy, ch. 15 (1946)

Tuchman, Barbara -- A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century, Foreward (1978)

Dave — Tue, 02 Jun 2015 13:12:28 +0000

When the gap between the ideal and real becomes too wide, the system breaks down.

Barbara W. Tuchman (1912–1989) American historian and author
A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century, Foreward (1978)
(Source)

Shaw, George Bernard -- Back to Methuselah, Part 5 (1921)

Dave — Thu, 16 Apr 2015 12:07:29 +0000

Without art, the crudeness of reality would make the world unbearable.

George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950) Irish playwright and critic
Back to Methuselah, Part 5 (1921)
(Source)

Markham, Edwin -- “The Crowning Hour” (2), The Shoes of Happiness, and Other Poems (1913)

Dave — Fri, 20 Mar 2015 12:07:51 +0000

If this is a dream, then perhaps our dreaming
Can touch life’s height to a finer fire:
Who knows but the heavens and all their seeming
Were made by the heart’s desire?

Edwin Markham (1852–1940) American poet
“The Crowning Hour” (2), The Shoes of Happiness, and Other Poems (1913)

Suzuki, Shunryu -- Not Always So, “Wherever You Are, Enlightenment Is There” (2002)

Dave — Mon, 09 Feb 2015 14:25:36 +0000

Nothing we see or hear is perfect. But right there in the imperfection is perfect reality.

Shunryū Suzuki (1905–1971) Japanese Zen Buddhist master
Not Always So, “Wherever You Are, Enlightenment Is There” (2002)

Fuller, Buckminster -- (Attributed)

Dave — Tue, 03 Feb 2015 14:15:27 +0000

You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.

Buckminster Fuller (1895–1983) American architect, engineer
(Attributed)

Suzuki, Shunryu -- Not Always So, “Letters from Emptiness” (2002)

Dave — Mon, 02 Feb 2015 14:27:55 +0000

All descriptions of reality are limited expressions of the world of emptiness. Yet we attach to the descriptions and think they are reality. That is a mistake.

Shunryū Suzuki (1905–1971) Japanese Zen Buddhist master
Not Always So, “Letters from Emptiness” (2002)

HIcks, Bill -- Revelations (1993)

Dave — Fri, 30 Jan 2015 13:13:59 +0000

The world is like a ride in an amusement park, and when you choose to go on it you think it’s real because that’s how powerful our minds are. The ride goes up and down, around and around, it has thrills and chills, and it’s very brightly colored, and it’s very loud, and it’s fun for a while. Many people have been on the ride a long time, and they begin to wonder, “Hey, is this real, or is this just a ride?” And other people have remembered, and they come back to us and say, “Hey, don’t worry; don’t be afraid, ever, because this is just a ride.” And we … kill those people. “Shut him up! I’ve got a lot invested in this ride, shut him up! Look at my furrows of worry, look at my big bank account, and my family. This has to be real.” It’s just a ride. But we always kill the good guys who try and tell us that, you ever notice that? And let the demons run amok. … But it doesn’t matter, because it’s just a ride. And we can change it any time we want. It’s only a choice. No effort, no work, no job, no savings of money. Just a simple choice, right now, between fear and love. The eyes of fear want you to put bigger locks on your doors, buy guns, close yourself off. The eyes of love instead see all of us as one.

Bill Hicks (1961–1994) American stand-up comedian, social critic, satirist, musician [William Melvin "Bill" Hicks]
Revelations (1993)

Becker, Carl -- “Everyman His Own Historian” (3), speech, American Historical Association, Minneapolis (29 Dec 1931)

Dave — Tue, 20 Jan 2015 13:19:12 +0000

Left to themselves, the facts do not speak; left to themselves they do not exist, not really, since for all practical purposes there is no fact until some one affirms it.

Carl L. Becker (1873–1945) American historian
“Everyman His Own Historian” (3), speech, American Historical Association, Minneapolis (29 Dec 1931)
(Source)

Becker, Carl -- “Everyman His Own Historian” (1), speech, American Historical Association, Minneapolis (29 Dec 1931)

Dave — Tue, 06 Jan 2015 13:41:22 +0000

Let us then admit that there are two histories: the actual series of events that once occurred; and the ideal series that we affirm and hold in memory. The first is absolute and unchanged — it was what it was whatever we do or say about it; the second is relative, always changing in response to the increase or refinement of knowledge. The two series correspond more or less, it is our aim to make the correspondence as exact as possible; but the actual series of events exists for us only in terms of the ideal series which we affirm and hold in memory.

Carl L. Becker (1873–1945) American historian
“Everyman His Own Historian” (1), speech, American Historical Association, Minneapolis (29 Dec 1931)
(Source)

Bernard, Claude -- Leçons de Pathologie Expérimentale (1872)

Dave — Fri, 26 Dec 2014 17:20:55 +0000

Science admits no exceptions; otherwise there would be no determinism in science, or rather, there would be no science.

Claude Bernard (1813–1878) French physiologist, scientist
Leçons de Pathologie Expérimentale (1872)

Becker, Carl -- The Heavenly City of the Eighteenth-Century Philosophers (1932)

Dave — Tue, 16 Dec 2014 13:01:46 +0000

Since history is not an objective reality, but only an imaginative reconstruction of vanished events, the pattern that appears useful or agreeable to one generation is never entirely so to the next.

Carl L. Becker (1873–1945) American historian
The Heavenly City of the Eighteenth-Century Philosophers (1932)
(Source)

Kaveney, Roz -- “On Good Friday, I may not have faith, but that doesn’t make me an atheist,” The Guardian (29 Mar 2013)

Dave — Wed, 22 Oct 2014 13:59:14 +0000

I am an agnostic partly because I don’t think it is part of the human condition ever to have very much certainty about anything but moments of pleasure and of imminent and immanent death. I don’t think we have a language, will ever have a language, that can describe transcendence in any useful way and am aware that transcendence may be nothing more than the illusory aspiration of a decaying piece of meat on a random rock. The thing is to be humble enough to be content with that while acting to other people as generously as if better things were true, and making art as if it might survive and do good in the world. Because what else are we going to do with the few short years of our life?

Roz Kaveney (b. 1949) British writer, critic, poet
“On Good Friday, I may not have faith, but that doesn’t make me an atheist,” The Guardian (29 Mar 2013)
(Source)

Huxley, Aldous -- The Island, “Notes on What’s What” (1962)

Dave — Wed, 22 Oct 2014 12:15:32 +0000

‘Patriotism is not enough.’ But neither is anything else. Science is not enough, religion is not enough, art is not enough, politics and economics are not enough, nor is love, nor is duty, nor is action however disinterested, nor, however sublime, is contemplation. Nothing short of everything will really do.

Aldous Huxley (1894–1963) English novelist, essayist and critic
The Island, “Notes on What’s What” (1962)

Hofstadter, Richard -- “The Paranoid Style in American Politics,” Herbert Spencer Lecture, Oxford (Nov 1963)

Dave — Tue, 07 Oct 2014 09:28:14 +0000

Style has to do with the way in which ideas are believed and advocated rather than with the truth or falsity of their content.

Richard Hofstadter (1916–1970) American historian and intellectual
“The Paranoid Style in American Politics,” Herbert Spencer Lecture, Oxford (Nov 1963)
(Source)

Reprinted in Harpers (Nov 1964). Often misattributed to Douglas Hofstadter.

Ruskin, John -- Eagle’s Nest, Lecture 3, “Relation of Wise Art to Wise Science,” sec. 41 (15 Sep 1872)

Dave — Mon, 01 Sep 2014 23:03:43 +0000

There is nothing that I tell you with more eager desire that you should believe — nothing with wider ground in my experience for requiring you to believe, than this, that you never will love art well, till you love what she mirrors better.

John Ruskin (1819–1900) English art critic, painter, writer, social thinker
Eagle’s Nest, Lecture 3, “Relation of Wise Art to Wise Science,” sec. 41 (15 Sep 1872)
(Source)

Wilde, Oscar -- “The Decay of Lying: A Dialogue,” Littell’s Living Age (16 Feb 1889)

Dave — Tue, 24 Jun 2014 14:07:07 +0000

Paradox though it may seem — and paradoxes are always dangerous things — it is none the less true that life imitates art far more than art imitates life.

Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish poet, wit, dramatist
“The Decay of Lying: A Dialogue,” Littell’s Living Age (16 Feb 1889)

Machiavelli, Niccolo -- The Discourses on Livy, Book 1, ch. 25 (1517)

Dave — Fri, 06 Jun 2014 13:26:18 +0000

For the great majority of mankind are satisfied with appearance, as though they were realities, and are often more influenced by the things that seem than by those that are.

Niccolò Machiavelli (1469–1527) Italian politician, philosopher, political scientist
The Discourses on Livy, Book 1, ch. 25 (1517)

Butcher, Jim -- Turn Coat (2009)

Dave — Tue, 29 Apr 2014 13:27:50 +0000

Most people, given the choice to face a hideous or terrifying truth or to conveniently avoid it, choose the convenience and peace of normality. That doesn’t make them strong or weak people, or good or bad people. It just makes them people.

Jim Butcher (b. 1971) American author
Turn Coat (2009)

Marx, Groucho -- (Attributed)

Dave — Thu, 27 Mar 2014 15:04:54 +0000

I’m not crazy about reality, but it’s still the only place to get a decent meal.

Groucho Marx (1890–1977) American comedian [b. Julius Henry Marx]
(Attributed)

Stevenson, Robert Louis -- Essay (1877-07), “An Apology for Idlers,” Cornhill Magazine, Vol. 36

Dave — Wed, 04 Dec 2013 13:48:37 +0000

Books are good enough in their own way, but they are a mighty bloodless substitute for life. It seems a pity to sit, like the Lady of Shalott, peering into a mirror, with your back turned on all the bustle and glamour of reality.

Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–1894) Scottish essayist, novelist, poet
Essay (1877-07), “An Apology for Idlers,” Cornhill Magazine, Vol. 36
(Source)

Collected in Virginibus Puerisque and Other Papers, ch. 3 (1881).

Joubert, Joseph -- Pensées [Thoughts], 1797 entry [tr. Auster (1983)]

Dave — Mon, 12 Aug 2013 12:58:45 +0000

The staircase that leads to God. What does it matter if it is make-believe, if we really climb it? What difference does it make who builds it, or if it is made of marble or word, of brick, stone, or mud? The essential thing is that it be solid and that in climbing it we feel the peace that is inaccessible to those who do not climb it.

Joseph Joubert (1754–1824) French moralist, philosopher, essayist, poet
Pensées [Thoughts], 1797 entry [tr. Auster (1983)]
(Source)

I could not find an analog in other translations of the Pensées.

Twain, Mark -- Christian Science, Book 1, ch. 5 (1907)

Dave — Wed, 26 Jun 2013 21:39:36 +0000

Let us consider that we are all partially insane. It will explain us to each other; it will unriddle many riddles; it will make clear and simple many things which are involved in haunting and harassing difficulties and obscurities now.

Those of us who are not in the asylum, and not demonstrably due there, are nevertheless, no doubt, insane in one or two particulars. I think we must admit this; but I think that we are otherwise healthy-minded. I think that when we all see one thing alike, it is evidence that, as regards that one thing, our minds are perfectly sound. Now there are really several things which we do all see alike; things which we all accept, and about which we do not dispute. For instance, we who are outside of the asylum all agree that water seeks its level; that the sun gives light and heat; that fire consumes; that fog is damp; that six times six are thirty-six, that two from ten leaves eight; that eight and seven are fifteen. These are, perhaps, the only things we are agreed about; but, although they are so few, they are of inestimable value, because they make an infallible standard of sanity. Whosoever accepts them him we know to be substantially sane; sufficiently sane; in the working essentials, sane. Whoever disputes a single one of them him we know to be wholly insane, and qualified for the asylum.

Very well, the man who disputes none of them we concede to be entitled to go at large. But that is concession enough. We cannot go any further than that; for we know that in all matters of mere opinion that same man is insane — just as insane as we are; just as insane as Shakespeare was. We know exactly where to put our finger upon his insanity: it is where his opinion differs from ours.

Mark Twain (1835–1910) American writer [pseud. of Samuel Clemens]
Christian Science, Book 1, ch. 5 (1907)
(Source)

Johnson, Samuel -- Comment (14 Sep 1773), in James Boswell, Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides (1785)

Dave — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 12:41:23 +0000

No man practises so well as he writes. I have, all my life long, been lying till noon; yet I tell all young men, and tell them with great sincerity, that nobody who does not rise early will ever do any good.

Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) English writer, lexicographer, critic
Comment (14 Sep 1773), in James Boswell, Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides (1785)
(Source)

Johnson, Samuel -- Essay (1750-05-05), The Rambler, No. 14

Dave — Fri, 18 Jan 2013 13:24:34 +0000

A transition from an author’s book to his conversation, is too often like an entrance into a large city, after a distant prospect. Remotely, we see nothing but spires of temples and turrets of palaces, and imagine it the residence of splendour, grandeur and magnificence; but when we have passed the gates, we find it perplexed with narrow passages, disgraced with despicable cottages, embarrassed with obstructions, and clouded with smoke.

Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) English writer, lexicographer, critic
Essay (1750-05-05), The Rambler, No. 14
(Source)

Huxley, Aldous -- “Religion and Time” (1943)

Dave — Thu, 29 Nov 2012 13:57:37 +0000

Reality cannot be ignored, except at a price; and the longer the ignorance is persisted in, the higher and more terrible becomes the price that must be paid.

Aldous Huxley (1894–1963) English novelist, essayist and critic
“Religion and Time” (1943)

Reprinted in Christopher Isherwood, Vedanta for Modern Man (1951).

Kronenberger, Louis -- “Unbrave New World,” The Cart and the Horse (1964)

Dave — Wed, 21 Nov 2012 13:52:58 +0000

Most people today don’t want honest answers insofar as honest means unpleasant or disturbing. They want a soft answer that turneth away anxiety. They want answers that are, in effect, escapes.

Louis Kronenberger (1904–1980) American critic, novelist, biographer
“Unbrave New World,” The Cart and the Horse (1964)

An allusion to Proverbs 15:1 "A soft answer turneth away wrath."

Fuller, Thomas (1654) -- Gnomologia: Adages and Proverbs (compiler), # 3958 (1732)

Dave — Wed, 17 Oct 2012 12:50:04 +0000

Prospect is often better than possession.

Thomas Fuller (1654–1734) English physician, preacher, aphorist, writer
Gnomologia: Adages and Proverbs (compiler), # 3958 (1732)
(Source)

Wagner, Jane -- The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe, Part 1 (1985) [perf. Lily Tomlin]

Dave — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 20:56:54 +0000

TROUT: After all, what is reality anyway? Nothin’ but a
collective hunch.

Jane Wagner (b. 1935) American humorist, writer, director
The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe, Part 1 (1985) [perf. Lily Tomlin]
(Source)

Variant: "Reality is a collective hunch."

Martin, Steve -- L. A. Story (1991)

Dave — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 15:07:48 +0000

HARRIS: Forget for this moment smog, cars, a restaurant, skating — remember only this: a kiss may not be the truth, but it is what we wish were true.

Steve Martin (b. 1945) American comedian, actor, writer, producer, musician
L. A. Story (1991)

The above text is what is actually said in the movie. Most sources, including IMDb, use a slightly longer form of the quote, possibly from the script.

Forget for this moment the smog and the cars and the restaurant and the skating and remember only this. A kiss may not be the truth, but it is what we wish were true.