WIST Quotations

Russell, Bertrand -- Conquest of Happiness, Part 1, ch. 6 “Envy” (1930)

Dave — Wed, 23 Jul 2025 15:04:30 +0000

Merely to realize the causes of one’s own envious feelings is to take a long step towards curing them. The habit of thinking in terms of comparison is a fatal one.

Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) English mathematician and philosopher
Conquest of Happiness, Part 1, ch. 6 “Envy” (1930)
(Source)

See Fuller (1732).

Gilligan, James -- Preventing Violence, ch. 5 (2001)

Dave — Tue, 02 Aug 2022 16:12:19 +0000

What is at issue here is relative poverty, not absolute poverty. Inferiority is a relative concept. When everyone is poor together, there is no shame in being poor. As Marx said, it is not living in a hovel that causes people to feel ashamed, it is living in a hovel next to a palace. And as he also said, shame is the emotion of revolution, i.e. of violence. But one does not have to be a Marxist, or subscribe to everything he said (and I do not), in order to see how correct his insight was.

James Gilligan (b. c. 1936) American psychiatrist and author
Preventing Violence, ch. 5 (2001)
(Source)

Rubin, Theodore Isaac -- The Angry Book, “Let Freedom Ring” (1970)

Dave — Mon, 17 May 2021 19:19:36 +0000

Health is relative. There is no such thing as an absolute state of health or sickness. Everyone’s physical, mental, and emotional condition is a combination of both.

Theodore Isaac Rubin (1923-2019) American psychiatrist and author
The Angry Book, “Let Freedom Ring” (1970)
(Source)

Menen, Aubrey -- A Conspiracy of Women (1966)

Dave — Wed, 02 Sep 2020 19:04:37 +0000

His view of war — and he had seen a great deal of it — was that a general made as many blunders as he fought battles, but, by the grace of the gods, the opposing generals’ blunders were sometimes worse.

Aubrey Menen (1912-1989) British writer, novelist, satirist, theatre critic
A Conspiracy of Women (1966)
(Source)

See Tartakower.

Swetchine, Sophie -- The Writings of Madame Swetchine, “Airelles”, #25 (1869) [ed. Count de Falloux, tr. Preston]

Dave — Thu, 23 Nov 2017 06:10:45 +0000

We do not judge men by what they are in themselves, but by what they are relatively to us.

Anne Sophie Swetchine (1782-1857) Russian-French author and salonist [Madame Swetchine]
The Writings of Madame Swetchine, “Airelles”, #25 (1869) [ed. Count de Falloux, tr. Preston]
(Source)

Harris, Sydney J. -- “Nations Should Submit to the Rule of Law,” Clearing the Ground (1986)

Dave — Tue, 20 Dec 2016 04:05:04 +0000

“Terrorism” is what we call the violence of the weak, and we condemn it; “war” is what we call the violence of the strong, and we glorify it.

Sydney J. Harris (1917-1986) Anglo-American columnist, journalist, author
“Nations Should Submit to the Rule of Law,” Clearing the Ground (1986)

De Stael, Germaine -- Corinne, Book 8, ch. 2 (1807) [ed. Hill (1833)]

Dave — Tue, 12 Jan 2016 13:44:57 +0000

Love is the emblem of eternity; it confounds all notion of time; effaces all memory of a beginning, all fear of an end: we fancy that we have always possessed what we love, so difficult is it to imagine how we could have lived without it.

Germaine de Staël (1766-1817) Swiss-French writer, woman of letters, critic, salonist [Anne Louise Germaine de Staël-Holstein, Madame de Staël, Madame Necker]
Corinne, Book 8, ch. 2 (1807) [ed. Hill (1833)]

Alt. trans.: "It is certainly through love that eternity can be understood; it confuses all thoughts about time; it destroys the ideas of beginning and end; one thinks one has always been in love with the person one loves, so difficult is it to conceive that one could live without him." [tr. Raphael (1998)]

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)

Huxley, Aldous -- (Attributed)

Dave — Wed, 26 Nov 2014 13:24:27 +0000

Maybe this world is another planet’s Hell.

Aldous Huxley (1894-1963) English novelist, essayist and critic
(Attributed)

Quoted in Laurence J. Peter, Peter's Quotations: Ideas for Our Time (1979).

Publilius Syrus -- Sententiae [Moral Sayings], # 621 [tr. Lyman (1862)]

Dave — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 12:23:45 +0000

How long is life to the wretched, how short for the happy!

Publilius Syrus (d. 42 BC) Assyrian slave, writer, philosopher [less correctly Publius Syrus]
Sententiae [Moral Sayings], # 621 [tr. Lyman (1862)]

Publilius Syrus -- Sententiae [Moral Sayings], # 847

Dave — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 12:50:45 +0000

Everything is worth what its purchaser will pay for it.

Publilius Syrus (d. 42 BC) Assyrian slave, writer, philosopher [less correctly Publius Syrus]
Sententiae [Moral Sayings], # 847

Shakespeare, William -- As You Like It, Act 2, sc. 7, l. 142ff (2.7.142-145) (1599)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 19:00:00 +0000

DUKE SENIOR: Thou seest we are not all alone unhappy.
This wide and universal theater
Presents more woeful pageants than the scene
Wherein we play in.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
As You Like It, Act 2, sc. 7, l. 142ff (2.7.142-145) (1599)
(Source)