WIST Quotations

Shakespeare, William -- Hamlet, Act 3, sc. 1, ll. 108 (3.1.109-110) (c. 1600)

Dave — Mon, 17 Mar 2025 16:36:36 +0000

OPHELIA:Their perfume lost,
Take these again, for to the noble mind
Rich gifts wax poor when givers prove unkind.

William Shakespeare (1564–1616) English dramatist and poet
Hamlet, Act 3, sc. 1, ll. 108 (3.1.109-110) (c. 1600)
(Source)

Returning to Hamlet gifts he gave her in the past.

Gaiman, Neil -- Story (2010), “The Truth Is a Cave in the Black Mountains,” Stories: All-New Tales

Dave — Fri, 03 May 2024 14:46:17 +0000

I am old now, or at least, I am no longer young, and everything I see reminds me of something else I’ve seen, such that I see nothing for the first time. A bonny girl, her hair fiery red, reminds me only of another hundred such lasses, and their mothers, and what they were as they grew, and what they looked like when they died. It is the curse of age, that all things are reflections of other things.

Neil Gaiman (b. 1960) British author, screenwriter, fabulist
Story (2010), “The Truth Is a Cave in the Black Mountains,” Stories: All-New Tales
(Source)

Reprinted in Trigger Warning (2015).

Byron, George Gordon, Lord -- “Sun of the Sleepless!” Hebrew Melodies (1815)

Dave — Thu, 14 Sep 2023 14:56:16 +0000

So gleams the past, the light of other days,
Which shines, but warms not with its powerless rays.

George Gordon, Lord Byron (1788–1824) English poet
“Sun of the Sleepless!” Hebrew Melodies (1815)
(Source)

Gracián, Baltasar -- The Art of Worldly Wisdom [Oráculo Manual y Arte de Prudencia], § 7 (1647) [tr. Maurer (1992)]

Dave — Tue, 09 May 2023 14:48:53 +0000

Princes like to be helped, but not surpassed. When you counsel someone, you should appear to be reminding him of something he had forgotten, not of the light he was unable to see.

[Gustan de ser ayudados los príncipes, pero no excedidos, y que el aviso haga antes viso de recuerdo de lo que olvidaba que de luz de lo que no alcanzó.]

Baltasar Gracián y Morales (1601–1658) Spanish Jesuit priest, writer, philosopher
The Art of Worldly Wisdom [Oráculo Manual y Arte de Prudencia], § 7 (1647) [tr. Maurer (1992)]
(Source)

(Source (Spanish)). Other translations:

Princes are willing to be assisted, but not surpassed. Those who advise them ought to speak as if they put them in mind of what they forgot, and not as teaching them what they knew not.
[Flesher ed. (1685)]

They [princes] will allow a man to help them but not to surpass them, and will have any advice tendered them appear like a recollection of something they have forgotten rather than as a guide to something they cannot find.
[tr. Jacobs (1892)]

They [kings] may abide being helped, but not surpassed, wherefore let advice given them appear more a jog to what they forgot, than a light to what they could not find.
[tr. Fischer (1937)]

Coward, Noël -- The Vortex, Act 1 (1924)

Dave — Thu, 07 Dec 2017 00:12:42 +0000

BUNTY: It’s such fun, being reminded of things.
NICKY: And such agony, too.

Noël Coward (1899–1973) English playwright, actor, wit
The Vortex, Act 1 (1924)

Johnson, Samuel -- Essay (1750-03-24), The Rambler, No. 2

Dave — Fri, 11 Jan 2013 14:12:53 +0000

Men more frequently require to be reminded than informed.

Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) English writer, lexicographer, critic
Essay (1750-03-24), The Rambler, No. 2
(Source)

Wodehouse, P. G. -- The Inimitable Jeeves, ch. 13 (1923)

Dave — Tue, 06 Jul 2010 13:12:01 +0000

Jeeves coughed one soft, low, gentle cough like a sheep with a blade of grass stuck in its throat.

P. G. Wodehouse (1881–1975) Anglo-American humorist, playwright and lyricist [Pelham Grenville Wodehouse]
The Inimitable Jeeves, ch. 13 (1923)

Hoover, Herbert -- Speech (1929-12-14), Gridiron Club, Willard Hotel, Washington, D.C.

Dave — Mon, 17 May 2010 13:37:37 +0000

In the Middle Ages it was the fashion to wear hair shirts to remind one’s self of trouble and sin. Many years ago I concluded that a few hair shirts were part of the mental wardrobe of every man. The President differs only from other men in that he has a more extensive wardrobe.

Herbert Hoover (1874–1964) American engineer, bureaucrat, US President (1929–33)
Speech (1929-12-14), Gridiron Club, Willard Hotel, Washington, D.C.
(Source)

More about the hair shirt or "cilice" here.

Johnson, Samuel -- The Rambler, #175 (19 Nov 1751)

Dave — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 10:50:10 +0000

But, perhaps, the excellence of aphorisms consists not so much in the expression of some rare and abstruse sentiment, as in the comprehension of some obvious and useful truths in a few words. We frequently fall into error and folly, not because the true principles of actions are not not known, but because, for a time, they are not remembered; and he may, therefore, be justly numbered among the benefactors of mankind, who contracts the great rules of life into short sentences, that may be easily impressed on the memory, and taught by frequent recollection to recur habitually to the mind.

Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) English writer, lexicographer, critic
The Rambler, #175 (19 Nov 1751)
(Source)

Smith, Sydney -- Sermon (1824-03-28), “The Judge That Smites Contrary to the Law”

Dave — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 10:41:02 +0000

The object of preaching is, constantly to remind mankind of what mankind are constantly forgetting; not to supply the defects of human intelligence, but to fortify the feebleness of human resolutions.

Sydney Smith (1771–1845) English clergyman, essayist, wit
Sermon (1824-03-28), “The Judge That Smites Contrary to the Law”
(Source)

On Acts 23:3. Preached in the Cathedral Church of Saint Peter, York.