WIST Quotations

Steele, Richard -- Essay (1710-06-06), “On the Death of Friends,” The Tatler, No. 181

Dave — Mon, 24 Aug 2026 17:53:46 +0000

Though it is by the benefit of nature that length of time thus blots out the violence of afflictions; yet with tempers too much given to pleasure, it is almost necessary to revive the old places of grief in our memory, and ponder step by step on past life, to lead the mind into that sobriety of thought which poises the heart, and makes it beat with due time, without being quickened with desire, or retarded with despair, from its proper and equal motion.

Richard Steele (1672–1729) Anglo-Irish writer, journalist, playwright, politician
Essay (1710-06-06), “On the Death of Friends,” The Tatler, No. 181
(Source)

Steele did not provide a title when this essay was published in The Tatler. It is also sometimes called "On Recollections of Childhood." It was published under Steele's pseudonym, Isaac Bickerstaff.

Stevenson, Robert Louis -- Essay (1880-01/02?), “Reflections and Remarks on Human Life,” § 6 “Right and Wrong”

Dave — Fri, 10 Apr 2026 17:15:49 +0000

It is the mark of a good action that it appears inevitable in the retrospect. We should have been cut-throats to do otherwise. And there’s an end. We ought to know distinctly that we are damned for what we do wrong; but when we have done right, we have only been gentlemen, after all. There is nothing to make a work about.

Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–1894) Scottish essayist, novelist, poet
Essay (1880-01/02?), “Reflections and Remarks on Human Life,” § 6 “Right and Wrong”
(Source)

A collection of aphorisms and musings, first published in the Edinburgh Edition of his Works, vol. 28 (1898).

Le Guin, Ursula K. -- Story (1995-11), “Ether, OR,” Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction, Vol. 19

Dave — Fri, 05 Dec 2025 21:51:53 +0000

It’s like all the time I was working keeping house and raising the kids and making love and earning our keep I thought there was going to come a time or there would be some place where all of it came together. Like it was words I was saying, all my life, all the kinds of work, just a word here and a word there, but finally all the words would make a sentence, and I could read the sentence. I would have made my soul and know what it was for. But I have made my soul and I don’t know what to do with it. Who wants it?

Ursula K. Le Guin (1929–2018) American writer
Story (1995-11), “Ether, OR,” Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction, Vol. 19
(Source)

Collected in the Aunt Lute Anthology of U.S. Women Writers, Vol. 2 (2008).

Addison, Joseph -- Essay (1711-06-26), The Spectator, No. 101

Dave — Mon, 14 Jul 2025 18:13:39 +0000

Persons in great stations have seldom their true characters drawn till several years after their deaths. Their personal friendships and enmities must cease, and the parties they were engaged in be at an end, before their faults or their virtues can have justice done to them.

Joseph Addison (1672–1719) English essayist, poet, statesman
Essay (1711-06-26), The Spectator, No. 101
(Source)

Wilcox, Ella Wheeler -- Poem (1868), “An Autumn Reverie,” st. 4-5, Shells (1873)

Dave — Wed, 18 Jun 2025 16:37:23 +0000

And yet I would not be a child again.
For surely as the night succeeds the day,
So surely will their mirth turn into tears.
And I would not return to happy hours,
If I must live again these weary years.
I would walk on, and leave it all behind:
will walk on; and when my feet grow sore,
The boatman waits — his sails are all unfurled —
He waits to row me to a fairer shore.

Ella Wheeler Wilcox (1850–1919) American author, poet, temperance advocate, spiritualist
Poem (1868), “An Autumn Reverie,” st. 4-5, Shells (1873)
(Source)

Rogers, Will -- Essay (1932-03-12), “Letters of a Self-Made Diplomat to Senator Borah,” Saturday Evening Post

Dave — Mon, 14 Apr 2025 20:06:28 +0000

When you put down the good things you ought to have done, and leave out the bad ones you did do — well, that’s Memoirs.

Will Rogers (1879–1935) American humorist
Essay (1932-03-12), “Letters of a Self-Made Diplomat to Senator Borah,” Saturday Evening Post
(Source)

William Borah (1885-1940) was a US Senator from Idaho (1907-1940). He was progressive politically, but an isolationist, a key figure in blocking US approval of the Versailles Treaty or joining the League of Nations.

Collected in Donald Day (ed.), The Autobiography of Will Rogers (1949), and Steven K Gragert (ed.), More Letters of a Self-Made Diplomat (1982).

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

Dave — Mon, 07 Apr 2025 17:01:53 +0000

History is opaque. You see what comes out, not the script that produces events, the generator of history. There is a fundamental incompleteness in your grasp of such events, since you do not see what’s inside the box, how the mechanisms work. What I call the generator of historical events is different from the events themselves, much as the minds of the gods cannot be read just by witnessing their deeds. You are very likely to be fooled about their intentions.

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)

Billings, Josh -- Everybody’s Friend, Or; Josh Billing’s Encyclopedia and Proverbial Philosophy of Wit and Humor, ch. 156 “Affurisms: Embers on the Harth” (1874)

Dave — Thu, 03 Apr 2025 16:17:25 +0000

We are always a-looking ahed, and that iz the way tew look; if the man at the wheel looks back he will soon beach hiz vessell.

[We are always a-looking ahead, and that is the way to look; if the man at the wheel looks back he will soon beach his vessel.]

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, ch. 156 “Affurisms: Embers on the Harth” (1874)
(Source)

Atwood, Margaret -- “Hair Jewellery,” Dancing Girls (1982)

Dave — Fri, 28 Feb 2025 19:31:28 +0000

I’ve never understood why people consider youth a time of freedom and joy. It’s probably because they have forgotten their own.

Margaret Atwood (b. 1939) Canadian writer, literary critic, environmental activist
“Hair Jewellery,” Dancing Girls (1982)
(Source)

McLaughlin, Mignon -- The Second Neurotic’s Notebook, ch. 5 (1966)

Dave — Tue, 18 Feb 2025 00:12:58 +0000

The time to begin most things is ten years ago.

Mignon McLaughlin (1913–1983) American journalist and author
The Second Neurotic’s Notebook, ch. 5 (1966)
(Source)

Byron, George Gordon, Lord -- “The Age of Bronze,” st. 1 (1823)

Dave — Tue, 26 Mar 2024 14:29:37 +0000

The “good old times” — all times when old are good —
Are gone.

George Gordon, Lord Byron (1788–1824) English poet
“The Age of Bronze,” st. 1 (1823)
(Source)

Tillich, Paul -- Quoted in Time (1963-05-17)

Dave — Fri, 10 Nov 2023 15:24:22 +0000

The awareness of the ambiguity of one’s highest achievements (as well as one’s deepest failures) is a definite symptom of maturity.

Paul Tillich (1886–1965) American theologian and philosopher
Quoted in Time (1963-05-17)
(Source)

Speech given at the 40th Anniversary Dinner for Time, reported in the following week's magazine.

Child, Lydia Maria -- Letter to John Fraser (1868)

Dave — Tue, 06 Jun 2023 20:10:48 +0000

All who strive to live for something beyond mere selfish aims find their capacities for doing good very inadequate to their aspirations. They do so much less than they want to do, and so much less than they, at the outset, expected to do, that their lives, viewed retrospectively, inevitably look like failure.

Lydia Maria Child (1802–1880) American abolitionist, activist, journalist, suffragist
Letter to John Fraser (1868)
(Source)

Steinbeck, John -- Sweet Thursday, ch. 3, sec. 1 (1954)

Dave — Wed, 25 Jan 2023 20:34:34 +0000

Looking back, you can usually find the moment of the birth of new era, whereas, when it happened, it was one day hooked on the tail of another.

John Steinbeck (1902–1968) American writer
Sweet Thursday, ch. 3, sec. 1 (1954)
(Source)

Dante Alighieri -- The Divine Comedy [Divina Commedia], Book 1 “Inferno,” Canto 5, l. 121ff (5.121-123) [Francesca] (1309) [tr. James (2013), l. 141ff]

Dave — Fri, 23 Dec 2022 20:14:17 +0000

Life brings no greater grief
Than happiness remembered in a time
Of sorrow.

[Nessun maggior dolore
Che ricordarsi del tempo felice
Ne la miseria.]

Dante Alighieri (1265–1321) Italian poet
The Divine Comedy [Divina Commedia], Book 1 “Inferno,” Canto 5, l. 121ff (5.121-123) [Francesca] (1309) [tr. James (2013), l. 141ff]
(Source)

Francesca de Rimini is responding to Dante's request to speak of her love affair while in the middle of being punished for it. It is a true (if slanted) tale that occurred when Dante was a young man. Francesca da Polenta wed the crippled Giovanni Malatesta de Rimini, but fell in adulterous love with his brother, Paolo. Upon discovery of their affair, Giovanni killed them both. This was a local scandal, and would have been lost to time if Dante had not recorded it here. He relegates the lovers to the "least" eternal punishment in Hell, in the circle of carnal sins -- while Giovanni (who was still alive when this was written) is doomed to a lower circle for the murder (treachery to kindred). (More info.)

Inspiration for this particular phrase has been credited to many sources: Wisdom 11:11-12, Boethius (Consolation of Philosophy, 2.4.3-6), and Pindar (Pythian 4.510-512) are the most common. Augustine (Confessions 10.14) and Thomas Aquinas have also been cited.

(Source (Italian)). Other translations:

No greater grief assails us [...]
Than in unhappy hours to recollect
A better time.
[tr. Rogers (1782)]

Oh! how grievous to relate
Past joys, and tread again the paths of fate.
[tr. Boyd (1802), st. 23]

No greater grief than to remember days
Of joy, when mis'ry is at hand!
[tr. Cary (1814)]

No keener pang hath hell.
Than to recall, amid some deep distress,
Our happier time.
[tr. Dayman (1843)]

There is no greater pain than to recall a happy time in wretchedness.
[tr. Carlyle (1849)]

There is no greater grief
Than to remember happiness in woe.
[tr. Bannerman (1850)]

No greater grief than this,
Mem'ry to hold of the past happy time
In misery.
[tr. Johnston (1867)]

There is no greater sorrow
Than to be mindful of the happy time
In misery.
[tr. Longfellow (1867)]

No greater woe is there than to call to mind the happy time in your misery.
[tr. Butler (1885)]

There is no greater grief
Than to remember us of happy time
In misery.
[tr. Minchin (1885)]

There is no greater woe than in misery to remember the happy time.
[tr. Norton (1892)]

No deeper sorrow is, than to recall a time of happiness, in misery's hour.
[tr. Sullivan (1893)]

There is no greater sorrow
Than to recall to memory times of gladness
In misery.
[tr. Griffith (1908)]

There is no greater pain than to recall the happy time in misery.
[tr. Sinclair (1939)]

No grief surpasses this [...]
In the midst of misery to remember bliss.
[tr. Binyon (1943)]

The bitterest woe of woes
Is to remember in our wretchedness
Old happy times.
[tr. Sayers (1949)]

The double grief of a lost bliss
is to recall its happy hour in pain.
[tr. Ciardi (1954), ll. 118-19]

There is no greater sorrow than to recall, in wretchedness, the happy time.
[tr. Singleton (1970)]

There is no greater pain
than to remember, in our present grief,
past happiness!
[tr. Musa (1971)]

There is no greater sorrow
than thinking back upon a happy time
in misery.
[tr. Mandelbaum (1980)]

There is no greater sorrow
Than to think backwards to a happy time,
When one is miserable.
[tr. Sisson (1981)]

No sadness
Is greater than in misery to rehearse
Memories of joy.
[tr. Pinsky (1994), l. 107ff]

There is no greater pain than to remember the happy time in wretchedness.
[tr. Durling (1996)]

There is no greater pain, than to remember happy times in misery.
[tr. Kline (2002)]

There is no greater pain, I fear,
than to recall past joy in present hell.
[tr. Carson (2002)]

There is no sorrow greater
than, in times of misery, to hold at heart
the memory of happiness.
[tr. Kirkpatrick (2006)]

There is no greater sorrow
than to recall our time of joy
in wretchedness.
[tr. Hollander/Hollander (2007)]

No sadness afflicts the heart
More than recalling, in times of utter disaster,
Sweetened days in which we knew no darkness.
[tr. Raffel (2010)]

What's sadder than remembering
The happy past when you're feeling wretched?
[tr. Bang (2012)]

Bellow, Saul -- “Ralph Ellison in Tivoli” (1998)

Dave — Wed, 05 Oct 2022 21:13:41 +0000

I have begun in old age to understand just how oddly we are all put together. We are so proud of our autonomy that we seldom if ever realize how generous we are to ourselves, and just how stingy with others. One of the booby traps of freedom — which is bordered on all sides by isolation — is that we think so well of ourselves. I now see that I have helped myself to the best cuts at life’s banquet.

Saul Bellow (1915–2005) Canadian-American writer
“Ralph Ellison in Tivoli” (1998)
(Source)

Originally printed in News from the Republic of Letters, No. 3 (1998). Reprinted in the Los Angeles Times (10 May 1998).

Euripides -- Andromeda [Ανδρομέδα], frag. 133 (TGF) (412 BC)

Dave — Tue, 09 Aug 2022 16:16:42 +0000

Sweet is the remembrance of troubles when you are in safety.

[άλλ’ ήδύ τοί σωθέντα μεμνήσθαί πόνων.]

Euripides (485?-406? BC) Greek tragic dramatist
Andromeda [Ανδρομέδα], frag. 133 (TGF) (412 BC)
(Source)

Nauck frag. 133, Barnes frag. 21, Musgrave frag. 10. (Source (Greek)). Other translations:

'Tis sweet to recollect past toils in safety.
[tr. Wodhull (1809)]

Sweet is the memory of toils that are past.
[tr. Reid (1883), in Cicero, De Finibus, 2.105]

Sweet is the memory of sorrows past.
[tr. Rackham (1914), in Cicero, De Finibus, 2.105]

After commenting that "The Greek line is known to you all," Cicero renders it in Latin as "Suavis laborum est praeteritorum memoria."

Eldridge, Paul -- Maxims for a Modern Man, #139 (1965)

Dave — Fri, 28 Jan 2022 20:08:47 +0000

The young know how old age should be; the old how youth should have been.

Paul Eldridge (1888–1982) American educator, novelist, poet
Maxims for a Modern Man, #139 (1965)
(Source)

Fussell, Paul -- “Thank God for the Atom Bomb,” The New Republic (26 Aug 1981)

Dave — Thu, 09 Sep 2021 15:20:48 +0000

The past, which as always did not know the future, acted in ways that ask to be imagined before they are condemned. Or even simplified.

Paul Fussell (1924–2012) American cultural and literary historian, author, academic
“Thank God for the Atom Bomb,” The New Republic (26 Aug 1981)
(Source)

Reprinted in Thank God for the Atom Bomb and Other Essays (1988).

Kelly, Walt -- Impollutable Pogo (1970)

Dave — Wed, 14 Apr 2021 14:16:13 +0000

Looking back on things, the view always improves.

Walt Kelly (1913–1973) American animator and cartoonist [Walter Crawford Kelly, Jr.]
Impollutable Pogo (1970)
(Source)

Teller, Edward -- Quoted by Judith Shoolery, personal communication (2004)

Dave — Tue, 13 Apr 2021 15:30:34 +0000

I believe that no endeavor that is worthwhile is simple in prospect; if it is right, it will be simple in retrospect.

Edward Teller (1908–2003) Hungarian-American theoretical physicist
Quoted by Judith Shoolery, personal communication (2004)
(Source)

Quoted in István Hargittai, The Martians of Science: Five Physicists Who Changed the Twentieth Century (2006).

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

Dave — Thu, 28 Jan 2021 22:53:01 +0000

Nobody knows what is going to happen because so much depends on an enormous number of variables, on simple hazard. On the other hand if you look at history retrospectively, then, even though it was contingent, you can tell a story that makes sense. […]
Jewish history, for example, in fact had its ups and downs, its, enmities and its friendships, as every history of all people has. The notion that there is one unilinear history is of course false. But if you look at it after the experience of Auschwitz it looks as though all of history — or at least history since the Middle Ages — had no other aim than Auschwitz. […]
This, is the real problem of every philosophy of history how: is it possible that in retrospect it always looks as though it couldn’t have happened otherwise?

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 portion of the interview comes at NN:NN in.

This portion of the interview was also published in The New York Review of Books (1978-10-26).

Palahniuk, Chuck -- Stranger Than Fiction: True Stories, “Consolation Prizes” (2004)

Dave — Tue, 23 Jun 2020 17:47:35 +0000

Everything is funnier in retrospect, funnier and prettier and cooler. You can laugh at anything from far enough away.

Chuck Palahniuk (b. 1962) American novelist and freelance journalist
Stranger Than Fiction: True Stories, “Consolation Prizes” (2004)
(Source)

Lewis, C.S. -- Prince Caspian (1951)

Dave — Wed, 07 Sep 2016 01:39:01 +0000

“You mean,” said Lucy rather faintly, “that it would have turned out all right—somehow? But how? Please, Aslan! Am I not to know?”

“To know what would have happened, child?” said Aslan. “No. Nobody is ever told that.”

“Oh dear,” said Lucy.

“But anyone can find out what will happen,” said Aslan. “If you go back to the others now, and wake them up; and tell them you have seen me again; and that you must all get up at once and follow me — what will happen? There is only one way of finding out.”

C. S. Lewis (1898–1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
Prince Caspian (1951)

Bradbury, Ray -- “Ray Bradbury is on fire!”, interview with James Hibberd, Salon.com (29 Aug 2001)

Dave — Mon, 24 Mar 2014 12:46:04 +0000

If you can’t read and write you can’t think. Your thoughts are dispersed if you don’t know how to read and write. You’ve got to be able to look at your thoughts on paper and discover what a fool you were.

Ray Bradbury (1920–2012) American writer, futurist, fabulist
“Ray Bradbury is on fire!”, interview with James Hibberd, Salon.com (29 Aug 2001)
(Source)

Johnson, Samuel -- Comment

Dave — Tue, 31 Dec 2013 17:27:07 +0000

It is a mortifying reflection for any man to consider what he has done with what he might have done.

Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) English writer, lexicographer, critic
Comment

Quoted by Rev. Dr. Maxwell (1770), in James Boswell, The Life of Samuel Johnson (1791).

Ericsson, Graham -- Journal (2012-03-21)

Dave — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 15:14:12 +0000

A century from now, nobody will know which way I drove to work, but that doesn’t mean I don’t have to keep my eyes on the road.

Graham Ericsson (b. 1961) American technologist, writer, aphorist
Journal (2012-03-21)

Mackay, Charles -- Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds, “The Alchymists” (1841)

Dave — Tue, 14 Jun 2011 12:33:21 +0000

The study of the errors into which great minds have fallen in the pursuit of truth can never be uninstructive. As the man looks back to the days of his childhood and his youth, and recalls to his mind the strange notions and false opinions that swayed his actions at that time, that he may wonder at them; so should society, for its edification, look back to the opinions which governed the ages fled. He is but a superficial thinker who would despise and refuse to hear of them merely because they are absurd. No man is so wise but that he may learn some wisdom from his past errors, either of thought or action; and no society has made such advances as to be capable of no improvement from the retrospect of its past folly and credulity.

Charles Mackay (1814–1889) Scottish poet, journalist, song writer
Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds, “The Alchymists” (1841)
(Source)

Jackson, Robert H. -- “Advocacy Before the Supreme Court,” Morrison Lecture, California State Bar (23 Aug 1951)

Dave — Mon, 05 May 2008 10:27:44 +0000

I used to say that, as Solicitor General, I made three arguments in every case. First came the one I had planned — as I thought, logical, coherent, complete. Second was the one actually presented — interrupted, incoherent, disjointed, disappointing. The third was the utterly devastating argument that I thought of after going to bed that night.

Robert H. Jackson (1892–1954) US Supreme Court Justice (1941–54), lawyer, jurist, politician
“Advocacy Before the Supreme Court,” Morrison Lecture, California State Bar (23 Aug 1951)
(Source)

Reprinted in the Cornell Law Quarterly (Fall 1951). Legal citation "Advocacy Before the Supreme Court," 37 A.B.A.J. 801, 803 (1951).

Gaiman, Neil -- American Gods, Part 2, ch. 10 (2001)

Dave — Sat, 08 Sep 2007 16:12:19 +0000

Later, he wondered if he could have changed things, if that gesture would have done any good, if it could have averted any of the harm that was to come. He told himself it wouldn’t. He knew it wouldn’t. But still, afterward, he wished that, just for a moment on that slow flight home, he had touched Wednesday’s hand.

Neil Gaiman (b. 1960) British author, screenwriter, fabulist
American Gods, Part 2, ch. 10 (2001)
(Source)

Gellert, Christian -- Geistliche Oden und Lieder, “Vom Tode” (1757)

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

Live as you will wish to have lived when you are dying.

[Lebe, wie Du, wenn du stirbst, / Wunschen wirst, gelebt zu haben.]

Christian Gellert (1715–1769) German poet, moralist
Geistliche Oden und Lieder, “Vom Tode” (1757)