WIST Quotations

Fowler, Gene -- (Attributed)

Dave — Thu, 18 Dec 2025 01:58:33 +0000

What is success? It is a toy balloon among children armed with pins.

Gene Fowler (1890-1960) American journalist, author, and dramatist. [b. Eugene Devlan]
(Attributed)

This is attributed in multiple sources to Fowler's Skyline: A Reporter's Reminiscence of the 1920s (1961), but searches of two copies do not find this text.

In her biography The Whole Truth and Nothing But (1963), Hollywood columnist Hedda Hopper wrote:

One of the men I loved most above all others was Gene Fowler. He once wrote me a letter from London. “What is success?" he asked. “I shall tell you out of the wisdom of my years. It is a toy balloon among children armed with sharp pins."

The line is also shows up in Art Cohn, The Nine Lives of Michael Todd, ch. 19 "I Love You" (1958).

Fowler, Gene -- Skyline: A Reporter’s Reminiscence of the 1920s, ch. 8 (1961)

Dave — Sat, 15 Nov 2025 06:16:58 +0000

Men are not against you, they are merely for themselves.

Gene Fowler (1890-1960) American journalist, author, and dramatist. [b. Eugene Devlan]
Skyline: A Reporter’s Reminiscence of the 1920s, ch. 8 (1961)
(Source)

Russell, Bertrand -- Conquest of Happiness, Part 1, ch. 3 “Competition” (1930)

Dave — Wed, 07 May 2025 22:29:23 +0000

What people mean, therefore, by the struggle for life is really the struggle for success. What people fear when they engage in the struggle is not that they will fail to get their breakfast next morning, but that they will fail to outshine their neighbours.

Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) English mathematician and philosopher
Conquest of Happiness, Part 1, ch. 3 “Competition” (1930)
(Source)

Cox, Marcelene -- “Ask Any Woman” column, Ladies’ Home Journal (1948-02)

Dave — Mon, 27 Mar 2023 20:02:28 +0000

One sure way to lose another woman’s friendship is to try to improve her flower arrangements.

Marcelene Cox (1900-1998) American writer, columnist, aphorist
“Ask Any Woman” column, Ladies’ Home Journal (1948-02)
(Source)

This was a regularly revisited aphorism for Cox:

One sure way to lose another woman's friendship is to try to improve her husband.
(1955-12)

The quickest way to lose another woman's friendship is to endeavor to improve her husband, her children, or her flower arrangements.
(1959-05)

One sure way to lose another woman's friendship is to try to improve either her children or her flower arrangements.
(1961-07)

Shakespeare, William -- Pericles, Act 1, sc. 2, l. 84ff (1.1.84-86) (1607) [with George Wilkins]

Dave — Wed, 11 Jan 2023 16:27:58 +0000

PERICLES:But thou know’st this:
’Tis time to fear when tyrants seems to kiss.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Pericles, Act 1, sc. 2, l. 84ff (1.1.84-86) (1607) [with George Wilkins]
(Source)

Aeschylus -- Agamemnon

Dave — Tue, 11 Oct 2016 03:07:00 +0000

Hell to ships, hell to men, hell to cities.

Aeschylus (525-456 BC) Greek dramatist (Æschylus)
Agamemnon

Speaking of Helen of Troy. The literal translation is "Ship-destroyer, man-destroyer, city-destroyer."

Einstein, Albert -- Speech, French Philosophical Society, Paris (6 Apr 1922)

Dave — Tue, 26 Jan 2016 17:16:44 +0000

If my theory of relativity is proven successful, Germany will claim me as a German and France will declare that I am a citizen of the world. Should my theory prove untrue, France will say that I am a German and Germany will declare that I am a Jew.

Albert Einstein (1879-1955) German-American physicist
Speech, French Philosophical Society, Paris (6 Apr 1922)

Lincoln, Abraham -- Essay (1862-09-02?), “Meditation on the Divine Will” (frag.)

Dave — Thu, 15 May 2008 10:27:34 +0000

In great contests each party claims to act in accordance with the will of God. Both may be, and one must be, wrong. God cannot be for and against the same thing at the same time. In the present civil war it is quite possible that God’s purpose is something different from the purpose of either party.

Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) American lawyer, politician, US President (1861-65)
Essay (1862-09-02?), “Meditation on the Divine Will” (frag.)
(Source)

This fragment was found and preserved by John Hay, one of Lincoln's personal secretaries. Hay, and John Nicolay (another of his secretaries) indicated it was a private note, never meant for publication, labeled it as possibly dated 30 September, though their account implies it was during his consideration of the Preliminary Emancipation Proclamation of 22 September. The editors of the Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln push the date as early as 2 September, following Second Bull Run. More detailed analysis of the date here.