WIST Quotations

Bible, Vol. 1. Old Testament -- Book 22b. Sirach (Ecclesiasticus) 20:18 (Sir 20:18) [tr. NRSV (2021 ed.), Ecclesiasticus]

Dave — Tue, 09 Jun 2026 16:33:23 +0000

A slip on the pavement is better than a slip of the tongue;
the downfall of the wicked will occur just as speedily.

[Ὀλίσθημα ἀπὸ ἐδάφους μᾶλλον ἢ ἀπὸ γλώσσης.
οὕτως πτῶσις κακῶν κατὰ σπουδὴν ἥξει.]

The Bible (The Old Testament) (14th - 2nd C BC) Judeo-Christian sacred scripture [Tanakh, Hebrew Bible], incl. the Apocrypha (Deuterocanonicals)
Book 22b. Sirach (Ecclesiasticus) 20:18 (Sir 20:18) [tr. NRSV (2021 ed.), Ecclesiasticus]
(Source)

More on the history and acceptance of this Apocryphal book here and here.

(Source (Greek)). Alternate translations:

To slip upon a pavement is better than to slip with the tongue: so the fall of the wicked shall come speedily.
[tr. KJV (1611), Ecclesiasticus]

The slipping of a false tongue is as one that falleth on the pavement: so the fall of the wicked shall come speedily.
[tr. DRA (1899); Sirach 20:20]

Better a slip on the pavement than a slip of the tongue;
this is how ruin takes the wicked by surprise.
[tr. [tr. JB (1966), NJB (1985); Ecclesiasticus]

A slip of the tongue is worse than a slip on the pavement; the wicked will go to ruin just as suddenly as a person slips and falls.
[tr. GNT (1992 ed.), Sirach]

A slip on the pavement is preferable
to a slip of the tongue;
so the downfall of evil people
will come quickly.
[tr. CEB (2011), Sirach]

Addison, Joseph -- Essay (1713-07-04), The Guardian, No. 99

Dave — Mon, 02 Mar 2026 18:33:00 +0000

When a nation once loses its regard to justice; when they do not look up it as something venerable, holy and inviolable; when any of them dare presume to lessen, affront or terrify those who have the distribution of it in their hands; when a judge is capable of being influenced by any thing that is foreign to its own merits, we may venture to pronounce that such a nation is hastening to its ruin.

Joseph Addison (1672-1719) English essayist, poet, statesman
Essay (1713-07-04), The Guardian, No. 99
(Source)

Hugo, Victor -- Poem (1876), “The Vanished City [La Ville Disparue],” Legend of the Ages: New Series [La Légende des siècles: La Nouvelle Série], No. 4 (1877) [tr. Carrington (1885)]

Dave — Mon, 09 Feb 2026 18:59:37 +0000

For, to make deserts, God, who rules mankind,
Begins with kings, and ends the work by wind.

[Car pour faire un désert, Dieu, maître des vivants,
Commence par les rois et finit par les vents.]

Victor Hugo (1802-1885) French writer
Poem (1876), “The Vanished City [La Ville Disparue],” Legend of the Ages: New Series [La Légende des siècles: La Nouvelle Série], No. 4 (1877) [tr. Carrington (1885)]
(Source)

(Source (French))

Euripides -- Hecuba [Hekabe; Ἑκάβη], l. 1028ff (c. 424 BC) [tr. @sentantiq (2020)]

Dave — Tue, 17 Jun 2025 16:22:14 +0000

CHORUS:The meeting place
Of debt to Justice and to the gods
Is a terrible, terrible place.

ΧΟΡΟΣ:[τὸ γὰρ ὑπέγγυον
Δίκᾳ καὶ θεοῖσιν οὐ συμπίτνει:
ὀλέθριον ὀλέθριον κακόν.]

Euripides (485?-406? BC) Greek tragic dramatist
Hecuba [Hekabe; Ἑκάβη], l. 1028ff (c. 424 BC) [tr. @sentantiq (2020)]
(Source)

To Polymestor as he unknowingly goes to suffer Hecuba's bloody vengeance.

(Source (Greek)). Alternate translations:

For twofold ruin doth impend
O'er him who human laws pursue,
And righteous Gods indignant view.
[tr. Wodhull (1809)]

For where the rites of hospitality coincide with justice, and with the Gods, on the villain who dares to violate these destructive, destructive indeed impends the evil.
[tr. Edwards (1826)]

For wherever it cometh to pass that the rightful demand
Of justice's claim and the laws of the Gods be at one,
Then is ruinous bane for the sinner, O ruinous bane!
[tr. Way (Loeb) (1894)]

When the Gods and Justice meet,
And the Pledge that is forfeited,
The end is Ruin.
[tr. Sheppard (1924)]

For the rights of justice and of the gods do not fall together; there is ruin full of death and doom.
[tr. Coleridge (1938)]

Justice and the gods
exact the loan at last.
[tr. Arrowsmith (1958)]

When the gods call in their debt
and Justice wants your scalp as well,
better for you if you were dead
as your life will be one long hell.
[tr. Harrison (2005)]

Because when Justice and Heaven are both transgressed, there will be doom. Doom and more doom!
[tr. Theodoridis (2007)]

Where justice and the gods converge, there’s a maelstrom.
[tr. Karden/Street (2011)]

Jerome, Jerome K. -- Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow, “On Memory” (1886)

Dave — Mon, 24 Jun 2024 23:46:43 +0000

Life altogether is but a crumbling ruin when we turn to look behind: a shattered column here, where a massive portal stood; the broken shaft of a window to mark my lady’s bower; and a moldering heap of blackened stones where the glowing flames once leaped, and over all the tinted lichen and the ivy clinging green.

Jerome K. Jerome (1859-1927) English writer, humorist [Jerome Klapka Jerome]
Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow, “On Memory” (1886)
(Source)

First published in Home Chimes (1885-09-26).

Rogers, Will -- Column (1928-07-17), “Daily Telegram”

Dave — Wed, 29 Nov 2023 16:30:37 +0000

This thing of being a hero, about the main thing to it is to know when to die. Prolonged life has ruined more men that it ever made.

Will Rogers (1879-1935) American humorist
Column (1928-07-17), “Daily Telegram”
(Source)

Also see Hoffer (1955), Muggeridge (1972).

Aristotle -- (Spurious)

Dave — Wed, 15 Jun 2022 03:10:19 +0000

Character is made by many acts; it may be lost by a single one.

Aristotle (384-322 BC) Greek philosopher
(Spurious)

Frequently attributed to Aristotle, but not found in his works. One of the earliest references is in J. A. Haigh, "Character," Great Thoughts from Master Minds (5 Oct 1907). Haigh does not present it as his own thought ("Character, it has been well said, is made up ..."). John Christensen notes that the sentiment of the quote is very non-Aristotelian, feeling more like a Christian teaching about sin than a philosophical commentary. Aristotle generally speaks about developing a habit toward virtue (1, 2, 3), not some sort of all-or-nothing moral imperative.

Sophocles -- Antigone, l. 221ff [Creon] (441 BC) [tr. Watling (1947)]

Dave — Thu, 01 Apr 2021 16:53:32 +0000

There is always someone ready to be lured to ruin by hope of gain.

[ἀλλ᾽ ὑπ᾽ ἐλπίδων ἄνδρας τὸ κέρδος πολλάκις διώλεσεν.]

Sophocles (496-406 BC) Greek tragic playwright
Antigone, l. 221ff [Creon] (441 BC) [tr. Watling (1947)]
(Source)

Original Greek. Alternate translations:

"But backed by hope, lucre has ruined many." [tr. Donaldson (1848)]
"Yet hope of gain hath lured men to their ruin oftentimes." [tr. Storr (1859)]
"But hope of gain full oft ere now hath been the ruin of men." [tr. Campbell (1873)]
"Yet by just the hope of it, money has many times corrupted men." [tr. Jebb (1891)]
"Yet lucre hath oft ruined men through their hopes." [tr. Jebb (1917)]
"Yet money talks, and the wisest have sometimes been known to count a few coins too many." [tr. Fitts/Fitzgerald (1939)]
"But often we have known men to be ruined by the hope of profit." [tr. Wyckoff (1954)]
"But love of gain has often lured a man to his destruction." [tr. Kitto (1962)]
"But all too often the mere hope of money has ruined many men." [tr. Fagles (1982)]
"But hope -- and bribery -- often have led men to destruction." [tr. Woodruff (2001)]
"But profit with its hopes often destroys men." [tr. Tyrell/Bennett (2002)] https://diotima-doctafemina.org/translations/greek/sophocles-antigone/#post-1273:~:text=But%20profit,with%20its%20hopes%20often%20destroys%20men.
"Yet there are men who the mere hope of winning has killed them." [tr. Theodoridis (2004)]
"And yet men have often been destroyed because they hoped to profit in some way." [tr. Johnston (2005)]
"But often profit has destroyed men through their hopes." [tr. Thomas (2005)]
"But the profit-motive has destroyed many people in their hope for gain." [tr. @sentantiq (2018)]

De Stael, Germaine -- Reflections on Suicide [Réflexions sur le suicide], Sec. 1 (1813) [tr. De Finod]

Dave — Wed, 18 Nov 2015 16:05:13 +0000

Life often seems like a long shipwreck, of which the debris are friendship, glory, and love; the shores of existence are strewn with them.

Germaine de Staël (1766-1817) Swiss-French writer, woman of letters, critic, salonist [Anne Louise Germaine de Staël-Holstein, Madame de Staël, Madame Necker]
Reflections on Suicide [Réflexions sur le suicide], Sec. 1 (1813) [tr. De Finod]

Franklin, Benjamin -- Poor Richard’s Almanack (Dec 1752)

Dave — Fri, 19 Dec 2014 13:26:00 +0000

Success has ruined many a man.

Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) American statesman, scientist, philosopher, aphorist
Poor Richard’s Almanack (Dec 1752)

Shakespeare, William -- King Lear, Act 1, sc. 4, l. 369 (1.4.369) (1606)

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

ALBANY: Striving to better, oft we mar what’s well.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
King Lear, Act 1, sc. 4, l. 369 (1.4.369) (1606)
(Source)

Roosevelt, Theodore -- Speech (1910-08-31), “The New Nationalism,” John Brown Memorial Park dedication, Osawatomie, Kansas

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

Those who oppose all reform will do well to remember that ruin in its worst form is inevitable if our national life brings us nothing better than swollen fortunes for the few and the triumph in both politics and business of a sordid and selfish materialism.

Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) American politician, statesman, conservationist, writer, US President (1901–1909)
Speech (1910-08-31), “The New Nationalism,” John Brown Memorial Park dedication, Osawatomie, Kansas
(Source)

Montesquieu -- Considerations on the Causes of the Greatness of the Romans and their Decline [Considérations sur les causes de la grandeur des Romains et de leur décadence], ch. 4 (1734, 1748 ed.) [tr. Baker (1882)]

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

A kingdom is not brought nearer to ruin by the tyranny of the sovereign than is a republic by indifference to the common welfare.

[La tyrannie d’un prince ne met pas un État plus près de sa ruine que l’indifférence pour le bien commun n’y met une république.]

Charles-Lewis de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu (1689-1755) French political philosopher
Considerations on the Causes of the Greatness of the Romans and their Decline [Considérations sur les causes de la grandeur des Romains et de leur décadence], ch. 4 (1734, 1748 ed.) [tr. Baker (1882)]
(Source)

(Source (French)). Other translations:

A monarchy is not dragged nearer to the brink of ruin by the tyranny of a prince, than a commonwealth by a lukewarmness and indifference for the general good.
[tr. B--- (1734)]

The tyranny of a prince in an oligarchy is not so dangerous to the public welfare as the apathy of a citizen in a democracy.
[E.g. (1926)]

The tyranny of a prince does no more to ruin a state than does indifference to the common good to ruin a republic.
[tr. Lowenthal (1965)]