WIST Quotations

Orwell, George -- Essay (1941-08), “Wells, Hitler, and the World State,” Horizon

Dave — Fri, 30 May 2025 15:23:52 +0000

The early Bolsheviks may have been angels or demons, according as one chooses to regard them, but at any rate they were not sensible men. They were not introducing a Wellsian Utopia but a Rule of the Saints, which, like the English Rule of the Saints, was a military despotism enlivened by witchcraft trials.

George Orwell (1903-1950) English journalist, essayist, writer [pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair]
Essay (1941-08), “Wells, Hitler, and the World State,” Horizon
(Source)

Frazier, Ian -- “A Strangely Funny Russian Genius,” New York Review of Books (7 May 2015)

Dave — Tue, 01 Jun 2021 21:13:30 +0000

Given the disaster Russian history has been more or less continuously for the last five centuries, its humor is of the darkest, most extreme kind. Russian humor is to ordinary humor what backwoods fundamentalist poisonous snake handling is to a petting zoo. Russian humor is slapstick, only you actually die.

Ian Frazier (b. 1951) American writer and humorist
“A Strangely Funny Russian Genius,” New York Review of Books (7 May 2015)
(Source)

Reviewing books by Russian writer Daniil Kharms.

Keynes, John Maynard -- “A Short View of Russia” (1925)

Dave — Tue, 24 Jan 2017 15:01:14 +0000

Comfort and habits let us be ready to forgo, but I am not ready for a creed which does not care how much it destroys the liberty and security of daily life, which uses deliberately the weapons of persecution, destruction and international strife. How can I admire a policy which finds a characteristic expression in spending millions to suborn spies in every family and group at home, and to stir up trouble abroad?

John Maynard Keynes (1883-1946) English economist
“A Short View of Russia” (1925)

Custine (Marquis de) -- La Russie en 1839, Vol. 1 (1843)

Dave — Tue, 27 May 2014 13:04:50 +0000

The Russian government is an absolute monarchy tempered by assassination.

Astolphe-Louis-Léonor, Marquis de Custine (1790-1857) French aristocrat and writer
La Russie en 1839, Vol. 1 (1843)