WIST Quotations

Joubert, Joseph -- Pensées [Thoughts], ch. 23 “Des Qualités de l’Écrivain [Of the Qualities of Writers],” ¶ 53 (1805) (1850 ed.) [tr. Lyttelton (1899), ch. 22, ¶ 20]

Dave — Mon, 05 Aug 2024 19:46:54 +0000

Idleness is a necessity for the mind, as much as work. Talent is ruined by writing too much, and rusted by not writing at all.

[L’oisiveté est nécessaire aux esprits, aussi bien que le travail. On se ruine l’esprit à trop écrire; on se rouille à n’écrire pas.]

Joseph Joubert (1754-1824) French moralist, philosopher, essayist, poet
Pensées [Thoughts], ch. 23 “Des Qualités de l’Écrivain [Of the Qualities of Writers],” ¶ 53 (1805) (1850 ed.) [tr. Lyttelton (1899), ch. 22, ¶ 20]
(Source)

(Source (French)). Alternate translations:

The mind must rest as well as work. To write too much ruins it; to leave off writing rusts it.
[tr. Attwell (1896), ¶ 336]

One ruins the mind with too much writing. One rusts it by not writing at all.
[tr. Auster (1983), 1805 entry]

Tennyson, Alfred, Lord -- “Ulysses,” ll. 22-32 (1842)

Dave — Tue, 20 Feb 2024 00:10:23 +0000

How dull it is to pause, to make an end,
To rust unburnish’d, not to shine in use!
As tho’ to breathe were life. Life piled on life
Were all too little, and of one to me
Little remains: but every hour is saved
From that eternal silence, something more,
A bringer of new things; and vile it were
For some three suns to store and hoard myself,
And this gray spirit yearning in desire
To follow knowledge, like a sinking star,
Beyond the utmost bound of human thought.

Alfred, Lord Tennyson (1809-1892) English poet
“Ulysses,” ll. 22-32 (1842)
(Source)

Franklin, Benjamin -- Poor Richard (1744 ed.)

Dave — Fri, 13 May 2011 12:12:22 +0000

Sloth (like Rust) consumes faster than Labour wears: the used Key is always bright.

Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) American statesman, scientist, philosopher, aphorist
Poor Richard (1744 ed.)
(Source)