WIST Quotations

Fuller, Thomas (1654) -- Introductio ad Prudentiam, Vol. 1, # 948 (1725)

Dave — Wed, 26 Nov 2025 16:49:30 +0000

Never trust a malicious Man upon the Account that thou hast done him good Offices: For thou hast but fed a Dragon that will devour thee, if ever thou comest within his reach.

Thomas Fuller (1654-1734) English physician, preacher, aphorist, writer
Introductio ad Prudentiam, Vol. 1, # 948 (1725)
(Source)

Fuller repeated this item as # 2443 in his second volume (1727), slightly altered:

Never trust a malicious Man upon the Account that thou hast done him good Offices. For thou hast but fed a Dragon, that will devour thee if ever thou comest within the Reach of his Claws.

Moliere -- Tartuffe, or the Hypocrite [Le Tartuffe, ou L’Imposteur], Act 4, sc. 3 (1669) [tr. Wilbur (1963)]

Dave — Thu, 31 Jul 2025 21:03:41 +0000

ELMIRE: No, amorous men are gullible. Their conceit
So blinds them that they’re never hard to cheat.

[Non; on est aisément dupé par ce qu’on aime.
Et l’amour-propre engage à se tromper soi-même.]

Molière (1622-1673) French playwright, actor [stage name for Jean-Baptiste Poquelin]
Tartuffe, or the Hypocrite [Le Tartuffe, ou L’Imposteur], Act 4, sc. 3 (1669) [tr. Wilbur (1963)]
(Source)

When her maid is concerned that Tartuffe will see through Elmire's stratagem.

(Source (French)). Alternate translations:

No, People are easily Dup'd by what they love, and Self-love helps 'em to deceive themselves.
[tr. Clitandre (1672)]

No; people are easily duped by those whom they love, and conceit is apt to deceive itself.
[tr. Van Laun (1876)]

No, we are easily duped by those we love, and we deceive ourselves through our own conceit.
[tr. Wall (1879)]

No, people are easily duped by what they like; and self-love helps them to deceive themselves.
[tr. Mathew (1890), 4.2]

No; people are easily duped by those whom they love. Self-love leads the way to self-deceit.
[tr. Waller (1903)]

Oh no! A lover's never hard to cheat,
And self-conceit leads straight to self-deceit.
[tr. Page (1909)]

No, one is easily fooled by one's belovèd,
And self-conceit will end in self-deception.
[tr. Bishop (1957)]

Oh, no! A lover is not hard to cheat,
And self-deception springs from self-conceit.
[tr. Frame (1967)]

He loves me, and he's also vain,
That double drug will dull his brain.
[tr. Bolt (2002)]

No, it's easy to be fooled by what we want; our vanity is always ready to betray us.
[tr. Steiner (2008)]

We long to be fooled by the one we love,
And pride lends a hand in its own downfall.
[tr. Campbell (2013)]

Ingersoll, Robert Green -- Lecture (1873-12) “Individuality,” Chicago Free Religious Society

Dave — Fri, 30 May 2025 18:57:17 +0000

On every hand are the enemies of individuality and mental freedom. Custom meets us at the cradle and leaves us only at the tomb. Our first questions are answered by ignorance, and our last by superstition. We are pushed and dragged by countless hands along the beaten track, and our entire training can be summed up in the word –suppression. Our desire to have a thing or to do a thing is considered as conclusive evidence that we ought not to have it, and ought not to do it. At every turn we run against cherubim and a flaming sword guarding some entrance to the Eden of our desire. We are allowed to investigate all subjects in which we feel no particular interest, and to express the opinions of the majority with the utmost freedom. We are taught that liberty of speech should never be carried to the extent of contradicting the dead witnesses of a popular superstition. Society offers continual rewards for self-betrayal, and they are nearly all earned and claimed, and some are paid.

Robert Green Ingersoll (1833-1899) American lawyer, freethinker, orator
Lecture (1873-12) “Individuality,” Chicago Free Religious Society
(Source)

Full title "Arraignment of the Church and a Plea for Individuality." Collected in The Gods and Other Lectures (1876).

Emerson, Ralph Waldo -- Essay (1841), “Self-Reliance,” Essays: First Series, No. 2

Dave — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 15:26:31 +0000

A man should learn to detect and watch that gleam of light which flashes across his mind from within, more than the lustre of the firmament of bards and sages. Yet he dismisses without notice his thought, because it is his.
In every work of genius we recognize our own rejected thoughts; they come back to us with a certain alienated majesty. Great works of art have no more affecting lesson for us than this. They teach us to abide by our spontaneous impression with good-humored inflexibility then most when the whole cry of voices is on the other side. Else to-morrow a stranger will say with masterly good sense precisely what we have thought and felt all the time, and we shall be forced to take with shame our own opinion from another.

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) American essayist, lecturer, poet
Essay (1841), “Self-Reliance,” Essays: First Series, No. 2
(Source)

This essay was inspired by his reading of Walter Savage Landor in 1833, with passages pulled from his lecture "Individualism," last in his course on "The Philosophy of History" (1836–1837), with other passages from the lectures "School," "Genius," and "Duty" in his course on "Human Life" (1838–1839).