WIST Quotations

Ginott, Haim -- Between Parent and Teenager, ch. 2 “Rebellion and Response” (1969)

Dave — Thu, 07 Mar 2024 19:37:08 +0000

The search for a personal identity is the life task of a teenager.

Haim Ginott (1922-1973) Israeli-American school teacher, child psychologist, psychotherapist [b. Haim Ginzburg]
Between Parent and Teenager, ch. 2 “Rebellion and Response” (1969)
(Source)

Seneca the Younger -- Thyestes, ll. 401-403 [tr. Bacon]

Dave — Fri, 20 May 2016 15:33:37 +0000

It is a sad fate for a man to die
Too well known to everybody else,
And still unknown to himself.

[Illi mors gravis incubate
Qui notus nimis omnibus
Ignotus moritur sibi.]

Seneca the Younger (c. 4 BC-AD 65) Roman statesman, philosopher, playwright [Lucius Annaeus Seneca]
Thyestes, ll. 401-403 [tr. Bacon]

Lines from the Chorus translated by Francis Bacon, in "Of Great Place," Essays, Part 11. Sometimes incorrectly attributed to Bacon.

Shaw, George Bernard -- (Spurious)

Dave — Fri, 31 Jul 2015 14:53:25 +0000

Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.

George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) Irish playwright and critic
(Spurious)

This aphorism is frequently attributed to Shaw, but not found in his works and not attributed to him or in this form before around 1990. It may be a misattributed paraphrase from Thomas Szasz, The Second Sin (1973): "People often say that this or that person has not yet found himself. But the self is not something one finds; it is something one creates."

Stevenson, Robert Louis -- Essay (1878-03), “Crabbed Age and Youth,” Cornhill Magazine, Vol. 37

Dave — Wed, 16 Oct 2013 12:27:38 +0000

To hold the same views at forty as we held at twenty is to have been stupefied for a score of years, and take rank, not as a prophet, but as an unteachable brat, well birched and none the wiser. It is as if a ship captain should sail to India from the Port of London; and having brought a chart of the Thames on deck at his first setting out, should obstinately use no other for the whole voyage.

Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–1894) Scottish essayist, novelist, poet
Essay (1878-03), “Crabbed Age and Youth,” Cornhill Magazine, Vol. 37
(Source)

Collected in Virginibus Puerisque and Other Papers, ch. 2 (1881).

Hoffer, Eric -- Passionate State of Mind, Aphorism 151 (1955)

Dave — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 14:52:50 +0000

To become different from what we are, we must have some awareness of what we are.

Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
Passionate State of Mind, Aphorism 151 (1955)
(Source)

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Sr. -- Article (1872-01), “The Poet at the Breakfast-Table,” Atlantic Monthly

Dave — Tue, 30 Nov 2010 14:32:01 +0000

I talk half the time to find out my own thoughts, as a school-boy turns his pockets inside out to see what is in them. One brings to light all sorts of personal property he had forgotten in his inventory.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809-1894) American poet, essayist, scholar
Article (1872-01), “The Poet at the Breakfast-Table,” Atlantic Monthly
(Source)

Collected in The Poet at the Breakfast-Table, ch. 1 (1872).