WIST Quotations

Millay, Edna St. Vincent -- “The Poet and His Book,” st. 6, Second April (1921)

Dave — Fri, 07 Nov 2025 05:29:22 +0000

Stranger, pause and look;
From the dust of ages
Lift this little book,
Turn the tattered pages,
Read me, do not let me die!
Search the fading letters, finding
Steadfast in the broken binding
All that once was I!

Edna St. Vincent Millay (1892-1950) American poet
“The Poet and His Book,” st. 6, Second April (1921)
(Source)

Bradbury, Ray -- Zen in the Art of Writing, Preface (1994)

Dave — Tue, 21 Oct 2025 00:08:43 +0000

So while our art cannot, as we wish it could, save us from wars, privation, envy, greed, old age, or death, it can revitalize us amidst it all.

Ray Bradbury (1920-2012) American writer, futurist, fabulist
Zen in the Art of Writing, Preface (1994)
(Source)

McLaughlin, Mignon -- The Second Neurotic’s Notebook, ch. 9 (1966)

Dave — Mon, 28 Jul 2025 21:12:20 +0000

When you let money speak for you, it drowns out anything else you meant to say.

Mignon McLaughlin (1913-1983) American journalist and author
The Second Neurotic’s Notebook, ch. 9 (1966)
(Source)

Fromm, Erich -- The Art of Loving, ch. 2, sec. 1 (1956)

Dave — Fri, 20 Oct 2023 14:17:32 +0000

Giving is more joyous than receiving, not because it is a deprivation, but because in the act of giving lies the expression of my aliveness.

Erich Fromm (1900-1980) American psychoanalyst and social philosopher
The Art of Loving, ch. 2, sec. 1 (1956)
(Source)

Goethe, Johann von -- Elective Affinities [Die Wahlverwandtschaften], Part 2, ch. 5, “From Ottilie’s Journal [Aus Ottiliens Tagebuche]” (1809) [tr. Hollingdale (1971)]

Dave — Mon, 05 Dec 2022 17:09:46 +0000

Behavior is a mirror in which everyone displays his own image.

[Das Betragen ist ein Spiegel in welchem jeder sein Bild zeigt.]

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) German poet, statesman, scientist
Elective Affinities [Die Wahlverwandtschaften], Part 2, ch. 5, “From Ottilie’s Journal [Aus Ottiliens Tagebuche]” (1809) [tr. Hollingdale (1971)]
(Source)

(Source (German)). Alternate translation:

Behavior is a mirror in which every one shows his image.
[Niles ed. (1872)]

McLuhan, Marshall -- The Medium is the Massage: An Inventory of Effects (1967) [with Quentin Fiore]

Dave — Wed, 21 Sep 2022 17:40:13 +0000

Art is anything you can get away with.

Marshall McLuhan (1911-1980) Canadian philosopher, communication theorist, educator
The Medium is the Massage: An Inventory of Effects (1967) [with Quentin Fiore]
(Source)

More discussion of this quotation: Art Is Anything You Can Get Away With – Quote Investigator.

Tarkovsky, Andrei -- Sculpting in Time (1986) [tr. Hunter-Blair]

Dave — Mon, 19 Sep 2022 17:51:36 +0000

Art is born and takes hold wherever there is a timeless and insatiable longing for the spiritual, for the ideal: that longing which draws people to art. Modern art has taken the wrong turn in abandoning the search for the meaning of existence in order to affirm the value of the individual for his own sake.

Andrei Tarkovsky (1932-1986) Russian film director, screenwriter, film theorist [Андрей Арсеньевич Тарковский]
Sculpting in Time (1986) [tr. Hunter-Blair]
(Source)

Schulman, Tom -- Dead Poets Society (1989)

Dave — Fri, 01 Jul 2022 14:09:59 +0000

KEATING: Boys, you must strive to find your own voice. Because the longer you wait to begin, the less likely you are to find it at all. Thoreau said, “Most men lead lives of quiet desperation.” Don’t be resigned to that. Break out! Break out!

Tom Schulman (b. 1951) American screenwriter, director
Dead Poets Society (1989)
(Source)

See Thoreau.

Connolly, Cyril -- “Miscellany: Last Words,” The New Statesman (25 Feb 1933)

Dave — Tue, 29 Mar 2022 17:44:52 +0000

Better to write for yourself and have no public, than to write for the public and have no self.

Cyril Connolly (1903-1974) English intellectual, literary critic and writer.
“Miscellany: Last Words,” The New Statesman (25 Feb 1933)

Mencken, H. L. -- “The Fringes of Lovely Letters,” Prejudices: Fifth Series (1926)

Dave — Wed, 12 Jan 2022 14:59:03 +0000

An author, like any other so-called artist, is a man in whom the normal vanity of all men is so vastly exaggerated that he finds it a sheer impossibility to hold it in. His overpowering impulse is to gyrate before his fellow men, flapping his wings and emitting defiant yells. This being forbidden by the police of all civilized countries, he takes it out by putting his yells on paper. Such is the thing called self-expression.

H. L. Mencken (1880-1956) American writer and journalist [Henry Lewis Mencken]
“The Fringes of Lovely Letters,” Prejudices: Fifth Series (1926)
(Source)

Arendt, Hannah -- Life of the Mind, Vol. 1 “Thinking,” Part 1, ch. 4 “Body and soul; soul and mind” (1977)

Dave — Thu, 03 Dec 2020 19:29:39 +0000

The emotions I feel are no more meant to be shown in their unadulterated state than the inner organs by which we live.

Hannah Arendt (1906-1975) German-American philosopher, political theorist
Life of the Mind, Vol. 1 “Thinking,” Part 1, ch. 4 “Body and soul; soul and mind” (1977)
(Source)

Originally printed as an essay (1977-11-14), "Thinking -- I," The New Yorker (1977-11-21).

Chomsky, Noam -- “An Eight Point Brief for LEV (Lesser Evil Voting)” (2016-06-15) [with John Halle]

Dave — Wed, 21 Oct 2020 15:16:51 +0000

Another point of disagreement [over Lesser Evil Voting] is not factual but involves the ethical/moral principle […] sometimes referred to as the “politics of moral witness.” Generally associated with the religious left, secular leftists implicitly invoke it when they reject LEV on the grounds that “a lesser of two evils is still evil.” Leaving aside the obvious rejoinder that this is exactly the point of lesser evil voting — i.e. to do less evil, what needs to be challenged is the assumption that voting should be seen a form of individual self-expression rather than as an act to be judged on its likely consequences. […] The basic moral principle at stake is simple: not only must we take responsibility for our actions, but the consequences of our actions for others are a far more important consideration than feeling good about ourselves.

Noam Chomsky (b. 1928) American linguist and activist
“An Eight Point Brief for LEV (Lesser Evil Voting)” (2016-06-15) [with John Halle]
(Source)

McCourt, Frank -- Angela’s Ashes (1996)

Dave — Thu, 10 Sep 2020 21:55:12 +0000

Sing your song. Dance your dance. Tell your tale.

Frank McCourt (1930-2009) Irish-American teacher and writer
Angela’s Ashes (1996)

Also included in the dedication to Teacher Man (2006).

Bowen, Elizabeth -- Letter to Graham Greene, quoted in Why Do I Write? (1948)

Dave — Mon, 24 Aug 2020 16:40:20 +0000

I am sure that in nine out of ten cases the original wish to write is the wish to make oneself felt … the non-essential writer never gets past that wish.

Elizabeth Bowen (1899-1973) Irish author
Letter to Graham Greene, quoted in Why Do I Write? (1948)

Ellipses in the original.

Stevenson, Robert Louis -- Essay (1888-09), “A Letter to a Young Gentleman who Proposes to Embrace the Career of Art,” Scribner’s Magazine, Vol. 4, No. 3

Dave — Wed, 09 Oct 2013 12:15:08 +0000

To know what you like is the beginning of wisdom and of old age. Youth is wholly experimental. The essence and charm of that unquiet and delightful epoch is ignorance of self as well as ignorance of life. These two unknowns the young man brings together again and again, now in the airiest touch, now with a bitter hug; now with exquisite pleasure, now with cutting pain; but never with indifference, to which he is a total stranger, and never with that near kinsman of indifference, contentment.

Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–1894) Scottish essayist, novelist, poet
Essay (1888-09), “A Letter to a Young Gentleman who Proposes to Embrace the Career of Art,” Scribner’s Magazine, Vol. 4, No. 3
(Source)

Collected in Across the Plains, ch. 10 (1892).

Watterson, Bill -- Calvin and Hobbes (1995-01-09)

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

INSTRUCTIONS: “1. Explain Newton’s First Law of Motion in your own words.”

CALVIN: (writing, after a moment of inspiration) Yakka foob mog. Grug pubbawup zink wattoom gazork. Chumble spuzz.

Bill Watterson (b. 1958) American cartoonist
Calvin and Hobbes (1995-01-09)
(Source)