WIST Quotations

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)

Homer -- The Iliad [Ἰλιάς], Book 5, l. 785ff (5.785-786) (c. 750 BC) [tr. Derby (1864)]

Dave — Wed, 18 Nov 2020 16:15:59 +0000

In form of Stentor of the brazen voice,
Whose shout was as the shout of fifty men.

[Στέντορι εἰσαμένη μεγαλήτορι χαλκεοφώνῳ,
ὃς τόσον αὐδήσασχ’ ὅσον ἄλλοι πεντήκοντα.]

Homer (fl. 7th-8th C. BC) Greek author
The Iliad [Ἰλιάς], Book 5, l. 785ff (5.785-786) (c. 750 BC) [tr. Derby (1864)]

Other translations:

Stentor the strong, endued with brazen lungs,
Whose throat surpassed the force of fifty tongues.
[tr. Pope (1715-20)]

Stentor for his voice
Of brass renown’d, audible as the roar
Of fifty throats.
[tr. Cowper (1791), ll. 931-33]

Great-hearted, brazen-voiced Stentor, who was accustomed to shout as loud as fifty other men.
[tr. Buckley (1860)]

Great-hearted Stentor with voice of bronze, whose cry was loud as the cry of fifty other men.
[tr. Leaf/Lang/Myers (1891)]

Bronze-voiced Stentor,
who could cry out in as great a voice as fifty other men
[tr. Lattimore (1951)]

Stentor, whose brazen lungs could give a battle-shout as loud as fifty soldiers.
[tr. Fitzgerald (1974)]

Stentor, a lord greathearted and bronze-voiced,
one who was always shouting as loudly as shout fifty others.
[tr. Merrill (2007)]

The brazen voice of great-lunged Stentor
who cries out with the blast of fifty other men.
[tr. Fagles (1990), ll. 903-04]

Butcher, Jim -- “Something Borrowed,” My Big Fat Supernatural Wedding (2006)

Dave — Tue, 11 Nov 2014 14:37:44 +0000

I let out a battle cry. Sure, a lot of people might have mistaken it for a sudden yelp of unmanly fear, but trust me. It was a battle cry.

Jim Butcher (b. 1971) American author
“Something Borrowed,” My Big Fat Supernatural Wedding (2006)

Chillingworth, William -- (Attributed)

Dave — Fri, 21 Mar 2014 13:27:09 +0000

Passionate expression and vehement assertion are no arguments, unless it be of the weakness of the cause that is defended by them, or of the man that defends it.

William Chillingworth (1602–1644) English churchman and theologian
(Attributed)

Quoted in The Parliamentary History of England, Vol. 15, 29 George II, "Debate on a Motion for a Vote of Censor on the Treaties with Russia and Hesse Cassel (1755)" (1813)