WIST Quotations

Orwell, George -- Essay (1942-08), “Looking Back on the Spanish War, ch. 5, Such, Such Were the Joys, essay 8 (1953)

Dave — Fri, 19 Dec 2025 16:37:31 +0000

When one thinks of the cruelty, squalor, and futility of war — and in this particular case of the intrigues, the persecutions, the lies and the misunderstandings — there is always the temptation to say: “One side is as bad as the other. I am neutral.” In practice, however, one cannot be neutral, and there is hardly such a thing as a war in which it makes no difference who wins. Nearly always one stands more or less for progress, the other side more or less for reaction.

George Orwell (1903-1950) English journalist, essayist, writer [pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair]
Essay (1942-08), “Looking Back on the Spanish War, ch. 5, Such, Such Were the Joys, essay 8 (1953)
(Source)

Gracián, Baltasar -- The Art of Worldly Wisdom [Oráculo Manual y Arte de Prudencia], § 142 (1647) [tr. Jacobs (1892)]

Dave — Mon, 28 Mar 2022 16:00:02 +0000

Never from Obstinacy take the Wrong Side because your Opponent has anticipated you in taking the Right One.

[Nunca por tema seguir el peor partido, porque el contrario se adelantó y escogió el mejor.]

Baltasar Gracián y Morales (1601-1658) Spanish Jesuit priest, writer, philosopher
The Art of Worldly Wisdom [Oráculo Manual y Arte de Prudencia], § 142 (1647) [tr. Jacobs (1892)]
(Source)

(Source (Spanish)). Alternate translations:

Never to espouse a bad party in spight to an Adversary, who hath taken the better.
[Flesher ed. (1685)]

Never out of stubbornness hold to the wrong side, just because your adversary anticipated you, and chose the right.
[tr. Fischer (1937)]

Don’t defend the wrong side out of stubbornness, just because your opponent happened to arrive first and choose the right side.
[tr. Maurer (1992)]

~Other -- “Cutler Webster’s Law,” in P. Dickson (ed.), The Official Rules (1978)

Dave — Wed, 20 May 2020 20:26:22 +0000

There are two sides to every argument, unless a person is personally involved, in which case there is only one.

(Other Authors and Sources)
“Cutler Webster’s Law,” in P. Dickson (ed.), The Official Rules (1978)

Hayden, Teresa Nielsen -- Making Light, “Commonplaces”

Dave — Fri, 15 Aug 2014 12:25:08 +0000

Just because you’re on their side doesn’t mean they’re on your side.

Teresa Nielsen Hayden (b. 1956) American editor, writer, essayist
Making Light, “Commonplaces”
(Source)

Orwell, George -- Letter to Noel Willmett (18 May 1944)

Dave — Fri, 25 Apr 2014 14:14:26 +0000

You also ask, if I think the world tendency is towards Fascism, why do I support the war. It is a choice of evils — I fancy nearly every war is that. I know enough of British imperialism not to like it, but I would support it against Nazism or Japanese imperialism, as the lesser evil. Similarly I would support the USSR against Germany because I think the USSR cannot altogether escape its past and retains enough of the original ideas of the Revolution to make it a more hopeful phenomenon than Nazi Germany. I think, and have thought ever since the war began, in 1936 or thereabouts, that our cause is the better, but we have to keep on making it the better, which involves constant criticism.

George Orwell (1903-1950) English journalist, essayist, writer [pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair]
Letter to Noel Willmett (18 May 1944)

Tolkien, J.R.R. -- The Lord of the Rings, Vol. 2: The Two Towers, Book 3, ch. 4 “Treebeard” [Treebeard] (1954)

Dave — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 12:03:55 +0000

I am not altogether on anybody’s side, because nobody is altogether on my side, if you understand me.

J.R.R. Tolkien (1892-1973) English writer, fabulist, philologist, academic [John Ronald Reuel Tolkien]
The Lord of the Rings, Vol. 2: The Two Towers, Book 3, ch. 4 “Treebeard” [Treebeard] (1954)
(Source)