WIST Quotations

Martin, Judith -- “Miss Manners,” syndicated column (2015-02-01)

Dave — Mon, 30 Jun 2025 16:32:05 +0000

Rules that are arbitrary may be nonetheless crucial. Whether we drive on the right or left side of the road is arbitrary, but it is crucial to obey the prevailing rule.

Judith Martin (b. 1938) American author, journalist, etiquette expert [a.k.a. Miss Manners]
“Miss Manners,” syndicated column (2015-02-01)
(Source)

Chamfort, Nicolas -- Products of Perfected Civilization [Produits de la Civilisation Perfectionnée], Part 2 “Characters and Anecdotes [Caractères et Anecdotes],” ¶ 715 (1795) [tr. Merwin (1969)]

Dave — Mon, 03 Feb 2025 18:47:55 +0000

Madame de Tencin said that intelligent people often erred in their conduct because they could never believe that the world in general is as stupid as it is.

[Mme de Tencin disait que les gens d’esprit faisaient beaucoup de fautes en conduite, parce qu’ils ne croyaient jamais le monde assez bête, aussi bête qu’il l’est.]

Nicolas Chamfort (1741-1794) French writer, epigrammist (b. Nicolas-Sébastien Roch)
Products of Perfected Civilization [Produits de la Civilisation Perfectionnée], Part 2 “Characters and Anecdotes [Caractères et Anecdotes],” ¶ 715 (1795) [tr. Merwin (1969)]
(Source)

(Source (French)). Alternate translations:

Mme de Tencin said that people with spirit make many mistakes in their actions because they never believe that society is brutish enough, as brutish as it is.
[tr. Siniscalchi (1994)]

Madame de Tencin said that many very clever people made social blunders because they could never believe that society was quite as stupid as it really was.
[tr. Parmée (2003), ¶382]

The great mistake made by intelligent people is to refuse to believe that the world is as stupid as it is.
[Forbes]

Bierce, Ambrose -- “Idiot,” The Cynic’s Word Book (1906)

Dave — Tue, 20 Aug 2024 18:00:55 +0000

IDIOT, n. A member of a large and powerful tribe whose influence in human affairs has always been dominant and controlling. The Idiot’s activity is not confined to any special field of thought or action, but “pervades and regulates the whole.” He has the last word in everything; his decision is unappealable. He sets the fashions of opinion and taste, dictates the limitations of speech and circumscribes conduct with a dead-line.

Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914?) American writer and journalist
“Idiot,” The Cynic’s Word Book (1906)
(Source)

Included in The Devil's Dictionary (1911). Originally published in the "Devil's Dictionary" column in the San Francisco Wasp (1885-08-29).

Eisenberg, Leon -- “The social construction of the human brain,” American Journal of Psychiatry (Nov 1995)

Dave — Tue, 28 Jul 2020 14:59:36 +0000

Psychiatry is all biological and all social. there is no mental function without brain and social context. To ask how much of mind is biological and how much social is as meaningless as to ask how much of the area of a rectangle is due to its width and how much to its height, or how much of the phenotype is due to genes and how much to environment.

Leon Eisenberg (1922-2009) American psychiatrist and medical educator
“The social construction of the human brain,” American Journal of Psychiatry (Nov 1995)
(Source)

Franklin, Benjamin -- Poor Richard (1738 ed.)

Dave — Fri, 12 Feb 2016 16:40:52 +0000

None but the well-bred man knows how to confess a fault, or acknowledge himself in error.

Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) American statesman, scientist, philosopher, aphorist
Poor Richard (1738 ed.)
(Source)

Brandeis, Louis -- “True Americanism,” speech, Faneuil Hall, Boston (1915-07-05)

Dave — Tue, 07 Oct 2014 09:12:14 +0000

What are the American ideals? They are the development of the individual for his own and the common good; the development of the individual through liberty, and the attainment of the common good through democracy and social justice.

Louis Brandeis (1856-1941) American lawyer, activist, Supreme Court Justice (1916-39)
“True Americanism,” speech, Faneuil Hall, Boston (1915-07-05)
(Source)

Wilder, Thornton -- The Matchmaker, 4 (1954)

Dave — Mon, 14 Apr 2014 13:02:00 +0000

There comes a moment in everybody’s life when he must decide whether he’ll live among human beings or not — a fool among fools or a fool alone.

Thornton Wilder (1897-1975) American novelist and playwright
The Matchmaker, 4 (1954)

Greville, Fulke -- Maxims, Characters, and Reflections (1756)

Dave — Mon, 24 Mar 2014 12:40:52 +0000

Man seems to be made neither to live alone nor with others.

Fulke Greville (1554-1628) 1st Baron Brooke; Elizabethan poet, dramatist, and statesman
Maxims, Characters, and Reflections (1756)

Johnson, Samuel -- Comment (21 Mar 1776)

Dave — Fri, 07 Feb 2014 13:30:56 +0000

There is nothing which has yet been contrived by man by which so much happiness is produced as by a good tavern or inn.

Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) English writer, lexicographer, critic
Comment (21 Mar 1776)

In James Boswell, The Life of Samuel Johnson (1791)

Hawthorne, Nathaniel -- The Scarlet Letter, “Introduction: The Custom-House” (1850)

Dave — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 12:00:15 +0000

It contributes greatly towards a man’s moral and intellectual health, to be brought into habits of companionship with individuals unlike himself, who care little for his pursuits, and whose sphere and abilities he must go out of himself to appreciate.

Nathaniel Hawthorne (1804-1864) American writer
The Scarlet Letter, “Introduction: The Custom-House” (1850)