WIST Quotations

Roosevelt, Theodore -- Speech (1910-04-23), “Citizenship in a Republic [The Man in the Arena],” Sorbonne, Paris

Dave — Thu, 30 Jan 2025 19:25:35 +0000

Let the man of learning, the man of lettered leisure, beware of that queer and cheap temptation to pose to himself and to others as the cynic, as the man who has outgrown emotions and beliefs, the man to whom good and evil are as one. The poorest way to face life is to face it with a sneer.

Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) American politician, statesman, conservationist, writer; US President (1901–09)
Speech (1910-04-23), “Citizenship in a Republic [The Man in the Arena],” Sorbonne, Paris
(Source)

Barzun, Jacques -- Essay (1956), “Whirligig: Last Words on Berlioz,” The Energies of Art: Studies of Authors Classic and Modern,

Dave — Mon, 27 May 2024 14:37:49 +0000

The greatest artists have never been men of taste. By never sophisticating their instincts they have never lost the awareness of the great simplicities, which they relish both from appetite and from the challenge these offer to skill in competition with popular art.

Jacques Barzun (1907–2012) French-American historian, educator, polymath
Essay (1956), “Whirligig: Last Words on Berlioz,” The Energies of Art: Studies of Authors Classic and Modern,
(Source)

Update of an earlier, uncited essay.

Child, Julia -- Julia Child’s Kitchen, Introduction (1975)

Dave — Thu, 25 May 2023 15:08:48 +0000

French food, by the way, isn’t fancy unless, like other cooking, it wants to be fancy; perhaps it sounds so because it is in a foreign language, but a Coq au Vin is a chicken stew, a Pot-au-feu is a boiled dinner, a Mayonnaise de Volaille is a chicken salad, Soubise is plain old rice cooked with onions, and there is nothing fancy about any of them.

Julia Child (1912–2004) American chef and writer
Julia Child’s Kitchen, Introduction (1975)
(Source)

Martin, Everett Dean -- The Meaning of a Liberal Education, Preface (1926)

Dave — Wed, 16 Nov 2022 15:11:08 +0000

Education is more than information, or skill, or propaganda. In each age education must take into account the conditions of that age. But the educated mind is not a mere creature of its own time. Education is emancipation from herd opinion, self-mastery, capacity for self-criticism, suspended judgment, and urbanity.

Everett Dean Martin (1880–1941) American educator, minister, writer, lecturer
The Meaning of a Liberal Education, Preface (1926)
(Source)

Frye, Northrop -- The Educated Imagination, Talk 2 “The Singing School” (1963)

Dave — Mon, 13 Dec 2021 16:43:23 +0000

No human society is too primitive to have some kind of literature. The only thing is that primitive literature hasn’t yet become distinguished from other aspects of life: it’s still embedded in religion, magic and social ceremonies.

Northrop Frye (1912–1991) Canadian literary critic and literary theorist
The Educated Imagination, Talk 2 “The Singing School” (1963)
(Source)

Martin, Judith -- Essay (1984), “In the Quest for Equality, Civilization Itself Is Maligned,” The New Republic

Dave — Wed, 04 Aug 2021 05:39:12 +0000

Charming villains have always had a decided social advantage over well-meaning people who chew with their mouths open.

Judith Martin (b. 1938) American author, journalist, etiquette expert [a.k.a. Miss Manners]
Essay (1984), “In the Quest for Equality, Civilization Itself Is Maligned,” The New Republic
(Source)

Collected in Martin, Common Courtesy (1985).

Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth -- Kavanagh: A Tale, ch. 13 (1849)

Dave — Fri, 16 Jul 2021 17:22:52 +0000

With many readers, brilliancy of style passes for affluence of thought; they mistake buttercups in the grass for immeasurable gold mines under the ground.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807–1882) American poet
Kavanagh: A Tale, ch. 13 (1849)
(Source)

Bible, Vol. 2. New Testament -- Book 7. 1st Letter to the Corinthians 13:11 (1 Cor 13:11) [JB (1966)]

Dave — Mon, 03 Feb 2020 17:28:03 +0000

When I was a child, I used to talk like a child, and think like a child, and argue like a child, but now I am a man, all childish ways are put behind me.

[Ὅτε ἤμην νήπιος ἐλάλουν ὡς νήπιος ἐφρόνουν ὡς νήπιος ἐλογιζόμην ὡς νήπιος ὅτε γέγονα ἀνήρ κατήργηκα τὰ τοῦ νηπίου.]

The Bible (The New Testament) (AD 1st - 2nd C) Christian sacred scripture
Book 7. 1st Letter to the Corinthians 13:11 (1 Cor 13:11) [JB (1966)]
(Source)

(Source (Greek)). Other translations:

When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.
[KJV (1611)]

When I was a child, my speech, feelings, and thinking were all those of a child; now that I am an adult, I have no more use for childish ways.
[GNT (1976)]

When I was a child, I used to talk like a child, and see things as a child does, and think like a child; but now that I have become an adult, I have finished with all childish ways.
[NJB (1985)]

When I was a child, I used to speak like a child, reason like a child, think like a child. But now that I have become a man, I’ve put an end to childish things.
[CEB (2011)]

When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways.
[NRSV (2021 ed.)]

Greenwood, Kerry -- Phryne Fisher, Book 7, Ruddy Gore, ch. 3 (1995)

Dave — Thu, 07 Jun 2018 21:04:51 +0000

Detective inspector John “Call me Jack, everyone does” Robinson did not like theatres. Bit of a night out at the variety or even the Tiv was fair enough, but ever since a high-minded relative had forced him to sit through an Ibsen festival at an impressionable age, theatres had always been synonymous with what he called ‘high art’, a portmanteau term for everything self-indulgent, terminally tedious and incomprehensible in the world of culture.

Kerry Greenwood (b. 1954) Australian author and lawyer
Phryne Fisher, Book 7, Ruddy Gore, ch. 3 (1995)
(Source)

Stross, Charles -- The Nightmare Stacks, ch. 18 (2016)

Dave — Wed, 04 Oct 2017 00:10:22 +0000

Any sufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from technology.

Charles "Charlie" Stross (b. 1964) British writer
The Nightmare Stacks, ch. 18 (2016)
(Source)

A variant of Clarke's Third Law.

Rogers, Will -- (Attributed)

Dave — Wed, 09 Dec 2015 16:12:33 +0000

Call me a “rube” and a “hick,” but I’d a lot rather be the man who bought the Brooklyn Bridge than the man who sold it.

Will Rogers (1879–1935) American humorist
(Attributed)

Widely attributed to Rogers, though I cannot find a primary source for it.

Variants:

"They may call me a rube and a hick ..."
"Call me a rube ..."
"You could call me a hick or call me a rube ..."

Barrie, James -- Peter Pan, Act 1 (1904, pub. 1928)

Dave — Fri, 23 Jan 2015 19:30:51 +0000

PETER: (baldly) You see, Wendy, when the first baby laughed for the first time, the laugh broke into a thousand pieces and they all went skipping about, and that was the beginning of fairies. And now when every new baby is born its first laugh becomes a fairy. So there ought to be one fairy for every boy or girl.

WENDY (breathlessly). Ought to be? Isn’t there?

PETER. Oh no. Children know such a lot now. Soon they don’t believe in fairies, and every time a child says ‘I don’t believe in fairies’ there is a fairy somewhere that falls down dead. (He skips about heartlessly.)

J. M. Barrie (1860–1937) Scottish novelist and dramatist [James Matthew Barrie]
Peter Pan, Act 1 (1904, pub. 1928)
(Source)

In Barrie's novelization, Peter and Wendy, ch. 3 "Come Away, Come Away!" (1911), this is rendered:

“You see, Wendy, when the first baby laughed for the first time, its laugh broke into a thousand pieces, and they all went skipping about, and that was the beginning of fairies.”
Tedious talk this, but being a stay-at-home she liked it.
“And so,” he went on good-naturedly, “there ought to be one fairy for every boy and girl.”
“Ought to be? Isn’t there?”
“No. You see children know such a lot now, they soon don’t believe in fairies, and every time a child says, ‘I don’t believe in fairies,’ there is a fairy somewhere that falls down dead.”

Emerson, Ralph Waldo -- “The Preacher,” lecture, Cambridge (1879-05-05)

Dave — Tue, 12 Jun 2012 13:06:48 +0000

Once we had wooden chalices and golden priests, now we have golden chalices and wooden priests.

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American essayist, lecturer, poet
“The Preacher,” lecture, Cambridge (1879-05-05)
(Source)

Nash, Ogden -- “Baby, What Makes the Sky Blue?” ll. 1-2, New Yorker (1940-01-20)

Dave — Fri, 26 Oct 2007 10:10:02 +0000

Oh, what a tangled web do parents weave
When they think that their children are naive.

Ogden Nash (1902–1971) American poet
“Baby, What Makes the Sky Blue?” ll. 1-2, New Yorker (1940-01-20)
(Source)

Collected in his The Face Is Familiar (1941).

Clarke, Arthur C. -- Profiles of the Future, “Hazards of Prophecy: The Failure of Imagination” (Clarke’s Third Law) (1962; rev. 1973)

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

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

Arthur C. Clarke (1917–2008) British writer
Profiles of the Future, “Hazards of Prophecy: The Failure of Imagination” (Clarke’s Third Law) (1962; rev. 1973)

Butler, David -- The Observer (1969)

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

The function of the expert is not to be more right than other people, but to be wrong for more sophisticated reasons.

David Butler (b. 1924) British social scientist, psephologist
The Observer (1969)