WIST Quotations

Stevenson, Robert Louis -- Essay (1879-05), “The Truth of Intercourse,” Cornhill Magazine, Vol. 39

Dave — Thu, 23 Oct 2025 18:43:24 +0000

The cruellest lies are often told in silence. A man may have sat in a room for hours and not opened his teeth, and yet come out of that room a disloyal friend or a vile calumniator.

Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894) Scottish essayist, novelist, poet
Essay (1879-05), “The Truth of Intercourse,” Cornhill Magazine, Vol. 39
(Source)

Collected "Virginibus Puerisque, Part 4" in Virginibus Puerisque and Other Papers, ch. 1, part 4 (1881).

Wilde, Oscar -- The Importance of Being Earnest, Act 2 (1895)

Dave — Fri, 17 Oct 2025 15:17:24 +0000

GWENDOLEN: On an occasion of this kind it becomes more than a moral duty to speak one’s mind. It becomes a pleasure.

Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) Irish poet, wit, dramatist
The Importance of Being Earnest, Act 2 (1895)
(Source)

Richards, Ann -- (Attributed)

Dave — Thu, 05 Nov 2020 20:17:50 +0000

If you aren’t at the table, you’re on the menu.

Ann Richards (1933-2006) American politician [Dorothy Ann Willis Richards]
(Attributed)

Richards regularly used the phrase, but it's unclear if she originated it. See here for more discussion.

Peguy, Charles -- “Basic Verities: The Honest People,” Basic Verities: Prose and Poetry [tr. A and J. Green (1943)]

Dave — Thu, 28 Aug 2014 12:35:55 +0000

He who does not bellow the truth when he knows the truth makes himself the accomplice of liars and forgers.

Charles Péguy (1873-1914) French poet, essayist, editor
“Basic Verities: The Honest People,” Basic Verities: Prose and Poetry [tr. A and J. Green (1943)]

Masson, Jeffrey Moussaieff -- Against Therapy, Conclusion (1988)

Dave — Thu, 07 Aug 2014 12:39:56 +0000

It is almost impossible to remain silent in the face of tyranny without, by this very act of silence, becoming an agent of that tyranny.

Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson (b. 1941) American author
Against Therapy, Conclusion (1988)

Austen, Jane -- Pride and Prejudice, ch. 20 [Mrs. Bennet] (1813)

Dave — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 13:45:13 +0000

People who suffer as I do from nervous complaints can have no great inclination for talking. Nobody can tell what I suffer! — But it is always so. Those who do not complain are never pitied.

Jane Austen (1775-1817) English author
Pride and Prejudice, ch. 20 [Mrs. Bennet] (1813)
(Source)

Twain, Mark -- Essay (1909 ca.), Papers of the Adams Family, ch. 6 “Two Fragments from a Suppressed Book Called ‘Glances at History’ or ‘Outlines of History'”

Dave — Fri, 14 Dec 2012 14:50:13 +0000

Each of you, for himself, by himself and on his own responsibility, must speak. And it is a solemn and weighty responsibility, and not lightly to be flung aside at the bullying of pulpit, press, government, or the empty catch-phrases of politicians. Each must for himself alone decide what is right and what is wrong, and which course is patriotic and which isn’t. You cannot shirk this and be a man. To decide against your convictions is to be an unqualified and inexcusable traitor, both to yourself and to your country, let men label you as they may. If you alone of all the nation shall decide one way, and that way be the right way according to your convictions of the right, you have done your duty by yourself and by your country — hold up your head! You have nothing to be ashamed of.

Mark Twain (1835-1910) American writer [pseud. of Samuel Clemens]
Essay (1909 ca.), Papers of the Adams Family, ch. 6 “Two Fragments from a Suppressed Book Called ‘Glances at History’ or ‘Outlines of History'”
(Source)

Collected in Letters from the Earth (c. 1909; pub. 1962) [ed. DeVoto (1939)]

Stewart, Cal -- Uncle Josh Weathersby’s “Punkin’ Centre” Stories, Epigraph (1903)

Dave — Mon, 21 May 2012 12:46:07 +0000

I don’t believe in kickin’,
It aint apt to bring one peace;
But the wheel what squeaks the loudest
is the one what gets the grease.

Cal Stewart (1856-1919) American vaudevillian, monologuist [stage character "Uncle Josh" Weathersby]
Uncle Josh Weathersby’s “Punkin’ Centre” Stories, Epigraph (1903)
(Source)

Likely origin of the phrase, "The squeaky wheel gets the grease." "Kicking" was period slang for complaining (only surviving to the present in a phrase like "You've got no kick coming").

The phrase is sometimes attributed to Josh Billings, in a similar poem dated around 1870 called "The Kicker":

I hate to be a kicker,
I always long for peace,
But the wheel that does the squeaking,
Is the one that gets the grease.

However, this poem has not actually been verified to exist. The unfounded attribution was included in the 1937 Bartlett's Familiar Quotations (11th Ed.), and has remained popular since.

The (likely) misattribution to the more well-known Billings may be a confusion between the names and folksy talking of both of the fictional characters "Josh Billings" and "Josh Weathersby."

For more discussion, see:

Quote Origin: The Squeaky Wheel Gets the Grease – Quote Investigator®.
Doyle, Mieder, Shapiro (eds.), The Dictionary of Modern Proverbs (2012).

Note: this epigraph does not appear in the Project Gutenberg copy of this work.

Herbert, George -- Jacula Prudentum, or Outlandish Proverbs, Sentences, &c. (compiler), # 968 (1640 ed.)

Dave — Mon, 24 Oct 2011 13:28:30 +0000

Manie things are lost for want of asking.

George Herbert (1593-1633) Welsh priest, orator, poet.
Jacula Prudentum, or Outlandish Proverbs, Sentences, &c. (compiler), # 968 (1640 ed.)
(Source)

Stevenson, Robert Louis -- Essay (1879-05), “The Truth of Intercourse,” Cornhill Magazine, Vol. 39

Dave — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 09:27:36 +0000

The cruelest lies are often told in silence. A man may have sat in a room for hours and not opened his teeth, and yet come out of that room a disloyal friend or a vile calumniator.

Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894) Scottish essayist, novelist, poet
Essay (1879-05), “The Truth of Intercourse,” Cornhill Magazine, Vol. 39
(Source)

Collected as "Virginibus Puerisque, Part 4" in Virginibus Puerisque and Other Papers, ch. 1 (1881).

Roosevelt, Eleanor -- Tomorrow Is Now (1963)

Dave — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 10:12:28 +0000

We must know what we think and speak out, even at the risk of unpopularity. In the final analysis, a democratic government represents the sum total of the courage and the integrity of its individuals. It cannot be better than they are.

Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962) First Lady of the US (1933–1945), politician, diplomat, activist
Tomorrow Is Now (1963)