WIST Quotations

Greenwood, Kerry -- Phryne Fisher, Book 15, Death by Water, ch. 10 (2005)

Dave — Fri, 22 May 2026 16:37:10 +0000

[…] the bitterness to which all viola players are prone, while there are violins in the world.

Kerry Greenwood (b. 1954) Australian author and lawyer
Phryne Fisher, Book 15, Death by Water, ch. 10 (2005)
(Source)

Mills, C. Wright -- The Power Elite (1956)

Dave — Mon, 12 Apr 2021 22:36:36 +0000

The professional celebrity, male and female, is the crowning result of the star system of a society that makes a fetish of competition.

C. Wright Mills (1916-1962) American sociologist, academic, author [Charles Wright Mills]
The Power Elite (1956)
(Source)

Gaiman, Neil -- “This Much I Know,” The Guardian (2017-08-05)

Dave — Mon, 18 Sep 2017 22:21:19 +0000

Ever since I had dinner with Lou Reed I’ve tried to avoid meeting the people who would make me feel starstruck. It was a great dinner but by the end of it Lou Reed was no longer my hero, and I don’t have many heroes. I resolutely avoided meeting David Bowie, which became harder when I became friends with Duncan Jones, his son, and then got even harder when I moved to Woodstock and he lived around the corner. But I love the fact that the Bowie that I have is the Bowie in my head: a strange, evolving, absolutely fictional Bowie who became my hero when I was 11.

Neil Gaiman (b. 1960) British author, screenwriter, fabulist
“This Much I Know,” The Guardian (2017-08-05)
(Source)

Lamarr, Hedy -- (Attributed)

Dave — Tue, 10 Jan 2017 03:40:48 +0000

Any girl can be glamorous. All you have to do is stand still and look stupid.

Hedy Lamarr (1914-2000) Austrian-American film actress and inventor [b, Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler]
(Attributed)

Quoted in Richard Schickel, The Stars (1962).

Barth, John -- The End of the Road, ch. 6 “In September It Was Time to See the Doctor” [The Doctor] (1958)

Dave — Wed, 26 Sep 2012 12:35:21 +0000

Everyone is necessarily the hero of his own life story. Hamlet could be told from Polonius’s point of view and called The Tragedy of Polonius, Lord Chamberlain of Denmark. He didn’t think he was a minor character in anything, I daresay.

John Barth (1930-2024) American writer
The End of the Road, ch. 6 “In September It Was Time to See the Doctor” [The Doctor] (1958)
(Source)

Tolkien, J.R.R. -- The Lord of the Rings, Vol. 3: The Return of the King, Book 6, ch. 2 “The Land of Shadow” (1954)

Dave — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 12:43:26 +0000

There, peeping among the cloud-wrack above a dark tor high up in the mountains, Sam saw a white star twinkle for a while. The beauty of it smote his heart, as he looked up out of the forsaken land, and hope returned to him. For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.

J.R.R. Tolkien (1892-1973) English writer, fabulist, philologist, academic [John Ronald Reuel Tolkien]
The Lord of the Rings, Vol. 3: The Return of the King, Book 6, ch. 2 “The Land of Shadow” (1954)
(Source)

Wooden, John -- “The Prodigy” (2003)

Dave — Tue, 16 Mar 2004 01:45:40 +0000

A player who makes a team great is better than a great player.

John Wooden (1910-2010) American basketball player and coach
“The Prodigy” (2003)
(Source)

IBM Linux commercial.

Hubbard, Elbert -- “The Philistine” (May 1907)

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

The graveyards are full of people the world could not do without.

Elbert Hubbard (1856-1915) American writer, businessman, philosopher
“The Philistine” (May 1907)
(Source)

Sometimes misquoted as:

"The graveyards are full of indispensable men"
"The cemeteries are full of indispensable men."
"The cemeteries are filled with people who thought the world could not get along without them."

Also attributed to Charles DeGaulle, Georges Clemenceau, and many others. More discussion: The Graveyards Are Full of Indispensable Men – Quote Investigator.