WIST Quotations

Shakespeare, William -- Hamlet, Act 4, sc. 1, l. 6ff (4.1.6-8) (c. 1600)

Dave — Mon, 12 Jan 2026 16:29:39 +0000

KING: What, Gertrude? How does Hamlet?

QUEEN: Mad as the sea and wind when both contend
Which is the mightier.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Hamlet, Act 4, sc. 1, l. 6ff (4.1.6-8) (c. 1600)
(Source)

Jerome, Jerome K. -- Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow, “On the Weather” (1886)

Dave — Mon, 23 Sep 2024 22:05:09 +0000

It always is wretched weather, according to us. The weather is like the Government, always in the wrong. In summer time we say it is stifling; in winter that it is killing; in spring and autumn we find fault with it for being neither one thing nor the other, and wish it would make up its mind. If it is fine, we say the country is being ruined for want of rain; if it does rain, we pray for fine weather. If December passes without snow, we indignantly demand to know what has become of our good old-fashioned winters, and talk as if we had been cheated out of something we had bought and paid for; and when it does snow, our language is a disgrace to a Christian nation. We shall never be content until each man makes his own weather, and keeps it to himself.
If that cannot be arranged, we would rather do without it altogether.

Jerome K. Jerome (1859-1927) English writer, humorist [Jerome Klapka Jerome]
Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow, “On the Weather” (1886)
(Source)

First published in Home Chimes (1885-07-11).

Shakespeare, William -- King Lear, Act 3, sc. 2, l. 1ff (3.2.1-11) (1606)

Dave — Mon, 25 Sep 2023 18:15:36 +0000

LEAR: Blow winds, and crack your cheeks! Rage, blow!
You cataracts and hurricanoes, spout
Till you have drenched our steeples, drowned the cocks.
You sulph’rous and thought-executing fires,
Vaunt-couriers of oak-cleaving thunderbolts,
Singe my white head. And thou, all-shaking thunder,
Strike flat the thick rotundity o’ th’ world.
Crack nature’s molds, all germens spill at once
That makes ingrateful man.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
King Lear, Act 3, sc. 2, l. 1ff (3.2.1-11) (1606)
(Source)

Rothfuss, Patrick -- The Name of the Wind, ch. 43 “The Flickering Way” (2007)

Dave — Thu, 23 Mar 2023 15:19:28 +0000

There are three things all wise men fear: the sea in storm, a night with no moon, and the anger of a gentle man.

Patrick Rothfuss (b. 1973) American author
The Name of the Wind, ch. 43 “The Flickering Way” (2007)
(Source)

Doyle, Arthur Conan -- Journal of Arctic voyage (19 Jul 1880)

Dave — Fri, 04 Jun 2021 22:25:08 +0000

Blowing a gale all day. Nothing to do and we did it.

Arthur Conan Doyle (1859-1930) British writer and physician
Journal of Arctic voyage (19 Jul 1880)
(Source)

Shackleton, Ernest -- Journal aboard the Hoghton Tower (1891)

Dave — Fri, 07 May 2021 21:57:00 +0000

All I say is, if you wish to see Nature robed in her mantle of might, look at a storm at sea; if you want to see her robed in her mantle of glory, look at a sunset at sea.

Ernest Henry Shackleton (1874-1922) Anglo-Irish Antarctic explorer
Journal aboard the Hoghton Tower (1891)
(Source)

Herbert, George -- Jacula Prudentum, or Outlandish Proverbs, Sentences, &c. (compiler), # 949 (1640 ed.)

Dave — Mon, 19 Aug 2013 11:47:19 +0000

Every mile is two in winter.

George Herbert (1593-1633) Welsh priest, orator, poet.
Jacula Prudentum, or Outlandish Proverbs, Sentences, &c. (compiler), # 949 (1640 ed.)
(Source)

Richter, Jean-Paul -- Titan, Jubilee 31, cycle 123 [Gaspard] (1803) [tr. Brooks (1863)]

Dave — Tue, 22 May 2012 13:07:59 +0000

Every Man has a rainy corner of his life out of which foul weather proceeds and follows after him.

[Jeder Mensch hat eine Regen-Ecke seines Lebens aus der ihm das schlimme Wetter nachzieht.]

Jean Paul Richter (1763-1825) German writer, art historian, philosopher, littérateur [Johann Paul Friedrich Richter; pseud. Jean Paul]
Titan, Jubilee 31, cycle 123 [Gaspard] (1803) [tr. Brooks (1863)]
(Source)

(Source (German)). Alternate translation:

Every man has a rainy corner in his life, from which bad weather besets him.
[E.g.]