WIST Quotations

Bible, Vol. 1. Old Testament -- Book 22b. Sirach (Ecclesiasticus) 20:18 (Sir 20:18) [tr. NRSV (2021 ed.), Ecclesiasticus]

Dave — Tue, 09 Jun 2026 16:33:23 +0000

A slip on the pavement is better than a slip of the tongue;
the downfall of the wicked will occur just as speedily.

[Ὀλίσθημα ἀπὸ ἐδάφους μᾶλλον ἢ ἀπὸ γλώσσης.
οὕτως πτῶσις κακῶν κατὰ σπουδὴν ἥξει.]

The Bible (The Old Testament) (14th - 2nd C BC) Judeo-Christian sacred scripture [Tanakh, Hebrew Bible], incl. the Apocrypha (Deuterocanonicals)
Book 22b. Sirach (Ecclesiasticus) 20:18 (Sir 20:18) [tr. NRSV (2021 ed.), Ecclesiasticus]

See Franklin (1747).

More on the history and acceptance of this Apocryphal book here and here.

(Source (Greek)). Alternate translations:

To slip upon a pavement is better than to slip with the tongue: so the fall of the wicked shall come speedily.
[tr. KJV (1611)]

The slipping of a false tongue is as one that falleth on the pavement: so the fall of the wicked shall come speedily.
[tr. DRA (1899); 20:20]

Better a slip on the pavement than a slip of the tongue;
this is how ruin takes the wicked by surprise.
[tr. [tr. JB (1966), NJB (1985)]

A slip of the tongue is worse than a slip on the pavement; the wicked will go to ruin just as suddenly as a person slips and falls.
[tr. GNT (1992 ed.)]

A slip on the pavement is preferable
to a slip of the tongue;
so the downfall of evil people
will come quickly.
[tr. CEB (2011)]

Shakespeare, William -- Romeo and Juliet, Act 2, sc. 2, l. 123ff (2.2.123-127) (1595)

Dave — Mon, 09 Jun 2025 15:41:43 +0000

JULIET:Although I joy in thee,
I have no joy of this contract tonight.
It is too rash, too unadvised, too sudden,
Too like the lightning, which doth cease to be
Ere one can say “It lightens.”

William Shakespeare (1564–1616) English dramatist and poet
Romeo and Juliet, Act 2, sc. 2, l. 123ff (2.2.123-127) (1595)

On Romeo swearing his love to her.

Stevenson, Robert Louis -- Essay (1878-03), “Crabbed Age and Youth,” Cornhill Magazine, Vol. 37

Dave — Fri, 06 Jun 2025 15:10:22 +0000

To be suddenly snuffed out in the middle of ambitious schemes, is tragical enough at best; but when a man has been grudging himself his own life in the meanwhile, and saving up everything for the festival that was never to be, it becomes that hysterically moving sort of tragedy which lies on the confines of farce.

Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–1894) Scottish essayist, novelist, poet
Essay (1878-03), “Crabbed Age and Youth,” Cornhill Magazine, Vol. 37

Collected in Virginibus Puerisque and Other Papers, ch. 2 (1881)