WIST Quotations

Watterson, Bill -- Calvin and Hobbes (1988-08-28)

Dave — Tue, 17 Mar 2026 20:11:56 +0000

CALVIN: There’s never enough time to do all the nothing you want.

Bill Watterson (b. 1958) American cartoonist
Calvin and Hobbes (1988-08-28)
(Source)

Stevenson, Robert Louis -- Poem (1885), “Bed in Summer,” st. 1, A Child’s Garden of Verses

Dave — Fri, 17 Jan 2025 15:15:52 +0000

In winter I get up at night
And dress by yellow candle-light.
In summer quite the other way,
I have to go to bed by day.

Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894) Scottish essayist, novelist, poet
Poem (1885), “Bed in Summer,” st. 1, A Child’s Garden of Verses
(Source)

Blount, Roy Jr -- “Reading and Nothingness: Of Proust in the Summer Sun,” New York Times (1985-06-02)

Dave — Mon, 06 Nov 2023 15:48:59 +0000

A good heavy book holds you down. It’s an anchor that keeps you from getting up and having another gin and tonic. Many a person has been saved from summer alcoholism, not to mention hypertoxicity, by Dostoyevsky.

Roy Blount, Jr. (b. 1941) American writer, speaker, journalist, humorist
“Reading and Nothingness: Of Proust in the Summer Sun,” New York Times (1985-06-02)
(Source)

Easterbrook, Gregg -- (Attributed)

Dave — Wed, 01 Oct 2014 12:47:49 +0000

Autumn truly is what summer pretends to be: the best of all seasons. It is as glorious as summer is tedious; as subtle as summer is obvious; as refreshing as summer is wearying. Autumn seems like paradise.

Gregg Easterbrook (b. 1953) American writer, editor
(Attributed)

Twain, Mark -- (Spurious)

Dave — Wed, 23 Oct 2013 13:01:58 +0000

The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco.

Mark Twain (1835-1910) American writer [pseud. of Samuel Clemens]
(Spurious)

Frequently attributed to Twain, but undocumented in any of his writings. The origin of the phrase seems to be in a letter from Horace Walpole to Mary Berry (29 Jul 1789), attributing a quip to the English actor James Quin:

Quin, being once asked if he had ever seen so bad a winter, replied, “Yes, just such an one last summer!” -- and here is its youngest brother!

Twain, in turn, mentioned the observation in a letter to Lucius Fairchild (28 Apr 1880), using it to denigrate Paris, France:

For this long time I have been intending to congratulate you fervently upon your translation to -- to -- anywhere -- for anywhere is better than Paris. Paris the cold, Paris the drizzly, Paris the rainy, Paris the Damnable. More than a hundred years ago, somebody asked Quin, "Did you ever see such a winter in all your life before?" "Yes," said he, "last summer." I judge he spent his summer in Paris.

When "coldest winter ... summer" phrase first achieved popularity in that form (around 1900 or earlier), the targeted city was Duluth, Minnesota, followed by other cities in Minnesota and Wisconsin, before being grafted onto San Francisco and, again, Mark Twain.

More discussion about this quotation:

Camus, Albert -- “Return to Tipasa,” Summer (1954)

Dave — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 13:00:37 +0000

In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer.

Albert Camus (1913-1960) Algerian-French novelist, essayist, playwright
“Return to Tipasa,” Summer (1954)