WIST Quotations

Euripides -- Antiope [Αντιοπη], frag. 213 (Kannicht) (c. 410 BC)

Dave — Tue, 29 Nov 2022 18:34:08 +0000

There is surfeit in everything. I have seen
men abandon beautiful women for ugly ones,
and someone sated with rich meals return
with pleasure to inferior fare.

[κόρος δὲ πάντων· καὶ γὰρ ἐκ καλλιόνων
λέκτροις ἐπ᾽αἰσχροῖς εἶδον ἐκπεπληγµένους,
δαιτὸς δὲ πληρωθείς τις ἄσµενος πάλιν
φαύλῃ διαίτῃ προσβαλὼν ἥσθη στόµα.]

Euripides (485?-406? BC) Greek tragic dramatist
Antiope [Αντιοπη], frag. 213 (Kannicht) (c. 410 BC)
(Source)

(Source (Greek)). Barnes frag. 86, Musgrave frag. 27, TGF frag. 212. Alternate translations:

But all things satiate; oft have I beheld
The faithless Husband quit his beauteous Wife,
Lur'd by some vile amour: thus pall'd with dainties
The appetite regales on coarser food.
[tr. Wodhall (1809)]

There is a surfeit of all things; for I have seen men
drive away a beautiful wife for an ugly one,
and full from banquet someone glad to sit and crack
his teeth against poor fare.
[tr. Will (2015)]

Wright, Frank Lloyd -- On Architecture: Selected Writings (1894-1940) (1941)

Dave — Mon, 07 Feb 2022 21:08:29 +0000

Remember that we can own only what we can assimilate and appreciate, no more. Many wealthy people are little more than janitors of their possessions.

Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959) American architect, interior designer, writer, educator [b. Frank Lincoln Wright]
On Architecture: Selected Writings (1894-1940) (1941)
(Source)

Lobel, Arnold -- The Fiction Magazine, Vol. 5 (1986)

Dave — Thu, 15 Jun 2017 23:47:59 +0000

Books to the ceiling, books to the sky.
My pile of books are a mile high.
How I love them!
How I need them!
I’ll have a long beard by the time I read them.

Arnold Lobel (1933-1987) American author, illustrator
The Fiction Magazine, Vol. 5 (1986)
(Source)

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Sr. -- Article (1890-06), “Over the Teacups,” No. 7, Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 65

Dave — Fri, 30 Dec 2016 01:43:06 +0000

What refuge is there for the victim who is oppressed with the feeling that there are a thousand new books he ought to read, while life is only long enough for him to attempt to read a hundred?

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809-1894) American poet, essayist, scholar
Article (1890-06), “Over the Teacups,” No. 7, Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 65
(Source)

Collected in Over the Teacups, ch. 7 (1891).

~Other -- Moses Hadas (1900-1966), Professor, Columbia University (Attributed)

Dave — Fri, 18 Nov 2016 01:15:07 +0000

This book fills a much-needed gap.

(Other Authors and Sources)
Moses Hadas (1900-1966), Professor, Columbia University (Attributed)

Publilius Syrus -- Sententiae [Moral Sayings], #1063 [tr. Lyman (1862)]

Dave — Wed, 03 Oct 2012 13:03:04 +0000

It is an embarrassment to the possessor to have more than he needs.

Publilius Syrus (d. 42 BC) Assyrian slave, writer, philosopher [less correctly Publius Syrus]
Sententiae [Moral Sayings], #1063 [tr. Lyman (1862)]