WIST Quotations

Banksy -- Wall and Piece, “Rats” (2005)

Dave — Wed, 18 Jun 2025 16:46:07 +0000

The human race is an unfair and stupid competition. A lot of the runners don’t even get decent sneakers or clean drinking water.
Some runners are born with a massive head start, every possible help along the way and still the referees seem to be on their side.
It’s not surprising a lot of people have given up competing altogether and gone to sit in the grandstand, eat junk food and shout abuse.
What we need in this race is a lot more streakers.

Banksy (b. 1974?) England-based pseudonymous street artist, political activist, film director
Wall and Piece, “Rats” (2005)
(Source)

Gladwell, Malcolm -- Outliers: The Story of Success, ch. 1 “The Matthew Effect,” sec. 5 (2008)

Dave — Mon, 16 Jan 2023 19:57:24 +0000

It is those who are successful, in other words, who are most likely to be given the kinds of special opportunities that lead to further success. It’s the rich who get the biggest tax breaks. It’s the best students who get the best teaching and most attention. And it’s the biggest nine- and ten-year-olds who get the most coaching and practice. Success is the result of what sociologists like to call “accumulative advantage.”

Malcolm Gladwell (b. 1963) Anglo-Canadian journalist, author, public speaker
Outliers: The Story of Success, ch. 1 “The Matthew Effect,” sec. 5 (2008)
(Source)

Halsey, Margaret -- The Folks at Home (1952)

Dave — Wed, 23 Mar 2022 16:52:31 +0000

The great disadvantage of being in a rat race is that it is humiliating. The competitors in a rat race are, by definition, rodents.

Margaret Halsey (1910-1997) American writer
The Folks at Home (1952)
(Source)

Hertzberg, Hendrik -- Speech, Lyndon Baines Johnson School of Public Affairs (17 Feb 1995)

Dave — Fri, 04 Mar 2022 17:38:24 +0000

We are never going to have someone who’s perfect [for President]. We have to change our system so that it can operate with flawed people.

Hendrik Hertzberg (b. 1943) American journalist, editor, speech writer, political commentator
Speech, Lyndon Baines Johnson School of Public Affairs (17 Feb 1995)

Fish, Stanley -- There’s No Such Thing as Free Speech, And It’s A Good Thing, Too, Part 1, ch. 5 (1994)

Dave — Fri, 04 Jun 2021 22:42:47 +0000

Fairness for everyone would be possible only if everyone’s interests were the same, if everyone were in agreement as to what baseline considerations must be in place for a procedure to be labeled “fair.” But if that were the case, the question of fairness would never be raised. It is raised precisely because everyone’s interests are not the same, and since different interests will generate different notions of fairness (the debate between those who call for equality of access and those who call of equality of opportunity is an example), any regime of fairness will always be unfair in the eyes of those for whom it was not designed.

Stanley Fish (b. 1938) American literary theorist, legal scholar, author
There’s No Such Thing as Free Speech, And It’s A Good Thing, Too, Part 1, ch. 5 (1994)
(Source)

Gordon-Reed, Annette -- “The Captive Aliens Who Remain Our Shame,” New York Review of Books (19 Jan 2017)

Dave — Mon, 24 May 2021 22:38:07 +0000

Americans today often speak of racial prejudice as a thing that simply exists — like air — with no nod to the actual work it takes to create and maintain systems based upon prejudice.

Annette Gordon-Reed (b. 1958) American historian, law professor, author
“The Captive Aliens Who Remain Our Shame,” New York Review of Books (19 Jan 2017)
(Source)

Deming, W. Edwards -- Out of the Crisis, ch. 3 (1982)

Dave — Tue, 11 Aug 2020 16:30:38 +0000

The supposition is prevalent the world over that there would be no problems in production or service if only our production workers would do their jobs in the way that they were taught. Pleasant dreams. The workers are handicapped by the system, and the system belongs to the management.

W. Edwards Deming (1900-1993) American management consultant, educator
Out of the Crisis, ch. 3 (1982)
(Source)

Clifford, William Kingdon -- Quoted in A. D’Abro, The Evolution of Scientific Thought from Newton to Einstein, Part 4, ch. 37 (1927)

Dave — Fri, 14 Feb 2020 17:53:57 +0000

The name philosopher, which meant originally “lover of wisdom,” has come in some strange way to mean a man who thinks it is his business to explain everything in a certain number of large books. It will be found, I think, that in proportion to his colossal ignorance is the perfection and symmetry of the system which he sets up; because it is so much easier to put an empty room tidy than a full one.

William Kingdon Clifford (1845-1879) English mathematician and philosopher
Quoted in A. D’Abro, The Evolution of Scientific Thought from Newton to Einstein, Part 4, ch. 37 (1927)
(Source)

D'Abro says it comes from one of Clifford's essays, but the source does not appear online.

Merton, Thomas -- Contemplative Prayer (1973)

Dave — Thu, 05 Sep 2019 17:56:23 +0000

In meditation we should not look for a “method” or “system,” but cultivate an “attitude,” and “outlook”: faith, openness, attention, reverence, expectation, supplication, trust, and joy.

Thomas Merton (1915-1968) French-American religious and writer [a.k.a. Fr. M. Louis]
Contemplative Prayer (1973)

Bastiat, Frederic -- Economic Sophisms [Sophismes Économiques], 2nd Series, ch. 1 “Physiology of Plunder [Physiologie de la Spoliation]” (1848) [tr. Goddard (1964)]

Dave — Sat, 27 Jul 2019 02:05:46 +0000

When plunder has become a way of life for a group of men living together in society, they create for themselves in the course of time a legal system that authorizes it and a moral code that glorifies it.

[Lorsque la Spoliation est devenue le moyen d’existence d’une agglomération d’hommes unis entre eux par le lien social, ils se font bientôt une loi qui la sanctionne, une morale qui la glorifie.]

Frédéric Bastiat (1801-1850) French philosopher, economist, politician
Economic Sophisms [Sophismes Économiques], 2nd Series, ch. 1 “Physiology of Plunder [Physiologie de la Spoliation]” (1848) [tr. Goddard (1964)]
(Source)

(Source (French)). Other translations:

When Spoliation has once become the recognised means of existence of a body of men united and held together by social ties, they soon proceed to frame a law which sanctions it, and to adopt a system of morals which sanctifies it.
[tr. Stirling (1873)]

When Plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men in a society, over the course of time they create for themselves a legal system that authorizes it and a moral code that glorifies it.
[tr. Goddard (variant/paraphrase)]

Kennedy, Florynce -- (Attributed)

Dave — Tue, 15 Aug 2017 03:09:39 +0000

Sure, there are differences in degree, but we’ve got to stop comparing wounds and go out after the system that does the wounding.

Florynce "Flo" Kennedy (1916-2000) American lawyer, feminist, civil rights activist
(Attributed)

Quoted in Gloria Steinem, "The Verbal Karate of Florynce R. Kennedy, Esq.," Ms. (Mar 1973).

King, Martin Luther -- Sermon (1957-11-17), “Loving Your Enemies,” Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, Montgomery

Dave — Sat, 01 Jul 2017 01:38:54 +0000

In the final analysis, love is not this sentimental something that we talk about. It’s not merely an emotional something. Love is creative, understanding goodwill for all men. It is the refusal to defeat any individual. When you rise to the level of love, of its great beauty and power, you seek only to defeat evil systems. Individuals who happen to be caught up in that system, you love, but you seek to defeat the system.

Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968) American clergyman, civil rights leader, social activist, preacher
Sermon (1957-11-17), “Loving Your Enemies,” Dexter Avenue Baptist Church, Montgomery
(Source)

Kennedy, Florynce -- (Attributed)

Dave — Thu, 22 Jun 2017 03:12:14 +0000

The biggest sin is sitting on your ass.

Florynce "Flo" Kennedy (1916-2000) American lawyer, feminist, civil rights activist
(Attributed)
(Source)

Quoted in Gloria Steinem, "The Verbal Karate of Florynce R. Kennedy, Esq.," Ms. (Mar 1973).

Full quote: "Some people say they won’t work 'inside the system' -- they’re 'waiting for the revolution.' Well, when the ramparts are open, honey, I'll be there. But until then, I'm going to go right on zapping the business and government delinquents, the jockocrats, the fetus fetishists, and all the other niggerizers any way I can. The biggest sin is sitting on your ass."

Kroeber, A. L. -- The Nature of Culture, ch. 14 (1952)

Dave — Tue, 15 Nov 2016 05:16:12 +0000

Any fool could devise a more consistent system than exists, but even a despot can rarely institute one.

Alfred Louis "A. L." Kroeber (1876-1960) American cultural anthropologist
The Nature of Culture, ch. 14 (1952)

Machiavelli, Niccolo -- The Discourses on Livy, Book 1, Introduction (1517) [tr. Detmold (1882)]

Dave — Fri, 11 Nov 2016 20:39:12 +0000

The envious nature of men, so prompt to blame and so slow to praise, makes the discovery and introduction of any new principles and systems as dangerous as almost the exploration of unknown seas and continents.

Niccolò Machiavelli (1469-1527) Italian politician, philosopher, political scientist
The Discourses on Livy, Book 1, Introduction (1517) [tr. Detmold (1882)]

King, Martin Luther -- “Remaining Awake Through a Great Revolution,” sermon, National Cathedral, Washington, DC (31 Mar 1968)

Dave — Mon, 10 Oct 2016 01:56:57 +0000

It is an unhappy truth that racism is a way of life for the vast majority of white Americans. Spoken and unspoken, acknowledged and denied, subtle, sometimes not so subtle, the disease of racism permeates and poisons a whole body politic.

And I can see nothing more urgent than for America to work passionately and unrelentingly to get rid of the disease of racism. Something positive must be done. Everyone must share in the guilt as individuals and as institutions. The government must certainly share the guilt. Individuals must share the guilt. Even the church must share the guilt.

Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968) American clergyman, civil rights leader, social activist, preacher
“Remaining Awake Through a Great Revolution,” sermon, National Cathedral, Washington, DC (31 Mar 1968)
(Source)

This was King's last sermon before his assassination.

Lawrence, D. H. -- “Education of the People,” Reflections on the Death of a Porcupine (1925)

Dave — Tue, 16 Feb 2016 14:16:10 +0000

What is wrong then? The system. But when you’ve said that you’ve said nothing. The system, after all, is only the outcome of the human psyche, the human desires. We shout and blame the machine. But who on earth makes the machine, if we don’t? And any alterations in the system are only modifications in the machine. The system is in us, it is not something external to us. The machine is in us, or it would never come out of us. Well then, there’s nothing to blame but ourselves, and there’s nothing to change except inside ourselves.

David Herbert "D. H." Lawrence (1885-1930) English novelist
“Education of the People,” Reflections on the Death of a Porcupine (1925)

Du Bois, W.E.B. -- (Attributed)

Dave — Thu, 21 May 2015 12:27:26 +0000

A system cannot fail those it was never designed to protect.

W. E. B. Du Bois (1868-1963) American writer, historian, social reformer [William Edward Burghardt Du Bois]
(Attributed)

Ackoff, Russell -- Redesigning the Future (1974)

Dave — Thu, 05 Mar 2015 14:17:55 +0000

English does not contain a suitable word for “system of problems.” Therefore, I have had to coin one. I choose to call such a system a mess.

Russell L. Ackoff (1919-2009) American organizational theorist, consultant, management scientist
Redesigning the Future (1974)

Johnson, Samuel -- Comment (15 Aug 1773)

Dave — Fri, 14 Mar 2014 12:01:44 +0000

A lawyer has no business with the justice or injustice of the cause which he undertakes, unless his client asks his opinion, and then he is bound to give it honestly. The justice or injustice of the cause is to be decided by the judge.

Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) English writer, lexicographer, critic
Comment (15 Aug 1773)

In James Boswell, Tour to the Hebrides (1786)

Covey, Stephen R. -- First Things First, ch. 1 (1994) [with Merrill & Merrill]

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

Management works within the paradigm. Leadership creates new paradigms. Management works within the system. Leadership works on the system. You manage ‘things’ but you lead people.

Stephen R. Covey (1932-2012) American consultant, author
First Things First, ch. 1 (1994) [with Merrill & Merrill]
(Source)