WIST Quotations

Holland, Barbara -- One’s Company: Reflections on Living Alone, ch. 4 “Children” (1996)

Dave — Mon, 07 Nov 2022 22:50:55 +0000

The thing to remember is that children are temporary. As soon as they develop a sense of humor and get to be good company, maybe even remember to take the trash out and close the refrigerator door, they pack up their electronic equipment and their clothes, and some of your clothes, and leave in a U-Haul, to return only at Thanksgiving. They were just passing through; they were always just passing through on their way to their own lives.

Barbara Holland (1933-2010) American author
One’s Company: Reflections on Living Alone, ch. 4 “Children” (1996)
(Source)

Della Casa, Giovanni -- Galateo: Or, A Treatise on Politeness and Delicacy of Manners [Il Galateo overo de’ costumi], ch. 28 (1558) [tr. Eisnbichler/Bartlett (1986)]

Dave — Wed, 26 Oct 2022 17:28:16 +0000

Your clothes should be according to the custom of those like you in age and condition. We do not have the power to change customs as we see fit, for it is time that creates them and likewise it is time that destroys them.

[I tuoi panni convien che siano secondo il costume degli altri di tuo tempo o di tua conditione, per le cagioni che io ho dette di sopra; ché noi non abbiamo potere di mutar le usanze a nostro senno, ma il tempo le crea, e consumale altresì il tempo.]

Giovanni della Casa (1503-1556) Florentine poet, author, diplomat, bishop
Galateo: Or, A Treatise on Politeness and Delicacy of Manners [Il Galateo overo de’ costumi], ch. 28 (1558) [tr. Eisnbichler/Bartlett (1986)]
(Source)

(Source (Italian)). Alternate translations:

Your apparel must be shaped according to the fashion of the time, and your calling [...] For we must not take upon us to alter customs at our will. For time doth beget them and time doth also wear them out.
[tr. Peterson (1576)]

Let your dress [...] be conformable to the customs of the age you live in, and suitable to your condition; for it is not in our power to alter the general fashions at our pleasure; which, as they are produced, so they are swallowed up by time.
[tr. Graves (1774)]

Kelly, Walt -- “Pogo” [Porky Pine] (24 Jun 1950)

Dave — Wed, 21 Apr 2021 15:11:07 +0000

Don’t take life so serious, son … it ain’t no how permanent.

Walt Kelly (1913-1973) American animator and cartoonist [Walter Crawford Kelly, Jr.]
“Pogo” [Porky Pine] (24 Jun 1950)

More discussion about this quotation: Don’t Take Life So Serious, Son … It Ain’t Nohow Permanent – Quote Investigator.

Counsel, Edward -- Maxims: Political, Philosophical, and Moral, #541 (2nd ed., 1892)

Dave — Wed, 15 Jul 2020 16:57:59 +0000

Beauty is but a lease from nature.

Edward Counsel (fl. 19th C) Australian author, composer
Maxims: Political, Philosophical, and Moral, #541 (2nd ed., 1892)
(Source)

Eliot, George -- Middlemarch, Book 3, ch. 24 (1871)

Dave — Fri, 08 Sep 2017 21:20:27 +0000

There are answers which, in turning away wrath, only send it to the other end of the room.

George Eliot (1819-1880) English novelist [pseud. of Mary Ann Evans]
Middlemarch, Book 3, ch. 24 (1871)
(Source)

An allusion to Proverbs 15:1 "A soft answer turneth away wrath."

Lincoln, Abraham -- Speech (1859-09-30), Wisconsin State Agricultural Society, Milwaukee

Dave — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 11:57:46 +0000

It is said an Eastern monarch once charged his wise men to invent him a sentence, to be ever in view, and which should be true and appropriate in all times and situations. They presented him the words: “And this, too, shall pass away.” How much it expresses! How chastening in the hour of pride! — how consoling in the depth of affliction!

Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) American lawyer, politician, US President (1861-65)
Speech (1859-09-30), Wisconsin State Agricultural Society, Milwaukee
(Source)

The anecdote Lincoln tells comes from a 12th Century Persian tale, which became popular in English in the early 19th Century, particularly through English poet Edward FitzGerald in 1852.