WIST Quotations

Franklin, Benjamin -- Poor Richard (1739 ed.)

Dave — Thu, 17 Apr 2025 15:04:26 +0000

Historians relate, not so much what is done, as what they would have believed.

Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) American statesman, scientist, philosopher, aphorist
Poor Richard (1739 ed.)
(Source)

Barzun, Jacques -- Romanticism and the Modern Ego, ch. 1 (1943)

Dave — Wed, 24 Jul 2024 13:19:12 +0000

The one thing that unifies men in a given age is not their individual philosophies but the dominant problem that these philosophies are designed to solve.

Jacques Barzun (1907-2012) French-American historian, educator, polymath
Romanticism and the Modern Ego, ch. 1 (1943)
(Source)

Bowen, Elizabeth -- “Truth and Fiction,” BBC Radio (Oct 1956)

Dave — Mon, 13 Jul 2020 15:06:14 +0000

If a theme or idea is too near the surface, the novel becomes simply a tract illustrating an idea.

Elizabeth Bowen (1899-1973) Irish author
“Truth and Fiction,” BBC Radio (Oct 1956)
(Source)

Russell, Bertrand -- Education and the Good Life, Part 2, ch. 11 “Affection and Sympathy” (1926)

Dave — Fri, 14 Jul 2017 23:47:28 +0000

The cultivation of wide sympathies, given the instinctive germ, is mainly an intellectual matter: it depends upon the right direction of attention, and the realization of facts which militarists and authoritarians suppress. Take, for example, Tolstoy’s description of Napoleon going round the battlefield of Austerlitz after the victory. Most histories leave the battlefield as soon as the battle is over; by the simple expedient of lingering on it for another twelve hours, a completely different picture of war is produced. This is done, not by suppressing facts, but by giving more facts. And what applies to battles applies equally to other forms of cruelty. In all cases, it should be quite unnecessary to point the moral; the right telling of the story should be sufficient. Do not moralize, but let the facts produce their own moral in the child’s mind.

Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) English mathematician and philosopher
Education and the Good Life, Part 2, ch. 11 “Affection and Sympathy” (1926)
(Source)