WIST Quotations

Bolt, Robert -- A Man for All Seasons, play, Act 1 (1960)

Dave — Tue, 11 Mar 2025 20:28:46 +0000

MORE: (looks at him: takes him aside: lowered voice) Have I your word, that what we say here is between us and has no existence beyond these walls?

NORFOLK: (impatient) Very well.

MORE: (almost whispering) And if the King should command you to repeat what I have said?

NORFOLK: I should keep my word to you!

MORE: Then what has become of your oath of obedience to the King?

NORFOLK: (indignant) You lay traps for me!

MORE: (now grown calm) No, I show you the times.

Robert Bolt (1924-1995) English dramatist
A Man for All Seasons, play, Act 1 (1960)
(Source)

In Bolt's 1966 film adaptation, this is slightly shortened:

MORE: (arrests him; makes a display of looking about, conspiratorial) Have I your word that what we say here is between us two?
NORFOLK: (impatient) Very well.
MORE: And if the King should command you to repeat what I may say?
NORFOLK: I should keep my word to you!
MORE: Then what has become of your oath of obedience to the King?
NORFOLK: (sorts this out; then, astounded) You lay traps for me!
MORE: No, I show you the times.

Serling, Rod -- Seven Days in May, film (1964)

Dave — Fri, 21 Feb 2025 17:32:10 +0000

LYMAN: He’s not the enemy. Scott, the Joint Chiefs, even the very emotional, very illogical lunatic fringe: they’re not the enemy. The enemy’s an age — a nuclear age. It happens to have killed man’s faith in his ability to influence what happens to him. And out of this comes a sickness, and out of sickness a frustration, a feeling of impotence, helplessness, weakness. And from this, this desperation, we look for a champion in red, white, and blue. Every now and then a man on a white horse rides by, and we appoint him to be our personal god for the duration. For some men it was a Senator McCarthy, for others it was a General Walker, and now it’s a General Scott.

Rod Serling (1924-1975) American screenwriter, playwright, television producer, narrator
Seven Days in May, film (1964)
(Source)

Based on the 1962 novel by Fletcher Knebel and Charles W. Bailey II.

These lines are almost all Serling's. By wording, the only parallel I could find in the original novel was this:

The nuclear age, by killing man’s faith in his ability to influence what happens, could destroy the United States even if no bombs were ever dropped.
[Source]

Brilliant, Ashleigh -- Pot-Shots, #5712

Dave — Fri, 20 Nov 2020 18:56:51 +0000

Why should I change with the times, when the times are obviously wrong?

Ashleigh Brilliant (b. 1933) Anglo-American epigramist, aphorist, cartoonist
Pot-Shots, #5712

Baldwin, James -- “Why I Stopped Hating Shakespeare”

Dave — Mon, 14 May 2018 19:47:05 +0000

It is said that his time was easier than ours, but I doubt it — no time can be easy if one is living through it.

James Baldwin (1924-1987) American novelist, playwright, activist
“Why I Stopped Hating Shakespeare”
(Source)

Aristophanes -- The Clouds, l. 914 (c. 423 BC) [tr. Arrowsmith (1962)]

Dave — Thu, 12 May 2016 16:40:36 +0000

Times change. The vices of your age are stylish today.

Aristophanes (c. 450-c. 388 BC) Athenian comedic playwright
The Clouds, l. 914 (c. 423 BC) [tr. Arrowsmith (1962)]

This phrase comes from a single translation, by William Arrowsmith (1962), of Aristophanes, The Clouds, l. 914. It is the only translation that includes anything like that:

[909] Philosophy: Why, you Precocious Pederast! You Palpable Pervert!
[910] Sophistry: Pelt me with roses!
[910] Philosophy: You Toadstool! O Cesspool!
[911] Sophistry: Wreath my hairs with lilies!
[911] Philosophy: Why, you Parricide!
[912] Sophistry: Shower me with gold! Look, don't you see I welcome your abuse?
[913] Philosophy: Welcome it, monster? In my day we would have cringed with shame.
[914] Sophistry: Whereas now we're flattered. Times change. The vices of your age are stylish today.

Compare to Hickey (1853):

[909] Just Cause: You are debauched and shameless.
[910] Unjust Cause: You have spoken roses of me.
[910] Just Cause: And a dirty lickspittle.
[911] Unjust Cause: You crown me with lilies.
[911] Just Cause: And a parricide.
[912] Unjust Cause: You don't know that you are sprinkling me with gold.
[913] Just Cause: Certainly not so formerly, but with lead.
[914] Unjust Cause: But now this is an ornament to me.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo -- “Works and Days,” Society and Solitude, ch. 7 (1870)

Dave — Fri, 17 Feb 2012 13:29:39 +0000

Can anyone remember when times were not hard, and money was not scarce?

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) American essayist, lecturer, poet
“Works and Days,” Society and Solitude, ch. 7 (1870)
(Source)

Tolkien, J.R.R. -- The Lord of the Rings, Vol. 2: The Two Towers, Book 3, ch. 2 “The Riders of Rohan” [Eomer and Aragorn] (1954)

Dave — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 15:11:39 +0000

“How shall a man judge what to do in such times?”
“As he ever has judged,” said Aragorn. “Good and ill have not changed since yesteryear; nor are they one thing among Elves and Dwarves, and another among Men. It is a man’s part to discern them, as much in the Golden Wood as in his own house.”

J.R.R. Tolkien (1892-1973) English writer, fabulist, philologist, academic [John Ronald Reuel Tolkien]
The Lord of the Rings, Vol. 2: The Two Towers, Book 3, ch. 2 “The Riders of Rohan” [Eomer and Aragorn] (1954)
(Source)

Emerson, Ralph Waldo -- “Public and Private Education,” lecture, Boston (1864-11-27)

Dave — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 14:03:13 +0000

These times of ours are serious and full of calamity, but all times are essentially alike. As soon as there is life there is danger.

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) American essayist, lecturer, poet
“Public and Private Education,” lecture, Boston (1864-11-27)