WIST Quotations

Marlowe, Christopher -- The Tragicall History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus, Act 5, sc. 4 (sc. 19), l. 2018ff (5.4.2018-2029) (1594; 1616 “B” text)

Dave — Wed, 04 Mar 2026 23:41:57 +0000

BAD ANGEL: Now, Faustus, let shine eyes with horror stare
Into that vast perpetual torture-house.
There are the Furies tossing damned souls
On burning forks; their bodies broil in lead.
There are live quarters broiling on the coals,
That ne’er can die. This ever-burning chair
Is for o’er-tortured souls to rest them in.
These, that are fed with sops of flaming fire,
Were gluttons, and loved only delicates,
And laughed to see the poor starve at their gates.
But yet all these are nothing; thou shalt see
Ten thousand tortures that more horrid be.

FAUSTUS: O, I have seen enough to torture me.

BAD ANGEL: Nay, thou must feel them, taste the smart of all.
He that loves pleasure must for pleasure fall.

Christopher "Kit" Marlowe (1564-1593) English dramatist and poet
The Tragicall History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus, Act 5, sc. 4 (sc. 19), l. 2018ff (5.4.2018-2029) (1594; 1616 “B” text)
(Source)

This Dante-like scene with the Bad Angel was added in the "B" text.

Addison, Joseph -- Cato, Act 3, sc. 5, l. 60ff (1713)

Dave — Mon, 16 Feb 2026 17:19:04 +0000

CATO: Forbear, Sempronius! — see they suffer death,
But in their deaths remember they are men.
Strain not the laws to make their tortures grievous.

Joseph Addison (1672-1719) English essayist, poet, statesman
Cato, Act 3, sc. 5, l. 60ff (1713)
(Source)

In response to Sempronius' plans to torture the captured rebel soldiers before their execution, as an example to others.

Marlowe, Christopher -- The Tragicall History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus, Act 2, sc. 1 (sc. 5), l. 565ff (1594; 1604 “A” text)

Dave — Fri, 30 Jan 2026 00:22:18 +0000

MEPHISTOPHILES: Within the bowels of these elements,
Where we are tortur’d and remain for ever:
Hell hath no limits, nor is circumscrib’d
In one self place; for where we are is hell,
And where hell is, there must we ever be:
And, to conclude, when all the world dissolves,
And every creature shall be purified,
All places shall be hell that are not heaven.

Christopher "Kit" Marlowe (1564-1593) English dramatist and poet
The Tragicall History of the Life and Death of Doctor Faustus, Act 2, sc. 1 (sc. 5), l. 565ff (1594; 1604 “A” text)
(Source)

The same text is used in the "B" text (1594; 1616) at l. 515ff.

The End Times "world dissolves" comes from Isaiah 24:19. "Shall be purified" is a reference to Daniel 12:10.

Bible, Vol. 2. New Testament -- Book 19. Letter to the Hebrews 13: 3 (Heb 13:3) [NRSV (2021 ed.)]

Dave — Tue, 25 Nov 2025 15:50:01 +0000

Remember those who are in prison, as though you were in prison with them, those who are being tortured, as though you yourselves were being tortured.

[μιμνῄσκεσθε τῶν δεσμίων ὡς συνδεδεμένοι, τῶν κακουχουμένων ὡς καὶ αὐτοὶ ὄντες ἐν σώματι.]

The Bible (The New Testament) (AD 1st - 2nd C) Christian sacred scripture
Book 19. Letter to the Hebrews 13: 3 (Heb 13:3) [NRSV (2021 ed.)]
(Source)

(Source (Greek)). Alternate translations:

Remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them; and them which suffer adversity, as being yourselves also in the body.
[KJV (1611)]

Keep in mind those who are in prison, as though you were in prison with them; and those who are being badly treated, since you too are in the one body.
[JB (1966)]

Keep in mind those who are in prison, as though you were in prison with them; and those who are being badly treated, since you too are in the body.
[NJB (1985)]

Remember those who are in prison, as though you were in prison with them. Remember those who are suffering, as though you were suffering as they are.
[GNT (1992 ed.)]

Remember prisoners as if you were in prison with them, and people who are mistreated as if you were in their place.
[CEB (2011)]

Bierce, Ambrose -- “Rack,” The Devil’s Dictionary (1911)

Dave — Tue, 03 Jun 2025 15:51:49 +0000

RACK, n. An argumentative implement formerly much used in persuading devotees of a false faith to embrace the living truth. As a call to the unconverted the rack never had any particular efficacy, and is now held in light popular esteem.

Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914?) American writer and journalist
“Rack,” The Devil’s Dictionary (1911)
(Source)

Originally published in the "Cynic's Word Book" column in the New York American (1906-06-29).

Ingersoll, Robert Green -- Lecture (1874-05-03), “Heretics and Heresies,” Free Religious Society, Kingsbury Hall, Chicago

Dave — Fri, 25 Apr 2025 22:25:26 +0000

A trial for heresy means that the spirit of persecution still lingers in the church; that it still denies the right of private judgment; that it still thinks more of creed than truth, and that it is still determined to prevent the intellectual growth of man. It means that churches are shambles in which are bought and sold the souls of men. It means that the church is still guilty of the barbarity of opposing thought with force. It means that if it had the power, the mental horizon would be bounded by a creed; that it would bring again the whips and chains and dungeon keys, the rack and fagot of the past.

Robert Green Ingersoll (1833-1899) American lawyer, freethinker, orator
Lecture (1874-05-03), “Heretics and Heresies,” Free Religious Society, Kingsbury Hall, Chicago
(Source)

Collected in The Gods and Other Lectures (1876).

Nin, Anais -- “Winter of Artifice” (1945)

Dave — Thu, 21 Mar 2024 14:08:03 +0000

To fight a real sorrow, a real loss, a real insult, a real disillusion, a real treachery was infinitely less difficult than to spend a night without sleep struggling with ghosts. The imagination is far better at inventing tortures than life because the imagination is a demon within us and it knows where to strike, where it hurts.

Anaïs Nin (1903-1977) Catalan-Cuban-French author, diarist
“Winter of Artifice” (1945)
(Source)

Byron, George Gordon, Lord -- “Prometheus,” st. 2 (1816)

Dave — Thu, 02 Nov 2023 15:30:23 +0000

Titan! to thee the strife was given
⁠Between the suffering and the will,
⁠Which torture where they cannot kill;
And the inexorable Heaven,
And the deaf tyranny of Fate,
The ruling principle of Hate,
Which for its pleasure doth create
The things it may annihilate,
Refused thee even the boon to die:
The wretched gift Eternity
Was thine — and thou hast borne it well.

George Gordon, Lord Byron (1788-1824) English poet
“Prometheus,” st. 2 (1816)
(Source)

Dante Alighieri -- The Divine Comedy [Divina Commedia], Book 1 “Inferno,” Canto 7, l. 19ff (7.19-21) (1309) [tr. Musa (1971)]

Dave — Fri, 10 Feb 2023 18:30:58 +0000

Ah, God’s avenging justice! who could heap up
suffering and pain as strange as I saw here?
How can we let our guilt bring us to this?

[Ahi giustizia di Dio! tante chi stipa
nove travaglie e pene quant’io viddi?
e perché nostra colpa sì ne scipa?]

Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) Italian poet
The Divine Comedy [Divina Commedia], Book 1 “Inferno,” Canto 7, l. 19ff (7.19-21) (1309) [tr. Musa (1971)]
(Source)

(Source (Italian)). Alternate translations:

Great is God's Justice; as increase with Crimes
Their Punishments, which here I many saw:
But why do we encourage this increase?
[tr. Rogers (1782)]

Justice of Heav'n, from thine avenging hand
What nameless toils and tortures fill the strand!
Ah! why on mortal failings so severe!
[tr. Boyd (1802), st. 4]

Almighty Justice! in what store thou heap’st
New pains, new troubles, as I here beheld!
Wherefore doth fault of ours bring us to this?
[tr. Cary (1814)]

Justice of God! who might such travail heap,
Such unimagined pangs as there I saw?
And wherefore drains our guilt the cup so deep?
[tr. Dayman (1843)]

Ah, Justice Divine! who shall tell in few the many fresh pains and travails that I saw? and why does guilt of ours thus waste us?
[tr. Carlyle (1849)]

Ah! justice of our God! how it heaps up
New troubles and new punishments I saw,
And fault of ours such penalty to draw!
[tr. Bannerman (1850)]

Oh, God's great justice! who heaps up the mass
Of pains and labors new which meet mine eye?
Why does our crime so tear and torture us?
[tr. Johnston (1867)]

Justice of God, ah! who heaps up so many
New toils and sufferings as I beheld?
And why doth our transgression waste us so?
[tr. Longfellow (1867)]

Ah justice of God! who crowds all the new labours and pains that I saw? and wherefore does our sin so bring us low?
[tr. Butler (1885)]

Justice of God! who heapeth up such store
Of novel toils and pains which I have seen!
And why doth sin in such profusion pour?
[tr. Minchin (1885)]

Ah, Justice of God! Who heapeth up so many new travails and penalties as I saw? And why doth our sin so waste us?
[tr. Norton (1892)]

Ah me! Justice of God, that heapeth up un-heard-of toils and tortures in numbers such as I beheld! And why doth man's transgression scourge man so?
[tr. Sullivan (1893)]

Justice of God! that it can pack together
Such novel pains and travails as I witnessed!
And why is our own fault thus our destruction?
[tr. Griffith (1908)]

Ah, Justice of God, who crams together
all the new toils and pains that I saw?
And why does our sin so lay us waste?
[tr. Sinclair (1939)]

Ah! Divine Justice! Who crowds throe on throe,
Toil upon toil, such as mine eyes now met?
And why doth guilt of ours consume us so?
[tr. Binyon (1943)]

God's justice! Who shall tell the agonies,
Heaped thick and new before my shuddering glance?
Why must our guilt smite us with strokes like this?
[tr. Sayers (1949)]

O Holy Justice,
who could relate the agonies I saw!
What guilt is man that he can come to this?
[tr. Ciardi (1954)]

Ah, justice of God! who crams together so many new travails and penalties as I saw? And why does our guilt so waste us?
[tr. Singleton (1970)]

Justice of God! Who has amassed as many
strange tortures and travails as I have seen?
Why do we let our guilt consume us so?
[tr. Mandelbaum (1980)]

Justice of God! Who except you could gather
As many pains and punishments as I saw?
And why is it our faults must so devour us?
[tr. Sisson (1981)]

Justice of God! Who is it hat heaps together
So much peculiar torture and travail?
How is it that we choose to sin and wither?
[tr. Pinsky (1994), ll. 17-19]

Ah, justice of God! who stuffs in so many strange
travails and punishments as I saw? and why does
our own guilt so destroy us?
[tr. Durling (1996)]

O Divine Justice! Who can tell the many new pains and troubles, that I saw, and why our guilt so destroys us?
[tr. Kline (2002)]

God in all justice! I saw there so many
new forms of travail, so tightly crammed. By whom?
How can our guilt so rend and ruin us?
[tr. Kirkpatrick (2006)]

Ah, Justice of God, who heaps up
such strange punishment and pain as I saw there?
And why do our sins so waste us?
[tr. Hollander/Hollander (2007)]

Ah, God of Justice, Who does this, scraping
Together the brand-new pains and punishments
I saw? And why should sinning cause such wastage?
[tr. Raffel (2010)]

Merciful God! Who gets it in,
This wretched harvest? What accounts for it?
And why to such pain are we led by sin?
[tr. James (2013), ll. 18-20]

Addison, Joseph -- Essay (1711-10-02), The Spectator, No. 185

Dave — Wed, 15 Jun 2022 14:54:28 +0000

I love to see a Man zealous in a good Matter, and especially when his Zeal shews it self for advancing Morality, and promoting the Happiness of Mankind: But when I find the Instruments he works with are Racks and Gibbets, Gallies and Dungeons; when he imprisons Mens Persons, confiscates their Estates, ruins their Families, and burns the Body to save the Soul, I cannot stick to pronounce of such a one, that (whatever he may think of his Faith and Religion) his Faith is vain, and his Religion unprofitable.

Joseph Addison (1672-1719) English essayist, poet, statesman
Essay (1711-10-02), The Spectator, No. 185
(Source)

Ingersoll, Robert Green -- Speech to the Jury, Trial of C. B. Reynolds for Blasphemy, Morristown, New Jersey (May 1887)

Dave — Wed, 08 Sep 2021 18:54:55 +0000

You can stand with the lash over a man, or you can stand by the prison door, or beneath the gallows, or by the stake, and say to this man: “Recant, or the lash descends, the prison door is locked upon you, the rope is put about your neck, or the torch is given to the fagot.” And so the man recants. Is he convinced? Not at all. Have you produced a new argument? Not the slightest. And yet the ignorant bigots of this world have been trying for thousands of years to rule the minds of men by brute force. They have endeavored to improve the mind by torturing the flesh — to spread religion with the sword and torch. They have tried to convince their brothers by putting their feet in iron boots, by putting fathers, mothers, patriots, philosophers and philanthropists in dungeons. And what has been the result? Are we any nearer thinking alike to-day than we were then?

Robert Green Ingersoll (1833-1899) American lawyer, freethinker, orator
Speech to the Jury, Trial of C. B. Reynolds for Blasphemy, Morristown, New Jersey (May 1887)
(Source)

Orwell, George -- “Can Socialists Be Happy?” Tribune (1943-12-20) [as John Freeman]

Dave — Wed, 07 Jul 2021 21:18:09 +0000

Men use up their lives in heart-breaking political struggles, or get themselves killed in civil wars, or tortured in the secret prisons of the Gestapo, not in order to establish some central-heated, air-conditioned, strip-lighted Paradise, but because they want a world in which human beings love one another instead of swindling and murdering one another. And they want that world as a first step. Where they go from there is not so certain, and the attempt to foresee it in detail merely confuses the issue.

George Orwell (1903-1950) English journalist, essayist, writer [pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair]
“Can Socialists Be Happy?” Tribune (1943-12-20) [as John Freeman]
(Source)

Fromm, Erich -- “Medicine and the Ethical Problem of Modern Man,” The Dogma of Christ and Other Essays (1931)

Dave — Thu, 20 May 2021 02:38:08 +0000

I am convinced that boredom is one of the greatest tortures. If I were to imagine Hell, it would be the place where you were continually bored.

Erich Fromm (1900-1980) American psychoanalyst and social philosopher
“Medicine and the Ethical Problem of Modern Man,” The Dogma of Christ and Other Essays (1931)
(Source)

See Hugo (1862).

Angelou, Maya -- “Facing Evil,” Interview by Bill Moyers (1982)

Dave — Fri, 30 Apr 2021 19:57:53 +0000

Throughout our nervous history, we have constructed pyramidic towers of evil, ofttimes in the name of good. Our greed, fear and lasciviousness have enabled us to murder our poets, who are ourselves, to castigate our priests, who are ourselves. The lists of our subversions of the good stretch from before recorded history to this moment. We drop our eyes at the mention of the bloody, torturous Inquisition. Our shoulders sag at the thoughts of African slaves lying spoon-fashion in the filthy hatches of slave-ships, and the subsequent auction blocks upon which were built great fortunes in our country. We turn our heads in bitter shame at the remembrance of Dachau and the other gas ovens, where millions of ourselves were murdered by millions of ourselves. As soon as we are reminded of our actions, more often than not we spend incredible energy trying to forget what we’ve just been reminded of.

Maya Angelou (1928-2014) American poet, memoirist, activist [b. Marguerite Ann Johnson]
“Facing Evil,” Interview by Bill Moyers (1982)
(Source)

Gibran, Kahlil -- “The Sayings of the Brook [Ma Taqul al-Saqiyah]” [tr. Sheban]

Dave — Thu, 18 Mar 2021 20:58:08 +0000

Hell is not in torture.
Hell is in an empty heart.

Kahlil Gibran (1883-1931) Lebanese-American poet, writer, painter [Gibran Khalil Gibran]
“The Sayings of the Brook [Ma Taqul al-Saqiyah]” [tr. Sheban]
(Source)

Napoleon Bonaparte -- Letter to Louis Alexandre Berthier (11 Nov 1798), in Correspondence Napoleon, Vol 5, #3605 [ed. Henri Plon (1861)]

Dave — Thu, 19 Mar 2020 19:28:04 +0000

The barbarous custom of having men beaten who are suspected of having important secrets to reveal must be abolished. It has always been recognized that this way of interrogating men, by putting them to torture, produces nothing worthwhile. The poor wretches say anything that comes into their mind and what they think the interrogator wishes to know.

Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821) French emperor, military leader
Letter to Louis Alexandre Berthier (11 Nov 1798), in Correspondence Napoleon, Vol 5, #3605 [ed. Henri Plon (1861)]
(Source)

Robinson, Spider -- Callahan’s Lady (1989)

Dave — Mon, 07 May 2018 16:12:19 +0000

If you’ve lived a bad life, they send you to Hell. But if you’ve been truly wicked, they give you a tour of Heaven first.

Spider Robinson (b. 1948) American-Canadian author
Callahan’s Lady (1989)

Godwin, William -- Enquiry Concerning Political Justice, Vol. 2, bk. 7, ch. 5 (1793)

Dave — Mon, 30 Oct 2017 21:48:39 +0000

To conceive that compulsion and punishment are the proper means of reformation, is the sentiment of a barbarian; civilisation and science are calculated to explode so ferocious an idea. It was once universally admitted and approved; it is now necessarily upon the decline. Punishment must either ultimately succeed in imposing the sentiments it is employed to inculcate, upon the mind of the sufferer, or it must forcibly alienate him against them. The last of these can never be the intention of its employer, or have a tendency to justify its application. […] Yet to alienate the mind of the sufferer, from the individual that punishes, and from the sentiments he entertains, is perhaps the most common effect of punishment.

William Godwin (1756-1836) English journalist, political philosopher, novelist
Enquiry Concerning Political Justice, Vol. 2, bk. 7, ch. 5 (1793)
(Source)

Gervais, Ricky -- Twitter (15 Mar 2012)

Dave — Fri, 29 Jul 2016 02:29:02 +0000

Whether you believe that life evolved over billions of years or God made everything, you can’t justify torturing an animal for a shampoo.

Ricky Gervais (b. 1961) English comedian, actor, director, writer
Twitter (15 Mar 2012)
(Source)

Maher, Bill -- Real Time with Bill Maher, “New Rules” (13 May 2011)

Dave — Wed, 01 Jun 2016 17:17:15 +0000

You’re supposed to look at that figure of Christ on the cross and think, “How could a man suffer like that and forgive?” Not, “Romans are pussies — he still has his eyes.”

William "Bill" Maher (b. 1956) American comedian, political commentator, critic, television host.
Real Time with Bill Maher, “New Rules” (13 May 2011)

Discussing Christians who support torturing terrorists.

Coase, Ronald -- (Attributed)

Dave — Mon, 25 Apr 2016 14:15:47 +0000

If you torture the data long enough, Nature will confess.

Ronald Coase (1910-2013) British economist, academic, author
(Attributed)

Criticizing econometricians. Cited as early as 1977. Variants:

"If you torture data long enough, it will confess to anything you'd like."
"If you torture the data long enough, it will confess to anything."

Adams, John -- Letter (1814-12-14) to John Taylor

Dave — Thu, 28 Jan 2016 16:59:24 +0000

What havoc has been made of Books through every Century of the Christian Æra? Where are fifty Gospells condemned as spurious by the Bull of Pope Gelasius. Where are the forty Waggon Loads of Hebrew Manuscripts burned in France by order of another Pope, because suspected of Heresy? Remember the Index expurgatorius, the Inquisitions, the Stake, the Axe the halter and the Guillotine; and Oh! horrible the Rack. This is as bad if not worse than a slow fire.

John Adams (1735–1826) American lawyer, Founding Father, statesman, US President (1797–1801)
Letter (1814-12-14) to John Taylor
(Source)

Whedon, Joss -- Firefly, 1×01 “Serenity” (pilot) (20 Dec 2002)

Dave — Thu, 26 Feb 2015 16:31:21 +0000

SIMON: What happens if they board us?
ZOE: If they take the ship, they’ll rape us to death, eat our flesh, and sew our skins into their clothing. And if we’re very, very lucky, they’ll do it in that order.

Joss Whedon (b. 1964) American screenwriter, author, producer [Joseph Hill Whedon]
Firefly, 1×01 “Serenity” (pilot) (20 Dec 2002)

Blackstone, William -- Commentaries on the Laws of England, Book 4 “Of Public Wrongs,” ch. 25 “Arraignment” (1769)

Dave — Wed, 17 Dec 2014 14:08:32 +0000

The rack, or question, to extort a confession from criminals, is a practice of a different nature; […] an engine of the state, not of law.

William Blackstone (1723-1780) British jurist, judge, politician
Commentaries on the Laws of England, Book 4 “Of Public Wrongs,” ch. 25 “Arraignment” (1769)

Milgram, Stanley -- Obedience To Authority, ch. 1 (1974)

Dave — Tue, 20 May 2014 12:41:37 +0000

The disappearance of a sense of responsibility is the most far-reaching consequence of submission to authority.

Stanley Milgram (1933-1984) American social psychologist
Obedience To Authority, ch. 1 (1974)

Stout, Rex -- The Red Box, ch. 14 [Archie] (1937)

Dave — Thu, 06 Mar 2014 13:41:44 +0000

They had Gebert down there, slapping him around and squealing and yelling at him. If you’re so sure violence is inferior technique, you should have seen that exhibition; it was wonderful. They say it works sometimes, but even if it does, how could you depend on anything you got that way? Not to mention that after you had done it a few times any decent garbage can would be ashamed to have you found in it.

Rex Stout (1886-1975) American writer
The Red Box, ch. 14 [Archie] (1937)

Describing a police interrogation.

Ingersoll, Robert Green -- Trial of C.B. Reynolds for blasphemy (May 1887)

Dave — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 14:13:12 +0000

What is blasphemy? I will give you a definition; I will give you my thought upon this subject. What is real blasphemy?
To live on the unpaid labor of other men — that is blasphemy.
To enslave your fellow-man, to put chains upon his body — that is blasphemy.
To enslave the minds of men, to put manacles upon the brain, padlocks upon the lips — that is blasphemy.
To deny what you believe to be true, to admit to be true what you believe to be a lie — that is blasphemy.
To strike the weak and unprotected, in order that you may gain the applause of the ignorant and superstitious mob — that is blasphemy.
To persecute the intelligent few, at the command of the ignorant many — that is blasphemy.
To forge chains, to build dungeons, for your honest fellow-men — that is blasphemy.
To pollute the souls of children with the dogma of eternal pain — that is blasphemy.
To violate your conscience — that is blasphemy.
The jury that gives an unjust verdict, and the judge who pronounces an unjust sentence, are blasphemers.
The man who bows to public opinion against his better judgment and against his honest conviction, is a blasphemer.

Robert Green Ingersoll (1833-1899) American lawyer, freethinker, orator
Trial of C.B. Reynolds for blasphemy (May 1887)
(Source)

Publilius Syrus -- Sententiae [Moral Sayings], # 232 [tr. Lyman (1862)]

Dave — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 15:52:26 +0000

Pain will force even the truthful to speak falsely.

Publilius Syrus (d. 42 BC) Assyrian slave, writer, philosopher [less correctly Publius Syrus]
Sententiae [Moral Sayings], # 232 [tr. Lyman (1862)]

Sontag, Susan -- “Regarding the Torture of Others,” New York Times (23 May 2004)

Dave — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 10:56:00 +0000

People do these things to other people. Not just in Nazi concentration camps and in Abu Ghraib when it was run by Saddam Hussein. Americans, too, do them when they have permission. When they are told or made to feel that those over whom they have absolute power deserve to be mistreated, humiliated, tormented. They do them when they are led to believe that the people they are torturing belong to an inferior, despicable race or religion. For the meaning of these pictures is not just that these acts were performed, but that their perpetrators had no sense that there was anything wrong in what the pictures show.

Susan Sontag (1933-2004) American essayist, novelist, activist
“Regarding the Torture of Others,” New York Times (23 May 2004)

On the photos of Iraqi prisoners tortured by Americans in Abu Ghraib.

Ingersoll, Robert Green -- Trial of C.B. Reynolds for blasphemy (May 1887)

Dave — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 11:30:08 +0000

No orthodox church ever had power that it did not endeavor to make people think its way by force and flame.

Robert Green Ingersoll (1833-1899) American lawyer, freethinker, orator
Trial of C.B. Reynolds for blasphemy (May 1887)
(Source)

Ingersoll, Robert Green -- “The Liberty of Man, Woman, and Child” (1877)

Dave — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 10:38:00 +0000

You cannot change the conclusion of the brain by torture; nor by social ostracism. But I will tell you what you can do by these, and what you have done. You can make hypocrites by the million. You can make a man say that he has changed his mind; but he remains of the same opinion still. Put fetters all over him; crush his feet in iron boots; stretch him to the last gasp upon the holy rack; burn him, if you please, but his ashes will be of the same opinion still.

Robert Green Ingersoll (1833-1899) American lawyer, freethinker, orator
“The Liberty of Man, Woman, and Child” (1877)
(Source)

Hugo, Victor -- Les Misérables, Part 2 “Cosette,” Book 4 “The Gorbeau Tenement,” ch. 1 (2.4.1) (1862) [tr. Donougher (2013)]

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

It is possible to imagine something more terrible than a hell of suffering, and that is a hell of boredom.

[On peut rêver quelque chose de plus terrible qu’un enfer où l’on souffre, c’est un enfer où l’on s’ennuierait.]

Victor Hugo (1802-1885) French writer
Les Misérables, Part 2 “Cosette,” Book 4 “The Gorbeau Tenement,” ch. 1 (2.4.1) (1862) [tr. Donougher (2013)]
(Source)

See Fromm (1931).

(Source (French)). Alternate translations:

Something more terrible than a hell of suffering may be conceived; to wit, a hell of ennui.
[tr. Wilbour (1862)]

It is possible to imagine something more horrible than an Inferno in which people suffer; it is on in which they are bored.
[tr. Wraxall (1862)]

Something more terrible than a hell where one suffers may be imagined, and that is a hell where one is bored.
[tr. Hapgood (1887)]

It is possible to conceive of something even more terrible than a hell of suffering, and that is a hell of boredom.
[tr. Denny (1976)]

There is something more terrible than a hell of suffering -- a hell of boredom.
[tr. Wilbour/Fahnestock/MacAfee (1987)]

One can dream of something more terrible than a hell where one suffers; it’s a hell where one would get bored.
[E.g.]