WIST Quotations

Twain, Mark -- Essay (1906), “The Gorky Incident,” Letters from the Earth (c. 1909; pub. 1962) [ed. DeVoto (1939)]

Dave — Fri, 15 May 2026 17:38:27 +0000

Laws are coldly reasoned out and established upon what the lawmakers believe to be a basis of right. But customs are not. Customs are not enacted, they grow gradually up, imperceptibly and unconsciously, like an oak from its seed. In the fullness of their strength they can stand up straight in front of a world of argument and reasoning and yield not an inch.

Mark Twain (1835-1910) American writer [pseud. of Samuel Clemens]
Essay (1906), “The Gorky Incident,” Letters from the Earth (c. 1909; pub. 1962) [ed. DeVoto (1939)]
(Source)

Commenting on the eviction of Maxim Gorky from multiple hotels in New York City because the woman he was traveling with was not his wife. Twain was a supporter of Gorky's efforts to foment revolution in Tsarist Russia.

The essay was not published in Twain's lifetime. It's original publication was in the Slavonic and East European Review (1944-08), also edited by DeVoto.

Euripides -- Hecuba [Hekabe; Ἑκάβη], l. 1028ff (c. 424 BC) [tr. @sentantiq (2020)]

Dave — Tue, 17 Jun 2025 16:22:14 +0000

CHORUS:The meeting place
Of debt to Justice and to the gods
Is a terrible, terrible place.

ΧΟΡΟΣ:[τὸ γὰρ ὑπέγγυον
Δίκᾳ καὶ θεοῖσιν οὐ συμπίτνει:
ὀλέθριον ὀλέθριον κακόν.]

Euripides (485?-406? BC) Greek tragic dramatist
Hecuba [Hekabe; Ἑκάβη], l. 1028ff (c. 424 BC) [tr. @sentantiq (2020)]
(Source)

To Polymestor as he unknowingly goes to suffer Hecuba's bloody vengeance.

(Source (Greek)). Alternate translations:

For twofold ruin doth impend
O'er him who human laws pursue,
And righteous Gods indignant view.
[tr. Wodhull (1809)]

For where the rites of hospitality coincide with justice, and with the Gods, on the villain who dares to violate these destructive, destructive indeed impends the evil.
[tr. Edwards (1826)]

For wherever it cometh to pass that the rightful demand
Of justice's claim and the laws of the Gods be at one,
Then is ruinous bane for the sinner, O ruinous bane!
[tr. Way (Loeb) (1894)]

When the Gods and Justice meet,
And the Pledge that is forfeited,
The end is Ruin.
[tr. Sheppard (1924)]

For the rights of justice and of the gods do not fall together; there is ruin full of death and doom.
[tr. Coleridge (1938)]

Justice and the gods
exact the loan at last.
[tr. Arrowsmith (1958)]

When the gods call in their debt
and Justice wants your scalp as well,
better for you if you were dead
as your life will be one long hell.
[tr. Harrison (2005)]

Because when Justice and Heaven are both transgressed, there will be doom. Doom and more doom!
[tr. Theodoridis (2007)]

Where justice and the gods converge, there’s a maelstrom.
[tr. Karden/Street (2011)]

Ibn Ezra, Abraham -- Sefer ha-Yashar (c. 1160)

Dave — Tue, 08 Mar 2022 22:19:55 +0000

A little sin is a big sin when committed by a big man.

Abraham Ibn Ezra (1092-1167) Spanish Jewish poet, philosopher, Biblical exegete [ר׳ אַבְרָהָם בֶּן מֵאִיר אִבְּן עֶזְרָא‎]
Sefer ha-Yashar (c. 1160)

Commentary on Genesis 32.9. Alternate translation:

Therefore, a minor sin committed by a great personality is considered a major transgression.
[tr. Strickman and Silver (1988)]

Twain, Mark -- Essay (1906), “The Gorky Incident,” Letters from the Earth (c. 1909; pub. 1962) [ed. DeVoto (1939)]

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 19:00:00 +0000

Laws are sand, customs are rock. Laws can be evaded and punishment escaped, but an openly transgressed custom brings sure punishment. The penalty may be unfair, unrighteous, illogical, and a cruelty; no mater, it will be inflicted, just the same.