WIST Quotations

Porter, Cole -- “Anything Goes” (1934)

Dave — Thu, 30 Apr 2020 23:00:22 +0000

Good authors, too, who once knew better words
Now only use four-letter words
Writing prose.
Anything goes!

Cole Porter (1891-1964) American composer and songwriter
“Anything Goes” (1934)

Emerson, Ralph Waldo -- “Montaigne; or, The Skeptic,” Representative Men, Lecture 4 (1850)

Dave — Mon, 28 Oct 2019 21:08:38 +0000

Things seem to tend downward, to justify despondency, to promote rogues, to defeat the just; and by knaves as well as by martyrs the just cause is carried forward. Although knaves win in every political struggle, although society seems to be delivered over from the hands of one set of criminals into the hands of another set of criminals, as fast as the government is changed, and the march of civilization is a train of felonies, yet, general ends are somehow answered.

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) American essayist, lecturer, poet
“Montaigne; or, The Skeptic,” Representative Men, Lecture 4 (1850)
(Source)

Orwell, George -- Essay (1946-05), “Second Thoughts on James Burnham,” Polemic Magazine

Dave — Mon, 24 Sep 2012 12:08:07 +0000

Power worship blurs political judgement because it leads, almost unavoidably, to the belief that present trends will continue. Whoever is winning at the moment will always seem to be invincible. […] This habit of mind leads also to the belief that things will happen more quickly, completely, and catastrophically than they ever do in practice. The rise and fall of empires, the disappearance of cultures and religions, are expected to happen with earthquake suddenness, and processes which have barely started are talked about as though they were already at an end.

George Orwell (1903-1950) English journalist, essayist, writer [pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair]
Essay (1946-05), “Second Thoughts on James Burnham,” Polemic Magazine
(Source)

Published separately as a pamphlet, James Burnham and the Managerial Revolution (1946).

Stein, Herb -- Stein’s Law (1980s)

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

If something cannot go on forever, it will stop.

Herb Stein (1916-1999) American economist
Stein’s Law (1980s)
(Source)

This was a frequent statement by Stein. He explained it so:

This proposition, arising first in a discussion of the balance-of-payments deficit, is a response to those who think that if something cannot go on forever, steps must be taken to stop it -- even to stop it at once.

Variants:

"If something can’t go on forever, it won’t."
Anything that can’t go on, won’t.
Trends that can't continue won't.