WIST Quotations

Wilcox, Ella Wheeler -- Poem (1882), “Uselessness,” Maurine and Other Poems (1882 ed.)

Dave — Wed, 30 Apr 2025 17:06:43 +0000

Let mine not be the saddest fate of all,
To live beyond my greater self; to see
My faculties decaying, as the tree
Stands stark and helpless while its green leaves fall.
Let me hear rather the imperious call,
Which all men dread, in my glad morning time,
And follow death ere I have reached my prime,
Or drunk the strengthening cordial of life’s gall.
The lightning’s stroke or the fierce tempest blast
Which fells the green tree to the earth to-day
Is kinder than the calm that lets it last,
Unhappy witness of its own decay.
May no man ever look on me and say,
“She lives, but all her usefulness is past.”

Ella Wheeler Wilcox (1850-1919) American author, poet, temperance advocate, spiritualist
Poem (1882), “Uselessness,” Maurine and Other Poems (1882 ed.)
(Source)

Also collected in Poems of Life (1901) and Poems of Cheer (1910).

Fry, Stephen -- Moab Is My Washpot, “Falling In,” ch. 6 (1997)

Dave — Wed, 28 Jun 2023 19:19:25 +0000

Come to think of it, I don’t know that love has a point, which is what makes it so glorious. Sex has a point, in terms of relief and, sometimes, procreation, but love, like all art, as Oscar said, is quite useless. It is the useless things that make life worth living and that make life dangerous too: wine, love, art, beauty. Without them life is safe, but not worth bothering with.

Stephen Fry (b. 1957) British actor, writer, comedian
Moab Is My Washpot, “Falling In,” ch. 6 (1997)
(Source)

Referencing Oscar Wilde from the preface of The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890): "All art is quite useless".

Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth -- “Table-talk”

Dave — Fri, 21 May 2021 20:25:14 +0000

The years come when the mind, like an old mill, ceases to grind; when weeds grow on the wall; and through every crack and leak in dam and sluice, spouts the useless water.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882) American poet
“Table-talk”
(Source)

Ruskin, John -- The Stones of Venice, ch. 2 “The Virtues of Architecture,” sec. 17 (1851)

Dave — Wed, 24 Feb 2021 16:41:50 +0000

Remember that the most beautiful things in the world are the most useless; peacocks and lilies for instance; at least I suppose this quill I hold in my hand writes better than a peacock’s would, and the peasants of Vevay, whose fields in spring time are as white with lilies as the Dent du Midi is with its snow, told me the hay was none the better for them.

John Ruskin (1819-1900) English art critic, painter, writer, social thinker
The Stones of Venice, ch. 2 “The Virtues of Architecture,” sec. 17 (1851)
(Source)

Inge, William Ralph -- “The Birth-Rate” (1917), Outspoken Essays: First Series (1919)

Dave — Mon, 16 Mar 2020 18:25:00 +0000

It is worse than useless to try to put down by law a practice which a very large number of people believes to be innocent, and which must be left to the taste and conscience of the individual.

William Ralph Inge (1860-1954) English prelate [Dean Inge]
“The Birth-Rate” (1917), Outspoken Essays: First Series (1919)
(Source)

Speaking of birth control.

Johnson, Samuel -- Essay (1759-09-01), The Idler, No. 72

Dave — Tue, 19 May 2015 12:03:10 +0000

The gloomy and the resentful are always found among those who have nothing to do or who do nothing.

Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) English writer, lexicographer, critic
Essay (1759-09-01), The Idler, No. 72
(Source)

Paine, Thomas -- The American Crisis #5, “To General Sir William Howe” (23 Mar 1778)

Dave — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 22:16:30 +0000

To argue with a man who has renounced the use and authority of reason, and whose philosophy consists in holding humanity in contempt, is like administering medicine to the dead, or endeavoring to convert an Atheist by scripture.

Thomas Paine (1737-1809) American political philosopher and writer
The American Crisis #5, “To General Sir William Howe” (23 Mar 1778)
(Source)

Sometimes shortened as: "To argue with a man who has renounced his reason is like giving medicine to the dead."