WIST Quotations

Martin, Judith -- “Miss Manners,” syndicated column (1986-01-19)

Dave — Mon, 26 May 2025 18:22:16 +0000

Should you happen to notice that another person is extremely tall or overweight, eats too much or declines convivial drinks, has red hair or goes about in a wheelchair, ought to get married or ought not to be pregnant — see if you can refrain from bringing these astonishing observations to that person’s attention.

Judith Martin (b. 1938) American author, journalist, etiquette expert [a.k.a. Miss Manners]
“Miss Manners,” syndicated column (1986-01-19)
(Source)

Martin, Judith -- “Miss Manners,” syndicated column (1986-01-19)

Dave — Mon, 19 May 2025 17:24:24 +0000

Since the invention of the mirror, everyone knows what he or she looks like and does not find it helpful or enjoyable to have oddities or deficiencies — according to someone else’s standards and tastes — pointed out. And every adult assumes the right of making his or her own decisions about eating, drinking, mating and reproducing, and finds being monitored and instructed — again according to someone else’s preferences — distasteful.

Judith Martin (b. 1938) American author, journalist, etiquette expert [a.k.a. Miss Manners]
“Miss Manners,” syndicated column (1986-01-19)
(Source)

Martin, Judith -- “Miss Manners,” syndicated column (1986-01-19)

Dave — Mon, 12 May 2025 17:34:23 +0000

All this variety is certainly interesting. If there were a standard and everyone met it, how on earth could people tell their ex-spouses from their new ones? If children did not show visible changes, what would encourage their parents to believe that they might ever pass out of the horrible stages they happen to be in?

Judith Martin (b. 1938) American author, journalist, etiquette expert [a.k.a. Miss Manners]
“Miss Manners,” syndicated column (1986-01-19)
(Source)

Cox, Marcelene -- “Ask Any Woman” column, Ladies’ Home Journal (1960-08)

Dave — Tue, 11 Oct 2022 14:35:24 +0000

Human beings, like birch trees, often seem more interesting when a little off center.

Marcelene Cox (1900–1998) American writer, columnist, aphorist
“Ask Any Woman” column, Ladies’ Home Journal (1960-08)
(Source)

Martial -- Epigrams [Epigrammata], Book 7, epigram 90 (7.90) (AD 92) [tr. McLean (2014)]

Dave — Fri, 08 Apr 2022 19:49:06 +0000

Matho alleges that my book’s uneven.
He compliments my poems, if that’s true.
Calvinus and Umber write consistent books.
Consistent books are lousy through and through.

[Iactat inaequalem Matho me fecisse libellum:
Si verum est, laudat carmina nostra Matho.
Aequales scribit libros Calvinus et Umber:
Aequalis liber est, Cretice, qui malus est.]

Martial (AD c.39-c.103) Spanish Roman poet, satirist, epigrammatist [Marcus Valerius Martialis]
Epigrams [Epigrammata], Book 7, epigram 90 (7.90) (AD 92) [tr. McLean (2014)]
(Source)

"To Creticus" (Source (Latin)). Other translations:

Matho objects, my books unequal are;
If he says true, he praises ere aware.
Calvin and Umber write an equal strain:
Naught is the book that's free from heights, and plain.
[tr. Killigrew (1695)]

My book is unequal, a Matho may boast.
So saying, he knows not he cries it up most.
Books equal a Calvin and Umber did write;
But equally penn'd in poor Pallasses spite.
[tr. Elphinston (1782), Book 3, ep. 15]

Matho exults that I have produced a book full of inequalities; if this be true, Matho only commends my verses. Books without inequalities are produced by Calvinus and Umber. A book that is all bad, Creticus, may be all equality.
[tr. Bohn's Classical (1859)]

I've writ, says Matho, an uneven book:
If that be true, then Matho lauds my verse.
Umber writes evenly, Calvinus too;
For even books, to be sure, are always bad.
[ed. Harbottle (1897)]

Matho puts it abroad that I have composed an unequal book; if that is true, Matho praises my poems. Equal books are what Calvinus and Umber write: the equal book, Creticus, is the bad one.
[tr. Ker (1919)]

My work's uneven, you protest
And sometimes falls beneath my best;
A compliment, say I:
Dull bards on level planes that grope
Shall never err -- or soar -- with Pope,
Although they shine with Pye.
[tr. Pott & Wright (1921), "The Dull Level"]

I write unequal verse, so Matho says;
If it be true his criticism's a praise.
Try Umber, Cluveienus by that test:
No, Creticus; bad's bad; good seldom best.
[tr. Francis & Tatum (1924), #382]

Matho exults and crows my book's uneven.
If that is true, he praises me. I'm glad.
Calvinus and Umber write books that are even.
Even books are books that are all bad.
[tr. Marcellino (1968)]

Matho's mad,
upset,
says my book
is unfair.
That's good,
I'm glad:
fair books
are dull books.
[tr. Goertz (1971)]

Matho spreads the word that I have made an uneven book. If so, Matho praises my poems. Calvinus adn Umber write even books. An even book, Creticus, is a bad book.
[tr. Shackleton Bailey (1993)]

Matho says my book's uneven.
He thinks he's quite the joker.
I'd rather have both highs and lows,
Than just be mediocre.
[tr. Ericsson (1995)]

Matho's one-word review of my small book:
"Uneven." I'm supposed to get all shook!
The scribblings of Calvinus and Umber
Are very "even" ... yet how they lumber.
I swear to you, Creticus, I thank God
My gift is for being quite frankly "odd."
[tr. Schmidgall (2001)]

Dour Matho offers me a "mixed review,"
To which contentedly I answer, "Whew!"
Most poets get reviews that are unmixed,
With every verse and stanza in them nixed.
[tr. Wills (2007)]

Smootus says my book is uneven.
I see this as praise of my work.
A bad book is fat with unvarying quality.
[tr. Kennelly (2008)]

Matho is crowing that I've "made an inconsistent book." If he's right, he's actually praising my poems. Calvinus and Umber write "consistent" books; if a book's "consistent," Creticus, it's consistently bad.
[tr. Nisbet (2015)]

Burke, Edmund -- A Philosophical Inquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and the Beautiful, 3.15 (1756)

Dave — Mon, 21 Mar 2022 15:46:44 +0000

Observe that part of a beautiful woman where she is perhaps the most beautiful, about the neck and breasts; the smoothness; the softness; the easy and insensible swell; the variety of the surface, which is never for the smallest space the same; the deceitful maze, through which the unsteady eye slides giddily, without knowing where to fix, or whither it is carried. Is not this a demonstration of that change of surface continual and yet hardly perceptible at any point which forms one of the great constituents of beauty?

Edmund Burke (1729–1797) Anglo-Irish statesman, orator, philosopher
A Philosophical Inquiry into the Origin of Our Ideas of the Sublime and the Beautiful, 3.15 (1756)
(Source)

Ertz, Susan -- The Story of Julian (1931)

Dave — Tue, 09 Nov 2021 15:40:58 +0000

We were like a lot of clocks, he thought, all striking different hours, all convinced we were telling the right time.

Susan Ertz (1887–1985) Anglo-American writer
The Story of Julian (1931)
(Source)

Richardson, James -- “Vectors: 56 Aphorisms and Ten-second Essays,” Michigan Quarterly Review, # 50 (Spring 1999)

Dave — Tue, 02 Nov 2021 14:19:56 +0000

Despair says It’s all the same. Happiness knows there are even a thousand Despairs.

James Richardson (b. 1950) American poet
“Vectors: 56 Aphorisms and Ten-second Essays,” Michigan Quarterly Review, # 50 (Spring 1999)
(Source)

Yoshida, Kenko -- Essays in Idleness [Tsurezuregusa] (c. 1330)

Dave — Thu, 09 Feb 2017 21:11:20 +0000

People often say that a set of books looks ugly if all volumes are not in the same format, but I was impressed to hear the Abbot Koyu say, “It is typical of the unintelligent man to insist on assembling complete sets of everything. Imperfect sets are better.”

Yoshida Kenkō (1284–1350) Japanese author and Buddhist monk [吉田兼好]
Essays in Idleness [Tsurezuregusa] (c. 1330)

Lorde, Audre -- “An Open Letter to Mary Daly” (6 May 1979)

Dave — Mon, 29 Feb 2016 14:59:46 +0000

The oppression of women knows no ethnic nor racial boundaries, true, but that does not mean it is identical within those boundaries.

Audre Lorde (1934–1992) American writer, feminist, civil rights activist
“An Open Letter to Mary Daly” (6 May 1979)
(Source)

Eisner, Elliot -- The Arts and the Creation of Mind, ch. 8 (2002)

Dave — Wed, 29 Jul 2015 16:00:54 +0000

One lesson the arts teach is that there can be more than one answer to a question and more than one solution to a problem; variability of outcome is okay. […] The arts teach children that their personal signature is important and that answers to questions and solutions to problems need not be identical. There is, in the arts, more than one interpretation to a musical score, more than one way to describe a painting or a sculpture, more than one appropriate form for a dance performance, more than one meaning for a poetic rendering of a person or a situation. In the arts diversity and variability are made central. That is one lesson that education can learn from the arts.

Elliot Eisner (1933–2014) Academic, researcher, professor of art and education
The Arts and the Creation of Mind, ch. 8 (2002)
(Source)

Variant: "The arts teach children that problems can have more than one solution; questions can have more than one answer. If they do anything, the arts embrace diversity of outcome."

Clarke, James F. -- (Attributed)

Dave — Fri, 17 Oct 2014 13:37:50 +0000

Let us not torment each other because we are not all alike, but believe that God knew best what He was doing in making us so different. So will the best harmony come out of seeming discords, the best affection out of differences, the best life out of struggle, and the best work will be done when each does his own work, and lets every one else do and be what God made him for.

James Freeman Clarke (1810–1888) American theologian and author
(Attributed)

Quoted in Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers (1895).

Emerson, Ralph Waldo -- “Eloquence,” Silence and Solitude (1870)

Dave — Fri, 19 Jul 2013 20:08:36 +0000

We boil at different degrees.

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American essayist, lecturer, poet
“Eloquence,” Silence and Solitude (1870)

Hughes, Charles Evans -- Speech (1925-06-17), Battle of Bunker Hill 150th Anniversary, Faneuil Hall, Boston Massachusetts

Dave — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 14:21:41 +0000

When we lose the right to be different, we lose the privilege to be free.

Charles Evans Hughes, Sr. (1862–1948) American statesman, politician, Supreme Court Justice (1910–1916, 1930–1941)
Speech (1925-06-17), Battle of Bunker Hill 150th Anniversary, Faneuil Hall, Boston Massachusetts
(Source)

Sometimes misquoted, "... the right to be free." When we lose the right to be different, we lose the right to be free.

Zappa, Frank -- A Day with Frank Zappa, Part 5, documentary, dir. Roelof Kiers, VPRO-TV (1971-02-11)

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

Without deviation from the norm, progress is not possible.

Frank Zappa (1940–1993) American singer-songwriter
A Day with Frank Zappa, Part 5, documentary, dir. Roelof Kiers, VPRO-TV (1971-02-11)

Widely attributed to Zappa in various forms, but with very few actual citations.

The Kiers documentary gave the quotation twice. First (Source, Video):

Well I think that progress is not possible without deviation. And I think that it's important that people be aware of some of the creative ways in which some of their fellow men are deviating from the norm, because in some instances they might find these deviations inspiring and might suggest further deviations which might cause progress, you never know.

Second (Source, Video):

KIERS: What kind of influence did the Mothers [of Invention] have, you think?
ZAPPA: Well, we had some, but not very much, because of the size of our audience was so small.
KIERS: But, what kind of influence?
ZAPPA: Well, I think we perhaps inspired some of the people who liked what we do to get a little bit looser and a little bit more devious, and as I said before about progress not being possible without some sort of deviation. We need a few deviants.

A variant of this quote shows up in a photo essay titled "A Quarter Century of Gay Life in New York," New York Magazine (1994-06-20). It is attributed to Zappa (who had died the previous December), and is dated (without citation) to 1966:

My attitude toward anybody's sexual persuasion is this: without deviation from the norm, progress is not possible.

The quotation also shows up in Leigh Rutledge, The Gay Book of Lists (1987) and his Unnatural Quotations (1988).

Rosemary Silva's Lesbian Quotations (1993) mentions this latter Rudtledge book as a citation, but gives a date on the quote as 1980.

I have not been able to find an earlier source of this variant.

Another use by Zappa can be found in his autobiography, The Real Frank Zappa Book, ch. 8 "All About Music" [with Peter Occhiogrosso] (1989):

One of the things I've said before in interviews is: "Without deviation (from the norm), 'progress' is not possible."
In order for one to deviate successfully, one has to have at least a passing acquaintance with whatever norm one expects to deviate from.

The section this text begins is titled "Deviation from the Norm" -- Zappa is speaking here about music, "radio music norms," and enjoying "nuking those norms" when prepping touring arrangements. (He also gives a lengthy critique of the classical / symphonic music realm and their rigid adherence to their norms).

See also Shaw (1903).