WIST Quotations

Jacobs, Jane -- “No Virtue in Meek Conformity” (1952)

Dave — Mon, 29 Jan 2024 19:51:06 +0000

Perhaps people with my point of view are in a minority today. But the fact of being in a minority does not, in itself, trouble me, nor do I see anything un-American about being in a minority position. Quite the contrary. The minority views of one day are frequently the majority views of another, and in the possibility of this being so rests all our potentiality for progress.

Jane Jacobs (1916-2006) American-Canadian journalist, author, urban theorist, activist
“No Virtue in Meek Conformity” (1952)
(Source)

Foreword to her response to a State Department Loyalty Security Board interrogatory (1952-03-25). Reprinted in Vital Little Plans (2016).

Abbey, Edward -- “TV Show: Out There On the Rocks,” One Life at a Time, Please (1988)

Dave — Wed, 22 Apr 2020 15:44:16 +0000

There are some places so beautiful they can make a grown man break down and weep.

Edward Abbey (1927-1989) American anarchist, writer, environmentalist
“TV Show: Out There On the Rocks,” One Life at a Time, Please (1988)
(Source)

Lewis, C.S. -- That Hideous Strength (1945)

Dave — Wed, 09 Sep 2015 14:44:20 +0000

“I suppose there are two views about everything,” said Mark.

“Eh? Two views? There are a dozen views about everything until you know the answer. Then there’s never more than one.”

C. S. Lewis (1898-1963) English writer, literary scholar, lay theologian [Clive Staples Lewis]
That Hideous Strength (1945)

Schopenhauer, Arthur -- Parerga and Paralipomena, Vol. 2, ch. 26 “Psychological Observations [Psychologische Bemerkungen],” § 338 (1851) [tr. Saunders (1890)]

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

Every man takes the limits of his own field of vision for the limits of the world.

[Jeder hält das Ende seines Gesichtskreises für das der Welt.]

Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860) German philosopher
Parerga and Paralipomena, Vol. 2, ch. 26 “Psychological Observations [Psychologische Bemerkungen],” § 338 (1851) [tr. Saunders (1890)]
(Source)

(Source (German)). Alternate translation:

Everyone regards the limits of his field of vision as those of the world.
[tr. Payne (1974)]