WIST Quotations

Watterson, Bill -- Calvin and Hobbes (1995-08-11)

Dave — Wed, 01 Oct 2025 00:04:12 +0000

CALVIN: Some people are pragmatists, taking things as they come and making the best of the choices available. Some people are idealists, standing for principle and refusing to compromise. And some people just act on any whim that enters their head.

HOBBES: I wonder which you are.

CALVIN: I pragmatically turn my whims into principles!

Bill Watterson (b. 1958) American cartoonist
Calvin and Hobbes (1995-08-11)
(Source)

Shakespeare, William -- Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act 3, sc. 2, ll. 122ff (3.2.122-123) (1605)

Dave — Mon, 05 May 2025 16:29:07 +0000

ROBIN: And those things do best please me
That befall prepost’rously.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act 3, sc. 2, ll. 122ff (3.2.122-123) (1605)
(Source)

Chamfort, Nicolas -- Products of Perfected Civilization [Produits de la Civilisation Perfectionée], Part 1 “Maxims and Thoughts [Maximes et Pensées],” ch. 6, ¶ 359 (1795) [tr. Dusinberre (1992)]

Dave — Mon, 06 Nov 2023 16:16:07 +0000

Love, such as it exists in high society, is merely an exchange of whims and the contact of skins.

[L’amour, tel qu’il existe dans la société, n’est que l’échange de deux fantaisies et le contact de deux épidermes.]

Nicolas Chamfort (1741-1794) French writer, epigrammist (b. Nicolas-Sébastien Roch)
Products of Perfected Civilization [Produits de la Civilisation Perfectionée], Part 1 “Maxims and Thoughts [Maximes et Pensées],” ch. 6, ¶ 359 (1795) [tr. Dusinberre (1992)]
(Source)

(Source (French)). Alternate translations:

Love as it exists in society is nothing more than the exchange of two fancies and the contact of two epidermes.
[tr. Hutchinson (1902)]

Love, as it s practiced in Society, is nothing but the exchange of two caprices and the contact of two skins.
[tr. Mathers (1926)]

Love as it exists in society is merely the mingling of two fantasies and the contact of two skins.
[tr. Merwin (1969)]

Love as it exists in society is only the exchange of two fantasies and the contact of two epidermises.
[tr. Siniscalchi (1994)]

Auden, W. H. -- “Shorts,” No. 7 (c. 1930), Collected Poems, Part 2 “1927-1932” (1976 ed.) [ed. Mendelson]

Dave — Tue, 15 Jul 2014 12:48:07 +0000

Those who will not reason
Perish in the act:
Those who will not act
Perish for that reason.

W. H. Auden (1907-1973) Anglo-American poet [Wystan Hugh Auden]
“Shorts,” No. 7 (c. 1930), Collected Poems, Part 2 “1927-1932” (1976 ed.) [ed. Mendelson]
(Source)

Vidal, Gore -- “The Twelve Caesars,” United States (1993)

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

World events are the work of individuals whose motives are often frivolous, even casual.

Gore Vidal (1925-2012) American novelist, dramatist, critic
“The Twelve Caesars,” United States (1993)