WIST Quotations

Austen, Jane -- Mansfield Park, ch. 11 [Mary Crawford] (1814)

Dave — Mon, 10 Oct 2022 20:23:14 +0000

I speak what appears to me the general opinion; and where an opinion is general, it is usually correct.

Jane Austen (1775-1817) English author
Mansfield Park, ch. 11 [Mary Crawford] (1814)
(Source)

Jung, Carl -- Flying Saucers: A Modern Myth of Things Seen in the Skies, ch. 2 (1959) [tr. Hull]

Dave — Wed, 27 Apr 2022 00:28:04 +0000

Thinking is difficult, therefore let the herd pronounce judgment!

Carl Jung (1875-1961) Swiss psychologist
Flying Saucers: A Modern Myth of Things Seen in the Skies, ch. 2 (1959) [tr. Hull]
(Source)

The motto of the "relatively unconscious man" who "clings to the commonplace, the obvious, the probable, the collectively valid." Reprinted in the The Collected Works of C.G. Jung - Civilization in Transition, vol. 10, ¶ 653.

Probable source of the frequently-attributed (but unfound) "Thinking is difficult. That's why most people judge."

Jefferson, Thomas -- Letter (1804-06-28) to John Tyler

Dave — Mon, 16 May 2011 13:20:35 +0000

The firmness with which the people have withstood the late abuses of the press, the discernment they have manifested between truth and falsehood, show that they may safely be trusted to hear everything true and false, and to form a correct judgment between them. As little is it necessary to impose on their senses, or dazzle their minds by pomp, splendor, or forms. Instead of this artificial, how much surer is that real respect, which results from the use of their reason, and the habit of bringing everything to the test of common sense.

Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) American political philosopher, polymath, statesman, US President (1801-09)
Letter (1804-06-28) to John Tyler
(Source)

Emerson, Ralph Waldo -- “Uses of Great Men,” Representative Men Lecture 1, Boston (1845-12-11)

Dave — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 12:43:53 +0000

The shield against the stingings of conscience is the universal practice of our contemporaries. Again, it is very easy to be as wise and good as your companions.

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) American essayist, lecturer, poet
“Uses of Great Men,” Representative Men Lecture 1, Boston (1845-12-11)
(Source)

White, E. B. -- “Notes and Comments,” New Yorker (3 Jul 1943)

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

Democracy is the recurrent suspicion that more than half of the people are right more than half of the time.

E. B. White (1899-1985) American author, critic, humorist [Elwyn Brooks White]
“Notes and Comments,” New Yorker (3 Jul 1943)
(Source)