But I tell you the New Frontier is here, whether we seek it or not. Beyond that frontier are the uncharted areas of science and space, unsolved problems of peace and war, unconquered pockets of ignorance and prejudice, unanswered questions of poverty…WIST Quotations
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There is no odor so bad as that which arises from goodness tainted. It is human, it is divine, carrion.
Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) American philosopher and writer
Walden; or, Life in the Woods, ch. 1 “Economy” (1854)
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It makes sense to say that those without a solid memory should not get in the habit of telling lies.
[Ce n’est pas sans raison qu’on dict, que qui ne se sent point assez ferme de memoire, ne se doit pas mesler d’estre menteur.]
Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) French essayist
Essays, Book 1, ch. 9 (1.9), “Of Liars [Des Menteurs]” (1572) [tr. HyperEssays (2025)]
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A quotation from Salman Rushdie
When censorship intrudes on art, it becomes the subject; the art becomes “censored art,” and that is how the world sees and understands it. The censor labels the work immoral, or blasphemous, or pornographic, or controversial, and those words are forever hung like albatrosses around the necks of those cursed mariners, the censored works. The attack on the work does more than define the work; in a sense, for the general public, it becomes the work.
Salman Rushdie (b. 1947) Indian novelist
Speech (2012-05-06), Arthur Miller Freedom to Write Lecture, PEN World Voices Festival, New York City
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Keep matters for a time in suspense. Admiration at their novelty heightens the value of your achievements, It is both useless and insipid to play with the cards on the table.WIST Quotations
A quotation from Douglas Adams
I am rarely happier than when spending entire day programming my computer to perform automatically a task that it would otherwise take me a good ten seconds to do by hand.
Douglas Adams (1952-2001) English author, humorist, screenwriter
Last Chance to See, ch. 2 (1990) [with Mark Carwardine]
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Ultimately, the bond of all companionship, whether in marriage or friendship, is conversation.
Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) Irish poet, wit, dramatist
Letter (1897-03) to Alfred Douglas, “Epistola: In Carcere et Vinculis”
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Ultimately, the bond of all companionship, whether in marriage or friendship, is conversation. Wilde titled the letter, written while in prison in Reading, England, Epistola: In Carcere et Vinculis ("Letter: In Prison and in Chains").WIST Quotations
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A quotation from Bertrand Russell
Patriotism of the nationalistic type, so far from being taught in schools, ought to be mentioned as a form of mass-hysteria to which men are unfortunately liable, and against they need to be fortified both intellectually and morally. Nationalism is undoubtedly the most dangerous vice of our time.
Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) English mathematician and philosopher
Education and the Social Order [Education and the Modern World], ch. 10 “Patriotism in Education” (1932)
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It’s hard to convince people you are bombing that you’re doing it for their own good.
Molly Ivins (1944-2007) American writer, political columnist [Mary Tyler Ivins]
Essay (2001-12), “What Osama Bin Wants,” The Progressive, Vol. 65, No. 12
More about this quote: wist.info/ivins-molly/16357/
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It's hard to convince people you are bombing that you're doing it for their own good. The quote was included in The Progressive's memorial article for her.WIST Quotations
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As I brew, so must I drink.
James Howell (c. 1594–1666) Welsh historian and writer
Paroimiographia [Παροιμιογραφία]: Proverbs, or, Old Sayed Sawes & Adages, “English Proverbs” (1659)
[compiler]
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Die when I may, I want it said of me by those who knew me best that I always plucked a thistle and planted a flower where I thought a flower would grow.
Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) American lawyer, politician, US President (1861-65)
Remark (1865-02) to Joshua Speed
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Die when I may, I want it said of me by those who knew me best that I always plucked a thistle and planted a flower where I thought a flower would grow. Recorded in a letter (1866-01-12) from Speed to William H. Herndon, reprinted in Douglas L.WIST Quotations
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A writer should cultivate only what naturally absorbs his fancy, whether it be freedom or cinch bugs, and should write in the way that comes easy.
E. B. White (1899-1985) American author, critic, humorist [Elwyn Brooks White]
Essay (1939-01), “One Man’s Meat,” Harper’s Magazine, Vol. 178
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A writer should cultivate only what naturally absorbs his fancy, whether it be freedom or cinch bugs, and should write in the way that comes easy. When collected in his book, One Man's Meat (1944), the essay was renamed "Salt Water Farm.WIST Quotations
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A writer should cultivate only what naturally absorbs his fancy, whether it be freedom or cinch bugs, and should write in the way that comes easy.
E. B. White (1899-1985) American author, critic, humorist [Elwyn Brooks White]
Essay (1939-01), “One Man’s Meat,” Harper’s Magazine, Vol. 178
More about this quote: wist.info/white-eb/84883/
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A writer should cultivate only what naturally absorbs his fancy, whether it be freedom or cinch bugs, and should write in the way that comes easy. When collected in his book, One Man's Meat (1944), the essay was renamed "Salt Water Farm.WIST Quotations
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Insist on yourself; never imitate.
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) American essayist, lecturer, poet
Essay (1841), “Self-Reliance,” Essays: First Series, No. 2
More about this quote: wist.info/emerson-ralph-waldo/…
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Insist on yourself; never imitate. This essay was inspired by his reading of Walter Savage Landor in 1833, with passages pulled from his lecture "Individualism," last in his course on "The Philosophy of History" (1836–1837), with other passages from …WIST Quotations
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A quotation from Bill Watterson
HOBBES: If people could put rainbows in zoos, they’d do it.
Bill Watterson (b. 1958) American cartoonist
Calvin and Hobbes (1995-06-15)
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A quotation from Ambrose Bierce
ENCOURAGE, v.t. To confirm a fool in a folly that is beginning to hurt him.
Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914?) American writer and journalist
“Encourage,” “Devil’s Dictionary” column, San Francisco Wasp (1883-03-10)
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Real power begins where secrecy begins.
Hannah Arendt (1906-1975) German-American philosopher, political theorist
Origins of Totalitarianism, Part 3, ch. 12 “Totalitarianism in Power,” sec. 1 (1951)
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MESSENGER: I have not now first learn'd that all Th' affairs of mortal men are a mere shadow: Nor would I fear to say that those, who most Boast of their wisdom and their deep research, The widest in the paths of folly stray.WIST Quotations
It seems to me that America's objective today should be to try to make herself the best possible mirror of democracy that she can. The people of the world can see what happens here. They watch us to see what we are going to do and how well we can…WIST Quotations
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Don’t abandon old friends, because newer ones are not their equals. New friends are like new wine; when wine ages, you will drink it with good cheer.WIST Quotations
I had met with an Observation among regular Officers, that Mankind were naturally divided into three Sorts. One third of them are animated at the first appearance of danger, and will press forward to meet it and examine it; another third are allarmed at it: but will neither advance nor retreat, till they know the nature of it: but stand to meet it: the remaining third will run or fly upon the first thought of it.
John Adams (1735–1826) American lawyer, Founding Father, statesman, US President (1797–1801)
Autobiography, Notes on Diary Entry for 1776-10-01 (1807)
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The attempt to combine wisdom and power has only rarely been successful, and then only for a short while.
[Dem Streben, Weisheit und Macht zu vereinigen, war nur selten und nur auf kurze Zeit Erfolg beschieden.]
Albert Einstein (1879-1955) German-American physicist
Essay (1953-05-23), “Aphorisms for Leo Baeck [Neun Aphorismen], No. 2, Essays Presented to Leo Baeck on the Occasion of His Eightieth Birthday (1954) [Einstein Archives 28-962]
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The attempt to combine wisdom and power has only rarely been successful, and then only for a short while. [Dem Streben, Weisheit und Macht zu vereinigen, war nur selten und nur auf kurze Zeit Erfolg beschieden.WIST Quotations
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A quotation (not?) from Montesquieu
Happy the people whose annals are tiresome.
[Heureux le peuple dont l’histoire est ennuyeuse.]
Charles-Lewis de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu (1689-1755) French political philosopher
(Attributed)
More about (and translations of) this quote: wist.info/montesquieu/84855/
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A quotation from Henry Commager
The Bill of Rights was not written into the Constitution in order to protect governments from “trouble,” but so that the people might have a legitimate method of causing trouble to governments they no longer trusted.
Henry Steele Commager (1902-1998) American historian, writer, activist
Letter (1971-06-17) to the Editor, New York Times
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The Bill of Rights was not written into the Constitution in order to protect governments from "trouble," but so that the people might have a legitimate method of causing trouble to governments they no longer trusted.WIST Quotations
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O prince, in early youth divinely wise, Born, the Ulysses of thy age to rise If to the son the father's worth descends, O'er the wide wave success thy ways attends To tread the walks of death he stood prepared; And what he greatly thought, he nobly d…WIST Quotations
SYDNEY: A lot of writers drink. Some drink before they write and some drink after they write. The ones that concern me are the ones who drink instead of writing. Even though a number of people have tried, no on has yet found a way to drink for a living.
Jean Kerr (1922-2003) American author and playwright [b. Bridget Jean Collins]
Poor Richard, Act 1 (1965)
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A quotation from Richard Steele
It is a Secret known but to a few, yet of no small use in the Conduct of Life, that when you fall into a Man’s Conversation, the first thing you should consider is, whether he has a greater Inclination to hear you, or that you should hear him.
Richard Steele (1672-1729) Anglo-Irish writer, journalist, playwright, politician
Essay (1711-04-26), The Spectator, No. 49
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It is a Secret known but to a few, yet of no small use in the Conduct of Life, that when you fall into a Man's Conversation, the first thing you should consider is, whether he has a greater Inclination to hear you, or that you should hear him.WIST Quotations
There are ghosts after all, then; death is not the ending:
the soul, like smoke, escapes from the funeral flame.
[Sunt aliquid Manes: letum non omnia finit,
Luridaque evictos effugit umbra rogos.]
Propertius (50-16 BC) Roman elegiac poet [Sextus Propertius]
Elegies, Book 4, Elegy 7, l. 1ff (4.7.1-2) [tr. Carrier (1963)]
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FOOL: Good madonna, why mourn’st thou?
OLIVIA: Good Fool, for my brother’s death.
FOOL: I think his soul is in hell, madonna.
OLIVIA: I know his soul is in heaven, Fool.
FOOL: The more fool, madonna, to mourn for your brother’s soul, being in heaven. Take away the fool, gentlemen.
William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Twelfth Night, Act 1, sc. 5, l. 64ff (1.5 64-70) (1601)
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FOOL: Good madonna, why mourn’st thou? OLIVIA: Good Fool, for my brother’s death. FOOL: I think his soul is in hell, madonna. OLIVIA: I know his soul is in heaven, Fool. FOOL: The more fool, madonna, to mourn for your brother’s soul, being in heaven.WIST Quotations
📜🇺🇸 Printed on the night of July 4, 1776, the Dunlap Broadside was the first published copy of the Declaration of Independence, carrying news of independence across the colonies. Check out this high-resolution scan of the historic print.
As America marks its 250th anniversary, we're spotlighting remarkable items from the Internet Archive's collections.
Learn more 👇
blog.archive.org/2026/06/29/th…
#AmericanHistory #Archives #July4 #IndependenceDay
The Declaration of Independence, America at 250 and Past CentennialsInternet Archive Blogs
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One of these was found in the UK just a few days ago. Thought to be the only copy outside the US, found in the papers of a US ship captured by the royal navy back then.
bbc.com/news/articles/cgrkl104…
The newly discovered copy is one of only 11 of its kind in the world.Joe Coughlan (BBC News)
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A quotation from John Quincy Adams
I cannot ask of Heaven success, even for my Country, in a Cause where she should be in the wrong — Fiat Justitia, pereat Coelum — My toast would be, may our Country be always successful, but whether successful or otherwise, always right.
John Quincy Adams (1767-1848) US President (1825-29)
Letter (1816-08-01) to John Adams
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I cannot ask of Heaven success, even for my Country, in a Cause where she should be in the wrong -- Fiat Justitia, pereat Coelum -- My toast would be, may our Country be always successful, but whether successful or otherwise, always right.WIST Quotations
Tonight, we gather to affirm the greatness of our nation — not because of the height of our skyscrapers, or the power of our military, or the size of our economy. Our pride is based on a very simple premise, summed up in a declaration made over two hundred years ago: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.” That is the true genius of America — a faith in simple dreams, an insistence on small miracles.
Barack Obama (b. 1961) American politician, US President (2009-2017)
Speech (2004-07-26) Keynote, Democratic National Convention, Boston
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Tonight, we gather to affirm the greatness of our nation -- not because of the height of our skyscrapers, or the power of our military, or the size of our economy.WIST Quotations
A quotation from Martin Luther King
If our nation had done nothing more in its whole history than to create just two documents, its contribution to civilization would be imperishable. The first of these documents is the Declaration of Independence and the other is that which we are here to honor tonight, the Emancipation Proclamation. All tyrants, past, present and future, are powerless to bury the truths in these declarations, no matter how extensive their legions, how vast their power and how malignant their evil.
Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968) American clergyman, civil rights leader, social activist, preacher
Speech (1962-09-12), Emancipation Proclamation Centennial Address, New York City
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The Constitution and the Declaration of Independence can live only as long as they are enshrined in our hearts and minds. If they are not so enshrined, they would be no better than mummies in their glass cases, and they could in time become idols whose worship would be a grim mockery of the true faith. Only as these documents are reflected in the thoughts and acts of Americans can they remain symbols of a power that can move the world.
Harry S Truman (1884-1972) US President (1945-1953)
Speech (1952-12-15), National Archives
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The doctrine of the Declaration of Independence, predicated upon the glory of man, and the corresponding duty of society, is that the rights of citizens are to be protected with every power and resource of the State, and a government that does any less is false to the teachings of that great document, of the name American.
Calvin Coolidge (1872-1933) American lawyer, politician, US President (1925-29)
Speech (1916-07-04), “At the Home of Daniel Webster”
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The doctrine of the Declaration of Independence, predicated upon the glory of man, and the corresponding duty of society, is that the rights of citizens are to be protected with every power and resource of the State, and a government that does any le…WIST Quotations
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The Second Day of July 1776, will be the most memorable Epocha, in the History of America. — I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more.
John Adams (1735–1826) American lawyer, Founding Father, statesman, US President (1797–1801)
Letter (1776-07-03, p.m.) to Abigail Adams
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The Second Day of July 1776, will be the most memorable Epocha, in the History of America. -- I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival.WIST Quotations
It was not the mere matter of the separation of the colonies from the motherland; but something in the Declaration giving liberty, not alone to the people of this country, but hope to the world for all future time. It was that which gave promise that in due time the weights should be lifted from the shoulders of all men, and that all should have an equal chance. This is the sentiment embodied in that Declaration of Independence.
Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) American lawyer, politician, US President (1861-65)
Speech (1861-02-22), Independence Hall, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
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A quotation from Frederick Douglass
The 4th of July is the first great fact in your nation’s history — the very ring-bolt in the chain of your yet undeveloped destiny. Pride and patriotism, not less than gratitude, prompt you to celebrate and to hold it in perpetual remembrance. I have said that the Declaration of Independence is the ring-bolt to the chain of your nation’s destiny; so, indeed, I regard it. The principles contained in that instrument are saving principles. Stand by those principles, be true to them on all occasions, in all places, against all foes, and at whatever cost.
Frederick Douglass (1817-1895) American abolitionist, orator, writer
Speech (1852-07-05), “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?” Rochester, New York
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The 4th of July is the first great fact in your nation's history -- the very ring-bolt in the chain of your yet undeveloped destiny. Pride and patriotism, not less than gratitude, prompt you to celebrate and to hold it in perpetual remembrance.WIST Quotations
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