A quotation from Hannah Arendt
The end of rebellion is liberation, while the end of revolution is the foundation of freedom.
Hannah Arendt (1906-1975) German-American philosopher, political theorist
On Revolution, ch. 4, sec. 1 (1963)
More about this quote: wist.info/arendt-hannah/81083/
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“Hallo, Rabbit,” he said, “is that you?”
“Let’s pretend it isn’t,” said Rabbit, “and see what happens.”
A. A. Milne (1882-1956) English poet and playwright [Alan Alexander Milne]
Winnie-the-Pooh, ch. 8 “Christopher Robin Leads an Expotition” (1926)
More about this quote: wist.info/milne-a-a/81076/
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"Hallo, Rabbit," he said, "is that you?" "Let's pretend it isn't," said Rabbit, "and see what happens."Dave (WIST Quotations)
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A quotation from Eleanor Roosevelt
Long ago, I made up my mind that, when things were said involving only me, I would pay no attention to them, except when valid criticism was carried by which I could profit.
Eleanor Roosevelt (1884-1962) First Lady of the US (1933-45), politician, diplomat, activist
Column (1942-01-14), “My Day”
More about this quote: wist.info/roosevelt-eleanor/81…
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MEDEA: Oh, what an evil power love has in people's lives! CREON: That would depend on circumstances, I imagine. [ΜΉΔΕΙΑ: Φεῦ φεῦ, βροτοῖς ἔρωτες ὡς κακὸν μέγα. ΚΡΈΩΝ: ὅπως ἄν, οἶμαι, καὶ παραστῶσιν τύχαι.Dave (WIST Quotations)
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Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. [εὐλογεῖτε τοὺς διώκοντας [ὑμᾶς], εὐλογεῖτε καὶ μὴ καταρᾶσθε.] (Source (Greek)). Alternate translations: Bless them which persecute you: bless, and curse not.Dave (WIST Quotations)
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It is one of the most difficult yet necessary things in life to learn to disdain. Disdain protects and crushes. It is a breastplate and a club. You have enemies? Why, it is the story of every man who has done a great deed or created a new idea. It…Dave (WIST Quotations)
A quotation from Wendell Berry
We know that war depresses public dialogue and debate, enlarges executive power, diminishes citizens’ rights, encourages governmental secrecy and deception, and deforms the outlines of human decency. Thus a government making war for the sake of peace, freedom, and human dignity — as it will never cease to declare — will curtail the rights of prisoners, resort to torture, deny its errors, exaggerate its virtues, demonize the enemy, and (as is inevitable in modern war) kill many innocent people, including, of course, many children.
Wendell Berry (b. 1934) American farmer, educator, poet, conservationist
Speech (2005-05-14), Commencement, Lindsey Wilson College, Columbia, Kentucky
More about this quote: wist.info/berry-wendell/81057/
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We know that war depresses public dialogue and debate, enlarges executive power, diminishes citizens' rights, encourages governmental secrecy and deception, and deforms the outlines of human decency.Dave (WIST Quotations)
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A quotation from Joseph Addison
There are many more shining qualities in the mind of man, but there is none so useful as discretion; it is this, indeed, which gives a value to all the rest, which sets them at work in their proper times and places, and turns them to the advantage of the person who is possessed of them. Without it, learning is pedantry, and wit impertinence; virtue itself looks like weakness; the best parts only qualify a man to be more sprightly in errors, and active to his own prejudice.
Joseph Addison (1672-1719) English essayist, poet, statesman
Essay (1711-11-17), The Spectator, No. 225
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There are many more shining qualities in the mind of man, but there is none so useful as discretion; it is this, indeed, which gives a value to all the rest, which sets them at work in their proper times and places, and turns them to the advantage of…Dave (WIST Quotations)
Do you have a kinder, more adaptable friend in the food world than soup? Who soothes you when you are ill? Who refuses to leave you when you are impoverished and stretches its resources to give a hearty sustenance and cheer? Who warms you in the wint…Dave (WIST Quotations)
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OSRIC: A hit, a very palpable hit.
William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Hamlet, Act 5, sc. 2, l. 304 (5.2.304) (c. 1600)
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I don’t know what God is.
I don’t know what death is.
But I believe they have between them
some fervent and necessary arrangement.
Mary Oliver (1935-2019) American poet
“Sometimes,” sec. 1, st. 2-3, Red Bird (2008)
More about this quote: wist.info/oliver-mary/81046/
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I don't know what God is. I don't know what death is. But I believe they have between them some fervent and necessary arrangement.Dave (WIST Quotations)
A quotation from Ferenc Molnar
Writing is like prostitution. First you do it for the love of it, then you do it for a few friends, and finally you do it for money.
Ferenc Molnár (1878-1952) Hungarian-American author, stage director, dramatist [a.k.a. Franz Molnar]
Quoted in George Jean Nathan, Intimate Notebooks (1932)
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Writing is like prostitution. First you do it for the love of it, then you do it for a few friends, and finally you do it for money. Common form of a quote often misattributed to Molière.Dave (WIST Quotations)
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Yeah, well I try doing it and I don't get love, friends, nor money. Which means I'm a failure.
Does that means I must find a grave to sleep in?
A quotation from Adlai Stevenson
I’m not an old, experienced hand at politics. But I am now seasoned enough to have learned that the hardest thing about any political campaign is how to win without proving that you are unworthy of winning.
Adlai Stevenson (1900-1965) American diplomat, statesman
Speech (1956-06-02), Fresno, California
More about this quote: wist.info/stevenson-adlai-ewin…
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I'm not an old, experienced hand at politics. But I am now seasoned enough to have learned that the hardest thing about any political campaign is how to win without proving that you are unworthy of winning.Dave (WIST Quotations)
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A quotation from Terry Pratchett
Carrot often struck people as simple. And he was.
Where people went wrong was thinking that simple meant the same thing as stupid.
Terry Pratchett (1948-2015) English author
Discworld No. 15, Men at Arms (1993)
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Carrot often struck people as simple. And he was. Where people went wrong was thinking that simple meant the same thing as stupid.Dave (WIST Quotations)
A quotation from Samuel Johnson
To strive with difficulties, and to conquer them, is the highest human felicity; the next is, to strive, and deserve to conquer: but he whose life has passed without a contest, and who can boast neither success nor merit, can survey himself only as a useless filler of existence; and if he is content with his own character, must owe his satisfaction to insensibility.
Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) English writer, lexicographer, critic
Essay (1753-11-27), The Adventurer, No. 111
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To strive with difficulties, and to conquer them, is the highest human felicity; the next is, to strive, and deserve to conquer: but he whose life has passed without a contest, and who can boast neither success nor merit, can survey himself only as a…Dave (WIST Quotations)
What would we think of a father, who should give a farm to his children, and before giving them possession should plant upon it thousands of deadly shrubs and vines; should stock it with ferocious beasts, and poisonous reptiles; should take pains to …Dave (WIST Quotations)
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A quotation from Thomas Bastard
Age is deformed, youth unkinde,
We scorn their bodies, they our minde.
Thomas Bastard (1565–1618) English clergyman, epigrammist
Chrestoleros, Book 7, Epigram 9 “De senectute & juventute” (7.9) (1598)
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Age is deformed, youth unkinde, We scorn their bodies, they our minde.Dave (WIST Quotations)
A quotation NOT from Mark Twain
I didn’t attend the funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying I approved of it.
Mark Twain (1835-1910) American writer [pseud. of Samuel Clemens]
(Misattributed)
More about this quote: wist.info/twain-mark/5063/
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I didn't attend the funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying I approved of it. This appears to have originally been based on a comment by lawyer and jurist Ebenezer Rockwood Hoar in 1884 regarding the death of abolitionist figure Wendell Phillips.Dave (WIST Quotations)
A prodigal starts with ten thousand pounds, and dies worth nothing; a miser starts with nothing, and does worth ten thousand pounds. It has been asked which has had the best of it? I should presume the prodigal; he has spent a fortune — but the miser has only left one; — he has lived rich, to die poor; the miser has lived poor, to die rich; and if the prodigal quits life in debt to others, the miser quits it, still deeper in debt to himself.
Charles Caleb "C. C." Colton (1780-1832) English cleric, writer, aphorist
Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Vol. 2, § 131 (1822)
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Away with complaints; for he is not poor, who has enough of things to use. If stomach, lungs, and feet are all in health, the wealth of kings can give you nothing more. [Tolle querellas: Pauper enim non est, cui rerum suppetit usus.Dave (WIST Quotations)
I believe that it is better even from the point of view of survival to fight and be conquered than to surrender without fighting.
George Orwell (1903-1950) English journalist, essayist, writer [pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair]
Essay (1942-08), “Looking Back on the Spanish War, ch. 6, Such, Such Were the Joys, essay 8 (1953)
More about this quote: wist.info/orwell-george/81016/
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A quotation from Bill Watterson
CALVIN: This whole Santa Claus thing just doesn’t make sense. Why all the secrecy? Why all the mystery? If the guy exists, why doesn’t he ever show himself and prove it? And if he doesn’t exist, what’s the meaning of all this?
HOBBES: I dunno … isn’t this a religious holiday?
CALVIN: Yeah, but actually, I’ve got the same questions about God.
Bill Watterson (b. 1958) American cartoonist
Calvin and Hobbes (1987-12-21)
More about this quote: wist.info/watterson-bill/81011…
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CALVIN: This whole Santa Claus thing just doesn't make sense. Why all the secrecy? Why all the mystery? If the guy exists, why doesn't he ever show himself and prove it? And if he doesn't exist, what's the meaning of all this? HOBBES: I dunno ...Dave (WIST Quotations)
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A quotation from Franklin Roosevelt
The Presidency is not merely an administrative office. That’s the least of it. It is more than an engineering job, efficient or inefficient. It is pre-eminently a place of moral leadership. All our great Presidents were leaders of thought at times when certain historic ideas in the life of the nation had to be clarified.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882-1945) American lawyer, politician, statesman, US President (1933-1945)
Interview (1932-09-11), New York Times Magazine
More about this quote: wist.info/roosevelt-franklin-d…
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The Presidency is not merely an administrative office. That's the least of it. It is more than an engineering job, efficient or inefficient. It is pre-eminently a place of moral leadership.Dave (WIST Quotations)
A quotation from Chris Boucher
THE DOCTOR: Now drop your weapons, or I’ll kill him with this deadly jelly baby.
LUGO: Kill him, then.
THE DOCTOR: What?
LUGO: Kill him, then.
THE DOCTOR: I don’t take orders from anyone. [Eats jelly baby] Take me to your leader.
Chris Boucher (1943-2022) British TV screenwriter, script editor, novelist
Doctor Who (1963), 14×04 “The Face of Evil,” Part 1 (1977-01-01)
More about this quote: wist.info/boucher-chris/81006/
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THE DOCTOR: Now drop your weapons, or I'll kill him with this deadly jelly baby. LUGO: Kill him, then. THE DOCTOR: What? LUGO: Kill him, then. THE DOCTOR: I don't take orders from anyone. [Eats jelly baby] Take me to your leader.Dave (WIST Quotations)
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A quotation from Douglas Adams
SLARTIBARTFAST: Perhaps I’m old and tired, but I always think that the chances of finding out what really is going on are so absurdly remote that the only thing to do is say hang the sense of it and just keep yourself occupied.
Douglas Adams (1952-2001) English author, humourist, screenwriter
Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Phase 1, “Fit the 4th” (BBC Radio) (1978-03-29)
More about this quote: wist.info/adams-douglas/34927/
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The sinner sins against himself. The wrong-doer wrongs himself by making himself evil. [Ὁ ἁμαρτάνων ἑαυτῷ ἁμαρτάνει: ὁ ἀδικῶν ἑαυτὸν ἀδικεῖ, ἑαυτὸν, ἑαυτὸν κακὸν ποιῶν.] (Source (Greek)). Alternate translations: He that sinneth, sinneth unto himself.Dave (WIST Quotations)
A quotation from Barbara Walters
Parents of young children should realize that few people, and maybe no one, will find their children as enchanting as they do.
Barbara Walters (1929-2022) American broadcast journalist
How to Talk with Practically Anybody About Practically Anything, ch. 4 (1970)
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A quotation from Bertrand Russell
Without self-respect genuine happiness is scarcely possible. And the man who is ashamed of his work can hardly achieve self-respect.
Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) English mathematician and philosopher
Conquest of Happiness, Part 2, ch. 14 “Work” (1930)
NOTE: The Conquest of Happiness is one of the works falling into the Public Domain in the US as of January 1, 2026!
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A quotation from Thomas Fuller
A Book that is shut, is but a Block.
Thomas Fuller (1654-1734) English physician, preacher, aphorist, writer
Gnomologia: Adages and Proverbs (compiler), # 23 (1732)
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Our politicians have truly made a pact with the Devil. One watches them spend more and more of their time and energy grubbing, coaxing, flattering, and whoring for money. Terrified of being cut off from the mother’s milk, they stand like morons in the rising sea of contempt that threatens to drown the whole system. Then they wonder why no one likes them anymore.
Molly Ivins (1944-2007) American writer, political columnist [Mary Tyler Ivins]
Essay (1998-01), “Introduction,” You Got to Dance with Them What Brung You (1998)
More about this quote: wist.info/ivins-molly/80992/
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A quotation from Ambrose Bierce
BOOK-LEARNING, n. The dunce’s derisive term for all knowledge that transcends his own impenitent ignorance.
Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914?) American writer and journalist
“Book-learning,” “Devil’s Dictionary” column, San Francisco Wasp (1881-05-14)
More about this quote: wist.info/bierce-ambrose/80990…
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BOOK-LEARNING, n. The dunce’s derisive term for all knowledge that transcends his own impenitent ignorance. Not collected in later books.Dave (WIST Quotations)
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To sound off with a cheerful "give me liberty or give me death" sort of argument in the face of the unprecedented and inconceivable potential of destruction in nuclear warfare is not even hollow; it is downright ridiculous.Dave (WIST Quotations)
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Owl was telling Kanga an Interesting Anecdote full of long words like Encyclopædia and Rhododendron to which Kanga wasn’t listening.
A. A. Milne (1882-1956) English poet and playwright [Alan Alexander Milne]
Winnie-the-Pooh, ch. 8 “Christopher Robin Leads an Expotition” (1926)
More about this quote: wist.info/milne-a-a/80986/
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Owl was telling Kanga an Interesting Anecdote full of long words like Encyclopædia and Rhododendron to which Kanga wasn't listening.Dave (WIST Quotations)
A quotation from Alfred North Whitehead
We think in generalities, but we live in detail.
Alfred North Whitehead (1861-1947) English mathematician and philosopher
Essay (1926-08), “The Education of an Englishman,” Atlantic Monthly
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A quotation from Eleanor Roosevelt
I do not know Mr. Willkie, but the headline in one of the metropolitan papers yesterday said: “Willkie Aims At Unity, Defense and Recovery.” I’m discouraged. In Heaven’s name, will anyone aim at anything else?
Sometimes I wonder if we shall ever grow up in our politics and say definite things which mean something, or whether we shall always go on using generalities to which everyone can subscribe, and which mean very little.
Eleanor Roosevelt (1884-1962) First Lady of the US (1933-45), politician, diplomat, activist
Column (1940-07-01), “My Day”
More about this quote: wist.info/roosevelt-eleanor/80…
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I do not know Mr. Willkie, but the headline in one of the metropolitan papers yesterday said: "Willkie Aims At Unity, Defense and Recovery." I'm discouraged.Dave (WIST Quotations)
CREON: A woman of hot temper -- and a man the same -- Is a less dangerous enemy than one quiet and clever. [ΚΡΈΩΝ: Γυνὴ γὰρ ὀξύθυμος, ὡς δ᾽ αὔτως ἀνήρ, ῥᾴων φυλάσσειν ἢ σιωπηλὸς σοφή.Dave (WIST Quotations)
A politician divides mankind into two classes: tools and enemies. That means he knows only one class: enemies.
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) German philosopher and poet
(Attributed)
More about this quote: wist.info/nietzsche-friedrich/…
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A politician divides mankind into two classes: tools and enemies. That means he knows only one class: enemies. This is frequently attributed to Nietzsche, without citation -- a clue that it is a paraphrase of a more complex or nuanced passage.Dave (WIST Quotations)
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