In the life of the artist there need be no hour without its pleasure. I take the author, with whose career I am best acquainted; and it is true he works in a rebellious material, and that the act of writing is cramped and trying both to the eyes and…Dave (WIST Quotations)
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Whene’er you lecture, be concise: the soul
Takes in short maxims, and retains them whole:
But pour in water when the vessel’s filled,
It simply dribbles over and is spilled.
[Quidquid praecipies, esto brevis, ut cito dicta
percipiant animi dociles teneantque fideles:
omne supervacuum pleno de pectore manat.]
Horace (65–8 BC) Roman poet, satirist, soldier, politician [Quintus Horatius Flaccus]
Epistles [Epistularum, Letters], Book 2, ep. 3 “Art of Poetry [Ars Poetica; To the Pisos],” l. 335ff (2.3.335-337) (19 BC) [tr. Conington (1874)]
More about (and translations of) this quote: wist.info/horace/33634/
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Whene'er you lecture, be concise: the soul Takes in short maxims, and retains them whole: But pour in water when the vessel's filled, It simply dribbles over and is spilled.Dave (WIST Quotations)
By "nationalism" I mean first of all the habit of assuming that human beings can be classified like insects and that whole blocks of millions or tens of millions of people can be confidently labeled "good" or "bad.Dave (WIST Quotations)
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A quotation from Thomas Carlyle
For the Scepticism, as I said, is not intellectual only; it is moral also; a chronic atrophy and disease of the whole soul. A man lives by believing something; not by debating and arguing about many things.
Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) Scottish essayist and historian
Lecture (1840-05-19), “The Hero as Man of Letters,” Home House, Portman Square, London
More about this quote: wist.info/carlyle-thomas/82548…
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It looks like the Notifier backlog on friendica.world has cleared up, with about a week's worth of postings from here being released to other parts of the Fediverse overnight. Yay for that problem being (I hope) solved. Apologies if your inbox got flooded.
Depending on how you are reading all this, the posts might have come out in a huge clump during the last 12 hours -- or may have slipstreamed into your timeline, only visible if you scroll back.
Regardless, here's hoping that and related issues are resolved for the time being. Thanks for your patience.
THE DOCTOR: Logic, my dear Zoë, merely enables one to be wrong with authority.
Doctor Who (1963-1989) British science fiction television series (BBC)
05×07 “The Wheel In Space,” Part 3 (1968-05-11) [w. David Whitacker, Kit Pedlar]
More about this quote: wist.info/doctor-who-1963/4639…
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THE DOCTOR: Logic, my dear Zoë, merely enables one to be wrong with authority. (Source (Video); line confirmed)Dave (WIST Quotations)
A man by himself is in bad company.
Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
Passionate State of Mind, Aphorism 262 (1955)
More about this quote: wist.info/hoffer-eric/82543/
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A quotation from Josh Billings
Every time a man laffs he takes a kink out ov the chain ov life, and thus lengthens it.
[Every time a man laughs he takes a kink out of the chain of life, and thus lengthens it.]
Josh Billings (1818-1885) American humorist, aphorist [pseud. of Henry Wheeler Shaw]
Josh Billings’ Farmer’s Allminax, 1871-07 (1871 ed.)
More about this quote: wist.info/billings-josh/82540/
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Every time a man laffs he takes a kink out ov the chain ov life, and thus lengthens it. [Every time a man laughs he takes a kink out of the chain of life, and thus lengthens it.]Dave (WIST Quotations)
In truth, in such a vast number of citizens, there is a great multitude of those men, who either, from fear of punishment, because they are conscious of their own misdeeds, are anxious for fresh changes and revolutions in the republic; or who, on acc…Dave (WIST Quotations)
It’s common for Men to give 6 pretended Reasons instead of one real one.
Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) American statesman, scientist, philosopher, aphorist
Poor Richard (1745 ed.)
More about this quote: wist.info/franklin-benjamin/82…
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A quotation from Franklin Roosevelt
The noblest monument to peace and to neighborly economic and social friendship in all the world is not a monument in bronze or stone, but the boundary which unites the United States and Canada — 3,000 miles of friendship with no barbed wire, no gun or soldier, and no passport on the whole frontier. Mutual trust made that frontier.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882–1945) American lawyer, politician, statesman, US President (1933–1945)
Speech (1936-08-14), Chautauqua, New York
More about this quote: wist.info/roosevelt-franklin-d…
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #fdr #franklinroosevelt #franklindroosevelt #franklindelanoroosevelt #diplomacy #foreignrelations #America #borderneighbor #Canada #friendship #mutualrespect #mutualsupport #trust
The noblest monument to peace and to neighborly economic and social friendship in all the world is not a monument in bronze or stone, but the boundary which unites the United States and Canada -- 3,000 miles of friendship with no barbed wire, no gun …Dave (WIST Quotations)
I only quote others the better to quote myself.
[Je ne dis les autres, sinon pour d’autant plus me dire.]
Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) French essayist
Essays, Book 1, ch. 25 (1.25), “Of the Education of Children [De l’institution des enfans]” (1579) [tr. Screech (1987), 1.26]
More about (and translations of) this quote: wist.info/montaigne-michel-de/…
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I only quote others the better to quote myself. [Je ne dis les autres, sinon pour d’autant plus me dire.] This essay was in the 1st (1588) edition, but this passage was added as of the 3rd (1595) ed.Dave (WIST Quotations)
A quotation from Madeleine L'Engle
We all practice some form of censorship. I practiced it simply by the books I had in the house when my children were little. If I am given a budget of $500 I will be practicing a form of censorship by the books I choose to buy with that limited amount of money, and the books I choose not to buy. But nobody said we were not allowed to have points of view. The exercise of personal taste is not the same thing as imposing personal opinion.
Madeleine L'Engle (1918-2007) American writer
Speech (1983-11-16), “Dare To Be Creative,” Lecture, Library of Congress, Washington, DC
More about this quote: wist.info/lengle-madeleine/825…
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #madeleinelengle #censorship #control #imposition #opinion #pointofview #taste
We all practice some form of censorship. I practiced it simply by the books I had in the house when my children were little. If I am given a budget of $500 I will be practicing a form of censorship by the books I choose to buy with that limited…Dave (WIST Quotations)
A quotation from Douglas Adams
SLARTIBARTFAST: I’d far rather be happy than right any day.
ARTHUR: And are you?
SLARTIBARTFAST: No, that’s where it all falls down, of course.
ARTHUR: Pity, It sounded like quite a good lifestyle otherwise.
Douglas Adams (1952-2001) English author, humorist, screenwriter
Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Phase 1, “Fit the 4th” (BBC Radio) (1979-03-29)
More about this quote: wist.info/adams-douglas/82517/
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #douglasadams #hitchhikersguide #hitchhikersguidetothegalaxy #slartibartfast #arthurdent #correctness #happiness #lifestyle #rectitude
SLARTIBARTFAST: I'd far rather be happy than right any day. ARTHUR: And are you? SLARTIBARTFAST: No, that's where it all falls down, of course. ARTHUR: Pity, It sounded like quite a good lifestyle otherwise.Dave (WIST Quotations)
Come mothers and fathers
Throughout the land
And don’t criticize
What you can’t understand
Your sons and your daughters
Are beyond your command
Your old road is rapidly agin’
Please get out of the new one if you can’t lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin’
Bob Dylan (b. 1941) American singer, songwriter
Song (1964), “The Times They Are A-Changin', v. 4”
More about this quote: wist.info/dylan-bob/82514/
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Come mothers and fathers Throughout the land And don’t criticize What you can’t understand Your sons and your daughters Are beyond your command Your old road is rapidly agin’ Please get out of the new one if you can’t lend your hand For the times the…Dave (WIST Quotations)
A quotation from Hannah Arendt
As citizens, we must prevent wrongdoing because the world in which we all live, wrong-doer, wrong sufferer and spectator, is at stake.
Hannah Arendt (1906-1975) German-American philosopher, political theorist
The Life of the Mind, Part 1, sec. 3, ch. 18 (1977)
More about this quote: wist.info/arendt-hannah/46319/
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Tell the innocent visitor from another world that two people were killed at Serajevo, and that the best that Europe could do about it was to kill eleven million more.
A. A. Milne (1882-1956) English poet and playwright [Alan Alexander Milne]
Peace with Honour, ch. 16 “Patriotism and Pledges,” sec. 5 (1934)
More about this quote: wist.info/milne-a-a/82508/
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CHORUS: Never, oh goddess, let fly at me an inescapable arrow from your golden bow, after you drench it in desire. [ΚΥΚΛΩΨ: μήποτ᾽, ὦ δέσποιν᾽, ἐπ᾽ ἐμοὶ χρυσέων τόξων ἀφείης ἱμέρῳ χρίσασ᾽ ἄφυκτον οἰστόν.] Addressing Aphrodite/Venus. (Source (Greek)).Dave (WIST Quotations)
A quotation from Eleanor Roosevelt
Perhaps that’s what we all had to do — think out for ourselves what we could believe and how we could live by it. And so I came to the conclusion that you had to use this life to develop the very best that you could develop.
Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962) First Lady of the US (1933–1945), politician, diplomat, activist
Essay (1951-12), “This I Believe: Growth that Starts from Thinking,” on Edward R. Murrow, This I Believe, CBS Radio
More about this quote: wist.info/roosevelt-eleanor/82…
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #eleanorroosevelt #belief #beliefsystem #besteffort #doyourbest #excellence #goodbehavior #meaningoflife #moralcode #personalcode #selfactualization #selfchallenging #selfcorrection #selfdevleopment #selfexamination #selfimprovement #selfquestioning #selfrespect
A quotation from Richard Feynman
If we want to solve a problem that we have never solved before, we must leave the door to the unknown ajar.
Richard Feynman (1918-1988) American physicist
Speech (1955-11), “The Value of Science,” National Academy of Sciences Autumn Meeting, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena
More about this quote: wist.info/feynman-richard/8249…
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If we want to solve a problem that we have never solved before, we must leave the door to the unknown ajar. Reprinted in What Do You Care What Other People Think? (1988). Feyman used this general construction on multiple occasions, e.g.Dave (WIST Quotations)
We may congratulate ourselves that this cruel war, which has cost a vast treasure of blood and money, is almost over. But I see in the future a crisis approaching which fills me with anxiety. As a result of the war, corporations have become enthroned, and an era of corruption in high places will follow. The money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its rule by preying upon the prejudice of the people, until all wealth is concentrated in a few hands, and the Republic destroyed. I feel at this time more anxiety for the future of my country than at any time in the past, even in the midst of war.
Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) American lawyer, politician, US President (1861-65)
(Spurious)
More about this quote: wist.info/lincoln-abraham/8249…
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Cause and Effect, the chancellors of God.
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/…
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #emerson #ralphwaldoemerson #causalrelationship #causality #cause #chainofeffect #consequences #divineplan #divinepurpose #divinewill #effect #executive #God #knockon #nature
Cause and Effect, the chancellors of God. 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 passage…Dave (WIST Quotations)
A quotation from Bill Watterson
CALVIN: Dad, are you vicariously living through me in the hope that my accomplishments will validate your mediocre life, and in some way compensate for all the opportunities you botched?
Bill Watterson (b. 1958) American cartoonist
Calvin and Hobbes (1992-12-04)
More about this quote: wist.info/watterson-bill/82486…
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A quotation from Ambrose Bierce
BALLOT, n. A simple device by which a majority proves to a minority the folly of resistance. Many worthy persons of imperfect thinking apparatus believe that majorities govern through some inherent right; and minorities submit, not because they must, but because they ought.
Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914?) American writer and journalist
“Ballot,” “Devil’s Dictionary” column, San Francisco Wasp (1881-04-23)
More about this quote: wist.info/bierce-ambrose/82483…
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BALLOT, n. A simple device by which a majority proves to a minority the folly of resistance. Many worthy persons of imperfect thinking apparatus believe that majorities govern through some inherent right; and minorities submit, not because they must,…Dave (WIST Quotations)
Blessed are the forgetful: for they “get the better” even of their blunders.
[Selig sind die Vergesslichen: denn sie werden auch mit ihren Dummheiten “fertig”.]
Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) German philosopher and poet
Jenseits von Gut und Böse [Beyond Good and Evil], Aphorism 217 (1886) [tr. Zimmern (1906)]
More about (and translations of) this quote: wist.info/nietzsche-friedrich/…
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #nietzsche #blessing #blunder #error #forgetful #forgetfulness #forgetting #fretting #getover #mistake #notworryabout #setaside #shame #stupidity #unremembered #worry
Blessed are the forgetful: for they "get the better" even of their blunders. [Selig sind die Vergesslichen: denn sie werden auch mit ihren Dummheiten "fertig".] Quoted by Mary Svevo (Kirsten Dunst) in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004).Dave (WIST Quotations)
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A quotation from Bertrand Russell
If you tell children that they ought to be affectionate, you run the risk of producing cant and humbug. But if you make them happy and free, if you surround them with kindness, you will find that they become spontaneously friendly with everybody, and that almost everybody responds by being friendly with them. A trustful affectionate disposition justifies itself, because it gives irresistible charm, and creates the response which it expects. This is one of the most important results to be expected from the right education of character.
Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) English mathematician and philosopher
Education and the Good Life, Part 2, ch. 11 “Affection and Sympathy” (1926)
More about this quote: wist.info/russell-bertrand/824…
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A quotation from James Thurber
The laughter of man is more terrible than his tears, and takes more forms — hollow, heartless, mirthless, maniacal.
James Thurber (1894-1961) American cartoonist and writer
Essay (1958-12-07), “State of the Nation’s Humor: ‘On the Brink of Was,'” New York Times Magazine
More about this quote: wist.info/thurber-james/82477/
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #jamesthurber #emotion #laughter #tears #tone
The laughter of man is more terrible than his tears, and takes more forms -- hollow, heartless, mirthless, maniacal.Dave (WIST Quotations)
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To have gold brings fear, to have none brings grief.
[L’haver oro è un timore, il non haver un dolore.]
James Howell (c. 1594–1666) Welsh historian and writer
Paroimiographia [Παροιμιογραφία]: Proverbs, or, Old Sayed Sawes & Adages, “Proverbs in Italian” (1659)
[compiler]
More about this quote: wist.info/howell-james/12088/
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To have gold brings fear, to have none brings grief. [L'haver oro è un timore, il non haver un dolore.]Dave (WIST Quotations)
If your enemies are starving, feed them some bread;
if they are thirsty, give them water to drink.
By doing this, you will heap burning coals on their heads,
and the Lord will reward you.
The Bible (The Old Testament) (14th - 2nd C BC) Judeo-Christian sacred scripture [Tanakh, Hebrew Bible], incl. the Apocrypha (Deuterocanonicals)
Book 20. Proverbs 25:21ff (Prov 25:21-22) [CEB (2011)]
More about (and translations of) this quote: wist.info/bible-ot/82472/
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #bible #oldtestament #proverbs #charity #discomfort #embarrassment #giving #hunger #loveyourenemy #passiveaggression #philanthropy #shame #thirst
If your enemies are starving, feed them some bread; if they are thirsty, give them water to drink. By doing this, you will heap burning coals on their heads, and the Lord will reward you. See Romans 12:19-21.Dave (WIST Quotations)
Yet loneliness shall weary thee, and still
Love torture thee with longings nought can fill.
Absence makes passion’s tide have double sway,
Possession cloys the love of every day.
[Nulla tamen lecto recipit se sola libenter:
Est quiddam, quod vos quaerere cogat Amor.
Semper in absentes felicior aestus amantes:
Elevat assiduos copia longa viros.]
Propertius (50-16 BC) Roman elegiac poet [Sextus Propertius]
Elegies, Book 2, No. 33C, “To Cynthia,” ll. 41-44 [tr. Moore (1870); 3.25]
More about (and translations of) this quote: wist.info/propertius/6952/
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #propertius #absence #affection #boredom #heart #loneliness #love #separation
Yet loneliness shall weary thee, and still Love torture thee with longings nought can fill. Absence makes passion's tide have double sway, Possession cloys the love of every day.Dave (WIST Quotations)
Our Passions, Ambition, Avarice, Love, Resentment &c possess so much metaphysical Subtilty and so much overpowering Eloquence, that they insinuate themselves into the Understanding and the Conscience and convert both to their Party. And I may be deceived as much as any of them, when I Say, that Power must never be trusted without a Check.
John Adams (1735–1826) American lawyer, Founding Father, statesman, US President (1797–1801)
Letter (1816-02-02) to Thomas Jefferson
More about this quote: wist.info/adams-john/34664/
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #johnadams #checksandbalances #conscience #emotion #intellect #power #regulation #restraint #selfdeception #selfdelusion #trust #abuseofpower #powercorrupts #bestintentions #selftrust #selfawareness
Our Passions, Ambition, Avarice, Love, Resentment &c possess so much metaphysical Subtilty and so much overpowering Eloquence, that they insinuate themselves into the Understanding and the Conscience and convert both to their Party.Dave (WIST Quotations)
A quotation from Henry Commager
We do not need to fear ideas, but the censorship of ideas. We do not need to fear criticism, but the silencing of criticism. We do not need to fear excitement or agitation in the academic community, but timidity and apathy. We do not need to fear resistance to political leaders, but unquestioning acquiescence in whatever policies those leaders adopt.
Henry Steele Commager (1902-1998) American historian, writer, activist
Essay (1965-12-18), “The Problem of Dissent,” Saturday Review
More about this quote: wist.info/commager-henry-steel…
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #commager #henrycommager #acquiescence #agitation #apathy #censorship #criticism #dissent #intellectualfreedom #resistance #silencing #timidity #academicfreedom
A quotation from Eugene McCarthy
The only thing that saves us from the bureaucracy is inefficiency. An efficient bureaucracy is the greatest threat to liberty.
Eugene McCarthy (1916-2005) American politician, poet, activist
Quoted (1979-02-12), “People: On the Record” section, Time Magazine
More about this quote: wist.info/mccarthy-eugene/5915…
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #eugenemccarthy #bureaucracy #efficiency #executivepower #friction #government #inefficiency #liberty #operations #power #redtape
The only thing that saves us from the bureaucracy is inefficiency. An efficient bureaucracy is the greatest threat to liberty. (Backup Source). See Truman (1959).Dave (WIST Quotations)
"Their vanity is full of phantoms, which move as in a sublime night, armed with helm and cuirass, spurs on their heels and sceptres in their hands, saying in a grave voice, 'We are the ancestors!' The canker-worms eat the roots, and panoplies eat the…Dave (WIST Quotations)
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We are being very careful with our children. They’ll never have to pay a psychiatrist twenty-five dollars an hour to find out why we rejected them. We’ll tell them why we rejected them. Because they’re impossible, that’s why.
Jean Kerr (1922-2003) American author and playwright [b. Bridget Jean Collins]
Essay (1957), “Please Don’t Eat the Daisies,” Please Don’t Eat the Daisies
More about this quote: wist.info/kerr-jean/82455/
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #jeankerr #childrearing #children #parenting #psychiatrist #rejection #trauma
We are being very careful with our children. They'll never have to pay a psychiatrist twenty-five dollars an hour to find out why we rejected them. We'll tell them why we rejected them. Because they're impossible, that's why.Dave (WIST Quotations)
A quotation from Wendell Berry
The most alarming sign of the state of our society now is that our leaders have the courage to sacrifice the lives of young people in war, but have not the courage to tell us that we must be less greedy and less wasteful.
Wendell Berry (b. 1934) American farmer, educator, poet, conservationist
Essay (1991), “Peaceableness Toward Enemies,” sec. 53, Sex, Economy, Freedom & Community, ch. 6 (1993)
More about this quote: wist.info/berry-wendell/82453/
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #wendellberry #America #death #greed #leadership #sacrifice #society #war #wastefulness
The most alarming sign of the state of our society now is that our leaders have the courage to sacrifice the lives of young people in war, but have not the courage to tell us that we must be less greedy and less wasteful. Written at the time of the…Dave (WIST Quotations)
💡𝚂𝗆𝖺𝗋𝗍𝗆𝖺𝗇 𝙰𝗉𝗉𝗌📱 reshared this.
