WIST

Socrates

2008-05-16T11:46:15Z

Speech is a kind of action.

]]> -- Socrates (c.470-399 BC) Greek philosopher • Cratylus (387 BC)]]> • tr. B. Jowett (1894)

Voltaire

2008-05-16T11:46:15Z

Les habiles tyrans ne sont jamais punis.

[Clever tyrants are never punished.]

]]> -- Voltaire (1694-1778) French writer [pseud. of Francois-Marie Arouet] • Mérope, act V, sc. 5 (1743)

Chandler, Raymond Thornton

2008-05-16T11:46:15Z

Alcohol is like love: the first kiss is magic, the second is intimate, the third is routine. After that you just take the girl's clothes off.

]]> -- Raymond Thornton Chandler (1888-1959) American novelist • The Long Good-bye (1954)

Rogers, Will

2008-05-16T11:46:15Z

You've got to be optimist to be a Democrat, and you've got to be a humorist to stay one.

]]> -- Will Rogers (1879-1935) American humorist • Good Gulf radio show (24 June 1934)

Holmes, Jr., Oliver Wendell (Justice)

2008-05-16T11:46:15Z

Some of her answers might excite popular prejudice, but if there is any principle of the Constitution that more imperatively calls for attachment than any other it is the principle of free thought -- not free thought for those who agree with us but freedom for the thought that we hate. I think we should adhere to that principle with regard to admission into, as well as life within, this country.

]]> -- Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. (1841-1935) American jurist, Supreme Court Justice • United States v. Schwimmer, 279 U.S. 644, 654-55 (1929)

Russell, Bertrand

2008-05-15T12:27:34Z

No nation was ever so virtuous as each believes itself, and none was ever so wicked as each believes the other.

]]> -- Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) English mathematician and philosopher • Justice in War-Time (1916)

~Other

2008-05-15T12:27:34Z

It is easier to behave your way into a new way of thinking than to think your way into a new way of behaving.

]]> -- Other Authors • "Kegley's Principle of Change" • 1,001 Logical Laws (1979)

Lincoln, Abraham

2008-05-15T12:27:34Z

In great contests each party claims to act in accordance with the will of God. Both may be, and one must be, wrong. God cannot be for and against the same thing at the same time.

]]> -- President Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) US President (1861-65) • Speech fragment, "Meditation on the Divine Will" (Sep 1862)

Ruskin, John

2008-05-15T12:27:34Z

The world is full of vulgar Purists, who bring discredit on all selection by the silliness of their choice; and this the more, because the very becoming a Purist is commonly indicative of some slight degree of weakness, readiness to be offended, or narrowness of understanding of the ends of things.

]]> -- John Ruskin (1819-1900) English art critic and writer • The Stones of Venice, vol. II, ch. 6, sec. 62 (1853)

Roosevelt, Eleanor

2008-05-15T12:27:34Z

At all times, day by day, we have to continue fighting for freedom of religion, freedom of speech, and freedom from want — for these are things that must be gained in peace as well as in war.

]]> -- Eleanor Roosevelt (1884-1962) First Lady of the US (1933-45) [Anna Eleanor Roosevelt] • My Day (15 Apr 1943)

Singer, Isaac Bashevis

2008-05-14T12:24:35Z

We know what a person thinks not when he tells us what he thinks, but by his actions.

]]> -- Isaac Bashevis Singer (1904-1991) Polish-American writer, Nobel laureate • New York Times Magazine (26 Nov 1978)

Voltaire

2008-05-14T12:24:35Z

Toutes les sectes des philosophes ont échoué contre l’écueil du mal physique et moral. Il ne reste que d’avouer que Dieu ayant agi pour le mieux n’a pu agir mieux.

[All philosophical sects have run aground on the reef of moral and physical ill. It only remains for us to confess that God, having acted for the best, had not been able to do better.]

]]> -- Voltaire (1694-1778) French writer [pseud. of Francois-Marie Arouet] • Dictionnaire philosophique, "Power, Omnipotence" (1785-1789)

Shaw, George Bernard

2008-05-14T12:24:35Z

FANNY: It's all that the young can do for the old, to shock them and keep them up to date.

]]> -- George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) British playwright and critic • Fanny's First Play (1911)]]> • text.

Chesterton, Gilbert Keith

2008-05-14T12:24:35Z

It is the one great weakness of journalism as a picture of our modern existence, that it must be a picture made up entirely of exceptions. We announce on flaring posters that a man has fallen off a scaffolding. We do not announce on flaring posters that a man has not fallen off a scaffolding. Yet this latter fact is fundamentally more exciting, as indicating that that moving tower of terror and mystery, a man, is still abroad upon the earth. That the man has not fallen off a scaffolding is really more sensational; and it is also some thousand times more common. But journalism cannot reasonably be expected thus to insist upon the permanent miracles. Busy editors cannot be expected to put on their posters, "Mr. Wilkinson Still Safe," or "Mr. Jones, of Worthing, Not Dead Yet." They cannot announce the happiness of mankind at all. They cannot describe all the forks that are not stolen, or all the marriages that are not judiciously dissolved. Hence the complete picture they give of life is of necessity fallacious; they can only represent what is unusual. However democratic they may be, they are only concerned with the minority.

]]> -- Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874-1936) English journalist and writer • The Ball and the Cross, ch. 4 "A Discussion at Dawn" (1909)]]> • text.

Straczynski, J. Michael "Joe"

2008-05-14T12:24:35Z

ELRIC: As I look at you, Ambassador Mollari, I see a great hand reaching out of the stars. The hand is your hand. And I hear sounds — the sounds of billions of people calling your name.

LONDO: My followers?

ELRIC: Your victims.

]]> -- J. Michael (Joe) Straczynski (b. 1954) American screenwriter, producer, author • Babylon 5 s. 2, ep. 3, "The Geometry of Shadows" (1994)