A quotation from Robert Ingersoll
The Church hates a thinker precisely for the same reason a robber dislikes a sheriff, or a thief despises the prosecuting witness. Tyranny likes courtiers, flatterers, followers, fawners, and superstition wants believers, disciples, zealots, hypocrites, and subscribers.
Robert Green Ingersoll (1833-1899) American lawyer, agnostic, orator
Lecture (1873-12) “Individuality,” Chicago Free Religious Society
Sourcing, notes: wist.info/ingersoll-robert-gre…
FEAR is the foundation of most governments; but is so sordid and brutal a passion, and renders men, in whose breasts it predominates, so stupid, and miserable, that Americans will not be likely to approve of any political institution which is founded on it.
John Adams (1735-1826) American lawyer, Founding Father, statesman, US President (1797-1801)
Letter (1776-04) to George Wythe, “Thoughts on Government”
Sourcing, notes: wist.info/adams-john/77742/
Beware the student of one teacher. A good idea spirals into dogma when it gets applied to everything and stretched beyond the areas where it is useful. Remain open and embrace a lot of teachers.
James Clear (b. 1986) American author, performance coach, motivational speaker
3-2-1 Newsletter (2025-01-30)
Sourcing, notes: wist.info/clear-james/77346/
What’s really astounding about these brickheads who claim to be in touch with the original intent of the founders is (1) none of them seem to have read what the founders wrote, from Thomas Jefferson’s essays to Jamie Madison’s notes, and (2) you know damn well if they had been alive at the time of the American Revolution, they all would have been Tories.
Molly Ivins (1944-2007) American writer, political columnist [Mary Tyler Ivins]
Essay (1987-09-11), “We the People,” Texas Observer
Sourcing, notes: wist.info/ivins-molly/77152/
But the man was anxious to justify himself and said to Jesus, ‘And who is my neighbour?’
Jesus replied, “A man was once on his way down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell into the hands of brigands; they took all he had, beat him and then made off, leaving him half dead. Now a priest happened to be travelling down the same road, but when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. In the same way a Levite who came to the place saw him, and passed by on the other side.
“But a Samaritan traveller who came upon him was moved with compassion when he saw him. He went up and bandaged his wounds, pouring oil and wine on them. He then lifted him on to his own mount, carried him to the inn and looked after him. Next day, he took out two denarii and handed them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said ‘and on my way back I will make good any extra expense you have.’
“Which of these three, do you think, proved himself a neighbour to the man who fell into the brigands` hands?”
“The one who took pity on him” he replied.
Jesus said to him, “Go, and do the same yourself.”
The Bible (The New Testament) (AD 1st - 2nd C) Christian sacred scripture
Luke 10: 29-37 [JB (1966)]
Sourcing, notes, other translations: wist.info/bible-nt/39770/
A quotation from Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.
You can never be too cautious in your prognosis, in the view of the great uncertainty of the course of any disease not long watched, and the many unexpected turns it may take.
I think I am not the first to utter the following caution : —
Beware how you take away hope from any human being. Nothing is clearer than that the merciful Creator intends to blind most people as they pass down into the dark valley. Without very good reasons, temporal or spiritual, we should not interfere with his kind arrangements. It is the height of cruelty and the extreme of impertinence to tell your patient he must die, except you are sure that he wishes to know it, or that there is some particular cause for his knowing it. I should be especially unwilling to tell a child that it could not recover; if the theologians think it necessary, let them take the responsibility. God leads it by the hand to the edge of the precipice in happy unconsciousness, and I would not open its eyes to what he wisely conceals.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809-1894) American poet, essayist, scholar
Speech (1859-03-10), Valedictory Address, Harvard University School of Medicine
Sourcing, notes: wist.info/holmes-sr-oliver-wen…
PROSPERO: My library
Was dukedom large enough.
William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Tempest, Act 1, sc. 2, l. 130ff (1.2.130-131) (1611)
Sourcing, notes: wist.info/shakespeare-william/…
There are people who observe the rules of honor as one observes the stars, from a great distance.
[Il y a des gens qui observent les règles de l’honneur comme on observe les étoiles, de très loin.]
Victor Hugo (1802-1885) French writer
Les Misérables, Part 5 “Jean Valjean,” Book 2 “The War Between Four Walls,” ch. 21 (5.2.21) (1862) [tr. Hapgood (1887)]
Sourcing, notes, other translations: wist.info/hugo-victor/76966/
A quotation from Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.
It is by no means certain that our individual personality is the single inhabitant of these our corporeal frames […] We all do things both awake and asleep which surprise us. Perhaps we have cotenants in this house we live in.
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809-1894) American poet, essayist, scholar
Article (1867-01), “The Guardian Angel,” ch. 3, Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 19, No. 91
Sourcing, notes: wist.info/holmes-sr-oliver-wen…
A quotation from Kurt Vonnegut
Fascism was a fairly popular political philosophy which made sacred whatever nation and race the philosopher happened to belong to.
Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. (1922-2007) American novelist, journalist
Breakfast of Champions, ch. 17 (1973)
Sourcing, notes: wist.info/vonnegut-kurt-jr/768…
A quotation from George Orwell
The early Bolsheviks may have been angels or demons, according as one chooses to regard them, but at any rate they were not sensible men. They were not introducing a Wellsian Utopia but a Rule of the Saints, which, like the English Rule of the Saints, was a military despotism enlivened by witchcraft trials.
George Orwell (1903-1950) English writer [pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair]
Essay (1941-08), “Wells, Hitler, and the World State,” Horizon
Sourcing, notes: wist.info/orwell-george/76807/
Does anybody know the #quotation ?
I hear a million voices calling out your name.
My followers?
Your victims!
A quotation from Terry Pratchett
Inside Every Living Person is a Dead Person Waiting to Get Out …
Terry Pratchett (1948-2015) English author
Reaper Man (1991)
Sourcing, notes: wist.info/pratchett-terry/4072…
A quotation from Adlai Stevenson
What counts now is not just what we are against, but what we are for. Who leads us is less important than what leads us — what convictions, what courage, what faith — win or lose. A man doesn’t save a century, or a civilization, but a militant party wedded to a principle can.
Adlai Stevenson (1900-1965) American diplomat, statesman
Speech (1952-07-21), Democratic National Convention, Chicago
Sourcing, notes: wist.info/stevenson-adlai-ewin…
A quotation from Teddy Roosevelt
We are face to face with new conceptions of the relations of property to human welfare, chiefly because certain advocates of the rights of property as against the rights of men have been pushing their claims too far. The man who wrongly holds that every human right is secondary to his profit must now give way to the advocate of human welfare, who rightly maintains that every man holds his property subject to the general right of the community to regulate its use to whatever degree the public welfare may require it.
Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) American politician, statesman, conservationist, writer, US President (1901-1909)
Speech (1910-08-31), “The New Nationalism,” Osawatomie, Kansas
Sourcing, notes: wist.info/roosevelt-theodore/3…
The uncompromising attitude is more indicative of an inner uncertainty than of deep conviction. The implacable stand is directed more against the doubt within than the assailant without.
Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
Passionate State of Mind, Aphorism 63 (1955)
Sourcing, notes: wist.info/hoffer-eric/11433/
The greatest crimes in the world are not committed by people breaking the rules but by people following the rules. It’s people who follow orders that drop bombs and massacre villages. As a precaution to never committing major acts of evil it is our solemn duty never to do what we’re told, this is the only way we can be sure.
Banksy (b. 1974) England-based pseudonymous street artist, political activist, film director
Wall and Piece, “Cops” (2005)
Sourcing, notes: wist.info/banksy/76546/
At a certain level of wretchedness a kind of spectral indifference takes over, and you see human beings as ghostly presences. Those closest to you are often no more than vague shadowy forms, barely distinct from life’s nebulous background and easily reabsorbed by the invisible.
[À un certain degré de misère, on est gagné par une sorte d’indifférence spectrale, et l’on voit les êtres comme des larves. Vos plus proches ne sont souvent pour vous que de vagues formes de l’ombre, à peine distinctes du fond nébuleux de la vie et facilement remêlées à l’invisible.]
Victor Hugo (1802-1885) French writer
Les Misérables, Part 4 “St. Denis,” Book 6 “Little Gavroche,” ch. 1 (4.6.1) (1862) [tr. Donougher (2013)]
Sourcing, notes, alternate translations: wist.info/hugo-victor/76374/
Ah, Stefan, give me a man or woman who has read a thousand books and you give me an interesting companion. Give me a man or woman who has read perhaps three and you give me a dangerous enemy indeed.
Anne Rice (1941-2021) American author [b. Howard Allen Frances O'Brien]
The Witching Hour, Part 2 (1990)
Sourcing, notes: wist.info/rice-anne/37945/
A quotation from Adlai Stevenson
The whole notion of loyalty inquisitions is a natural characteristic of the police state, not of democracy. Knowing his rule rests upon compulsion rather than consent, the dictator must always assume the disloyalty, not for a few but of many, and guard against it by continual inquisition and liquidation of the unreliable. The history of Soviet Russia is a modern example of this ancient practice.
The democratic state, on the other hand, is based on the consent of its members. The vast majority of our people are intensely loyal, as they have amply demonstrated. To question, even by implication, the loyalty and devotion of a large group of citizens is to create an atmosphere of suspicion and distrust which is neither justified, healthy, nor consistent with our traditions. […] I must, in good conscience, protest against any unnecessary suppression of our ancient rights of free men. Moreover, we will win the contest of ideas that afflicts the world not by suppressing those rights, but by their triumph. We must not burn down the house to kill the rats.
Adlai Stevenson (1900-1965) American diplomat, statesman
Message (1951-06-26), Veto of Illinois State Senate Bill 102
Sourcing, notes: wist.info/stevenson-adlai-ewin…
