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Rogers, Will -- Column (1927-02-06), “Weekly Article”

https://wist.info/rogers-will/76644/

Published: May 16, 2025 17:09

If a bank fails in China, they behead the man at the top of it that was responsible. If one fails over here, we write the men up in the magazines as how: They started poor, worked hard, took advantage of their opportunities (and Depositors) and today they…

Stevenson, Robert Louis -- Essay (1878-03), “Crabbed Age and Youth,” Cornhill Magazine, Vol. 37

https://wist.info/stevenson-robert-louis/76642/

Published: May 16, 2025 16:47

Because I have reached Paris, I am not ashamed of having passed through Newhaven and Dieppe. They were very good places to pass through, and I am none the less at my destination. All my old opinions were only stages on the way to the one I now hold, as…

Orwell, George -- Essay (1949-01), “Reflections on Gandhi,” Partisan Review

https://wist.info/orwell-george/76640/

Published: May 16, 2025 16:41

The essence of being human is that one does not seek perfection, that one is sometimes willing to commit sins for the sake of loyalty, that one does not push asceticism to the point where it makes friendly intercourse impossible, and that one is prepared…

Billings, Josh -- Everybody’s Friend, Or; Josh Billing’s Encyclopedia and Proverbial Philosophy of Wit and Humor, ch. 156 “Affurisms: Embers on the Harth” (1874)

https://wist.info/billings-josh/76637/

Published: May 15, 2025 17:59

A man may git a big fut, or a pug noze, bi birthright, but nine-tenths ov hiz virtews are the effekt ov associashun or edukashun. [A man may git a big foot, or a pug nose, by birthright, but nine-tenths of his virtues are the effect of association or…

Cicero, Marcus Tullius -- Epistulae ad Fratrem Quintum [Letters to His Brother Quintus], Book 1, Letter 1, sec. 3 (1.1.3) (60 BC) [tr. Williams (Loeb) (1928)]

https://wist.info/cicero-marcus-tullius/76635/

Published: May 15, 2025 16:32

Men ought to feel most annoyed with what has been brought about by their own fault. [Ea molestissime ferre homines debent quae ipsorum culpa contracta sunt.] (Source (Latin)). Alternate translations: Men are naturally most concerned at misfortunes which…

Franklin, Benjamin -- Poor Richard (1739 ed.)

https://wist.info/franklin-benjamin/76633/

Published: May 15, 2025 15:14

Proclaim not all thou knowest, all thou owest, all thou hast, nor all thou canst.

Hugo, Victor -- Les Misérables, Part 4 “St. Denis,” Book 12 “Corinth,” ch. 4 (4.12.4) (1862) [tr. Wilbour (1862)]

https://wist.info/hugo-victor/76624/

Published: May 14, 2025 15:59

Great perils have this beauty, that they bring to light the fraternity of strangers. [Les grands périls ont cela de beau qu’ils mettent en lumière la fraternité des inconnus.] On the varied Parisians working together at building the barricades. (Source…

McLaughlin, Mignon -- The Second Neurotic’s Notebook, ch. 2 (1966)

https://wist.info/mclaughlin-mignon/76622/

Published: May 14, 2025 15:27

If your children spend most of their time in other people’s houses, you’re lucky; if they all congregate at your house, you’re blessed.

Bierce, Ambrose -- “Proof,” The Devil’s Dictionary (1911)

https://wist.info/bierce-ambrose/76615/

Published: May 13, 2025 17:05

PROOF, n. Evidence having a shade more of plausibility than of unlikelihood. The testimony of two credible witnesses as opposed to that of only one. Originally published in the “Cynic’s Word Book” column in the New York American (1906-06-27).

Milton, John -- Tractate on Education (1673)

https://wist.info/milton-john/76609/

Published: May 13, 2025 15:55

But here the main skill and ground-work will be, to temper them such lectures and explanations upon every opportunity as may lead and draw them in willing obedience, inflamed with the study of learning, and the admiration of virtue; stirred up with high…

Bible, vol. 2, New Testament -- Mark 7: 18-23 [JB (1966)]

https://wist.info/bible-nt/76606/

Published: May 13, 2025 15:39

Jesus said to them, ‘Do you not understand either? Can you not see that whatever goes into a man from outside cannot make him unclean, because it does not go into his heart but through his stomach and passes out into the sewer?’ (Thus he pronounced all…

Hilton, James -- Lost Horizon, ch. 8 [High Lama to Conway] (1933)

https://wist.info/hilton-james/76604/

Published: May 12, 2025 19:58

Laziness in doing stupid things can be a great virtue. In some editions (e.g.), this is rendered: “Laziness in doing certain things can be a great virtue.”

Byron, George Gordon, Lord -- Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, Canto 4, st. 109 (1818)

https://wist.info/byron/76600/

Published: May 12, 2025 18:09

Man! Thou pendulum betwixt a smile and tear.

Taleb, Nassim Nicholas -- The Black Swan, Part 1, ch. 5 “Confirmation Shmonfirmation!” (2007)

https://wist.info/taleb-nassim-nicholas/76598/

Published: May 12, 2025 18:00

But it remains the case that you know what is wrong with a lot more confidence than you know what is right.

Martin, Judith -- “Miss Manners,” syndicated column (1986-01-19)

https://wist.info/martin-judith/76596/

Published: May 12, 2025 17:34

All this variety is certainly interesting. If there were a standard and everyone met it, how on earth could people tell their ex-spouses from their new ones? If children did not show visible changes, what would encourage their parents to believe that they…

Shakespeare, William -- Henry VI, Part 3, Act 3, sc. 5, l. 21ff (3.5.21-41) (1591)

https://wist.info/shakespeare-william/76594/

Published: May 12, 2025 16:49

KING HENRY: O God! Methinks it were a happy life To be no better than a homely swain, To sit upon a hill as I do now, To carve out dials quaintly, point by point, Thereby to see the minutes how they run: How many makes the hour full complete, How many…