“Two hundred years from now the numbers and kinds of species we observed here in the latter years of the 20th century may seem as unbelievable to future generations as the presence of passenger pigeons, cougars, wolves, and bison in Pennsylvania two hundred years ago seem to us.”
— Marcia Bonta
From decades ago but even truer now. What you see out in nature, write it down. Even things you take for granted may not be there 10, 20 or certainly 30 years from now. Document!!!
#nature #quotation
“Your paper on DNA synthesis was quite remarkable for your age.”
“A promising youngster, huh?”
“No, no; I mean for the age that you live in.”
— The Doctor and Professor Jones, in “The Green Death”
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 Samuel Johnson
If nothing may be published but what civil authority shall have previously approved, power must always be the standard of truth.
Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) English writer, lexicographer, critic
Lives of the Most Eminent English Poets, “Milton” (1781)
Sourcing, notes: wist.info/johnson-samuel/11525…
We are a good natured bunch of saps in this country. […] When a bank fails, we let the guy go start another one.
Will Rogers (1879-1935) American humorist
Column (1930-06-30), “Daily Telegram: Mr. Rogers Virtually Agrees with Barnum’s Famous View,” No. 1226
Sourcing, notes: wist.info/rogers-will/76564/
A quotation from Robert Louis Stevenson
We do not go to cowards for tender dealing; there is nothing so cruel as panic; the man who has least fear for his own carcase, has most time to consider others.
Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894) Scottish essayist, novelist, poet
Essay (1878-04), “Æs Triplex,” Cornhill Magazine, Vol. 37
Sourcing, notes: wist.info/stevenson-robert-lou…
If there is a wrong thing to do, it will be done, infallibly. One has come to believe in that as if it were a law of nature.
George Orwell (1903-1950) English writer [pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair]
Diary Entry (1941-05-18), "First War-Time Diary"
Sourcing, notes: wist.info/orwell-george/17609/
Right, freeze! I mean, don't freeze, I mean stand still!
— Ace, in “Dragonfire”
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/
A quotation from Franklin Roosevelt
All of the great freedoms which form the basis of our American democracy are part and parcel of that concept of free elections, with free expression of political choice between candidates of political parties. For such elections guarantee that there can be no possibility of stifling freedom of speech, freedom of the press and the air, freedom of worship.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882-1945) American lawyer, politician, statesman, US President (1933-1945)
Speech (1941-03-29), Jackson Day Radio Broadcast, U.S.S. Potomac
Sourcing, notes: wist.info/roosevelt-franklin-d…
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/
So unworldly was he — or so capricious — that he frequently refused his help to the powerful and wealthy where the problem made no appeal to his sympathies, while he would devote weeks of most intense application to the affairs of some humble client whose case presented those strange and dramatic qualities which appealed to his imagination and challenged his ingenuity.
— Watson's description of Sherlock Holmes, in “The Adventure of Black Peter”
“Do you know what that is?”
“It is a laserson probe. It can puncture fist-sized holes in six-inch armor plate, or take the crystals from a snowflake, one by one.”
“Yes, that's right. No handyman should be without one.”
— The Doctor and D.84, in “The Robots of Death”
A quotation from Bertrand Russell
What people mean, therefore, by the struggle for life is really the struggle for success. What people fear when they engage in the struggle is not that they will fail to get their breakfast next morning, but that they will fail to outshine their neighbours.
Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) English mathematician and philosopher
Conquest of Happiness, Part 1, ch. 3 “Competition” (1930)
Sourcing, notes: wist.info/russell-bertrand/765…
#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #bertrandrussell #comparison #competition #ego #failure #fear #life #living #pride #rivalry #struggle #success #winning
The Conquest Of Happiness : Bertrand Russell : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive
Being a cynic is so contemptibly easy. If you let yourself think that nothing you’re working on is ever going to make any difference, why bust your tail over it? Why care? If you’re a cynic, you don’t have to invest anything in your work. No effort, no pride, no compassion, no sense of excellence, nothing.
Molly Ivins (1944-2007) American writer, political columnist [Mary Tyler Ivins]
Essay (1973-01), “Pitfalls of Reporting in the Lone Star State,” Houston Journalism Review
Sourcing, notes: wist.info/ivins-molly/76537/\
I found this quote in a 1923 book from Cambridge University, with the rather ambitious title A History of Chinese Literature:
"In the Golden Age they had the two famous calendar trees, representations of which have come down to us in sculpture, dating from about A.D. 150. One of these trees put forth a leaf every day for fifteen days, after which a leaf fell off daily for fifteen more days. The other put forth a leaf once a month for half a year, after which a leaf fell off monthly for a similar period. With these trees growing in the courtyard, it was possible to say at a glance what was the day of the month, and what was the month of the year. But civilisation proved unfavourable to their growth, and the species became extinct."
It sounds like something Pablo Neruda would come up with! Accurate or not, this is why I love reading history.
QUEEN MARGARET: They that stand high have many blasts to shake them;
And if they fall, they dash themselves to pieces.
— Richard III, I, iii
A quotation from Byron
There is the moral of all human tales;
‘Tis but the same rehearsal of the past,
First Freedom, and then Glory — when that fails,
Wealth — Vice — Corruption, — Barbarism at last.
George Gordon, Lord Byron (1788-1824) English poet
Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, Canto 4, st. 108 (1818)
Sourcing, notes: wist.info/byron/76512/
