A quotation from Thomas Fuller
Boast not of thy good Deeds, lest thy evil Deeds also be brought upon the Board.
Thomas Fuller (1654-1734) English physician, preacher, aphorist, writer
Introductio ad Prudentiam, Vol. 2, # 1855 (1727)
Sourcing, notes: wist.info/fuller-thomas-1654/7…
A quotation from Hannah Arendt
There is all the difference in the world between the criminal’s avoiding the public eye and the civil disobedient’s taking the law into his own hands in open defiance. This distinction between an open violation of the law, performed in public, and a clandestine one is so glaringly obvious that it can be neglected only by prejudice or ill will.
Hannah Arendt (1906-1975) German-American philosopher, political theorist
Essay (1970-09-12), “Civil Disobedience,” The New Yorker
Sourcing, notes: wist.info/arendt-hannah/10654/
People seem not to see that their opinion of the world is also a confession of character. We can only see what we are, and if we misbehave we suspect others.
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) American essayist, lecturer, poet
Essay (1860), “Worship,” The Conduct of Life, ch. 6
Sourcing, notes: wist.info/emerson-ralph-waldo/…
A quotation from Bill Watterson
CALVIN: Tigers don’t worry about much, do they?
HOBBES: Nope. That’s one of the perks of being feral.
Bill Watterson (b. 1958) American cartoonist
Calvin and Hobbes (1989-03-12)
Sourcing, notes: wist.info/watterson-bill/4106/
A quotation from Ambrose Bierce
PRECEDENT, n. In Law, a previous decision, rule or practice which, in the absence of a definite statute, has whatever force and authority a Judge may choose to give it, thereby greatly simplifying his task of doing as he pleases. As there are precedents for everything, he has only to ignore those that make against his interest and accentuate those in the line of his desire.
Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914?) American writer and journalist
“Precedent,” The Devil’s Dictionary (1911)
Sourcing, notes: wist.info/bierce-ambrose/76306…
OLD MAN: God's benison go with you; and with those
That would make good of bad, and friends of foes!
— Macbeth, II, iv
As the Happiness of the People is the sole End of Government, So the Consent of the People is the only Foundation of it, in Reason, Morality, and the natural Fitness of things: and therefore every Act of Government, every Exercise of Sovereignty, against, or without, the Consent of the People, is Injustice, Usurpation, and Tyranny.
John Adams (1735-1826) American lawyer, Founding Father, statesman, US President (1797-1801)
“A Proclamation by the General Court of Massachusetts” (1776-01-19)
Sourcing, notes: wist.info/adams-john/12456/
Well, you see, Mr Scarman, I have the advantage of being slightly ahead of you. Sometimes behind you, but normally ahead of you.
— The Doctor, in “The Pyramids of Mars”
CONSTANCE: Grief fills the room up of my absent child,
Lies in his bed, walks up and down with me,
Puts on his pretty looks, repeats his words,
Remembers me of all his gracious parts,
Stuffs out his vacant garments with his form;
Then, have I reason to be fond of grief?
— King John, III, iii
MACBETH: How now, you secret, black, and midnight hags!
— Macbeth, IV, i
They say the atmosphere there was so full of goodness that evil just shrivelled up and died. Maybe that's why I never went there.
— The Doctor, in “The Keeper of Traken”
A quotation from Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Categorizing is necessary for humans, but it becomes pathological when the category is seen as definitive, preventing people from considering the fuzziness of boundaries, let alone revising their categories.
Nassim Nicholas Taleb (b. 1960) Lebanese-American essayist, statistician, risk analyst, aphorist
The Black Swan, Part 1, ch. 1 “The Apprenticeship of an Empirical Skeptic” (2007)
Sourcing, notes: wist.info/taleb-nassim-nichola…
HAMLET: I have heard of your paintings too, well enough; God has given you one face, and you make yourselves another: you jig, you amble, and you lisp, and nick-name God's creatures, and make your wantonness your ignorance.
— Hamlet, III, i
“He says he doesn't know who he is or why he has come.”
“Well, I admire a man with an open mind.”
— Ruther and Shardovan, in “Castrovalva”
“I feel disoriented.”
“This is the Disorientation Centre.”
“That makes sense.”
— The Doctor and Sarah, in “The Android Invasion”
A quotation from Samuel Johnson
I never desire to converse with a man who has written more than he has read.
Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) English writer, lexicographer, critic
In George Birkbeck Hill (ed.), Johnsonian Miscellanies, Vol. 2, “Apophthegms, Sentiments, Opinions, & Occasional Reflections” (1897)
Sourcing, notes: wist.info/johnson-samuel/19790…
We're all basically primeval slime with ideas above its station.
— The Doctor, in “Full Circle”
“The next sign is C2. What do you make of that, Watson?”
“Chapter the second, no doubt.”
“Hardly that, Watson. You will, I am sure, agree with me that if the page be given, the number of the chapter is immaterial. Also that if page 534 finds us only in the second chapter, the length of the first one must have been really intolerable.”
— Sherlock Holmes and Watson, in “The Valley of Fear”
MACBETH: We have scorched the snake, not killed it:
She'll close and be herself, whilst our poor malice
Remains in danger of her former tooth.
— Macbeth, III, ii
