WIST Quotations Has Moved!Aug 22, 2025

A quotation from Horace

The Rash, the Lazy, Lover, none’s so wild,
But may be tame, and may be wisely mild,
If they consult true Vertue’s Rules with care,
And lend to good advice a patient ear.
 
[Invidus, iracundus, iners, vinosus, amator,
nemo adeo ferus est, ut non mitescere possit,
si modo culturae patientem commodet aurem.]

Horace (65-8 BC) Roman poet, satirist, soldier, politician [Quintus Horatius Flaccus]
Epistles [Epistularum, Letters], Book 1, ep. 1, l. 38ff (1.1.38-40) (20 BC) [tr. Creech (1684)]

Sourcing, notes, other translations: wist.info/horace/78567/

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WIST Quotations Has Moved!Feb 6, 2025

A quotation from Goethe

Nothing is more frightful than imagination without taste.
 
[Es ist nichts furchterlicher als Einbildungskraft ohne Geschmack.]

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) German poet, statesman, scientist
Sprüche in Prosa: Maximen und Reflexionen [Proverbs in Prose: Maxims and Reflections] (1833) [tr. Saunders (1893), #489]

Sourcing, notes, alternate translations: wist.info/goethe-johann/4900/

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Sprüche in Prosa: Maximen und Reflexionen [Proverbs in Prose: Maxims and Reflections] (1833) [tr. Saunders (1893), #489] - Goethe, Johann von | WIST Quotations

Nothing is more frightful than imagination without taste. [Es ist nichts furchterlicher als Einbildungskraft ohne Geschmack.] From Wilhelm Meister's Journeyman Years (1829). (Source (German)). Alternate translations: There is nothing so horrible as imagination devoid of taste. [tr. Rönnfeldt (1900)] There is nothing more awful than imagination devoid of taste. [tr.…

WIST Quotations
WIST Quotations moves again!Jul 29, 2024

A quotation from Joubert, Joseph:

«
In every kind of debauch there enters much coldness of soul. It is a conscious and voluntary abuse of pleasure.

[Il entre, dans toute espèce de débauche, beaucoup de froideur d’àme; elle est un abus réfléchi et volontaire du plaisir.]
»

Full quote, sourcing, notes:
https://wist.info/joubert-joseph/22524/

#quote #quotes #quotation #abuse #coarseness #coldness #debauchery #erosion #excess #pleasure #soul

Pensées [Thoughts], ch. 5 "Des Passions et des Affections de l’Âme [On the Soul]," ¶ 13, 1805 entry (1850 ed.) [tr. Auster (1983)] - Joubert, Joseph | WIST Quotations

In every kind of debauch there enters much coldness of soul. It is a conscious and voluntary abuse of pleasure. [Il entre, dans toute espèce de débauche, beaucoup de froideur d'àme; elle est un abus réfléchi et volontaire du plaisir.] (Source (French)). Alternate translations: Into every kind of excess there…

WIST
Simple Dictionary BotMay 30, 2023
#Coarseness - The quality or state of being coarse; roughness; melegance; vulgarity; grossness; as, coarseness of food, texture, manners, or language.