Mastodawn

Our understanding is conducted solely by means of the word: anyone who falsifies it betrays public society. It is the only tool by which we communicate our wishes and our thoughts; it is our soul’s interpreter: if we lack that, we can no longer hold together; we can no longer know each other. When words deceive us, it breaks all intercourse and loosens the bonds of our polity.

[Nostre intelligence se conduisant par la seule voye de la parolle, celuy qui la faulse, trahit la societé publique. C’est le seul util, par le moyen duquel se communiquent noz volontez & noz pensees : c’est le truchement de nostre ame : s’il nous faut, nous ne nous tenons plus, nous ne nous entreconnoissons plus. S’il nous trompe, il rompt tout nostre commerce, & dissoult toutes les liaisons de nostre police.]

Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) French essayist
Essays, Book 2, ch. 18 (2.18), “Of Giving the Lie [Du Démentir]” (1578–79) [tr. Screech (1987)]

More about (and translations of) this quote: wist.info/montaigne-michel-de/…

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Montaigne, Michel de - Essays, Book 2, ch. 18 (2.18), "Of Giving the Lie [Du Démentir]" (1578–79) [tr. Screech (1987)] | WIST Quotations

WIST Quotations

WIST Quotations Feb 23

A quotation from Joseph Addison

LUCIUS: From hence, let fierce contending nations know,
What dire effects from civil discord flow.

Joseph Addison (1672-1719) English essayist, poet, statesman
Cato, Act 5, sc. 4, l. 106ff (1713)

More about this quote: wist.info/addison-joseph/82267…

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #josephaddison #civildiscord #civilwar #discord #disunity #internecinewarfare #strife

Addison, Joseph - Cato, Act 5, sc. 4, l. 106ff (1713) | WIST Quotations

LUCIUS: From hence, let fierce contending nations know, What dire effects from civil discord flow. After Cato's suicide during the civil war against Julius Caesar.

WIST Quotations

WIST Quotations Has Moved!Jul 15, 2025

A quotation from Mohamad Safa

Our world is not divided by race, color, gender, or religion. Our world is divided into wise people and fools. And fools divide themselves by race, color, gender, or religion.

Mohamad Safa (b. 1991) Lebanese diplomat, politician
Facebook (2020-08-06)

Sourcing, notes: wist.info/safa-mohamad/77686/

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #disunity #division #othering #racism #sectarianism #sexism #tribalism #usvsthem

WIST Quotations Has Moved!Jul 7, 2025

A quotation from John Adams

We see, by the Sketches I have given you, that all the great Kingdoms of Europe have once been free. But that they have lost their Liberties, by the Ignorance, the Weakness, the Inconstancy, and Disunion of the People. Let Us guard against these dangers, let us be firm and stable, as wise as Serpents and as harmless as Doves, but as daring and intrepid as Heroes.

John Adams (1735-1826) American lawyer, Founding Father, statesman, US President (1797-1801)
Diary (1772, Spring), “Notes for a Oration at Braintree”

Sourcing, notes: wist.info/adams-john/77514/

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WIST Quotations Has Moved!May 21, 2025

A quotation from Franklin Roosevelt

The enemies of democracy are now trying, by every means, to destroy our unity. The chief weapon they now use against us is propaganda, propaganda that appeals to selfishness, that comes in ever increasing quantities, with ever increasing violence, from across the seas. And it is disseminated within our own borders by agents or innocent dupes of foreign powers.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882-1945) American lawyer, politician, statesman, US President (1933-1945)

Sourcing, notes: wist.info/roosevelt-franklin-d…

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Speech (1941-03-29), Jackson Day Radio Broadcast, U.S.S. Potomac - Roosevelt, Franklin Delano | WIST Quotations

WIST Quotations

WIST Quotations Has Moved!Feb 12, 2025

A quotation from Franklin Roosevelt

Every realist knows that the democratic way of life is at this moment being directly assailed in every part of the world — assailed either by arms, or by secret spreading of poisonous propaganda by those who seek to destroy unity and promote discord in nations that are still at peace.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882-1945) American lawyer, politician, statesman, US President (1933-1945)
Speech (1941-01-06) to Congress, Annual Message (State of the Union), Washington, D. C.

Sourcing, notes: wist.info/roosevelt-franklin-d…

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Stephen Hayes Dec 9, 2024

I wrote this six years ago. Much of what I feared then has already come to pass, and it's getting worse day by day.
https://khanya.wordpress.com/2019/01/08/third-world-africa-again/
#orthodox #disunity #disintegration #ecclesiology

Third-World Africa — again!

Most of us thought that the Cold War ended back at the end of 1991. Even if we thought that Francis Fukuyama’s “End of History” thesis was over-oprimistic, it did seem that the da…

Khanya

WIST Quotations moves again!Nov 5, 2024

A quotation from Wallace, Henry:

«
The American fascists are most easily recognized by their deliberate perversion of truth and fact. Their newspapers and propaganda carefully cultivate every fissure of disunity, every crack in the common front against fascism. They use every opportunity to impugn democracy. They use isolationism as a slogan to co…
»

Full quote, sourcing, notes:
https://wist.info/wallace-henry/72803/

#quote #quotes #quotation #America #disunity #fascism #politics #isolationism #power