Mastodawn

Fortune nor home not more the man can cheer,
Who lives a prey to covetise or fear,
Than may a picture’s richest hues delight
Eyes that with dropping rheum are thick of sight,
Or warm soft lotions soothe a gout-racked foot,
Or aching ears be charmed by twangling lute.
On minds unquiet joy has lost its power;
In a foul vessel everything turns sour.

[Qui cupit aut metuit, iuvat ilium sic domus et res,
Ut lippum pictae tabulae, fomenta podagrum,
Auriculas citbarae collecta sorde dolentes.
Sincerumst nisi vas, quodcumque infundis acescit
Sperne voluptate.]

Horace (65–8 BC) Roman poet, satirist, soldier, politician [Quintus Horatius Flaccus]
Epistles [Epistularum, Letters], Book 1, ep. 2 “To Lollius,” l. 51ff (1.2.51-54) (14 BC) [tr. Martin (1881)]

More about (and translations of) this quote: wist.info/horace/82248/

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #horace #avarice #dissatisfaction #dysphoria #enjoyment #fear #greed #joylessness #loss #money #perspective #pleasure #property #unease #unhappiness #wealth

Horace - Epistles [Epistularum, Letters], Book 1, ep. 2 "To Lollius," l. 51ff (1.2.51-54) (14 BC) [tr. Martin (1881)] | WIST Quotations

Fortune nor home not more the man can cheer, Who lives a prey to covetise or fear, Than may a picture's richest hues delight Eyes that with dropping rheum are thick of sight, Or warm soft lotions soothe a gout-racked foot, Or aching ears be charmed by twangling lute. On…

WIST Quotations

WIST Quotations Jan 21

A quotation from Thoreau

The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. What is called resignation is confirmed desperation.

Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) American philosopher and writer
Walden; or, Life in the Woods, ch. 1 “Economy” (1854)

More about this quote: wist.info/thoreau-henry-david/…

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #thoreau #henrydavidthoreau #walden #acquiescence #despair #desperation #discouragement #hopelessness #joylessness #melancholy #misery #resignation #submission #unhappiness

Thoreau, Henry David - Walden; or, Life in the Woods, ch. 1 "Economy" (1854) | WIST Quotations

The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation. What is called resignation is confirmed desperation. See Schulman.

WIST Quotations

Joe B. Wall Apr 22, 2025

I have a hard time understanding how anyone looking at an image or video generated by so-called "AI" and not almost instantly start to die from boredom. All these things seem to do is make images so dull and stupid that one expects to see "ALAMY" watermarks all over them, or to find them in their next corporate rah-rah meeting Powerpoint.

#deathbyAI #AIisfatal #deathbyathousandAIs #boringthings #joylessness

WIST Quotations Has Moved!Mar 2, 2025

A quotation from Anna Quindlen

And what does this metastasizing testing, for every subject, at every level, at every time of the year, do to kids? It has to mean that students absorb the message that learning is a joyless succession of hoops through which they must jump, rather than a way of understanding and mastering the world. Every question has one right answer; the measure of a person is a number. Being insightful, or creative, or, heaven forfend, counterintuitive counts for nothing.

Anna Quindlen (b. 1953) American journalist, novelist
Article (2005-06-12), “Testing: One, Two, Three,” Newsweek

Sourcing, notes: wist.info/quindlen-anna/75299/

#quote #quotes #quotation #creativity #education #insight #joylessness #exams #learning #oversimplification #testing #understanding

WIST Quotations moves again!Dec 27, 2024

A quotation from Sayers, Dorothy:

«
Harriet; I have nothing much in the way of religion, or even morality, but I do recognize a code of behavior of sorts. I do know the worst sin — perhaps the only sin — passion can commit, is to be joyless. It must lie down with laughter or make its bed in hell — there is no middle way.
»

Full quote, sourcing, notes:
https://wist.info/sayers-dorothy/6543/

#quote #quotes #quotation #emotion #joy #joylessness #love #passion