WIST QuotationsApr 1

A quotation from James Howell

Look high and fall into a Cow-turd.

James Howell (c. 1594–1666) Welsh historian and writer
Paroimiographia [Παροιμιογραφία]: Proverbs, or, Old Sayed Sawes & Adages, “English Proverbs” (1659)
[compiler]

More about this quote: wist.info/howell-james/83126/

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #jameshowell #proverb #attention #broughtlow #caution #cautionarytale #daydream #fall #humiliation #payattention #presumption #watchfulness

Howell, James - Paroimiographia [Παροιμιογραφία]: Proverbs, or, Old Sayed Sawes & Adages, "English Proverbs" (1659) [compiler] | WIST Quotations

Look high and fall into a Cow-turd.

WIST Quotations
WordofTheHourMar 22

#presumption : belief upon incomplete proof

- French: présomption

- German: die Vermutung

- Italian: presunzione

- Portuguese: presunção

- Spanish: presunción

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Word of The Hour's Annual Survey @ https://wordofthehour.org/r/form

Word of The Hour - Annual Survey (2025)

Your responses to the questions below will directly impact the future of Word of The Hour. Your support and kindness has really meant a lot over the past three years. Thank you so much! Michael Wehar https://wordofthehour.org [email protected]

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WIST QuotationsMar 5

A quotation from Churchill

Let us learn our lessons. Never, never, never believe any war will be smooth and easy, or that anyone who embarks on the strange voyage can measure the tides and hurricanes he will encounter. The statesman who yields to war fever must realise that once the signal is given, he is no longer the master of policy but the slave of unforeseeable and uncontrollable events. Antiquated War Offices, weak, incompetent, or arrogant Commanders, untrustworthy allies, hostile neutrals, malignant Fortune, ugly surprises, awful miscalculations — all take their seats at the Council Board on the morrow of a declaration of war. Always remember, however sure you are that you could easily win, that there would not be a war if the other man did not think he also had a chance.

Winston Churchill (1874-1965) British statesman and author
My Early Life: A Roving Commission, ch. 18 “With Buller to the Cape” (1930)

More about this quote: wist.info/churchill-winston/11…

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #churchill #winstonchurchill #control #declarationofwar #error #events #expectations #fortune #hubris #misfortune #overconfidence #perspective #presumption #surprises #uncontrolled #unexpected #victory #war

Churchill, Winston - My Early Life: A Roving Commission, ch. 18 "With Buller to the Cape" (1930) | WIST Quotations

Let us learn our lessons. Never, never, never believe any war will be smooth and easy, or that anyone who embarks on the strange voyage can measure the tides and hurricanes he will encounter. The statesman who yields to war fever must realise that once the signal is given, he…

WIST Quotations
WIST QuotationsJan 31

A quotation from La Rochefoucauld

Our readiness to think ill of people without sufficiently examining the matter is based on laziness and pride. We want to find people guilty, we don’t want the bother of studying their crimes.
 
[La promptitude à croire le mal, sans l’avoir assez examiné, est un effet de l’orgueil et de la paresse: on veut trouver des coupables, et on ne veut pas se donner la peine d’examiner les crimes.]

François VI, duc de La Rochefoucauld (1613-1680) French epigrammatist, memoirist, noble
Réflexions ou sentences et maximes morales [Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims], ¶267 (1665-1678) [tr. Kronenberger (1959)]

More about (and translations of) this quote: wist.info/la-rochefoucauld-fra…

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #larochefoucauld #accusation #assumption #condemnation #crime #ego #evidence #examination #guilt #indolence #investigation #laziness #offense #presumption #pride #blame

WIST Quotations Has Moved!Dec 10

A quotation from Thomas Fuller

‘Tis in the Power of Providence to humble the Pride of the Mighty, even by the most despicable Means. Wherefore be thou never so great, or never so little, presume not on the one side, nor despair on the other.

Thomas Fuller (1654-1734) English physician, preacher, aphorist, writer
Introductio ad Prudentiam, Vol. 2, # 2524 (1727)

More about this quote: wist.info/fuller-thomas-1654/8…

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #thomasfuller #karma #despair #hubris #humble #humiliation #might #power #presumption #pride #providence #God

Introductio ad Prudentiam, Vol. 2, # 2524 (1727) - Fuller, Thomas (1654) | WIST Quotations

'Tis in the Power of Providence to humble the Pride of the Mighty, even by the most despicable Means. Wherefore be thou never so great, or never so little, presume not on the one side, nor despair on the other.

WIST Quotations
WordofTheHourNov 17

#presumption : belief upon incomplete proof

- French: présomption

- German: die Vermutung

- Italian: presunzione

- Portuguese: presunção

- Spanish: presunción

------------

Word of The Hour's Annual Survey @ https://wordofthehour.org/r/form

Word of The Hour - Annual Survey (2025)

Your responses to the questions below will directly impact the future of Word of The Hour. Your support and kindness has really meant a lot over the past three years. Thank you so much! Michael Wehar https://wordofthehour.org [email protected]

Google Docs
WIST Quotations Has Moved!Oct 22, 2025

A quotation from Aldous Huxley

Most human beings have an almost infinite capacity for taking things for granted.

Aldous Huxley (1894-1963) English novelist, essayist and critic
Essay (1950), “Variations on a Philosopher,” Themes and Variations

More info about this quote: wist.info/huxley-aldous/2007/

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #aldoushuxley #assumption #humannature #humanity #presumption #takeforgranted

Essay (1950), "Variations on a Philosopher," Themes and Variations - Huxley, Aldous | WIST Quotations

Most human beings have an almost infinite capacity for taking things for granted.

WIST Quotations
damian entwistleOct 3, 2025

Today's poem:

Hymn to Apollo
- by John Keats

https://www.tumblr.com/ukdamo/796398597071667200/hymn-to-apollo?source=share

#JohnKeats #apollo #presumption #God #poetry #hubris #apology

Post by @ukdamo

💬 0  🔁 0  ❤️ 0 · Hymn to Apollo · John Keats God of the golden bow, And of the golden lyre, And of the golden hair, And of the golden fire, Charioteer Of the patient year, Where — where slept thin…

Tumblr
WordofTheHourJul 15, 2025

#presumption : belief upon incomplete proof

- French: présomption

- German: die Vermutung

- Italian: presunzione

- Portuguese: presunção

- Spanish: presunción

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WIST Quotations Has Moved!Apr 30, 2025

A quotation from Montaigne

We must be content with the light that it may please the sun to shed upon us by his beams; and he who shall raise his eyes to bring a brighter beam into his very body, let him not think it strange if, for the punishment of his audacity, he thus lose his sight.
 
[Il se faut contenter de la lumiere qu’il plaist au Soleil nous communiquer par ses rayons, & qui eslevera ses yeux pour en prendre une plus grande dans son corps mesme, qu’il ne trouve pas estrange, si pour la peine de son outrecuidance il y perd la veuë.]

Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) French essayist
Essay (1572), “We Should Meddle Soberly with Judging Divine Ordinances [Qu’il faut sobrement se mesler de juger des ordonnances divines],” Essays, Book 1, ch. 31 (1.31) (1595) [tr. Ives (1925), 1.32]

Sourcing, notes, other translations: wist.info/montaigne-michel-de/…

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #montaigne #arrogance #audacity #discernment #divineplan #divinepunishment #divinewill #God #hubris #ineffability #mystery #presumption #pride #revelation #sun #understanding