WIST QuotationsMar 4

A quotation from Douglas Adams

SLARTIBARTFAST: I’d far rather be happy than right any day.
ARTHUR: And are you?
SLARTIBARTFAST: No, that’s where it all falls down, of course.
ARTHUR: Pity, It sounded like quite a good lifestyle otherwise.

Douglas Adams (1952-2001) English author, humorist, screenwriter
Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Phase 1, “Fit the 4th” (BBC Radio) (1979-03-29)

More about this quote: wist.info/adams-douglas/82517/

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Adams, Douglas - Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Phase 1, "Fit the 4th" (BBC Radio) (1979-03-29) | WIST Quotations

SLARTIBARTFAST: I'd far rather be happy than right any day. ARTHUR: And are you? SLARTIBARTFAST: No, that's where it all falls down, of course. ARTHUR: Pity, It sounded like quite a good lifestyle otherwise. This is novelized in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, ch. 30 (1979), with the same…

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WIST QuotationsFeb 16

A quotation from John Adams

Power always Sincerely, conscientiously, de très bon Foi, believes itself Right. Power always thinks it has a great Soul and vast Views, beyond the Comprehension of the Weak; and that it is doing God Service when it is violating all his Laws.

John Adams (1735–1826) American lawyer, Founding Father, statesman, US President (1797–1801)
Letter (1816-02-02) to Thomas Jefferson

More about this quote: wist.info/adams-john/27193/

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Adams, John - Letter (1816-02-02) to Thomas Jefferson | WIST Quotations

Power always Sincerely, conscientiously, de très bon Foi, believes itself Right. Power always thinks it has a great Soul and vast Views, beyond the Comprehension of the Weak; and that it is doing God Service when it is violating all his Laws. De très bon foi = "very candidly."

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garyNov 22
The form correcterat specifically indicates a completed action in the past, from the perspective of another past time. The root of the verb is related to the Latin rectus, meaning "straight" or "right" #rectitude
WIST Quotations Has Moved!Oct 13

A quotation from Judith Martin

It is, indeed, a trial to maintain the virtue of humility when one can’t help being right.

Judith Martin (b. 1938) American author, journalist, etiquette expert [a.k.a. Miss Manners]
“Miss Manners,” syndicated column (1999-02-02)

More info about this quote: wist.info/martin-judith/79642/

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WIST Quotations Has Moved!Oct 3, 2025

A quotation from Horace

He who puts off the hour to begin living rightly
Is like the yokel who stands at the stream with a sigh:
“I can’t get across. I’ll wait here till it runs dry.”
Meanwhile, it flows, forever flows on and rolls by.
 
          [Qui recte vivendi prorogat horam,
rusticus exspectat dum defluat amnis; at ille
labitur et labitur in omne volubilis aevum.]

Horace (65-8 BC) Roman poet, satirist, soldier, politician [Quintus Horatius Flaccus]
Epistles [Epistularum, Letters], Book 1, ep. 2 “To Lollius,” l. 41ff (1.2.41-42) (20 BC) [tr. Palmer Bovie (1959)]

More info about (and translations of) this quote: wist.info/horace/79480/

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Epistles [Epistularum, Letters], Book 1, ep. 2 "To Lollius," l. 41ff (1.2.41-42) (20 BC) [tr. Palmer Bovie (1959)] - Horace | WIST Quotations

He who puts off the hour to begin living rightly Is like the yokel who stands at the stream with a sigh: "I can't get across. I'll wait here till it runs dry." Meanwhile, it flows, forever flows on and rolls by. [Qui recte vivendi prorogat horam, rusticus exspectat dum…

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WIST Quotations Has Moved!Aug 8, 2025

A quotation from Robert Louis Stevenson

Undying hope is co-ruler of the human bosom with infallible credulity. A man finds he has been wrong at every preceding stage of his career, only to deduce the astonishing conclusion that he is at last entirely right.

Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894) Scottish essayist, novelist, poet
Essay (1878-03), “Crabbed Age and Youth,” Cornhill Magazine, Vol. 37

Sourcing, notes: wist.info/stevenson-robert-lou…

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WIST Quotations moves again!Dec 11, 2024

A quotation from Fuller, Thomas:

«
Be not magisterial in thy Dictates, nor pertinaciously contentious in ordinary discourse for thy Opinion; no nor for even a Truth of small Consequence. If thou thinkest good, declare thy Reasons; if they be not accepted, be quiet, and let them alone. Thou are not bound to convert all the World to Truth.
»

Full quote, sourcing, notes:
https://wist.info/fuller-thomas-1654/9770/

#quote #quotes #quotation #argument #evangelism #humility #rectitude #truth #selfrighteousness

WIST Quotations moves again!Aug 8, 2024

A quotation from Mencken, H. L.:

«
Morality is the theory that every human act must be either right or wrong, and that 99 per cent. of them are wrong.
»

Full quote, sourcing, notes:
https://wist.info/mencken-hl/71186/

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A Little Book in C Major, ch. 2, § 4 (1916) - Mencken, H. L. | WIST Quotations

Morality is the theory that every human act must be either right or wrong, and that 99 per cent. of them are wrong. Variants: MORALITY. The theory that every human act must be either right or wrong, and that 99% of them are wrong. [A Book of Burlesques, "The Jazz…

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WIST Quotations moves again!Nov 11, 2023

A quotation from Martial:

«
‘Tis rare, when riches cannot taint the mind.

[Ardua res haec est opibus non tradere mores.]
»

Full quote, sourcing, notes:
https://wist.info/martial/38958/

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Epigrams [Epigrammata], Book 11, epigram 5, l. 3 (11.5.3) [tr. Killigrew (1695)] - Martial | WIST Quotations

'Tis rare, when riches cannot taint the mind. [Ardua res haec est opibus non tradere mores.] (Source (Latin)). Alternate translations: Wealth to withstand, how arduous is the skill! [tr. Elphinston (1782), Appendix to Book 1, ep. 12] It is an arduous task to preserve morality from the corruption of riches.…

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WIST Quotations moves again!Dec 26, 2022

A quotation from Confucius:

«««««
What I call a great minister is one who employs the Way in serving his sovereign. If he cannot do that, he resigns.
[所謂大臣者、以道事君、不可則止。]
»»»»»

Full quote, sourcing, notes:
https://wist.info/confucius/494/

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The Analects [論語, 论语, Lúnyǔ], Book 11, verse 24, sec. 3 (11.24.3) (6th C. BC - AD 3rd C.) [tr. Hinton (1998)] - Confucius | WIST Quotations

What I call a great minister is one who employs the Way in serving his sovereign. If he cannot do that, he resigns. [所謂大臣者、以道事君、不可則止。] Numbered 11.23 by Legge and other early translators, as noted. More recent translators use 11.24, though some use 11.22. All are noted below. (Source (Chinese)). Alternate…

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