Mastodawn

Painting on paper, 20 x 20 cm: Ambiguous impulses for your mental cinema!
#painting #mentalCinema #contemporaryArt #rubberStamp #reliefPrinting #inkjetPrint #mixedMedia #acrylicColours #climateActionNow #saveBioDiversity #systemChange #endFossilFuels #makeArtNotWar #NoRacism #noAFD #NoFascism #masterAndSlave #dog #domestication #anatomyModel #muscles #pedestal #masculinity #loyalty #devotion #servility #dancingdeath #mementomori #vanitas #fragilitas #finiteness #mortality #beam #superPower

Gerd_Brodowski Mar 5

#frg #spain #usa #israel #iran : #warofaggression / #dissent / #servility / #opportunism / #foreignpolicy

„Spain’s leader has taken a strong position in refusing the US demand to use Spanish bases to strike Iran. Europe should show solidarity in the face of Trump’s threats.“

https://www.chathamhouse.org/2026/03/sanchezs-principled-stand-against-trump-matters-so-does-merzs-silence

WIST Quotations Feb 9

A quotation from Montesquieu

Extreme obedience assumes ignorance in the one who obeys; it assumes ignorance even in the one who commands; he does not have to deliberate, to doubt, or to reason; he has only to want.

[L’extrême obéissance suppose de l’ignorance dans celui qui obéit; elle en suppose même dans celui qui commande: il n’a point à délibérer, à douter, ni à raisonner; il n’a qu’à vouloir.]

Charles-Lewis de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu (1689-1755) French political philosopher
Spirit of Laws [The Spirit of the Laws; De l’esprit des lois], Book 4, ch. 3 (4.3) (1748) [tr. Cohler/Miller/Stone (1989)]

More about (and translations of) this quote: wist.info/montesquieu/81939/

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #montesquieu #autocracy #autocrat #command #consideration #deliberation #despot #dictator #ignorance #obedience #reason #servility #tyranny #tyrant #want #will

Montesquieu - Spirit of Laws [The Spirit of the Laws; De l’esprit des lois], Book 4, ch. 3 (4.3) (1748) [tr. Cohler/Miller/Stone (1989)] | WIST Quotations

Extreme obedience assumes ignorance in the one who obeys; it assumes ignorance even in the one who commands; he does not have to deliberate, to doubt, or to reason; he has only to want. [L’extrême obéissance suppose de l’ignorance dans celui qui obéit; elle en suppose même dans celui qui…

WIST Quotations

WIST Quotations Has Moved!Dec 11

A quotation from Josh Billings

Flattery iz like colone water, tew be smelt ov, not swallered.

[Flattery is like cologne water, to be smelt of, not swallowed.]

Josh Billings (1818-1885) American humorist, aphorist [pseud. of Henry Wheeler Shaw]
Josh Billings’ Farmer’s Allminax, 1870-02 (1870 ed.)

More about this quote: wist.info/billings-josh/1045/

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #joshbillings #adulation #butteringup #fawning #flattery #obsequiousness #praise #servility #skepticism #sweettalk #sycophancy

Josh Billings' Farmer's Allminax, 1870-02 (1870 ed.) - Billings, Josh | WIST Quotations

Flattery iz like colone water, tew be smelt ov, not swallered. [Flattery is like cologne water, to be smelt of, not swallowed.] This passage can be originally found in column material, e.g., in the Middlesex County Journal (Massachusetts) (1969-07-10), "Sollum Thoughts": Flattery is like kolone water, tew be smelt ov,…

WIST Quotations

WIST Quotations Has Moved!Nov 21

A quotation from Horace

There was a stag, once, who could always defeat a stallion
And drive him out of their pasture — until, tired of losing,
The horse begged help of man, and got a bridle in return.
He beat the stag, all right, and he laughed — but then the rider
Stayed on his back, and the bit stayed in his mouth.
Give up your freedom, more worried about poverty than something
Greater than any sum of gold, and become a slave and stay
A slave forever, unable to live on only enough.

[Cervus equum pugna melior communibus herbis
pellebat, donec minor in certamine longo
imploravit opes hominis frenumque recepit;
sed postquam victor violins discessit ab hoste,
non equitem dorso, non frenum depulit ore.
Sic qui pauperiem veritus potiore metallis
libertate caret, dominum vehet improbus atque
serviet aeternum, quia parvo nesciet uti.]

Horace (65-8 BC) Roman poet, satirist, soldier, politician [Quintus Horatius Flaccus]
Epistles [Epistularum, Letters], Book 1, ep. 10 “To Aristius Fuscus,” l. 34ff (1.10.34-41) (20 BC) [tr. Raffel (1983)]

More info about (and translations of) this quote: wist.info/horace/80424/

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #horace #avarice #bit #bridle #control #economy #enough #fear #financial security #freedom #greed #impoverishment #insecurity #liberty #master #poverty #selfsufficiency #servility #sufficiency #worry

Epistles [Epistularum, Letters], Book 1, ep. 10 "To Aristius Fuscus," l. 34ff (1.10.34-41) (20 BC) [tr. Raffel (1983)] - Horace | WIST Quotations

There was a stag, once, who could always defeat a stallion And drive him out of their pasture -- until, tired of losing, The horse begged help of man, and got a bridle in return. He beat the stag, all right, and he laughed -- but then the rider Stayed…

WIST Quotations

WIST Quotations Has Moved!Oct 19

A quotation from William Pitt

It is true, the bill is said to be founded on necessity; but what is this? Is it not necessity, which has always been the plea of every illegal exertion of power, or exercise of oppression? Is not necessity the pretence of every usurpation? Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.

William Pitt (1759-1806) British Prime Minister (1804-06) [William Pitt the Younger]
Speech (1793-11-18), House of Commons, London

More info about this quote: wist.info/pitt-william/3164/

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #williampitt #control #emergency #excuse #government #imperative #justification #necessity #need #oppression #power #pretense #security #servility #tyranny

WIST Quotations Has Moved!Oct 16

A quotation from Teddy Roosevelt

[Servility] may also be shown in peculiarly noxious and un-American form by confounding the President or any other official with the country and shrieking “stand by the President” without regard to whether, by so acting, we do or do not stand by the country.

Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) American politician, statesman, conservationist, writer, US President (1901-1909)
Essay (1918-05), “Lincoln and Free Speech,” Metropolitan Magazine, Vol. 47, No. 6

More info about this quote: wist.info/roosevelt-theodore/7…

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #teddyroosevelt #theodoreroosevelt #country #nation #office #patriotism #power #presidency #servility #truckling #president

WIST Quotations Has Moved!Aug 28, 2025

A quotation from Lincoln

Familiarize yourselves with the chains of bondage, and you are preparing your own limbs to wear them. Accustomed to trample on the rights of those around you, you have lost the genius of your own independence, and become the fit subjects of the first cunning tyrant who rises.

Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) American lawyer, politician, US President (1861-65)
Speech (1858-09-11), Edwardsville, Illinois

More info about this quote: wist.info/lincoln-abraham/7867…

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #lincoln #abelincoln #abrahamlincoln #bondage #civilrights #control #humanrights #independence #liberty #power #servility #slavery #subjects #tyrant #despot

WIST Quotations Has Moved!Aug 25, 2025

A quotation from Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

If a man has a genuine, sincere, hearty wish to get rid of his liberty, if he is really bent upon becoming a slave, nothing can stop him. And the temptation is to some natures a very great one.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809-1894) American poet, essayist, scholar
Article (1860-09), “The Professor’s Story [Elsie Venner],” ch. 18, Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 6, No. 35

Sourcing, notes: wist.info/holmes-sr-oliver-wen…

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #autonomy #character #conformity #freedom #liberty #obedience #orthodoxy #servility #servitude #slavery #compliance

WIST Quotations Has Moved!Aug 21, 2025

A quotation from Ben Franklin

The cringing Train of Pow’r, survey;
What Creatures are so low as they!
With what obsequiousness they bend!
To what vile actions condescend!
Their Rise is on their Meanness built,
And Flatt’ry is their smallest Guilt.

Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) American statesman, scientist, philosopher, aphorist
Poor Richard (1741 ed.)

Sourcing, notes: wist.info/franklin-benjamin/78…

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #benfranklin #benjaminfranklin #poorrichardsalmanac #asskisssing #bowing #condescension #courtiers #favor #flattery #flunkies #guilt #hangerson #insincerity #lackeys #obsequiousness #power #praise #servility #subservience #sycophant #kowtowing #followers