Mastodawn

When the savages of Louisiana want some fruit, they cut down the tree at the base and gather the fruit. That is how a despotic government works.

[Quand les sauvages de la Louisiane veulent avoir du fruit, ils coupent l’arbre au pied, & cueillent le fruit. Voilà le gouvernement despotique.]

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 5, ch. 13 (5.13) (1748) [tr. Stewart (2018)]

More about (and translations of) this quote: wist.info/montesquieu/82151/

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #montesquieu #spoils #autocracy #despotism #destruction #devastation #exploitation #inefficiency #pillage #taking #thoughtlessness #tyranny #unsustainability

Montesquieu - Spirit of Laws [The Spirit of the Laws; De l’esprit des lois], Book 5, ch. 13 (5.13) (1748) [tr. Stewart (2018)] | WIST Quotations

When the savages of Louisiana want some fruit, they cut down the tree at the base and gather the fruit. That is how a despotic government works. [Quand les sauvages de la Louisiane veulent avoir du fruit, ils coupent l’arbre au pied, & cueillent le fruit. Voilà le gouvernement despotique.]…

WIST Quotations

WIST Quotations Feb 13

A quotation from W. H. Auden

Those who will not reason
Perish in the act:
Those who will not act
Perish for that reason.

W. H. Auden (1907-1973) Anglo-American poet [Wystan Hugh Auden]
“Shorts,” No. 7 (c. 1930), Collected Poems, Part 2 “1927-1932” (1976 ed.) [ed. Mendelson]

More about this quote: wist.info/auden-w-h/26031/

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #whauden #auden #action #danger #deed #hesitation #hesitancy #inaction #indecision #irrationality #paralysis #passive #reason #reflex #thoughtlessness #unreason #whimsy

Auden, W. H. - "Shorts," No. 7 (c. 1930), Collected Poems, Part 2 "1927-1932" (1976 ed.) [ed. Mendelson] | WIST Quotations

Those who will not reason Perish in the act: Those who will not act Perish for that reason.

WIST Quotations

WIST Quotations Has Moved!Dec 2

A quotation from Hannah Arendt

… the strange interdependence between thoughtlessness and evil ….

Hannah Arendt (1906-1975) German-American philosopher, political theorist
Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil, Postscript (1963)

More about this quote: wist.info/arendt-hannah/10727/

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #hannaharendt #carelessness #evil #heedlessness #indifference #insouciance #thoughtlessness #uncaringness

Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil, Postscript (1963) - Arendt, Hannah | WIST Quotations

... the strange interdependence between thoughtlessness and evil ....

WIST Quotations

Steve Dustcircle 🌹Nov 26

Losing Our #Minds: How #AI Is Erasing the Space of #Thought

Keep your #superintelligence. The real danger is quieter: a kind of polished #thoughtlessness, the production of outputs that feel increasingly less owned.

https://thehumanist.com/commentary/losing-our-minds-how-ai-is-erasing-the-space-of-thought

Losing Our Minds: How AI Is Erasing the Space of Thought - TheHumanist.com

I don’t fear a machine that can outthink me; I worry about a culture that forgets it thinks at all.

TheHumanist.com

WIST Quotations Has Moved!Oct 8

A quotation from Hannah Arendt

Clichés, stock phrases, adherence to conventional, standardized codes of expression and conduct have the socially recognized function of protecting us against reality, that is, against the claim on our thinking attention that all events and facts make by virtue of their existence.

Hannah Arendt (1906-1975) German-American philosopher, political theorist
Lecture (1971), “Thinking and Moral Considerations,” Social Research (1971 Fall)

More info about this quote: wist.info/arendt-hannah/46252/

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #hannaharendt #cliche #consideration #convention #creativity #distraction #evil #inattention #language #reality #standards #thinking #thoughtlessness #unthinking

WIST Quotations Has Moved!Oct 2

A quotation from Thomas Carlyle

Speech is too often not, as the Frenchman defined it, the art of concealing Thought; but of quite stifling and suspending Thought, so that there is none to conceal.

Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) Scottish essayist and historian
Sartor Resartus, Book 3, ch. 3 (1834)

More info about this quote: wist.info/carlyle-thomas/79461…

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #thomascarlyle #conversation #chatter #speech #thought #thoughtlessness #unthinking #yammering

Sartor Resartus, Book 3, ch. 3 (1834) - Carlyle, Thomas | WIST Quotations

Speech is too often not, as the Frenchman defined it, the art of concealing Thought; but of quite stifling and suspending Thought, so that there is none to conceal. Referring to Talleyrand. Quoting Herr Teufelsdröckh. This passage first appeared in Fraser's Magazine for Town and Country, Vol. 9, No. 54…

WIST Quotations

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