Mastodawn

If we establish a standard of safe thinking, we will end up with no thinking at all. That is the only “safe” way, and that is, needless to say, the most precarious, dangerous, of all ways.

Henry Steele Commager (1902-1998) American historian, writer, activist
Essay (1949-11-05), “What Ideas Are Safe?” Saturday Review

More about this quote: wist.info/commager-henry-steel…

#quote #quotes #quotation #qotd #commager #henrycommager #conformity #groupthink #idea #playitsafe #safety #thinking #thought #thoughtcontrol #unthinking

Commager, Henry Steele - Essay (1949-11-05), "What Ideas Are Safe?" Saturday Review | WIST Quotations

If we establish a standard of safe thinking, we will end up with no thinking at all. That is the only "safe" way, and that is, needless to say, the most precarious, dangerous, of all ways. Collected in Freedom and Order (1966).

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Jeffrey Gray Nov 13

The rain and winds have knocked leaf litter and trash plugging storm drain grates. Cleared two nearly knee deep backups along with all my other adopted drains and a handful of others. #sfadoptadrain Only one jerk in a Tesla drove at speed through a puddle I was trying to clear. #unthinking #unkind #unsurprised @sfpuc Try to be decent to the volunteers and public workers trying to make things better for you.

WIST Quotations Has Moved!Oct 8, 2025

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, 2025

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…

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