ACHILLES: 'Tis but early days.
— Troilus and Cressida, IV, v
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#quotation
14 posts9 participants2 posts today
The cosmos without the Doctor scarcely bears thinking about.
— The Master, in “The Five Doctors”
The people who truly deface our neighbourhoods are the companies that scrawl their giant slogans across buildings and buses trying to make us feel inadequate unless we buy their stuff. They expect to be able to shout their message in your face from every available surface but you’re never allowed to answer back. Well, they started this fight and the wall is the weapon of choice to hit them back.
Banksy (b. 1974) England-based pseudonymous street artist, political activist, film director
Wall and Piece, Introduction (2005)
Sourcing, notes: wist.info/banksy/76325/
A quotation from Hannah Arendt
There is all the difference in the world between the criminal’s avoiding the public eye and the civil disobedient’s taking the law into his own hands in open defiance. This distinction between an open violation of the law, performed in public, and a clandestine one is so glaringly obvious that it can be neglected only by prejudice or ill will.
Hannah Arendt (1906-1975) German-American philosopher, political theorist
Essay (1970-09-12), “Civil Disobedience,” The New Yorker
Sourcing, notes: wist.info/arendt-hannah/10654/
People seem not to see that their opinion of the world is also a confession of character. We can only see what we are, and if we misbehave we suspect others.
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) American essayist, lecturer, poet
Essay (1860), “Worship,” The Conduct of Life, ch. 6
Sourcing, notes: wist.info/emerson-ralph-waldo/…
A quotation from Bill Watterson
CALVIN: Tigers don’t worry about much, do they?
HOBBES: Nope. That’s one of the perks of being feral.
Bill Watterson (b. 1958) American cartoonist
Calvin and Hobbes (1989-03-12)
Sourcing, notes: wist.info/watterson-bill/4106/
A quotation from Ambrose Bierce
PRECEDENT, n. In Law, a previous decision, rule or practice which, in the absence of a definite statute, has whatever force and authority a Judge may choose to give it, thereby greatly simplifying his task of doing as he pleases. As there are precedents for everything, he has only to ignore those that make against his interest and accentuate those in the line of his desire.
Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914?) American writer and journalist
“Precedent,” The Devil’s Dictionary (1911)
Sourcing, notes: wist.info/bierce-ambrose/76306…
Well, you see, Mr Scarman, I have the advantage of being slightly ahead of you. Sometimes behind you, but normally ahead of you.
— The Doctor, in “The Pyramids of Mars”
They say the atmosphere there was so full of goodness that evil just shrivelled up and died. Maybe that's why I never went there.
— The Doctor, in “The Keeper of Traken”
A quotation from Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Categorizing is necessary for humans, but it becomes pathological when the category is seen as definitive, preventing people from considering the fuzziness of boundaries, let alone revising their categories.
Nassim Nicholas Taleb (b. 1960) Lebanese-American essayist, statistician, risk analyst, aphorist
The Black Swan, Part 1, ch. 1 “The Apprenticeship of an Empirical Skeptic” (2007)
Sourcing, notes: wist.info/taleb-nassim-nichola…
“He says he doesn't know who he is or why he has come.”
“Well, I admire a man with an open mind.”
— Ruther and Shardovan, in “Castrovalva”
“I feel disoriented.”
“This is the Disorientation Centre.”
“That makes sense.”
— The Doctor and Sarah, in “The Android Invasion”
We're all basically primeval slime with ideas above its station.
— The Doctor, in “Full Circle”
“But I don't *exist* in your world!”
“Then you won't feel the bullets when we shoot you.”
— The Doctor and the Brigade Leader, in “Inferno”
They define a republic to be a government of laws, and not of men.
John Adams (1735-1826) American lawyer, Founding Father, statesman, US President (1797-1801)
Essay (1775-03-06), “Novanglus,” No. 7, Boston Gazette
Sourcing, substantial notes: wist.info/adams-john/6715/
A quotation from Franklin Roosevelt
In dictatorships there can be no party divisions. For all men must think as they are told, speak as they are told, write as they are told, live — and die — as they are told. In those countries the Nation is not above the party, as with us; the party is above the Nation; the party is the Nation. Every common man and woman is forced to walk the straight and narrow path of the party line, not strictly speaking a party line, but rather a line drawn by the dictator himself, who owns the party.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882-1945) American lawyer, politician, statesman, US President (1933-1945)
Speech (1941-03-29), Jackson Day Radio Broadcast, U.S.S. Potomac
Sourcing, notes: wist.info/roosevelt-franklin-d…
There are many humorous things in the world, among them the white man’s notion that he is less savage than the other savages.
Mark Twain (1835-1910) American writer [pseud. of Samuel Clemens]
Following the Equator, ch. 21 (1897)
Sourcing, notes: wist.info/twain-mark/3920/
A quotation from Marcus Aurelius
Constantly observe everything coming into being through change, and accustom yourself to the thought that universal nature loves nothing so much as to change the things that are and to create new things in their likeness. For everything that exists is, in a sense, the seed of what will arise from it.
[Θεώρει διηνεκῶς πάντα κατὰ μεταβολὴν γινόμενα καὶ ἐθίζου ἐννοεῖν, ὅτι οὐδὲν οὕτως φιλεῖ ἡ τῶν ὅλων φύσις ὡς τὸ τὰ ὄντα μεταβάλλειν καὶ ποιεῖν νέα ὅμοια. σπέρμα γὰρ τρόπον τινὰ πᾶν τὸ ὃν τοῦ ἐξ αὐτοῦ ἐσομένου.]
Marcus Aurelius (AD 121-180) Roman emperor (161-180), Stoic philosopher
Meditations [To Himself; Τὰ εἰς ἑαυτόν], Book 4, ch. 36 (4.36) (AD 161-180) [tr. Hard (2011 ed.)]
Sourcing, notes, alternate translations: wist.info/marcus-aureleus/2668…
“Traken Union, famous for its harmony. A whole empire held together by... by people being terribly nice to each other.”
“Well, that makes a change.”
— The Doctor and Adric, in “The Keeper of Traken”