A quotation from Montaigne

We readily inquire, “Does he know Greek or Latin?” “Can he write poetry and prose?” But what matters most is what we put last: “Has he become better and wiser?” We ought to find out not who understands most but who understands best. We work merely to fill the memory, leaving the understanding and the sense of right and wrong empty.
 
[Nous enquerons volontiers, Sçait-il du Grec ou du Latin ? escrit-il en vers ou en prose ? mais, s’il est devenu meilleur ou plus advisé, c’estoit le principal, & c’est ce qui demeure derriere. Il falloit s’enquerir qui est mieux sçavant, non qui est plus sçavant. Nous ne travaillons qu’à remplir la memoire, & laissons l’entendement & la conscience vuide.]

Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) French essayist
Essay (yyyy), “Of Pedantry[Du pedantisme] (1572-1578), Essays, Book 1, ch. 24 (1.24) (1595) [tr. Screech (1987), ch. 25]

Sourcing, notes, alternate translations: wist.info/montaigne-michel-de/…

In the book "You are the Medicine," Indigenous author Asha Frost offers an alternative term to "decolonize": re-Indigenize.

A quotation from Kim Stanley Robinson

All of our governments are flawed, most of them disastrously. It’s why history is such a bloody mess.

Kim Stanley Robinson (b. 1952) American writer
Red Mars, Part 2 “The Voyage Out” [Arkady] (1992)

Sourcing, notes: wist.info/robinson-kim-stanley…

A quotation from Orwell

All through the Christian ages, and especially since the French Revolution, the Western world has been haunted by the idea of freedom and equality; it is only an idea, but it has penetrated to all ranks of society. The most atrocious injustices, cruelties, lies, snobberies exist everywhere, but there are not many people left who can regard these things with the same indifference as, say, a Roman slave-owner. Even the millionaire suffers from a vague sense of guilt, like a dog eating a stolen leg of mutton. Nearly everyone, whatever his actual conduct may be, responds emotionally to the idea of human brotherhood.

George Orwell (1903-1950) English writer [pseud. of Eric Arthur Blair]
Essay (1939), “Charles Dickens,” sec. 6, Inside the Whale (1940-03-11)

Sourcing, notes: wist.info/orwell-george/75463/

A quotation from Zinn

   An optimist isn’t necessarily a blithe, slightly sappy whistler in the dark of our time. To be hopeful in bad times is not just foolishly romantic. It is based on the fact that human history is a history not only of cruelty, but also of compassion, sacrifice, courage, kindness. What we choose to emphasize in this complex history will determine our lives. If we see only the worst, it destroys our capacity to do something. If we remember those times and places — and there are so many — where people have behaved magnificently, this gives us the energy to act, and at least the possibility of sending this spinning top of a world in a different direction.
   And if we do act, in however small a way, we don’t have to wait for some grand utopian future. The future is an infinite succession of presents, and to live now as we think human beings should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory.

Howard Zinn (1922-2010) American historian, academic, author, social activist
Essay (2004-09-02), “The Optimism of Uncertainty,” The Nation

Sourcing, notes: wist.info/zinn-howard/35668/

A quotation from Arendt

The moment we no longer have a free press, anything can happen. What makes it possible for a totalitarian or any other dictatorship to rule is that people are not informed; how can you have an opinion if you are not informed?

Hannah Arendt (1906-1975) German-American philosopher, political theorist
Interview (1973-10) with Roger Errera, Office de Radiodiffusion-Télévision Française (ORTF)

Sourcing, notes: wist.info/arendt-hannah/45087/

A quotation from Bill Watterson

CALVIN: I’m a genius, but I’m a misunderstood genius.
HOBBES: What’s misunderstood about you?
CALVIN: Nobody thinks I’m a genius.

Bill Watterson (b. 1958) American cartoonist
Calvin and Hobbes (1993-09-07)

Sourcing, notes: wist.info/watterson-bill/4099/

A quotation from Gandhi

You must not lose faith in humanity. Humanity is an ocean; if a few drops of the ocean are dirty, the ocean does not become dirty.

Mohandas Gandhi (1869-1948) Indian philosopher and nationalist [Mahatma Gandhi]
Letter (1947-08-29) to Rajkumari Amrit Kaur

Sourcing, notes: wist.info/gandhi-mahatma/75303…

A quotation from Moliere

DORINE: Those who have the greatest cause for guilt and shame
   Are quickest to besmirch a neighbor’s name.
 
[Ceux de qui la conduite offre le plus à rire
Sont toujours sur autrui les premiers à médire.]

Molière (1622-1673) French playwright, actor [stage name for Jean-Baptiste Poquelin]
Tartuffe, or the Hypocrite [Le Tartuffe, ou L’Imposteur], Act 1, sc. 1 (1669) [tr. Wilbur (1963)]

Sourcing, notes, alternate translations: wist.info/moliere/41528/

A quotation from Russell

One should respect public opinion insofar as is necessary to avoid starvation and keep out of prison, but anything that goes beyond this is voluntary submission to an unnecessary tyranny.

Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) English mathematician and philosopher
Conquest of Happiness, Part 1, ch. 9 “Fear of Public Opinion” (1930)

Sourcing, notes: wist.info/russell-bertrand/337…

GLOUCESTER: But shall I live in hope?

LADY ANNE: All men, I hope, live so.

— Richard III, I, ii

A quotation from Marcus Aurelius

We were born for cooperation, like feet, like hands, like eyelids, like the rows of upper and lower teeth. So to work against each other is contrary to nature; and resentment and rejection count as working against someone.
 
[γεγόναμεν γὰρ πρὸς συνεργίαν ὡς πόδες, ὡς χεῖρες, ὡς βλέφαρα, ὡς οἱ στοῖχοι τῶν ἄνω καὶ κάτω ὀδόντων. τὸ οὖν ἀντιπράσσειν ἀλλήλοις παρὰ φύσιν: ἀντιπρακτικὸν δὲ τὸ ἀγανακτεῖν καὶ ἀποστρέφεσθαι.]

Marcus Aurelius (AD 121-180) Roman emperor (161-180), Stoic philosopher
Meditations [To Himself; Τὰ εἰς ἑαυτόν], Book 2, ch. 1 (2.1) [tr. Gill (2013)]

Sourcing, notes, alternate translations: wist.info/marcus-aureleus/7491…

A quotation from Luther

Our Lord commonly giveth Riches to such gross asses to whom he affordeth nothing else that is good.
 
[Darumb gibt unser Herrgott gemeiniglich Reichtum den groben Eseln, denen er sonst nichts gönnt.]

Martin Luther (1483-1546) German priest, theologian, writer, religious reformer
Table Talk [Colloquies; Tischreden] (1566) [tr. Bell (1652)]

Sourcing, notes, alternate translations: wist.info/luther-martin/74904/

LEAR: O, that way madness lies.

— King Lear, III, iv

A quotation from Lincoln

Labor is prior to and independent of capital. Capital is only the fruit of labor, and could never have existed if labor had not first existed. Labor is the superior of capital, and deserves much the higher consideration. Capital has its rights, which are as worthy of protection as any other rights. Nor is it denied that there is, and probably always will be, a relation between labor and capital producing mutual benefits. The error is in assuming that the whole labor of community exists within that relation.

Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) American lawyer, politician, US President (1861-65)
Message (1861-12-03) to Congress, Annual Message (State of the Union)

Sourcing, notes: wist.info/lincoln-abraham/1626…

A quotation from Bierce

PATRIOTISM, n. Combustible rubbish ready to the torch of any one ambitious to illuminate his name. In Dr. Johnson’s famous dictionary patriotism is defined as the last resort of a scoundrel. With all due respect to an enlightened but inferior lexicographer I beg to submit that it is the first.

Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914?) American writer and journalist
“Patriotism,” The Devil’s Dictionary (1911)

Sourcing, notes: wist.info/bierce-ambrose/74874…

A quotation from Addison

There is nothing in which Men more deceive themselves than in what the World calls Zeal. There are so many Passions which hide themselves under it, and so many Mischiefs arising from it, that some have gone so far as to say it would have been for the Benefit of Mankind if it had never been reckoned in the Catalogue of Virtues. It is certain, where it is once Laudable and Prudential, it is an hundred times Criminal and Erroneous; nor can it be otherwise, if we consider that it operates with equal Violence in all Religions, however opposite they may be to one another, and in all the Subdivisions of each Religion in particular.

Joseph Addison (1672-1719) English essayist, poet, statesman
Essay (1711-10-02), The Spectator, No. 185

Sourcing, notes: wist.info/addison-joseph/53093…

A quotation from John Adams

Rulers are no more than attorneys, agents and trustees for the people; and if the cause, the interest and trust is insidiously betray’d, or wantonly trifled away, the people have a right to revoke the authority, that they themselves have deputed, and to constitute abler and better agents, attorneys and trustees.

John Adams (1735-1826) American lawyer, Founding Father, statesman, US President (1797-1801)
Essay (1765-09-30), “A Dissertation on the Canon and the Feudal Law,” No. 3, Boston Gazette

Sourcing, notes: wist.info/adams-john/74851/

A quotation from Lincoln

As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master. This expresses my idea of democracy. Whatever differs from this, to the extent of the difference, is no democracy.

Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) American lawyer, politician, US President (1861-65)
Fragment (1858-08-01?), “Definition of Democracy”

Sourcing, notes: wist.info/lincoln-abraham/2543…