Charles Wadsworth
It is not true that nice guys finish last.
Nice guys are winners before the game even starts.
No person is your friend who demands your
silence, or denies your right to grow.
Alice Walker (b. 1944) American writer
The most common way
people give up their power is by thinking they don't have any.
Alice Walker (b. 1944) American writer
I think it pisses God
off if you walk by the color purple in a field somewhere and don't notice it.
Alice Walker (b. 1944) American
writer The
Color Purple (1982)
This world is a comedy to those that think, a
tragedy to those that feel.
Horace Walpole (1717-1797)
English novelist, letter writer
Letter (
The most wonderful of all things in life,
I believe, is the discovery of another human being with whom one’s relationship
has a glowing depth, beauty, and joy as the years increase. This inner
progressiveness of love between two human beings is a most marvelous thing, it
cannot be found by looking for it or by passionately wishing for it. It is a
sort of Divine accident.
Sir
Hugh Walpole
Of all
the plagues a lover bears,
Sure rivals are the worst.
I can endure my own despair,
But not another’s hope.
William
Walsh
What's great about this country is that
Andy Warhol (1928-1987) American artist,
author The Philosophy of Andy Warhol: From A to B and Back Again
You can't hold a man
down without staying down with him.
Booker T. Washington (1856-1915)
American educator, writer
“Think about it: We went into slavery pagans; we came
out Christians. We went into slavery pieces of property; we came out American
citizens. We went into slavery with chains clanking about our wrists; we came
out with American ballots in our hands. ... When we rid ourselves of prejudice,
or racial feeling, and look the facts in the face, we must acknowledge,
notwithstanding the cruelty and moral wrong of slavery, we are in a stronger
and more hopeful position, materially, intellectually, morally, and
religiously, than is true of an equal number of black people in any other
portion of the globe.”
Booker T. Washington
(1856-1915) American educator, writer
There is a rank due to the
George Washington (1717-1799)
I think everybody likes to see the fat girl get the
hot guy and win.
John Waters, on the stage version of Hairspray
Be kind. Everyone you meet is fighting a hard
battle.
John Waton (1850-1907) Scottish writer,
preacher [pseud. Ian Maclaren]
CALVIN (walking through snowy field): You know, Hobbes, it seems the only time
most people go outside is to walk their cars. We have houses, electricity, plumbing,
heat .... Maybe we're so sheltered and comfortable that we’ve lost touch with
the natural world and forgotten our place in it. Maybe we've lost our awe of
nature. That's why I want to ask *you*, as a tiger, a wild animal close to
nature, what do you think we're put on Earth to do. What's our purpose in life?
Why are we here?
HOBBES: We're here to devour each other alive.
CALVIN (in the house): Turn on the lights! Turn up the heat!
Bill Watterson (b. 1958)
American cartoonist Calvin & Hobbes (
CALVIN: It’s
not denial. I’m just selective about the reality I accept.
Bill Watterson (b. 1958)
American cartoonist Calvin & Hobbes
CALVIN: Well, Hobbes, I guess there's a moral to all this.
HOBBES: What's that?
CALVIN: "Snow goons are bad news."
HOBBES: *That* lesson certainly ought to be inapplicable
elsewhere in life.
CALVIN: I like maxims that don't encourage behavior
modification.
Bill Watterson (b. 1958)
American cartoonist Calvin & Hobbes (
CALVIN:
A little rudeness and disrespect can elevate a meaningless interaction to a
battle of wills and add drama to an otherwise dull day.
Bill Watterson (b. 1958)
American cartoonist Calvin & Hobbes
CALVIN: It seems like once people grow up,
they have no idea what’s cool.
Bill Watterson (b. 1958)
American cartoonist Calvin & Hobbes
CALVIN: I say, if your knees aren’t green by the end of the day, you
ought to seriously re-examine your life.
Bill Watterson (b. 1958)
American cartoonist Calvin & Hobbes
CALVIN:
Dad, how do people make babies?
DAD: Most people just go to Sears, buy the kit, and follow
the assembly instructions.
CALVIN: I came from Sears??
DAD: No, you were a Blue Light Special at K Mart. Almost as
good, and a lot cheaper.
Bill Watterson (b. 1958)
American cartoonist Calvin & Hobbes
CALVIN:
Do you believe our destinies are determined by the stars?
HOBBES: Nah.
CALVIN: Oh, I do.
HOBBES: Really? How come?
CALVIN: Life's a lot more fun when you're not responsible for
your actions.
Bill Watterson (b. 1958)
American cartoonist Calvin & Hobbes
CALVIN:
I don't know which is worse, ... that everyone has his price, or that the price
is always so low.
Bill Watterson (b. 1958)
American cartoonist Calvin & Hobbes
CALVIN:
I must obey the inscrutable exhortations of my soul.
Bill Watterson (b. 1958)
American cartoonist Calvin & Hobbes
CALVIN:
I think life should be more like TV. I think all of life's problems ought to be
solved in thirty minutes with simple homilies, don't you? I think weight and
oral hygiene ought to be our biggest concerns. I think we should all have
powerful, high-paying jobs, and everyone should drive fancy sports cars. All
our desires should be instantly gratified. Women should always wear tight
clothes, and men should carry powerful handguns. Life overall should be more
glamorous, thrill-packed, and filled with applause, don't you think?
Bill Watterson (b. 1958)
American cartoonist Calvin & Hobbes
In the
long term it would make me happy to go to school and be successful, in the
short term it would make me happy to go out and have fun, but in the VERY long
term, I know which one will make better memories.
Bill Watterson (b. 1958)
American cartoonist Calvin & Hobbes
CALVIN: I’m learning real skills that I can apply throughout the rest of
my life...procrastinating and rationalizing.
Bill Watterson (b. 1958)
American cartoonist Calvin & Hobbes
CALVIN: I imagine bugs and girls have a
dim perception that nature played a cruel trick on them, but they lack the
intelligence to really comprehend the magnitude of it.
Bill Watterson (b. 1958)
American cartoonist Calvin
& Hobbes
CALVIN:
I try to make everyone's day a little more surreal.
Bill Watterson (b. 1958)
American cartoonist Calvin & Hobbes
CALVIN:
I'm a simple man, Hobbes.
HOBBES: You?? Yesterday you wanted a nuclear powered car that
could turn into a jet with laser-guided heat-seeking missiles!
CALVIN: I'm a simple man with complex tastes.
Bill Watterson (b. 1958)
American cartoonist Calvin & Hobbes
CALVIN:
It's psychosomatic. You need a lobotomy. I'll get a saw.
Bill Watterson (b. 1958)
American cartoonist Calvin & Hobbes
CALVIN:
Know what's weird? Day by day, nothing seems to change. But pretty soon,
everything is different.
Bill Watterson (b. 1958)
American cartoonist Calvin & Hobbes
CALVIN:
People think it must be fun to be a super genius, but they don't realize how
hard it is to put up with all the idiots in the world.
Bill Watterson (b. 1958)
American cartoonist Calvin & Hobbes
CALVIN:
Reality continues to ruin my life.
Bill Watterson (b. 1958)
American cartoonist Calvin & Hobbes
CALVIN:
There's no problem so awful that you can't add some guilt to it and make it
even worse!
Bill Watterson (b. 1958)
American cartoonist Calvin & Hobbes
CALVIN:
When I grow up, I'm not going to read the newspaper and I'm not going to follow
complex issues and I'm not going to vote. That way I can complain when the
government doesn't represent me. Then, when everything goes down the tubes, I
can say the system doesn't work and justify my further lack of participation.
HOBBES: An ingeniously self-fulfilling plan.
CALVIN: It's a lot more fun to blame things than to fix them.
Bill Watterson (b. 1958)
American cartoonist Calvin & Hobbes
CALVIN:
You can't just turn on creativity like a faucet. You have to be in the right
mood.
HOBBES: What mood is that?
CALVIN: Last minute panic.
Bill Watterson (b. 1958)
American cartoonist Calvin & Hobbes
CALVIN:
You know, Hobbes, some days even my lucky rocketship underpants don't help.
Bill Watterson (b. 1958)
American cartoonist Calvin & Hobbes
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 & Hobbes
DAD:
The world isn't fair, Calvin.
CALVIN: I know, but why isn't it ever unfair in my favor?
Bill Watterson (b. 1958)
American cartoonist Calvin & Hobbes
CALVIN: I
asked mom if I was a gifted child. She said they certainly wouldn't have paid
for me. You can relate this little story when the reporters ask how I went bad.
Bill Watterson (b. 1958)
American cartoonist Calvin & Hobbes Scientific Progress Goes Boink
HOBBES:
A new decade is coming up.
CALVIN: Yeah, big deal! Hmph. Where are the flying cars?
Where are the Moon colonies? Where are the personal robots and the zero gravity
boots, huh? You call this a new decade?! You call this the future?? Ha! Where
are the rocket packs? Where are the disintegration rays? Where are the floating
cities?
HOBBES: Frankly, I'm not sure people have the brains to
manage the technology they've got.
CALVIN: I mean, look at this! We still have the weather?!
Give me a break!
Bill Watterson (b. 1958)
American cartoonist Calvin & Hobbes
HOBBES:
First, your heart falls into your stomach and splashes your innards. All the
moisture makes you sweat profusely. This condensation shorts the circuits to
your brain, and you get all woozy. When your brain burns out altogether, your
mouth disengages and you babble like a cretin until she leaves.
CALVIN: That's love?!?
HOBBES: Medically speaking.
CALVIN: Heck, that happened to me once, but I figured it was
cooties!
Bill Watterson (b. 1958)
American cartoonist Calvin & Hobbes
I'd say that crossed the
line from Ironic Coincidence to Evil Omen.
Bill Watterson (b. 1958)
American cartoonist Calvin & Hobbes (
Alan Watts (1915-1973) Anglo-American
philosopher, writer The Book
All battles are fought by scared men who would
have rather have been somewhere else.
John Wayne (1907-1979) American actor,
director [b. Marion Michael Morrison]
Imagination and fiction make up more than three
quarters of our real life.
Simone
Weil
In the beginning, there
was nothing. And God said, ‘Let there be Light.’ And there was still nothing.
But, you could see it.
Dave
Weinstein
Closing his eyes
tightly so he wouldn’t see anything Horrible he might accidentally conjure up,
Tas thrust the ring over his thumb. (At the last moment he opened his
eyes, so that he wouldn’t miss seeing anything Horrible he might conjure up.)
Margaret
Weis & Tracy Hickman,
Time of the Twins
If people would just label their
belongings things like this wouldn’t happen.
Margaret
Weis & Tracy Hickman
(spoken by Tasslehoff Burrfoot)
ANTIMODES: A mage’s soul is
forged in the crucible of magic. You choose to go voluntarily into the
fire. The blaze might well destroy you. But if you survive, every
blow of the hammer will serve to shape your being. Every drop of water
wrung from you will temper and strengthen your soul.
Margaret
Weis & Tracy Hickman, Soulforge
But somewhere, sometime, someone must trust enough to
reach out his hand to the enemy, though he knows the hand could be cut off at
the wrist.
Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman
All my life I've been my own person. The choices I
made, I made of my own free will. I was never held in thrall by anyone or
anything... Bow to others in reverence and respect, but never in slavery.
Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman
We pity him.
We hate him. We fear him – all because there is a little of him in each
of us, though we admit it to ourselves only in the darkest part of the night.
Margaret
Weis & Tracy Hickman,
Time of the Twins (spoken by
Justarius of Raistlin)
The kender sat quiet
and subdued, so unhappy that he actually returned Sturm’s money pouch. He
returned it to Caramon, but the thought was there.
Margaret
Weis
Soulforge
In
Orson Welles (1915-1985) American writer,
director, actor The Third Man
Moral indignation is jealousy with a halo.
Herbert George Wells (1866-1946)
British writer
No
passion in the world is equal to the passion to alter someone else's draft.
Herbert George Wells (1866-1946)
British writer
You
have learned something. That always feels at first as if you had lost
something.
Herbert George Wells (1866-1946)
British writer
I generally avoid temptation---unless I
can’t resist it.
Mae
West
Whenever
I’m caught between two evils, I take the one I’ve never tried.
Mae
West
I myself have never been able to find out
precisely what feminism is: I only know that people call me a feminist whenever
I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat, or a prostitute.
Rebecca
West
Richard Whately (1787-1863)
English logician and theologian
People are morons. I
don't have any other explanation. I really don't.
Joss Whedon (b. 1964) American
screenwriter, producer (on
E.B. White (1899-1985) American author,
critic, humorist
T.H. White (1906-1964)
English writer
To go against the
dominant thinking of your friends, of most of the people you see every day, is
perhaps the most difficult act of heroism you can have.
T.H. White (1906-1964)
English writer
No nice men are good at getting taxis.
Katherine Whitehorn (b. 1928)
English writer and journalist
Outside every thin woman is a fat man
trying to get in.
Katherine Whitehorn (b. 1928)
English writer and journalist
Of all sad words of tongue or pen, the
saddest are these: “It might have been!”
John Greenleaf Whittier
Charlotte Whitton (1896-1975)
Canadian politician Canada Month, comment after being
elected mayor of
Dennis Wholey (b. 1937)
American writer, television personality
William H. Whyte, Jr.
(1917-1999) The Organization Man, ch. 1 (1956)
There is one right I would not grant anyone. And
that is the right to be indifferent.
Elie Wiesel (b. 1928) Romanian-American
novelist, Nobel Laureate, Holocaust survivor
The act
of writing is for me often nothing more than the secret or conscious desire to
carve words on a tombstone: to the memory of a town forever vanished, to the
memory of a childhood in exile, to the memory of all those I loved and who,
before I could tell them I loved them, went away.
Elie Wiesel (b. 1928) Romanian-American
novelist, Nobel Laureate, Holocaust survivor
There are victories of the soul and
spirit, and sometimes even if you lose, you win.
Elie Wiesel
(b. 1928) Romanian-American novelist, Nobel Laureate, Holocaust survivor
There may be times when we are powerless to prevent
injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest.
Elie Wiesel (b. 1928)
Romanian-American novelist, Nobel Laureate, Holocaust survivor
A true friend stabs you in the front.
Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) Irish poet, wit,
dramatist
It is absurd to divide
people into good and bad. People are either charming or tedious.
Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) Irish poet, wit,
dramatist
Life is never fair, and
perhaps it is a good thing for most of us that it is not.
Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) Irish poet, wit,
dramatist
Most people are other
people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry,
their passions a quotation.
Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) Irish poet, wit,
dramatist
No great artist ever
sees things as they really are. If he did, he would cease to be an artist.
Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) Irish poet, wit,
dramatist
Nothing is so
aggravating as calmness.
Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) Irish poet, wit,
dramatist
No man is rich enough to buy back his past.
Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) Irish poet, wit,
dramatist
Democracy means simply the bludgeoning of the people by the people for the
people.
Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) Irish poet, wit,
dramatist
The books that the world calls immoral are
the books that show the world its own shame.
Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) Irish poet, wit,
dramatist
Ordinary riches can be
stolen, real riches cannot. In your soul are infinitely precious things that
cannot be taken from you.
Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) Irish poet, wit,
dramatist
Selfishness is not
living as one wishes to live. It is asking other people to live as one wishes
to live.
Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) Irish poet, wit,
dramatist
Women are meant to be loved, not to be
understood.
Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) Irish poet, wit,
dramatist
The consciousness of
loving and being loved brings a warmth and richness to life that nothing else
can bring.
Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) Irish poet, wit,
dramatist
Those who find ugly
meanings in beautiful things are corrupt without being charming. This is a
fault.
Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) Irish poet, wit,
dramatist
A thing is not
necessarily true because a man dies for it.
Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) Irish poet, wit,
dramatist Sebastian Melmoth
It often happens that the real tragedies of life occur
in such an inartistic manner that they hurt us by their crude violence, their
absolute incoherence, their absurd want of meaning, their entire lack of style.
Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)
Irish poet, wit, dramatist
To recommend thrift to the poor is both grotesque and
insulting. It is like advising a man who is starving to eat less.
Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)
Irish poet, wit, dramatist
Trust your instincts. Your mistakes might as
well be your own instead of someone else's.
Billy Wilder (b. 1906) Austrian-American
film producer, director
Many who have spent a lifetime in it can
tell us less of love than the child that lost a dog yesterday.
Thorton
Wilder
Paul Wiley (contemp.)
I wish I were telepathic. Not just to
read people's minds, which would be cool, but to cut down on my cellular phone
bill.
Paul Wiley (contemp.)
Greed is envy with its
sleeves rolled up.
George F. Will (b. 1941) American political
commentator
I think if you'd had television cameras at
George F. Will (b. 1941)
American political commentator
We know next to nothing
about virtually everything. It is not necessary to know the origin of the
universe; it is necessary to want to know. Civilization depends not on any
particular knowledge, but on the disposition to crave knowledge.
George F. Will (b. 1941) American political
commentator
I like the word
'indolence'. It makes my laziness seem classy.
Bark: This is a sound made by dogs when excited. Dogs
bark at milkmen, postmen, yourself, visitors to the house and other dogs; some
of them bark at nothing. For some reason dogs tend not to bark at burglars,
bailiffs and income tax collectors, at whom they way their tails in the most
friendly manner.
Geoffrey Williams
Ah, yes, "divorce," from the Latin
word meaning "to rip out a man's genitals through his wallet."
Robin Williams (b. 1951) American
comic
Ted Williams (b. 1918) American baseball
player To
If people behaved in the way nations do they
would all be put in straitjackets.
Only the winners decide what were war crimes.
Gary Wills
Before I got married I had six theories about bringing
up children; now I have six children and no theories.
John Wilmot, Earl of
Charles E. Wilson (1890-1961)
As she lay there dozing next to me, one
voice inside my head kept saying, “Relax... you are not the first doctor to
sleep with one of his patients, “ but another kept reminding me, “Howard, you
are a veterinarian. “
Dick
Wilson
If you won't write it
and sign it, don't say it.
Earl Wilson (1907-1987) American
columnist
Courage is the art of being the only one
who knows you’re scared to death.
Earl Wilson (1907-1987) American
columnist
No amount of
sophistication is going to allay the fact that all your knowledge is about the
past and all your decisions are about the future.
Ian E. Wilson (contemp.) Canadian National
Archivist, historian
It is remarkable, in cats, that the outer life they
reveal to their master is one of perpetual confident boredom. All they betray
of the hidden life is by means of symbol; if it were not for the recurring
evidence of murder -- the disemboweled rabbits, the headless flickers, the torn
squirrels -- we should forever imagine our cats to be simple pets whose highest
ambition is to sleep in the best soft chair, whose worst crime is to sharpen
their claws on carpeting.
Robley Wilson, Jr.
It is just as hard to do
your duty when men are sneering at you as when they are shooting at you.
Woodrow Wilson (1856-1924)
Walter Winchell (1856-1972)
American journalist
When you come to the edge of all the light you know,
and are about to step off into the darkness, faith is knowing one of two things
will happen: There will be something solid for you to stand on or you will be
taught how to fly.
Barbara J. Winter
Lloyd "Bud" Winter (1909-1985) American track
coach
If there were a verb
meaning 'to believe falsely,' it would not have any significant first person,
present indicative.
Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951)
Austrian-English philosopher
No man consciously chooses evil because it is
evil: he only mistakes it for the happiness he seeks.
Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797)
English writer [Mary Shelley; Mary W. Godwin]
The
time at length arrives, when grief is rather an indulgence than a necessity;
and the smile that plays upon the lips, though it might be deemed sacrilege, is
not banished.
Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797)
English writer [Mary Shelley; Mary W. Godwin]
Virtue can only flourish amongst equals.
Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797)
English writer [Mary Shelley; Mary W. Godwin]
It is justice, not
charity, that is wanting in the world.
Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797)
English writer [Mary Shelley; Mary W. Godwin]
"A Vindication of the Rights of Women" (1792)
Fundamentalists] never wonder why, if
herpes is sent by “god” to scourge “adulterers,” whooping cough and measles
weren’t purposely created to lambaste children.
Fred
Woodworth
I have lost friends, some by death...others by sheer
inability to cross the street.
Virginia
Woolf
William Wordsworth (1770-1850) English poet
I’m all in favor of keeping dangerous weapons out of
the hands of fools. Let’s start with typewriters.
Frank
Lloyd Wright (1868-1959)
Give me the luxuries of life and I will willingly do
without the necessities.
Frank Lloyd
Wright (1868-1959)
Steven Wright (b. 1955)
Canadian-American humorist
If quitters never win, and winners never
quit, what fool came up with, “Quit while you’re ahead”?
Steven Wright (b. 1955)
Canadian-American humorist
I like to pick up hitchhikers. When they
get in the car I say, “Put on your seat belt. I want to try something. I saw it
once in a cartoon, but I think I can do it.”
Steven Wright (b. 1955)
Canadian-American humorist
Next week I’m going to have an MRI to see
whether or not I have claustrophobia.
Steven Wright (b. 1955)
Canadian-American humorist
Tell a man that there
are 400 billion stars and he'll believe you. Tell him a bench has wet paint and
he has to touch it.
Steven Wright (b. 1955)
Canadian-American humorist
Wit
is more necessary than beauty; and I think no young woman ugly that has it, and
no handsome woman agreeable without it.
William
Wycherley (1640-1716) English dramatist The
Country Wife
Men are taught to
apologize for their weaknesses, women for their strengths.
Lois Wyse