# free thought (blogs) — RSS Amplifier Recent posts from the 1 feeds in the RSS Amplifier directory that cover free thought. Page: Feed: --- ## [Ingersoll, Robert Green -- Lecture (1881-05-01) “The Great Infidels,” Booth’s Theater, New York City](https://wist.info/ingersoll-robert-green/85588/) _2026-08-21 · Dave · WIST Quotations_ Strange! that a world cursed by God, filled with temptations and thick with fiends, should be the only place where hope exists, the only place where man can repent, the only place where reform is possible! Strange! that heaven, filled with angels and presided over by God, is the only place where reformation is utterly \[…\] ## [Disraeli, Benjamin -- Vivian Grey, Book 8, ch. 5 (1827)](https://wist.info/disraeli-benjamin/85584/) _2026-08-21 · Dave · WIST Quotations_ The Disappointment of Manhood succeeds to the delusion of Youth; let us hope that the heritage of Old Age is not Despair! See also Disraeli (1844). ## [Twain, Mark -- Novel (1889), A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, Part 3 “The Tale of the Lost Land,” ch. 10 “Beginnings of Civilization”](https://wist.info/twain-mark/85582/) _2026-08-21 · Dave · WIST Quotations_ I could have given my own sect the preference and made everybody a Presbyterian without any trouble, but that would have been to affront a law of human nature: spiritual wants and instincts are as various in the human family as are physical appetites, complexions, and features, and a man is only at his best, \[…\] ## [Stevenson, Robert Louis -- Poem (1885), “Happy Thought,” A Child’s Garden of Verses](https://wist.info/stevenson-robert-louis/85580/) _2026-08-21 · Dave · WIST Quotations_ The world is so full of a number of things, I’m sure we should all be as happy as kings. ## [Greenwood, Kerry -- Phryne Fisher, Book 18, Dead Man’s Chest, ch. 13 (2010)](https://wist.info/greenwood-kerry/85555/) _2026-08-21 · Dave · WIST Quotations_ Lust was a reliable emotion, but greed was altogether simpler to satisfy and you got to keep your clothes on. ## [Doyle, Arthur Conan -- Story (1891-09), “A Case of Identity,” \[Holmes\], The Strand Magazine, Vol. 2, No. 3](https://wist.info/doyle-arthur-conan/85553/) _2026-08-20 · Dave · WIST Quotations_ My dear fellow, life is infinitely stranger than anything which the mind of man could invent. We would not dare to conceive the things which are really mere commonplaces of existence. If we could fly out of that window hand in hand, hover over this great city, gently remove the roofs, and peep in at \[…\] ## [Roosevelt, Theodore -- Autobiography, ch. 1 “Boyhood and Youth” (1913)](https://wist.info/roosevelt-theodore/85551/) _2026-08-20 · Dave · WIST Quotations_ The teaching which I received was genuinely democratic in one way. It was not so democratic in another. I grew into manhood thoroughly imbued with the feeling that a man must be respected for what he made of himself. But I had also, consciously or unconsciously, been taught that socially and industrially pretty much the \[…\] ## [Doctor Who (1963) -- 17×05 “The Horns of Nimon,” Part 1 (1979-12-22) \[w. Anthony Read\]](https://wist.info/doctor-who-1963/85539/) _2026-08-20 · Dave · WIST Quotations_ ROMANA: Don’t you think that’s a bit dangerous? THE DOCTOR: No, I don’t! What could possibly go — (The TARDIS lurches, knocking the Doctor over) — wrong? You know, I’ve simply got to stop saying that! Every single time I say “What could possibly go wrong?” something goes — oh! (The TARDIS lurches again, knocking \[…\] ## [Billings, Josh -- Josh Billings’ Farmer’s Allminax, 1877-10 (1877 ed.)](https://wist.info/billings-josh/85536/) _2026-08-20 · Dave · WIST Quotations_ I never knu a man to brag ov hiz munny, or hiz pedigree, who had enny thing else worth bragging about. \[I never knew a man to brag of his money, or his pedigree, who had anything else worth bragging about.\] ## [Cicero, Marcus Tullius -- Tusculan Disputations \[Tusculanae Disputationes\], Book 1, ch. 19 (1.19.) / sec. 44 (1.44) (45 BC) \[tr. Douglas (1985)\]](https://wist.info/cicero-marcus-tullius/85532/) _2026-08-20 · Dave · WIST Quotations_ MARCUS: There is naturally in our minds a quite insatiable longing to discover truth. \[Natura inest in mentibus nostris insatiabilis quaedam cupiditas veri.\] On how the soul, after death, will find happiness in contemplation of the universe. (Source (Latin)). Other translations: Our minds have naturally inplanted in them, an insatiable longing to come at the \[…\] ## [CLI-first decentralized compute (Sponsored)](https://crawlproof.com/a/Ak7alBzdYgOQ) _2026-08-20 · **Sponsored**_ Run and pay spare GPUs from the CLI — transcode, coinpay (DID+escrow), infernet (AI). ## [Herbert, George -- Poem (1614), “The Church-Porch,” ll. 305-306, The Temple (1633)](https://wist.info/herbert-george/85527/) _2026-08-20 · Dave · WIST Quotations_ A civil guest Will no more talk all, than eat all, the feast. Benjamin Franklin quotes this poem (and, for a change, provides the attribution) in Poor Richard Improved (1748 ed.): Herbert, the poet, says, —— a well bred guest, Will no more talk all than eat all the feast. ## [Coates, Ta-Nehisi -- The Message, ch. 3 “Bearing the Burning Cross” (2024)](https://wist.info/coates-ta-nehisi/85525/) _2026-08-20 · Dave · WIST Quotations_ I don’t really worry about the young, whose excesses are confined to lecture halls and quadrangles, so much as I fear the old, whose tyrannies are legislative. ## [Russell, Bertrand -- Education and the Social Order \[Education and the Modern World\], ch. 1 “The Individual vs. the Citizen” (1932)](https://wist.info/russell-bertrand/85520/) _2026-08-19 · Dave · WIST Quotations_ If you wish a man to commit some abominable crime, from which he would naturally recoil in horror, you first teach him loyalty to a gang of arch-criminals, and then make his crime appear to him as exemplifying the virtue of loyalty. Of this process, patriotism is the most perfect instance. ## [Ivins, Molly -- Essay (2001-04), “Wake Me When We’re Equal,” The Progressive, Vol. 65, No. 4](https://wist.info/ivins-molly/85517/) _2026-08-19 · Dave · WIST Quotations_ Wake me up when impending egalitarianism is a problem. In the meantime, oligarchy is eating our ass, our dreams, our country, our heritage, our democracy, our justice, and our tax code. ## [Howell, James -- Paroimiographia \[Παροιμιογραφία\]: Proverbs, or, Old Sayed Sawes & Adages, “Proverbs in Italian” (1659) \[compiler\]](https://wist.info/howell-james/85513/) _2026-08-19 · Dave · WIST Quotations_ By seeing one thou knowest him half, by hearing him speak thou knowst all. \[Vedendo uno conosci mezzo, udendolo parlar il conosci tutto.\] See also the Bible, Menander. ## [Watterson, Bill -- Calvin and Hobbes (1995-11-03)](https://wist.info/watterson-bill/85505/) _2026-08-18 · Dave · WIST Quotations_ CALVIN: (watching TV) Why isn’t my life like this situation comedy? Why don’t I have a bunch of friends with nothing to do but drop by and instigate wacky adventures? Why aren’t my conversations peppered with spontaneous witticisms? Why don’t my friends demonstrate heartfelt concern for my well-being when I have problems? HOBBES: Why don’t \[…\] ## [Bierce, Ambrose -- “Foe,” “Devil’s Dictionary” column, San Francisco Wasp (1884-12-06)](https://wist.info/bierce-ambrose/85503/) _2026-08-18 · Dave · WIST Quotations_ FOE, n. A person instigated by his wicked nature to deny one’s merits or exhibit superior merits of his own. Not collected in later books.