“I feel disoriented.”
“This is the Disorientation Centre.”
“That makes sense.”
— The Doctor and Sarah, in “The Android Invasion”
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“My dear fellow,” said Sherlock Holmes as we sat on either side of the fire in his lodgings at Baker Street, “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 the queer things which are going on, the strange coincidences, the plannings, the cross-purposes, the wonderful chains of events, working through generations, and leading to the most outré results, it would make all fiction with its conventionalities and foreseen conclusions most stale and unprofitable.”
— From “A Case of Identity”
We're all basically primeval slime with ideas above its station.
— The Doctor, in “Full Circle”
“The next sign is C2. What do you make of that, Watson?”
“Chapter the second, no doubt.”
“Hardly that, Watson. You will, I am sure, agree with me that if the page be given, the number of the chapter is immaterial. Also that if page 534 finds us only in the second chapter, the length of the first one must have been really intolerable.”
— Sherlock Holmes and Watson, in “The Valley of Fear”
“It is indeed, Mr. Holmes. I've had a bustling afternoon, I promise you. Did you see anything of the Yoxley case in the latest editions?”
“I've seen nothing later than the fifteenth century to-day.”
— Stanley Hopkins and Sherlock Holmes, in “The Adventure of the Golden Pince-Nez”
“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/
All artists are willing to suffer for their work. But why are so few prepared to learn to draw?
Banksy (b. 1974) England-based pseudonymous street artist, political activist, film director
Wall and Piece, Introduction (2005)
Sourcing, notes: wist.info/banksy/76224/
Mr. Melas, however, still lived, and in less than an hour, with the aid of ammonia and brandy I had the satisfaction of seeing him open his eyes, and of knowing that my hand had drawn him back from that dark valley in which all paths meet.
— Watson, in “The Adventure of the Greek Interpreter”
“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”
It is not the desire for true riches that depraves man, but the desire for those that are false. A people never became corrupted for having grain, fruits, a pure air, better waters, more perfect arts, but for having gold, jewelry, subjects, power, a false renown, and an unjust superiority.
[Ce n’est pas le désir des vrais biens qui déprave l’homme, mais le désir de ceux qui sont faux. Jamais un peuple ne s’est corrompu, pour avoir du blé, des fruits, un air pur, des eaux meilleures, des arts plus parfaits, des femmes plus belles; mais pour avoir de l’or, des pierreries, des sujets, de la puissance, un faux renom et une injuste supériorité.]
Joseph Joubert (1754-1824) French moralist, philosopher, essayist, poet
Pensées [Thoughts], ch. 16 “Des Mœurs publiques et privées; du Caractère des Nations [On Morality and the Character of Nations],” ¶ 39 (1850 ed.) [tr. Calvert (1866), ch. 12]
Sourcing, notes: wist.info/joubert-joseph/76205…
GLOUCESTER: 'Tis the time's plague, when madmen lead the blind.
— King Lear, IV, i
But what if it's really funny?
Anyway, Mr. Fitzgerald would have hated texting me.
“Hence the cocaine. I cannot live without brain-work. What else is there to live for? Stand at the window here. Was ever such a dreary, dismal, unprofitable world? See how the yellow fog swirls down the street and drifts across the dun-colored houses. What could be more hopelessly prosaic and material? What is the use of having powers, doctor, when one has no field upon which to exert them? Crime is commonplace, existence is commonplace, and no qualities save those which are commonplace have any function upon earth.”
— Sherlock Holmes, in “The Sign of the Four”
“As far as we know, the sea was calm and empty.”
“It may be calm, but it's never empty.”
— Huckle and the Doctor, in “Terror of the Zygons”
“Chance has put in our way a most singular and whimsical problem, and its solution is its own reward.”
— Sherlock Holmes, in “The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle”
“Are you trying to tell me you're in love?”
“Love? What is 'love'? I want *existence*.”
— Tegan and Marriner, in “Enlightenment”
“Amberley excelled at chess — one mark, Watson, of a scheming mind.”
— Sherlock Holmes, in “The Adventure of the Retired Colourman”