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Wells Quotes

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Wells Quotes

“Preachers are not sermon makers, but men makers and saint makers, and he only is well-trained for this business who has made himself a man and a saint. It is not great talents nor great learning nor great preachers that God needs, but men great in holiness, great in faith, great in love, great in fidelity, great for God - men always preaching by holy sermons in the pulpit, by holy lives out of it. These can mold a generation for God.”

MenNeedsWellsMadeGenerationsTalentHolySaintHolinessMakersPreacherPreachingSermonsMoldFidelityPulpitGreat TalentHoly Life
Book:Power Through Prayer
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“I am a patient man--always willing to forgive on the Christian terms of repentance, and also to give ample time for repentance. Still, I must save this government, if possible. What I cannot do, of course I will not do, but it may as well be understood, once for all, that I shall not surrender this game leaving any available card unplayed.”

IfsMenGivingWellsMayStillsGovernmentChristianCoursesGamesTermWillingUnderstoodForgivingPatientLeavingAvailableSurrenderCardsRepentance
Book:The collected works of Abraham Lincoln
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“[E]volutionists sometimes take as haughty an attitude toward the next level up the conventional ladder of disciplines: the human sciences. They decry the supposed atheoretical particularism of their anthropological colleagues and argue that all would be well if only the students of humanity regarded their subject as yet another animal and therefore yielded explanatory control to evolutionary biologists.”

IfsHumansWellsSometimesWould BeHumanityNextAnimalLevelsAttitudeSubjectsStudentsDisciplineArguingConventionalColleaguesLaddersNext LevelBiologistHaughty
Book:An Urchin in the Storm: Essays about Books and Ideas
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“Our world is not an optimal place, fine tuned by omnipotent forces of selection. It is a quirky mass of imperfections, working well enough (often admirably); a jury-rigged set of adaptations built of curious parts made available by past histories in different contexts. A world optimally adapted to current environments is a world without history, and a world without history might have been created as we find it. History matters; it confounds perfection and proves that current life transformed its own past.”

WorldWellsHas BeensMadeDifferentMatterEnoughMightPastForceEnvironmentFineProveMassBuiltPerfectionCurrentsAvailableCuriousOur WorldImperfectionTransformedSelectionMight Have BeenAdaptationJuryAdaptedQuirkyOmnipotentRiggedOptimal
Author:Stephen Jay Gould
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“Phony psychics like Uri Geller have had particular success in bamboozling scientists with ordinary stage magic, because only scientists are arrogant enough to think that they always observe with rigorous and objective scrutiny, and therefore could never be so fooled while ordinary mortals know perfectly well that good performers can always find a way to trick people.”

PeopleThinkingKnowsWayWellsEnoughMagicStageParticularOrdinaryScientistTricksObjectivesMortalsPerformersArrogantPsychicsFooledScrutinyPhony
Book:The Mismeasure of Man (Revised & Expanded)
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“When scientists need to explain difficult points of theory, illustration by hypothetical example - rather than by total abstraction - works well (perhaps indispensably) as a rhetorical device. Such cases do not function as speculations in the pejorative sense - as silly stories that provide insight into complex mechanisms - but rather as idealized illustrations to exemplify a difficult point of theory. (Other fields, like philosophy and the law, use such conjectural cases as a standard device.”

NeedsWellsPhilosophyStoriesUseLawDifficultCasesExampleFieldsTheoryStandardsScientistFunctionComplexesInsightSillyDevicesMechanismAbstractionSpeculationIllustrationRhetoricalHypothetical
Book:Leonardo's Mountain of Clams and the Diet of Worms
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“Darwinian natural selection only yields adaptation to changing local environments, and better function in an immediate habitat might just as well be achieved by greater simplicity in form and behavior as by ever-increasing complexity.”

WellsMightFormNaturalEnvironmentGreaterBehaviorFunctionSimplicityLocalsComplexityYieldSelectionAdaptationNatural SelectionHabitatNatural Habitats
Book:Leonardo's Mountain of Clams and the Diet of Worms
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“Organisms [...] are directed and limited by their past. They must remain imperfect in their form and function, and to that extent unpredictable since they are not optimal machines. We cannot know their future with certainty, if only because a myriad of quirky functional shifts lie within the capacity of any feature, however well adapted to a present role.”

IfsKnowsWellsPastFormLyingRolesCapacityMachinesFunctionCertaintyFeaturesImperfectOrganismsUnpredictableAdaptedQuirkyOptimal
Book:Hen's Teeth and Horse's Toes: Further Reflections in Natural History
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“From the circumstances of my position, I was often thrown into the society of horse-racers, card-players, fox-hunters, scientific and professional men, and of dignified men; and many a time have I asked myself, in the enthusiastic moment of the death of a fox, the victory of a favorite horse, the issue of a question eloquently argued at the bar, or in the great council of the nation, well, which of these kinds of reputation should I prefer? That of a horse-jockey, a fox-hunter, an orator, or the honest advocate of my country's rights?”

MenShouldWellsKindCountryMomentsNationsIssuesRightsPlayerHonestPositionVictoryCircumstancesHorseBarsReputationCardsThrownShould IFoxesHuntersCouncilEnthusiasticOratorsJockeysRacers
Book:The writings of Thomas Jefferson: being his autobiography, correspondence, reports, messages, addresses, and other writings, official and private
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“In truth, politeness is artificial good humor, it covers the natural want of it, and ends by rendering habitual a substitute nearly equivalent to the real virtue. It is the practice of sacrificing to those whom we meet in society, all the little inconveniences and preferences which will gratify them, and deprive us of nothing worth a moment's consideration; it is the giving a pleasing and flattering turn to our expressions, which will conciliate others, and make them pleased with us as well as themselves. How cheap a price for the good will of another!”

WantGivingWellsLittlesRealEndsMomentsTurnsNaturalPracticeVirtueSacrificeExpressionConsiderationSubstitutesArtificialPreferenceGood WillPolitenessFlatteringHabitualInconvenienceRenderingGood Humor
Author:Thomas Jefferson
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“The receptive attitude enables one mind to fix itself to another as by spiritual grappling-irons. When you see that every word you utter us taken in, and weighed, and measured by your listener, you cannot free yourself from the influence of his presence. You are compelled to have in your thoughts not only the words you utter, but the man to whom they are spoken. You must not only talk, and talk well, but you must talk to him.”

MenMindWellsSpiritualAttitudeTakenInfluenceHe ManListeningIronListenersCompelledReceptiveFree YourselfGrappling
Author:Charles Dickens
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“The appearance presented by the streets of London an hour before sunrise, on a summer's morning, is most striking even to the few whose unfortunate pursuits of pleasure, or scarcely less unfortunate pursuits of business, cause them to be well acquainted with the scene. There is an air of cold, solitary desolation about the noiseless streets which we are accustomed to see thronged at other times by a busy, eager crowd, and over the quiet, closely-shut buildings, which throughout the day are swarming with life and bustle, that is very impressive.”

WellsCausesHoursPleasureMorningAirStreetsBuildingColdSceneQuietSummerBusyCrowdsAppearanceLondonPursuitSolitaryUnfortunateSunriseAccustomedImpressiveDesolationBustleVery ImpressiveBefore Sunrise
Book:Sketches by Boz: Pseud. Illustrative of Every-day Life and Every-day People
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“I remember very well, when I was at Oxford, an old gentleman said to me, "Young man, ply your book diligently now, and acquire a stock of knowledge; for when years come upon you, you will find that poring upon books will be but an irksome task.”

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Book:The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL. D.: Including a Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides
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“I know very well that because I am unlettered some presumptuous people will think they have the right to criticize me, saying that I am an uncultured man. What stupid fools! Do they not know that I could reply to them as Marius did to the Roman patricians: "Do those who pride themselves on the works of other men claim to challenge mine?”

PeopleThinkingKnowsMenWellsChallengesEducationStupidMinesPrideFoolClaimsCriticizePresumptuousMarius
Author:Leonardo da Vinci
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“All Presidents start out to run a crusade but after a couple of years they find they are running something less heroic and much more intractable: namely the presidency. The people are well cured by then of election fever, during which they think they are choosing Moses. In the third year, they look on the man as a sinner and a bumble and begin to poke around for rumors of another Messiah.”

PeopleThinkingMenYearsWellsLooksRunningPresidentHe ManCoupleThirdsElectionSinnerHeroicPresidencyRumorMosesFeverMessiahCrusadesPoke
Author:Alistair Cooke
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“My music is so mine, it's hard to turn it over to someone else. I have to be really involved in the production. It's like someone else taking care of your kids - if they don't treat them well, you're going to be pissed off. I'm actually co-producing [Backwoods] with my guitar player of 20 years, Kent Wells. We make a good combination... I think we're going to have a real good record.”

IfsThinkingYearsWellsRealHardCareKidsTurnsMusicRecordsPlayerMinesInvolvedMusic IsTreatsGuitarProductionsCombinationBeing RealGuitar PlayerPissed OffKentGood RecordsBackwoods
Author:Dolly Parton
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“Seeing clearly within himself and always able to dodge around the ends of any position, including his own, Shaw assumed from the start the dual role of prophet and gadfly. To his contemporaries it appeared frivolous and contradictory to perform as both superman and socialist, sceptic and believer, legalist and heretic, high-brow and mob-orator. But feeling the duty to teach as well as to mirror mankind, Shaw did not accept himself as a contradictory being.”

WellsEndsFeelingsAbleAcceptingRolesTeachSeeingMankindPositionDutyMirrorsIncludingBelieverProphetSocialistContradictoryBrowsHereticFrivolousOratorsDodgeScepticGadflies
Author:Jacques Barzun
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“The authorities teach that next to the first emanation, which is the Son coming out of the Father, the angels are most like God. And it may well be true, for the soul at its highest is formed like God, but an angel gives a closer idea of Him. That is all an angel is: an idea of God. For this reason the angel was sent to the soul, so that the soul might be re-formed by it, to be the divine idea by which it was first conceived.”

GivingFirstsWellsMayIdeasSoulReasonMightNextFatherTeachDivineSonAuthorityHighestAngelBeing TrueComing Out
Author:Meister Eckhart
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“The worldly wisdom of the foolish man Is like a sieve, that does alone retain The grosser substance of the worthless bran: But thou, my soul, let thy brave thoughts disdain So coarse a purchase: O be thou a fan To purge the chaff, and keep the winnow'd grain: Make clean thy thoughts, and dress thy mixt desires: Thou art Heav'n's tasker, and thy God requires The purest of thy flow'r, as well as of thy fires.”

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Book:The Poetical Works of Richard Crashaw and Quarles' Emblems
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“Alas! fond child, How are thy thoughts beguil'd To hope for honey from a nest of wasps? Thou may'st as well Go seek for ease in hell, Or sprightly nectar from the mouths of asps. The world's a hive, From whence thou canst derive No good, but what thy soul's vexation brings: But case thou meet Some petty-petty sweet, Each drop is guarded with a thousand stings.”

WorldWellsMayChildrenSoulCasesHellSweetThousandMouthsEaseHoneyAlasPettyNestsGuardedHivesNectarVexationWasps
Book:Emblems divine and moral
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“The fear of freedom is strong in us. We call it chaos or anarchy, and the words are threatening. We live in a true chaos of contradicting authorities, an age of conformism without community, of proximity without communication. We could only fear chaos if we imagined that it was unknown to us, but in fact we know it very well.”

IfsKnowsWellsFactsAgeStrongCommunityCommunicationAuthorityIndependenceChaosAnarchyThreateningProximityContradictingWithout Communication
Book:the female eunuch
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“Women who were housewives, who were pretty miserable ... felt inspired by her book and their life changed. They didn't become megastars, but they became a librarian or something. I've heard women say again and again when the subject of Germaine comes up: 'Well, her book changed my life for the better.' And they'll be modest women living pretty ordinary lives, but better lives.”

WellsBookFeltHeardSubjectsChangedOrdinaryInspiredCome UpMiserableLife ChangingAgain And AgainModestBetter LifeLibrarianHousewifeChanged My LifeOrdinary Life
Author:Germaine Greer
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“I can't quite define my aversion to asking questions of strangers. From snatches of family battles which I have heard drifting up from railway stations and street corners, I gather that there are a great many men who share my dislike for it, as well as an equal number of women who ... believe it to be the solution to most of this world's problems.”

MenWorldBelieveWellsI CanProblemNumbersHeardShareStreetsThis WorldBattleEqualSolutionsAskingCornersStrangerGreat MenStationsDislikeDriftingAsking QuestionsAversionRailwayStreet CornersRailway Station
Book:The Benchley Roundup
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“The best recipe for happiness and contentment I've seen is this: dig a big hole in the garden of your thoughts and put into it all your disillusions, disappointments, regrets, worries, troubles, doubts, and fears. Cover well with the earth of fruitfulness. Water it from the well of contentment. Sow on top the seeds of hope, courage, strength, patience, and love. Then when the time for gathering comes, may your harvest be a rich and fruitful one.”

WellsMayBigsEarthHappinessWaterWorryRichDoubtTroubleRegretGardenAnd LoveDisappointmentSeedsHolesContentmentHarvestRecipesGatheringDisillusionCourage StrengthPatience And LoveFruitfulnessDoubt And FearHope Courage
Book:Staying Up, Up, Up in a Down, Down World: Daily Hope for the Daily Grind
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“I think Santa Claus is, by and large, quite beneficial, for when the child is finally allowed -- or forced -- to recognize the nonexistence of Santa Claus, then the child is able to go through the vital intellectual process of reconstructing reality in light of new evidence, complete with back-forming new stories to account for past events. This prepares the child for many other disillusionments and gives her vital and well-supported experience in maintaining her grip on reality independent of the stories told to her at any given time.”

ThinkingGivingWellsChildrenStoriesRealityLightAblePastGivenProcessEventsIntellectualEvidenceAccountsIndependentMaintainingBeneficialSantaSanta ClausDisillusionmentPast EventsReconstructing
Author:Orson Scott Card
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“In creating the strange milieu in which your story takes place, you must first understand as well as you possibly can the familiar milieu in which your own life is taking place. Until you have examined and comprehended the world around you, you can't possibly create a complex and believable imaginary world.”

WorldFirstsWellsStoriesLife IsStrangeCreatingComplexesFamiliarImaginaryBelievableMilieuImaginary World
Book:How to Write Science Fiction & Fantasy
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“Contented, unambitious people are all very well in their way. They form a neat, useful background for great portraits to be painted against, and they make a respectable, if not particularly intelligent, audience for the active spirits of the age to play before. I have not a word to say against contented people so long as they keep quiet.”

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Book:The Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow
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