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WIST Quotations @[email protected] · 2026-08-14 · 19:37 UTC

I was afraid of a united Church; it makes a mighty power, the mightiest conceivable, and then when it by and by gets into selfish hands, as it is always bound to do, it means death to human liberty and paralysis to human thought.

Mark Twain (1835–1910) American writer [pseud. of Samuel Clemens]
Novel (1889), A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, Part 3 “The Tale of the Lost Land,” ch. 10 “Beginnings of Civilization”

More about this quote: wist.info/twain-mark/85458/

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WIST Quotations @[email protected] · 2026-06-22 · 21:22 UTC

A quotation from Einstein

Few people are capable of expressing with equanimity opinions which differ from the prejudices of their social environment. Most people are even incapable of forming such opinions.

[Wenige sind imstande, von den Vorurteilen der Umgebung abweichende Meinungen gelassen auszusprechen; die Meisten sind sogar unfähig, überhaupt zu solchen Meinungen zu gelangen.]

Albert Einstein (1879-1955) German-American physicist
Essay (1953-05-23), “Aphorisms for Leo Baeck [Neun Aphorismen], No. 4, Essays Presented to Leo Baeck on the Occasion of His Eightieth Birthday (1954) [Einstein Archives 28-962]

More about this quote: wist.info/einstein-albert/210/

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WIST Quotations Has Moved! @[email protected] · 2025-10-20 · 15:54 UTC

A quotation from Charles Mackay

Keep, Galileo, to thy thought,
   And nerve thy soul to bear;
They may gloat o’er the senseless words they wring
   From the pangs of thy despair:
They may veil their eyes, but they cannot hide
   The sun’s meridian glow;
The heel of a priest may tread thee down,
   And a tyrant work thee woe;
But never a truth has been destroyed:
   They may curse it, and call it crime;
Pervert and betray, or slander and slay
   Its teachers for a time.
But the sunshine aye shall light the sky,
   As round and round we run;
And the truth shall ever come uppermost,
   And justice shall be done.

Charles Mackay (1814-1889) Scottish poet, journalist, song writer
Poem (1847), “Eternal Justice,” st. 4

More info about this quote: wist.info/mackay-charles/79828…

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