They say the atmosphere there was so full of goodness that evil just shrivelled up and died. Maybe that's why I never went there.

— The Doctor, in “The Keeper of Traken”

Well, how do you think I feel? I'm a 900 year old Time Lord. Not much dignity in scrambling over a wall like a small boy on a scrumping spree.

— The Doctor, in “Revelation of the Daleks”

A quotation from Ann Rice

Ah, Stefan, give me a man or woman who has read a thousand books and you give me an interesting companion. Give me a man or woman who has read perhaps three and you give me a dangerous enemy indeed.

Anne Rice (1941-2021) American author [b. Howard Allen Frances O'Brien]
The Witching Hour, Part 2 (1990)

Sourcing, notes: wist.info/rice-anne/37945/

A quotation from Adlai Stevenson

   The whole notion of loyalty inquisitions is a natural characteristic of the police state, not of democracy. Knowing his rule rests upon compulsion rather than consent, the dictator must always assume the disloyalty, not for a few but of many, and guard against it by continual inquisition and liquidation of the unreliable. The history of Soviet Russia is a modern example of this ancient practice.
   The democratic state, on the other hand, is based on the consent of its members. The vast majority of our people are intensely loyal, as they have amply demonstrated. To question, even by implication, the loyalty and devotion of a large group of citizens is to create an atmosphere of suspicion and distrust which is neither justified, healthy, nor consistent with our traditions. […] I must, in good conscience, protest against any unnecessary suppression of our ancient rights of free men. Moreover, we will win the contest of ideas that afflicts the world not by suppressing those rights, but by their triumph. We must not burn down the house to kill the rats.

Adlai Stevenson (1900-1965) American diplomat, statesman
Message (1951-06-26), Veto of Illinois State Senate Bill 102

Sourcing, notes: wist.info/stevenson-adlai-ewin…

ACHILLES: 'Tis but early days.

— Troilus and Cressida, IV, v

A quotation from Marcus Aurelius

Constantly think of the Universe as one living creature, embracing one being and one soul; how all is absorbed into the one consciousness of this living creature; how it compasses all things with a single purpose, and how all things work together to cause all that comes to pass, and their wonderful web and texture.
 
[Ὡς ἓν ζῷον τὸν κόσμον, μίαν οὐσίαν καὶ ψυχὴν μίαν ἐπέχον, συνεχῶς ἐπινοεῖν καὶ πῶς εἰς αἴσθησιν μίαν τὴν τούτου πάντα ἀναδίδοται καὶ πῶς ὁρμῇ μιᾷ πάντα πράσσει καὶ πῶς πάντα πάντων τῶν γινομένων συναίτια καὶ οἵα τις ἡ σύννησις καὶ συμμήρυσις.]

Marcus Aurelius (AD 121-180) Roman emperor (161-180), Stoic philosopher
Meditations [To Himself; Τὰ εἰς ἑαυτόν], Book 4, ch. 40 (4.40) (AD 161-180) [tr. Farquharson (1944)]

Sourcing, notes, alternate translations: wist.info/marcus-aureleus/2677…

A quotation from Banksy

The people who truly deface our neighbourhoods are the companies that scrawl their giant slogans across buildings and buses trying to make us feel inadequate unless we buy their stuff. They expect to be able to shout their message in your face from every available surface but you’re never allowed to answer back. Well, they started this fight and the wall is the weapon of choice to hit them back.

Banksy (b. 1974) England-based pseudonymous street artist, political activist, film director
Wall and Piece, Introduction (2005)

Sourcing, notes: wist.info/banksy/76325/

A quotation from Thomas Fuller

Boast not of thy good Deeds, lest thy evil Deeds also be brought upon the Board.

Thomas Fuller (1654-1734) English physician, preacher, aphorist, writer
Introductio ad Prudentiam, Vol. 2, # 1855 (1727)

Sourcing, notes: wist.info/fuller-thomas-1654/7…

The cosmos without the Doctor scarcely bears thinking about.

— The Master, in “The Five Doctors”

A quotation from Hannah Arendt

There is all the difference in the world between the criminal’s avoiding the public eye and the civil disobedient’s taking the law into his own hands in open defiance. This distinction between an open violation of the law, performed in public, and a clandestine one is so glaringly obvious that it can be neglected only by prejudice or ill will.

Hannah Arendt (1906-1975) German-American philosopher, political theorist
Essay (1970-09-12), “Civil Disobedience,” The New Yorker

Sourcing, notes: wist.info/arendt-hannah/10654/

A quotation from Emerson

People seem not to see that their opinion of the world is also a confession of character. We can only see what we are, and if we misbehave we suspect others.

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) American essayist, lecturer, poet
Essay (1860), “Worship,” The Conduct of Life, ch. 6

Sourcing, notes: wist.info/emerson-ralph-waldo/…

A quotation from Bill Watterson

CALVIN: Tigers don’t worry about much, do they?
HOBBES: Nope. That’s one of the perks of being feral.

Bill Watterson (b. 1958) American cartoonist
Calvin and Hobbes (1989-03-12)

Sourcing, notes: wist.info/watterson-bill/4106/

A quotation from Ambrose Bierce

PRECEDENT, n. In Law, a previous decision, rule or practice which, in the absence of a definite statute, has whatever force and authority a Judge may choose to give it, thereby greatly simplifying his task of doing as he pleases. As there are precedents for everything, he has only to ignore those that make against his interest and accentuate those in the line of his desire.

Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914?) American writer and journalist
“Precedent,” The Devil’s Dictionary (1911)

Sourcing, notes: wist.info/bierce-ambrose/76306…

Well, you see, Mr Scarman, I have the advantage of being slightly ahead of you. Sometimes behind you, but normally ahead of you.

— The Doctor, in “The Pyramids of Mars”

“He says he doesn't know who he is or why he has come.”

“Well, I admire a man with an open mind.”

— Ruther and Shardovan, in “Castrovalva”

“I feel disoriented.”

“This is the Disorientation Centre.”

“That makes sense.”

— The Doctor and Sarah, in “The Android Invasion”

We're all basically primeval slime with ideas above its station.

— The Doctor, in “Full Circle”

“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”

A quotation from George Carlin

The wisest man I ever knew taught me something I never forgot. And although I never forgot it, I never quite memorized it either. So what I’m left with is the memory of having learned something very wise that I can’t quite remember.

George Carlin (1937-2008) American comedian
Book (1997), Brain Droppings, “Short Takes (Part 1)”

Sourcing, notes: wist.info/carlin-george/76227/

A quotation from Marcus Aurelius

Constantly observe everything coming into being through change, and accustom yourself to the thought that universal nature loves nothing so much as to change the things that are and to create new things in their likeness. For everything that exists is, in a sense, the seed of what will arise from it.
 
[Θεώρει διηνεκῶς πάντα κατὰ μεταβολὴν γινόμενα καὶ ἐθίζου ἐννοεῖν, ὅτι οὐδὲν οὕτως φιλεῖ ἡ τῶν ὅλων φύσις ὡς τὸ τὰ ὄντα μεταβάλλειν καὶ ποιεῖν νέα ὅμοια. σπέρμα γὰρ τρόπον τινὰ πᾶν τὸ ὃν τοῦ ἐξ αὐτοῦ ἐσομένου.]

Marcus Aurelius (AD 121-180) Roman emperor (161-180), Stoic philosopher
Meditations [To Himself; Τὰ εἰς ἑαυτόν], Book 4, ch. 36 (4.36) (AD 161-180) [tr. Hard (2011 ed.)]

Sourcing, notes, alternate translations: wist.info/marcus-aureleus/2668…