Ian Wilson > Quotes

“Quite possibly one of the most revealing passages about Shakespeare as a man comes from one of the roughest of the jottings made by gossip John Aubrey from his interview with William Beeston, son of the Christopher Beeston who had acted with Shakespeare's company. The partly cancelled note reads: 'the more to be admired, he was not a company keeper. [He] ... wouldn't be debauched, and if invited to, writ [i.e. wrote] he was in pain.' [Ch.24]”
― Ian Wilson, Shakespeare: The Evidence: Unlocking the Mysteries of the Man and His Work

“There would therefore have been all the more delight at the birth of the first son William within less than a year of Margaret's death, tinged with more than a little anxiety, in view of the fateful words hic incepit pestis, 'here began plague', in the burial part of the register three months later. Just how close this dread flea-borne disease was to the Shakespeares can be guaged from the fact that their Henley Street neighbour Roger Green lost four of his children and town clerk Richard Symons three. One estimate suggests that the town lost around two hundred, or about fifteen per cent, of its population during this single outbreak. It is a sobering thought how much the world could have lost at this time by one ill-chanced flea-bite.”
― Ian Wilson, Shakespeare: The Evidence: Unlocking the Mysteries of the Man and His Work

“No amount of sophistication is going to allay the fact that all of your knowledge is about the past and all of your decisions are about the future." -Ian Wilson quote, former GE executive.”
― Ian Wilson

“Many as we are we’re all as one
We will always be up front to face the gun
And we shall always hold the promise dear
And we will whisper not, the littlest tear.
Punished as we are we always fight
Even to the armoured eyes of spite.
Trusted as we are we’ll never bleed
The promise is so great within our creed.”
― Ian Wilson

“Many horses, alleged to be pack horses had ribs like the sides of a whiskey-cask and hips to hang hats on. Why, some look as if a good feed of oats would make them sag beyond remedy.”
― Ian Wilson, Gold Rush Reliving The Klondike Adventure In Canada's North

“Before you criticise someone, walk a mile in their shoes. If you still insist on criticising them, you’ll have mike head start and they’ll have no shoes.”
― Ian Wilson