Peter Ustinov? Frank A. Jones? Apocryphal?
Question for Quote Investigator: The British actor and raconteur Peter Ustinov once wrote about an inevitable balance between dreams and nightmares. Would you please help me to find a citation?
Reply from Quote Investigator: In February 1989 Peter Ustinov published an article about Orson Welles in “The Independent” newspaper of London. Ustinov wrote about the dichotomous nature of the United States. Boldface added to excerpts by QI:1
The States are richer than other countries in many things. Because of their huge expanses with unending horizons and the relative absence of disillusionment in their history, they are richer in dreams as well. Unfortunately, the balance of nature decrees that a superabundance of dreams is paid for by a growing potential for nightmares.
Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.
In March 1989 “The Sydney Morning Herald” of Australia reprinted Peter Ustinov’s article. Thus, the quotation achieved further distribution.2
In 1998 the Scripps Howard News Service published a column by Frank A. Jones which began with the quotation from Ustinov. The column appeared in newspapers such as “The Commercial Appeal” of Memphis, Tennessee3 and the “Birmingham Post-Herald” of Birmingham, Alabama:4
“Unfortunately the balance of nature decrees that a superabundance of dreams is paid for by a growing potential for nightmares.”
— Peter Ustinov
In 2011 Len Fisher authored “Crashes, Crises, and Calamities: How We Can Use Science To Read the Early-Warning Signs” which used the quotation as an epigraph for the sixth chapter.5
In 2017 “No Sacred Cows: Investigating Myths, Cults, and the Supernatural” by David G. McAfee contained the following passage with a condensed version of the quotation:6
So, when people get upset with my work, claiming that my writings take “eternal paradise” away from believers, I point out that—if that’s the case—then those same words would also be responsible for taking away the believers’ concept of “eternal suffering.” I would argue that this is a good thing. As English actor Sir Peter Ustinov once wrote, “Unfortunately, a superabundance of dreams is paid for by a growing potential for nightmares.”
In conclusion, Peter Ustinov deserves credit for this quotation. He crafted it for an article he published in 1989. A shortened version appeared in 2017.
Image Notes: Painting titled “The Nightmare” by Henry Fuseli circa 1781. The image has been cropped and resized.
Acknowledgement: Great thanks to Nicolas Cuconati whose inquiry led QI to formulate this question and perform this exploration. Cuconati stated that the quotation was used in the television show Criminal Minds during an episode of the first season.
- 1989 February 25, The Independent, Section: Weekend, In Praise of Orson by Peter Ustinov, Quote Page 27, Column 1, London, England. (Newspapers_com) ↩︎
- 1989 March 11, The Sydney Morning Herald, Section: Spectrum, In Praise of Orson by Peter Ustinov, Quote Page 85, Column 1, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. (Newspapers_com) ↩︎
- 1998 April 19, The Commercial Appeal, The higher Dow goes the farther it can fall by Frank A. Jones, Quote Page C1, Column 1, Memphis, Tennessee. (Newspapers_com) ↩︎
- 1998 May 14, Birmingham Post-Herald, Dream seems over; hope for no nightmares by Frank A. Jones (Scripps Howard News Service), Quote Page E3, Column 5, Birmingham, Alabama. (Newspapers_com) ↩︎
- 2011, Crashes, Crises, and Calamities: How We Can Use Science To Read the Early-Warning Signs by Len Fisher, Chapter 6: The Balance of Nature and the Nature of Balance, (Chapter epigraph), Quote Page 71, Basic Books: Member of the Perseus Books Group, New York. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
- 2017, No Sacred Cows: Investigating Myths, Cults, and the Supernatural by David G. McAfee, Chapter 8: The Importance of Reality, Quote Page 162, Pitchstone Publishing, Durham, North Carolina. (Verified with scans) ↩︎