Reading the Dunera News (of all things) – the Dunera is the prison ship on which my father came to Australia during World War II – I came across some fun quotes. Some I’d heard before but not recently and some I’d never heard – including one from one of my faves – Oscar Wilde.
So here they are. Feel free to share a few with us – and perhaps we can put them up on the quotes section above.
He has all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire – Winston Churchill
Thank you for sending me a copy of your book. I’ll waste no time reading it – Moses Hadas
I’ve had a perfectly wonderful evening. But this wasn’t it – Groucho
He has no enemies, but is intensely disliked by his friends – Oscar Wilde
Don’t worry about avoiding temptation – as you grow older, it will avoid you – Winston Churchill
I think I prefer the other Wilde version: “An excellent man, he has no enemies; and none of his friends like him.” Somehow more vicious for the surprise of the subtler understatement.
And another Groucho Marx: “From the moment I picked your book up until I laid it down I convulsed with laughter. Some day I intend on reading it.”
Nicholas Gruen:
Wonder who first said of planning and execution “Measure with micrometre. Mark with chalk. Cut with axe”.
That’s Groucho on S J Perelman. He also said, or is alleged to have said,
“Outside, a dog is a man’s best friend. Inside a dog, it’s too dark to read.”
“I shot an elephant in my pyjamas yesterday. How it got in there, I’ll never know.”
One of the reasons Groucho said so many memorable quotes, I suspect, is because he didn’t – he appropriated them from elsewhere. (Easy thing to do when you’re the comedy screen star, and the other writers, like Perelman, got their name in the credits, if they were lucky.) The other reason, obviously, is that it’s easier to just remember Groucho’s name than the name of all those other writers.
That last para from Tim T puts me in mind of the exchange between James Whistler (the painter) and Wilde:
Wilde (after Whistler had ventured a witticism): “I wish I’d said that”
Whistler: “You will, Oscar, you will.”
It’s hard to choose from Austen, but here’s one out of Northanger Abbey that some might say has application to the wide world of blog:
“To come with a well-informed mind, is to come with an inability of administering to the vanity of others, which a sensible person would always wish to avoid.”
Lovely Laura, Thx.