“I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day.”
E.B. White, emailed by a friend and confirmed online by e.g. https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/e_b_white_106410
“Scandalous rumors concerning the state of the times had reached my ears.”
Jupiter in Ovid’s Metamorphoses, in Charlotte F. Otten, ed. A Lycanthropy Reader: Werewolves In Western Culture.
In my latest Epoch Times column I explain why we talk a lot less about free speech than we used to, and a lot less convincingly.
“The best way out is always through.”
Robert Frost, widely cited online (and in fact it turns out to be from the rather bleak poem "A Servant to Servants" https://www.poetryverse.com/robert-frost-poems/a-servant-to-servants)
“Man is born ridiculous, as can easily be seen if you look at him soon after he is born.”
G.K. Chesterton, “Shaw, The Philosopher,” in Alberto Manguel, ed., On Lying in Bed and Other Essays by G.K. Chesterton
“The [tsetse] fly’s devastating effects are similar to those of other known sleeping-sickness carriers, such as the tsetse professor, tsetse boss, and tsetse New York Times op-ed page writer.”
P.J. O’Rourke Eat the Rich
“Penny candy rotted your teeth just as fast when it didn’t cost a quarter.”
Bob Uecker and Mickey Herskowitz. Catcher in the Wry.
“I have no Will at all – and no Won’t – simply Can’t.”
Harold Skimpole in Charles Dickens Bleak House