“If at first you don’t succeed, try again. Then quit. There’s no use being a d*** fool about it.”
W.C. Fields, quoted in the features on a DVD of six classic W.C. Fields shorts [I cast my net widely].
After describing the origins, wars, foreign intrigues etc. surrounding the big-endian/little-endian schism he claims the holy book says “‘that all true believers break their eggs at the convenient end.’ And which is the convenient end, seems, in my humble opinion to be left to every man’s conscience, or at least in the power of the chief magistrate to determine.”
Jonathan Swift Gulliver’s Travels
“A recent article on the left-wing website Rabble.ca, of all places, accused him [Jack Layton] of being ‘a political doughnut ... All sugar icing on the outside ... and a big hole right in the middle.’”
Adam Radwanski in Ottawa Citizen April 1, 2004
“WHEN WE START DOWN the path of reading books that are true, we run the risk of no longer being able to understand an illiterate culture. Here are three examples and a farce. Nancy Pelosi, speaking to the press about Barack Obama after his election victory said, ‘Obama has the Midas touch!’ The crowd cheered and applauded. In Canada – that patch of snowbound woods directly north of New England – Peter MacKay, a Conservative, explained why they had just lost the election to Justin Trudeau and the Liberals. He blamed social conservatives and pro-lifers who were ‘a stinking albatross’ around the neck of the Conservative Party. The press praised his acumen. A third example: I heard a radio advertisement about a head-hunting business that specializes in finding the right employees for other businesses. They claim that they are able to find the right person just like ‘Finding the needle in the hay stack!’”
David Beresford in Gilbert The Magazine of the Society of G.K. Chesterton Vol. 26 # 4 (March-April 2023)
“Most fundamental falsehoods are errors in language as well as in philosophy. Most statements that are unreasonable are really ungrammatical.”
G.K. Chesterton in Illustrated London News October 16, 1909 quoted in “More About Language” in Gilbert: The Magazine of the Society of G.K. Chesterton Vol. 27 #2 (November/December 2023)
“The worst of using strong language is that it produces weak language.”
G.K. Chesterton in Illustrated London News June 28, 1926 quoted in “More About Language” in Gilbert: The Magazine of the Society of G.K. Chesterton Vol. 27 #2 (November/December 2023)
“Ladborough discovered that Lewis got on well with the college servants, who respected and admired him as a person without realizing that he was, in Ladborough’s words, ‘a great man.’ They called him a real gentleman, for he seemed to care about them. This manner of his reflects his greatness. He was not great because of the books he wrote; he wrote the kind of books he wrote because he was great.”
Harry Lee Poe The Completion of C.S. Lewis
“It would be impolitic to suggest [Chrystia] Freeland has gone bananas, but she has definitely been at the fruit bowl.”
Michael Higgins in National Post June 11, 2024 [re the Canadian Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister suddenly claiming that without their capital gains tax increase the rich will live in fortified enclaves while the poor burn everything else down].