“It’s not whether you win or lose; it’s how you place the blame.”
Oscar Wilde [widely quoted online but I do not have a more precise attribution].
“Outspirational.”
Me on something that absolutely failed to engage my enthusiasm February 2000.
“Sir, it seems that you are no better a judge of human beings than you are a specimen of one.”
Buster Scruggs responding to an insult from a low-life bandit in the film The Ballad of Buster Scruggs [https://youtu.be/g_XLQDeYqpE?t=49]
“Some current teenage slang from Singapore: Eye power: Just standing by. ‘Help me move this bed. You stand there using eye power, ah?’”
“Social Studies” in Globe & Mail March 21, 2005
“‘Lieutenant, how would you handle this?’ ‘We could try ignoring it, sir.’ ‘I see. Pretend nothing has happened and hope everything turns out all right in the morning?’ ‘Just a thought, sir.’ ‘I’ve considered that. There’s got to be a better angle.’”
Cdr. Buck Murdock (William Shatner) and Lt. Pervis in Airplane 2
“A hive of passivity.”
Me again, on laziness, from September 17, 2004
“They peddled on, staring back as if I had gone temporarily insane. It is not temporary.”
Roy MacGregor in National Post September 3, 2001
“If dirt was trumps, what hands you would hold!”
Charles Lamb, quoted by P.J. O’Rourke The Bachelor Home Companion