Famous Quotes & Sayings

Harry S Truman

I remember when I first came to Washington. For the first six months you wonder how the hell you ever got here. For the next six months you wonder how the hell the rest of them ever got here.

J. K. Rowling

Krystal’s slow passage up the school had resembled the passage of a goat through the body of a boa constrictor, being highly visible and uncomfortable for both parties concerned.

Grant Morrison

Talking to oneself, I have often thought, is the best way to be sure of intelligent and witty conversation.

Georg C. Lichtenberg

The great trick of regarding small departures from the truth as the truth itself - on which is founded the entire integral calculus - is also the basis of our witty speculations, where the whole thing would often collapse if we considered the departures with philosophical rigour.

Georg C. Lichtenberg

Nowadays three witty turns of phrase and a lie make a writer.

Friedrich Nietzsche

Nobody thanks a witty man for politeness when he puts himself on a par with a society in which it would not be polite to show one's wit.

Giacomo Casanova

In fact, to gull a fool seems to me an exploit worthy of a witty man.

Giacomo Casanova

Beauty without wit offers nothing but the enjoyment of its material charms, whilst witty ugliness captivates by the charms of the mind, and at last fulfils all the desires of the man it has captivated.

Francois de La Rochefoucauld

What is perfectly true is perfectly witty.

Francois de La Rochefoucauld

If it were not for the company of fools, a witty man would often be greatly at a loss.

Ian Fleming

Once is happenstance. Twice is coincidence. Three times is enemy action.

Ian Fleming

I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them.

Horace Greeley

You may be witty, but not satirical.

Gerhard Richter

It's that same quality I've been talking about. It's neither contrived, nor surprising and smart, not baffling, not witty, not interesting, not cynical, it can't be planned and it probably can't even be described. It's just good.

James Freeman Clarke

A politician thinks of the next election. A statesman, of the next generation.

Irving Kristol

Democracy does not guarantee equality of conditions - it only guarantees equality of opportunity.

Marcel Proust

Life is extraordinarily suave and sweet with certain natural, witty, affectionate people who have unusual distinction and are capable of every vice, but who make a display of none in public and about whom no one can affirm they have a single one. There is something supple and secret about them. Besides, their perversity gives spice to their most innocent occupations, such as taking a walk in the garden at night.

Joseph Addison

The discreet man finds out the talents of those he converses with, and knows how to apply them to proper uses. Accordingly, if we look into particular communities and divisions of men, we may observe that it is the discreet man, not the witty, nor the learned, nor the brave, who guides the conversation, and gives measures to the society.

Joseph Addison

It is a melancholy consideration that there should be several among us so hardened and deluded as to think an oath a proper subject for a jest; and to make this, which is one of the most solemn acts of religion, an occasion of mirth. Yet such is the depravation of our manners at present, that nothing is more frequent than to hear profligate men ridiculing, to the best of their abilities, these sacred pledges of their duty and allegiance; and endeavouring to be witty upon themselves, for daring to prevaricate with God and man.

Kenneth Grahame

There is nothing - absolutely nothing - half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats.

Kenneth Grahame

Well, well, perhaps I am a bit of a talker. A popular fellow such as I am -- my friends get round me -- we chaff, we sparkle, we tell witty stories -- and somehow my tongue gets wagging. I have the gift of conversation. I've been told I ought to have a salon, whatever that may be.

Kathy Reichs

Gritty and witty, The Chicago Way is done the classic Raymond Chandler Way. Harvey's taut plot, snappy prose, and memorable characters make this debut novel a real winner.

James Thurber

Comedy has to be done en clair. You can't blunt the edge of wit or the point of satire with obscurity. Try to imagine a famous witty saying that is not immediately clear.

Ellen Page

It's really crucial to achieve that balance with a film like this, cause it is unique and witty and then there's the tendency to force that. It becomes contrived and I know the feeling like, give me a fork that I can stab in my eye in those kinds of movies.

Ellen Page

It's much simpler to be tortured on camera or to be filmed losing your mind. Whereas a script that has characters who are honest, witty and genuine is often much harder to act.

Hermann Hesse

Most men will not swim before they are able to.” Is that not witty? Naturally, they won't swim! They are born for the solid earth, not for the water. And naturally they wont think. They are made for life, not for thought. Yes, and he who thinks, what’s more, he who makes thought his business, he may go far in it, but he has bartered the solid earth for the water all the same, and one day he will drown.

Henri Poincare

A cat is witty, he has nerve, he knows how to do precisely the right thing at the right moment.

Helen Prejean

Remorse presupposes enough self-forgetfulness to feel the pain ofothers.

Henry Fielding

Sir, money, money, the most charming of all things; money, which will say more in one moment than the most elegant lover can in years. Perhaps you will say a man is not young; I answer he is rich. He is not genteel, handsome, witty, brave, good-humored, but he is rich, rich, rich, rich, rich -that one word contradicts everything you can say against him.

Henry Fielding

He in a few minutes ravished this fair creature, or at least would have ravished her, if she had not, by a timely compliance, prevented him.

Henry Fielding

When children are doing nothing, they are doing mischief.

Napoleon Bonaparte

Glory is fleeting, but obscurity is forever.

Napoleon Bonaparte

Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.