Ernest Bramah
Ernest Bramah
Ernest Bramah, born Ernest Brammah Smith, was an English author. He published 21 books and numerous short stories and features. His humorous works were ranked with Jerome K Jerome and W.W. Jacobs, his detective stories with Conan Doyle, his politico-science fiction with H.G. Wells and his supernatural stories with Algernon Blackwood. George Orwell acknowledged that Bramah's book, What Might Have Been, influenced his Nineteen Eighty-Four. Bramah created the characters Kai Lung and Max Carrados...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionWriter
Date of Birth20 March 1868
When Ling was communicating to any person the signs by which messengers might find him, he was compelled to add, "the neighbourhood in which this contemptible person resides is that officially known as 'the mean quarter favoured by the lower class of those who murder by treachery'," and for this reason he was not always treated with the regard to which his attainments entitled him, or which he would have unquestionably received had he been able to describe himself as of "the partly-drained and uninfected area reserved to Mandarins and their friends.
There are those who collect the refuse of the public streets, but in order to be received into the band it is necessary to have been born one of the Hereditary Confederacy of Superfluity Removers and Abandoned Oddment Gatherers.
One cannot live for ever by ignoring the price of coffins.
The wise duck keeps his mouth shut when he smells frogs.
He who has failed three times sets up as an instructor.
One may ride upon a tiger's back but it is fatal to dismount.
When struck by a thunderbolt it is unnecessary to consult the Book of Dates as to the precise meaning of the omen.
The province of philosophy is not so much to prevent calamities befalling as to demonstrate that they are blessings when they have taken place.
One learns to itch where one can scratch.
How is it possible to suspend topaz in one cup of the balance and weigh it against amethyst in the other; or who in a single language can compare the tranquillizing grace of a maiden with the invigorating pleasure of witnessing a well-contested rat-fight?
There are few situations in life that cannot be resolved promptly, and to the satisfaction of all concerned, by either suicide, a bag of gold, or thrusting a despised antagonist over a precipice on a dark night
A reputation for a thousand years may depend upon the conduct of a single moment.