Lady Astor: "If you were my husband I'd give you poison," Churchill: "If you were my wife, I'd drink it." A member of Parliament: "Sir, you will either die on the gallows or of some unspeakable disease." Disraeli: "That depends, Sir, on whether I embrace your policies or your mistress." Walter Kerr: "He had delusions of adequacy." Winston Churchill: "He has all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire." Winston Churchill: "A modest little person, with much to be modest about." Clarence Darrow: "I have never killed a man, but I have read many obituaries with great pleasure." William Faulkner: "He has never been known to use a word that might send a reader to the dictionary." (about Ernest Hemingway) Ernest Hemingway: "Poor Faulkner. Does he really think big emotions come from big words?" (about William Faulkner) Moses Hadas: "Thank you for sending me a copy of your book; I'll waste no time reading it." Abraham Lincoln: "He can compress the most words into the smallest idea of any man I know." Mark Twain: "I didn't attend the funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying I approved of it." Oscar Wilde: "He has no enemies, but is intensely disliked by his friends." George Bernard Shaw: "I am enclosing two tickets to the first night of my new play; bring a friend... if you have one." (to Winston Churchill) Winston Churchill: "Cannot possibly attend first night, will attend second... if there is one." (in response) Stephen Bishop "I feel so miserable without you; it's almost like having you here." John Bright: "He is a self-made man and worships his creator." Irvin S. Cobb: "I've just learned about his illness. Let's hope it's nothing trivial." Samuel Johnson: "He is not only dull himself, he is the cause of dullness in others." Paul Keating: "He is simply a shiver looking for a spine to run up." Jack E. Leonard: "There's nothing wrong with you that reincarnation won't cure." Robert Redford: "He has the attention span of a lightning bolt." Thomas Brackett Reed: "They never open their mouths without subtracting from the sum of human knowledge." Charles, Count Talleyrand: "In order to avoid being called a flirt, she always yielded easily." Forrest Tucker: "He loves nature in spite of what it did to him." Mark Twain "Why do you sit there looking like an envelope without any address on it?" Mae West: "His mother should have thrown him away and kept the stork." Oscar Wilde: "Some cause happiness wherever they go; others, whenever they go." Andrew Lang (1844-1912): "He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lamp posts... for support rather than illumination." Billy Wilder: "He has Van Gogh's ear for music." Groucho Marx: "I've had a perfectly wonderful evening ... but this wasn't it." |