Politician: a bad actor reading a bad line from a bad play. Again and again and again. And the line is a lie. And the actor likes all this.
W. Karl Bavinger, The Misanthrope’s Way With Words.
“I can tell you one thing, sir, and without hesitation: Lies don’t come any nicer.”
Allison Cowling, Night of the Detective.
“Is my writing just evasion? Just a substitute for real living?”
“No, Jeremy. Not at all. No, I don’t think so.”
Philip Cavendish, Tilly’s Treasury of Colloquial Bits.
“Moment of inertia, moment of inertia, moment of inertia, moment of inertia, moment of inertia,….” As was often the case in those days, Eric was lost in his study of the rotational behavior of metal rods.
Charles Jeffrey Yett, Writing in Miniature—Vol. 3.
Beware of compliments that come flying through the breeze.
Cooper W. Barthelme, A Systems Approach to Advice.
“It is expressionism, Gerald. The artist is expressing.”
Oh? Yes? Well, what in particular is he “expressing”?
“He is expressing expression.”
Philip Cavendish, Tilly’s Treasury of Colloquial Bits.
“Of course, I don’t really know. I mean, after all, I’m just an ordinary person.” Harold’s humility seemed to emanate from a different era. From a different place.
Anselm Bligh, A Collection of Miniatures.
Where there is a wool, there is a weigh.
Andrew Tertullian, Pandora’s Ponderous Puns.
57. If you must apologize, do it always in this fashion: “I apologize to anyone who could be offended in any conceivable way.”
Nicholas James Barnarby, ed., Dr. Sonderborg’s Book of DOs and DON’Ts.
All you need is love insipid pop songs.
Jackson Currothers III, The View From the Cauldron.
