When insults had class


“He has all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire.”
— Winston Churchill


“I have never killed a man, but I have read many obituaries with  great pleasure.”
— Clarence Darrow

“He has never been known to use a word that might send a reader to the dictionary.”
— William Faulkner (about Ernest Hemingway)


 “I’ve had a perfectly wonderful evening. But this wasn’t it.”
— Groucho Marx


“I didn’t attend the funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying I approved of it.”
— Mark Twain

“He has no enemies, but is intensely disliked by his friends.”
— Oscar Wilde


 “I am enclosing two tickets to the first night of my new play, bring a friend if you have one.”
— George Bernard Shaw to Winston Churchill
 

“Cannot possibly attend first night, will attend second….. if there is one.”
 — Winston Churchill to Shaw, in response


 “I feel so miserable without you, it’s almost like having you here.”
— Stephen Bishop


“He is a self-made man and worships his creator.”
— John Bright


“I’ve just learned about his illness. Let’s hope it’s nothing trivial”
— Irvin S. Cobb


 “He is not only dull himself, he is the cause of dullness in others.
 — Samuel Johnson

 “He is simply a shiver looking for a spine to run up.”
— Paul Keating

“He had delusions of adequacy.”
— Walter Kerr


“Why do you sit there looking like an envelope without any address on it?”
— Mark Twain


“His mother should have thrown him away and kept the stork.”
— Mae West


“Some cause happiness wherever they go; others, whenever they go.”
— Oscar Wilde

 Woman to Churchill. “If you were my husband, I’d give you poison.”

Churchill replied “If you were my wife, madam, I’d take it.”

Thanks Gene

6 thoughts on “When insults had class”

  1. At dinner Winston Churchill asked a woman if he would sleep with him for £1,000,000.
    She replied she would and he asked if she would sleep with him for £50.
    Shocked, the woman said that she was not a cheap trollop.
    Churchill said, “We’ve determined what you are. We are simply negotiating a price.”

  2. Young man (after seeing Churchill leave the bathroom without washing his hands): At Eton they taught us to wash our hands after using the toilet.
    Churchill: At Harrow they taught us not to piss on our hands.

  3. Of a much praised book by Henry James–once you put it down, you simply can’t pick it up.
    – quoted without source in “Wit and Wisdom of Mark Twain”

  4. A photographer attended a dinner party given by a patron of the arts.
    Patron: I just love your pictures; you must have an excellent camera.
    Photographer: Thank you. Your dinner was delicious; you must have excellent pots & pans.

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