Clever jabs
277 quotes from 161 people
H. L. Mencken1880–1956Baltimore Evening Sun (4 April 1927)
William F. Buckley Jr.1925–20081963 statement, as quoted in Ralph Keyes, The Quote Verifier (2006), p. 82
Camille Pagliaborn 1947Junk Bonds and Corporate Raiders: Academe in the Hour of the Wolf, p. 174Sir, you have but two topicks, yourself and me. I am sick of both.
Samuel Johnson1709–1784Life of Samuel Johnson (1791), Vol III (May 1776) p. 313He could shake your hand and stab you in the back at the same time.
Hunter S. Thompson1937–2005He Was A Crook (1994)Foucault, like David Letterman, made smirking glibness an art form.
Camille Pagliaborn 1947Junk Bonds and Corporate Raiders: Academe in the Hour of the Wolf, p. 187I think every good Christian ought to kick Falwell right in the ass.
Barry Goldwater1909–1998Said in July 1981, on Moral Majority founder Jerry Falwell’s opposition to Sandra Day O’Connor’s Supreme Court nominationI looked into his eyes and saw three letters: a ‘K’, a ‘G’, and a ‘B’.
John McCain1936–2018On Vladimir Putin; a line he used often, e.g. first presidential debate (26 September 2008)It would have been better if you had died and Gershwin had written the elegy.
Oscar Levant1906–1972On a friend’s elegy for Gershwin; recounted in The Memoirs of an Amnesiac (1965)I’d always thought her half-baked, but now I think they didn’t even put her in the oven.
P. G. Wodehouse1881–1975Jeeves in the Offing (1960)Tell me, George, if you had it to do all over, would you fall in love with yourself again?
Oscar Levant1906–1972To George Gershwin; recounted in A Smattering of Ignorance (1940)Joe Frazier is so ugly that when he cries, the tears turn around and go down the back of his head.
Muhammad Ali1942–2016On Joe Frazier
David Lloyd George1863–1945Remark to Arthur Salter and A. L. Rowse at dinner (29 August 1938), quoted in A. J. Sylvester, Life With Lloyd George (1975), p. 216
John Maynard Keynes1883–1946The Economic Consequences of the Peace (1919), Ch. III
Ambrose Bierce1842–1914The Devil’s Dictionary (1911)