Clever jabs
277 quotes from 161 people
Harry S. Truman1884–1972Address at the National Convention Banquet of the Americans for Democratic Action (May 17, 1952)I didn’t attend the funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying I approved of it.
Suppose you were an idiot…and suppose you were a member of Congress…but I repeat myself.
Mark Twain1835–1910Draft manuscript (c.1881), quoted by Albert Bigelow Paine in Mark Twain: A Biography (1912), p. 724- Mark Twain1835–1910Following the Equator (1897), Ch. 59.
Kurt Vonnegut1922–2007“Science Fiction”; originally published in The New York Times Book Review, 5 September 1965
Horace Walpole1717–1797Letter to Sir Horace Mann (7 September 1743)
Alan Watts1915–1973Audio lecture “Individual and Society”
Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington1769–1852When asked what he thought of the first Reformed Parliament (1832), as quoted in Words on Wellington (1889) by Sir William Fraser, p. 12
Edith Wharton1862–1937“Xingu” (1911), from Xingu and Other Stories (1916)Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months.
Oscar Wilde1854–1900“The Philosophy of Dress”, The New-York Tribune, 1885. For an analysis see Fashion a Form of Ugliness, oscarwildeinamerica.org (retrieved 9 May 2026)Some cause happiness wherever they go; others, whenever they go.
- Oscar Wilde1854–1900A Woman of No Importance (1893)
The man who could call a spade a spade should be compelled to use one.