Clever jabs
277 quotes from 161 people
Robert A. Heinlein1907–1988Friday (1982), Chapter 25 (p. 260)
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
George Bernard Shaw1856–1950The Doctor’s Dilemma (1911), Act I
G. K. Chesterton1874–1936The Flying Inn (1914), Ch. XV: “The Songs of the Car Club”
Germaine Greerborn 1939The Female Eunuch (1970), “The Psychological Sell”
Sydney Smith1771–1845Lady Holland’s Memoir (1855), Vol. I, ch. 7, p. 205.Daniel Webster struck me much like a steam-engine in trousers.
Sydney Smith1771–1845Lady Holland’s Memoir (1855), Vol. I, ch. 9, p. 317I regard you with an indifference closely bordering on aversion.
Robert Louis Stevenson1850–1894The New Arabian Nights (1882)It is Ill-manners to silence a Fool, and Cruelty to let him go on.
George Savile, 1st Marquess of Halifax1633–1695Moral Thoughts and ReflectionsI am his Highness’ Dog at Kew;
Pray tell me Sir, whose Dog are you?
Alexander Pope1688–1744“Epigram. Engraved on the Collar of a Dog, which I gave to His Royal Highness” (1738)“Socialism with a human face”? … Frankenstein also had a human face.
Garry Kasparovborn 1963Interview with Bill Kristol (2016)There is nothing so absurd that it has not been said by some philosopher.
Cicero107–43 BCDe Divinatione – On Divination (44 BC), Book II, chapter LVIII, section 119You know who critics are?— the men who have failed in literature and art.
Benjamin Disraeli1804–1881Lothair (1870), Ch. 35Sociology is the science which has the most methods and the least results.
Henri Poincaré1854–1912Science and Method (1908), Part I. Ch. 1: The Selection of Facts, p. 19
