Share
 

Fun Quotations

ability             Journalism is the ability to meet the challenge of filling space.  — Rebecca West

abstract         Abstract art:  a product of the untalented sold by the unprincipled to the utterly bewildered.  — Al Capp

advertising   Advertising is legalized lying.  — H. G. Wells

advertising   Advertising is the rattling of stick inside a swill bucket.  — George Orwell

advice            Advice to persons about to marry.  Don't.  — Punch

advice            I give advice.  All you do is criticize.  R.J.

afraid             It's not that I'm afraid to die.  I just don't want to be there when it happens.  — Woody Allen

animal            Man is a clever animal who behaves like an imbecile.  — Albert Schweitzer

aversion        My only aversion to vice is the price.  —Victor Buono

badly              If a thing is worth doing, it is worth doing badly. — G. K. Chesterton

bank               A bank is a place where they lend you an umbrella in fair weather and ask for it back when it begins to rain.  — Robert Frost

Bible              It ain't those parts of the Bible that I can't understand that bother me; it's the parts that I do understand.  — Mark Twain

bore               Bore, n.  A person who talks when you wish him to listen.  — Ambrose Bierce

brothers        That all men should be brothers is the dream of people who have no brothers.  — Charles Chincholles

children         I love children especially when they cry, for then someone takes them away.  — Nancy Mitford

Christian       Going to church doesn't make you a Christian anymore than going to the garage makes you a car.  — Laurence J. Peter

conclusion   If all economists were laid end to end, they would not reach a conclusion.  — George Bernard Shaw

conscience  Conscience is a mother-in-law whose visit never ends.  — H. L. Mencken

country         The country has charms only for those not obliged to stay there.  — Edouard Manet

country         Diplomacy is the patriotic art of lying for one's country.  — Ambrose Bierce

courage        Courage is the fear of being though a coward.  — Horace Smith

criminal         It could probably by shown by facts and figures that there is no distinctly native American criminal class except Congress.  — Mark Twain

cynic              A cynic is a man who, when he smells flowers, looks around for a coffin.  — H. L. Mencken

cynic              A man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.  — Oscar Wilde

decide           A jury is a set of twelve people chosen to decide who has the better lawyer.  — Robert Frost.

democracy   Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.  — H. L. Mencken

difference     There is one difference between a tax collector and a taxidermist—the taxidermist leaves the hide.  — Mortimer Caplin

doctor            God heals, and the doctor takes the fee.  — Benjamin Franklin

enemies        Even paranoids have real enemies.  — Delmore Schwartz

enemies        One should forgive one's enemies, but not before they are hanged.  — Heinrich Heine

enemies        Always forgive enemies—nothing annoys them so much.  — Oscar Wilde

Equality         Equality may perhaps be a right, but no power on earth can ever turn it into a fact.  — HonorĀ de Balzac

equality         The equality in law forbids the rich as well as the poor to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal bread.  — Anatole France

Exercise        Exercise is bunk.  If you are healthy, you don't need it; if you are sick, you shouldn't take it.  — Henry Ford

experience   We learn from experience that men never learn from experience.  — George Bernard Shaw

experience   We all learn from experience but some of us have to go to summer school.  — Peter De Vries

fight                The way to fight a woman is with your hat.  Grab it and run.  — John Barrymore

freedom        Freedom of the press is limited to those who own one.  — A. J. Liebling

government A government is the only known vessel that leaks from the top.  — James Reston

government Every government is run by liars and nothing they say should be believed.  — I. F. Stone

habit               Laziness is nothing more than the habit of resting before you get tired.  — Jules Renard.

hanging        Hanging is too good for a man who makes puns.  He should be drawn and quoted.  — Fred Allen

happiness    Happiness is not something you experience; it's something you remember. µ Oscar Levant

headache     If the headache would only come before the drinking, drinking would be a virtue.  Samuel Butler

health            Health food makes me sick.  — Calvin Trillin

history           History is a set of lies agreed upon.  — Napoleon Bonaparte

history           History repeats itself; that' one of the things wrong with history.  — Clarence Darrow

husband       A husband is what's lef of the lover once the nerve has been extracted.  — Helen Rowland

idealist           I'm an idealist.  I don't know where I'm going, but I'm on my way.  — Carl Sandberg

Impiety          Impiety, n.  Your irreverence toward my deity.  µ Ambrose Bierce.

insanity         Insanity is hereditary.  You get it from your children.  — Same Levinson

intelligence  Military intelligence is a contradiction in terms.  — Groucho Marx

justice         In the halls of justice, the only justice is in the halls.  µ Lenny Bruce.

lawyers         Lawyers are the only persons in whom ignorance of the law is not punished.  — Jeremy Bentham

marriage       The husband who wants a happy marriage should learn to keep his mouth shut and his checkbook open.  — Groucho Marx

married          The only really happy folk are married women and single men.  — H. L. Mencken

matter            It does not matter much what a man hates provided he hates something.  — Samuel Butler

mischievous       God is Love, I dare say.  But what a mischievous devil Love is.  — Samuel Butler

nature            It is human nature to think wisely and act foolishly.  — Anatole France

necessary    It isn't necessary to be rich and famous to be happy.  It's only necessary to be rich.  — Alan Alda

noise              I'd take a Bromo, but I can't stand the noise.  µW.C. Fields.

obstacle        The chief obstacle to the progress of the human race is the human race.  — Don Marquis

OK                  I'm not OK, you're not OK, and that's OK.  — William Sloane Coffin

optimist         An optimist is a man who has never had much experience.  — Don Marquis

ounce            An ounce of hypocrisy is worth a pound of ambition.  — Michael Korda

peace             I took a speed-reading course and read War and Peace in twenty minutes.  It involves Russia.  — Woody Allen

people           You can fool too many of the people too much of the time.  — James Thurber

people           I envy people who drink—at least they know what to blame everything on.  — Oscare Levant

people           I don't care to belong to a club that accepts people like me as members.  — Groucho Marx

people           I loath people who keep dogs.  They are cowards who haven't the guts to bite people themselves.  — August Strindberg

plastic            She got her good looks from her father.  He's a plastic surgeon.  — Groucho Marx

policy             It is always the best policy to tell the truth, unless, of course, you are an exceptionally good liar.  — Jerome K. Jerome

politician       A politician is a man who'll doublecross a bridge when he comes to it.  — Oscar Levant

politician       You'll find an honest politician at about the same time that you will find an honest thief.  — P. L. Dezirgia

politician       In order to become the master, the politician poses as the servant.  — Charles DeGaulle

prejudice      I am free of all prejudice.  I hate everybody equally.  — W. C. Fields

sauce             The best sauce in the world is being hungry.  — Miguel de Cervantes

secret            Three may keep a secret, if two of them are dead.  — Benjamin Franklin

seriously       Life to far too important a thing ever to talk seriously about.  — Oscar Wilde

someone      If you can't say anything good about someone, sit right here by me.  — Alice Longworth Roosevelt

soul                Brevity is the soul of lingerie.  — Dorothy Parker

spoiled          Golf is a good walk spoiled.  — Mark Twain

stupid            Men are born ignorant, not stupid; they are made stupid by education.  — Bertrand Russell

Suburbia       Suburbia is the place where the developer bulldoze out the trees and then names the streets after them.  — Bill Vaughan

teaching        Everybody who is incapable of learning has taken to teaching.  — Oscar Wilde

television      My father hated radioi and could not wait for television to be invented so he could hate that too.  — Peter De Vries

television      Television is for appearing on—not for looking at.  — Noel Coward

temptation    Lead me not into temptation.  I can find the way myself.  — Rita Mae Brown

there              There is nothing wrong with sobriety in moderation.  — John Ciardi

triumph         Love is the triumph of imagination over intelligence.  — H. L. Mencken

trouble           Sex:  the thing that takes up the least amount of time and causes the most amount of trouble.  — John Barrymore

trouble           The trouble with the rat race is that even if you win you're still a rat.  — Lily Tomlin

truth               The pure and simple truth is rarely pure and never simple.  — Oscar Wilde

usually          When an opera star sings her head off, she usually improves her appearance.  — Victor Borge

virtue             Virtue is insufficient temptation.  — George Bernard Shaw

virtue             Virtue has never been as respectable as money.  — Mark Twain

wife                Bigamy is having one wife too many.  Monogamy is the same.  — Oscar Wilde

wife                Wife:  a former sweetheart.  — H. L. Mencken

wife                Husband:  The man whose intelligence a wife once respected.  — Mrs. H. L. Mencken.

world             It's a man's world, and you men can take it.  — Katherine Porter

worse           The only thing worse than being talked about is not being talked about.  — Oscar Wilde

youth            Youth is a wonderful thing.  What a crime to waste it on children.  — George Bernard Shaw

Back to Readings for Comprehension

Contact Us | Donate