Charlie Sykes rightly bemoans the paucity of our current political insults, pointing out “Our expletives have grown tired, our language of abuse dumbed down and reduced to twitter slaps. Among his more deplorable legacies, Trump has shrunken the vocabulary of our democracy to the level of a badly-educated sixth grade mouth-breather.”
Winston Churchill: An assistant knocked on his toilet door to say the Lord Privy Seal wanted to see him. Churchill replied, "Tell the Lord Privy Seal I am sealed in my privy and can only deal with one shit at a time."
When Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau learned that Richard Nixon had called him an asshole, he responded, "I have been called worse things by better people."
Copied from a website (OK, I cheated...but it's a good one!): "John Montagu (after a heated exchange with John Wilkes): "Sir, I do not know whether you will die on the gallows or of the pox!" John Wilkes: "That, sir, depends on whether I first embrace your Lordship's principles or your Lordship's mistresses."
Mencken was prescient: ‘'As democracy is perfected, the office of the President represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day, the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the White House will be occupied by a downright fool and complete narcissistic moron.'’
“He occasionally stumbled over the truth, but hastily picked himself up and hurried on as if nothing had happened.” — Winston Churchill.
Winston Churchill: An assistant knocked on his toilet door to say the Lord Privy Seal wanted to see him. Churchill replied, "Tell the Lord Privy Seal I am sealed in my privy and can only deal with one shit at a time."
Ha! 😂😂
When Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau learned that Richard Nixon had called him an asshole, he responded, "I have been called worse things by better people."
Copied from a website (OK, I cheated...but it's a good one!): "John Montagu (after a heated exchange with John Wilkes): "Sir, I do not know whether you will die on the gallows or of the pox!" John Wilkes: "That, sir, depends on whether I first embrace your Lordship's principles or your Lordship's mistresses."
The Wilkes riposte is also credited by other sources to Benjamin Disraeli. Proof that everybody wants to be the author of a good one.
Oscar Wilde: I wish I had said that.
James McNeill Whistler: You will, Oscar, you will.
Mencken was prescient: ‘'As democracy is perfected, the office of the President represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and glorious day, the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's desire at last and the White House will be occupied by a downright fool and complete narcissistic moron.'’
--H.L. Mencken, 1925
I'll add more later. Maybe.
Why oh why do so many get ensnared in the web of lies and mis&dis-information? Look to….
Ogden Nash, American poet (1902-1971)
From “Good Intentions” 1942
“The door of a bigoted mind opens outward so that the only result of the pressure of facts upon it is to close it more snugly.”
And…and a short power about progress…
“Consider the auk
Becoming extinct because he forgot how to fly and could only walk.
Consider man, who may well become extinct,
Because he forgot to walk and learned how to fly before he thinked.”
I like this game.
Just got your book. Can’t wait to curl up with it. Thank you 🙏🏼
Be sure to review it at Amazon - those reader reviews matter.
H L Mencken in 1925? Eerily prophetic.
That one's gotten a lot of play the past six years.
Well, I was obviously paying attention in all the wrong places for that one.
H. L. Mencken nailed TRUMP in 1925! Thank you for the laughs.