When insults had class

  • He has all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire.Winston Churchill
  • A modest little person, with much to be modest about.Winston Churchill
  • I have never killed a man, but I have read many obituaries with great pleasure.Clarence Darrow
  • He has never been known to use a word that might send a reader to the dictionary.William Faulkner (about Ernest Hemingway)
  • Poor Faulkner.  Does he really think big emotions come from big words?Ernest Hemingway (about William Faulkner)
  • Thank you for sending me a copy of your book; I’ll waste no time reading it.Moses Hadas
  • He can compress the most words into the smallest idea of any man I know.Abraham Lincoln
  • I’ve had a perfectly wonderful evening.  But this wasn’t it.Groucho Marx
  • I didn’t attend the funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying I approved of it.Mark Twain
  • He has no enemies, but is intensely disliked by his friends.Oscar Wilde
  • I am enclosing two tickets to the first night of my new play; bring a friend…. if you have one.George Bernard Shaw to Winston Churchill
  • Cannot possibly attend first night, will attend second… if there is one.Winston Churchill, in response
  • I feel so miserable without you; it’s almost like having you here.Stephen Bishop
  • He is a self-made man and worships his creator.John Bright
  • I’ve just learned about his illness.  Let’s hope it’s nothing trivial.Irvin S. Cobb
  • He is not only dull himself, he is the cause of dullness in others.Samuel Johnson
  • He is simply a shiver looking for a spine to run up.Paul Keating
  • He had delusions of adequacy.Walter Kerr
  • There’s nothing wrong with you that reincarnation won’t cure.Jack E. Leonard
  • He has the attention span of a lightning bolt.Robert Redford
  • They never open their mouths without subtracting from the sum of human knowledge.Thomas Brackett Reed
via email from Bob Rosen, Wed, 7 Mar 2007 22:51:34 -0800