Tag Archives: humor

The Algonquin Wits: Ring Lardner on the Costs of Raising Sons

Posted on September 8, 2020 | Leave a comment

“Ring once referred to his prep-school-aged sons as his ‘four grandsons,’ explaining to a puzzled acquaintance that they cost him ‘Four grand a year.’”

Excerpted from: Drennan, Robert E., ed. The Algonquin Wits. New York: Kensington, 1985.

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The Devil’s Dictionary: Cabinet

Posted on September 1, 2020 | Leave a comment

“Cabinet, n. The principal persons charged with the mismanagement of a government, the charge being commonly well founded.”

Excerpted from: Bierce, Ambrose. David E. Schultz and S.J. Joshi, eds. The Unabridged Devil’s Dictionary. Athens: The University of Georgia Press, 2000. 

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The Algonquin Wits: Dorothy Parker on Teaching Undergraduates

Posted on August 25, 2020 | Leave a comment

“Mrs. Parker taught for a time at Los Angeles State College, where she found the students very ‘narrow.’ When reading Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath, for example, the students felt the book was too dirty. ‘But then Steinbeck won the Nobel Prize,’ Mrs. Parker recalled. ‘After that they behaved as if they had given it to him.’”

Excerpted from: Drennan, Robert E., ed. The Algonquin Wits. New York: Kensington, 1985.

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The Devil’s Dictionary: Demagogue

Posted on August 21, 2020 | Leave a comment

“Demagogue, n. A political opponent.” 

Excerpted from: Bierce, Ambrose. David E. Schultz and S.J. Joshi, eds. The Unabridged Devil’s Dictionary. Athens: The University of Georgia Press, 2000. 

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Raymond Chandler on Chess

Posted on August 19, 2020 | Leave a comment

“As elaborate a waste of human intelligence as you can find outside an advertising agency.”

Raymond Chandler

Excerpted from: Winokur, Jon, ed. The Big Curmudgeon. New York: Black Dog & Leventhal, 2007.

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The Algonquin Wits: Ring Lardner on Calvin Coolidge

Posted on August 19, 2020 | Leave a comment

“President Coolidge’s inimitable deadpan personality became a cherished target for the Round Tablers’ wit. After his first meeting with Coolidge, Lardner reported to the group that he had told the president a humorous anecdote, adding, ‘He laughed until you could hear a pin drop.’”

Excerpted from: Drennan, Robert E., ed. The Algonquin Wits. New York: Kensington, 1985.

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Thorstein Veblen on the Esteem of One’s Peers

Posted on August 18, 2020 | Leave a comment

“In order to gain and hold the esteem of men it is not sufficient merely to possess wealth or power. The wealth or power must be put in evidence, for esteem is awarded only on evidence.”

Thorstein Veblen

The Theory of the Leisure Class ch. 3 (1899)

Excerpted from: Schapiro, Fred, ed. The Yale Book of Quotations. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006.

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H.L. Mencken on Protestantism

Posted on August 18, 2020 | Leave a comment

“The chief contribution of Protestantism to human thought is its massive proof that God is a bore.”

H.L Mencken

Excerpted from: Winokur, Jon, ed. The Big Curmudgeon. New York: Black Dog & Leventhal, 2007.

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Socrates on His Dietary Needs

Posted on August 15, 2020 | Leave a comment

“The rest of the world lives to eat, while I eat to live.”

Quoted in Diogenes Laertius, Lives of the Philosophers

Excerpted from: Schapiro, Fred, ed. The Yale Book of Quotations. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006.

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Lord Russell on Life, Death, and Cognition

Posted on August 14, 2020 | Leave a comment

“Many people would die sooner than think; in fact, they do so.”

Bertrand Russell

Excerpted from: Winokur, Jon, ed. The Big Curmudgeon. New York: Black Dog & Leventhal, 2007.

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