Tag Archives: humor

The Late, Great Edward Abbey on the Problems of Capitalism

Posted on June 21, 2018 | Leave a comment

“Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of a cancer cell.”

Edward Abbey

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

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The Devil’s Dictionary: Senate

Posted on June 19, 2018 | Leave a comment

“A body of elderly gentlemen charged with high duties and misdemeanors.”

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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H.G. Wells on Advertising

Posted on June 15, 2018 | Leave a comment

“Advertising is legalized lying.”

H.G. Wells

Excerpted from: Winokur, Jon, ed. The Portable Curmudgeon. New York: Plume, 1992

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The Devil’s Dictionary: Encomium

Posted on June 7, 2018 | Leave a comment

“Encomium, n. A kind of intellectual fog, through which the virtues of its object are seen magnified by many diameters.”

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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Bella Abzug on Tenured Professors

Posted on June 6, 2018 | Leave a comment

“We don’t want so much to see a female Einstein become an assistant professor. We want a woman schlemiel to get promoted as quickly as a male schlemiel.”

Bella Abzug

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

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The Algonquin Wits: Franklin Pierce Adams on the Fascist Ego

Posted on June 5, 2018 | Leave a comment

“Il Duce, believing as he does in press censorship, probably will cut the last three words from the headline ‘Mussolini Best Man in Marconi’s Wedding.’”

Franklin Pierce Adams

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

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The Devil’s Dictionary: Inhumanity

Posted on May 1, 2018 | 1 comment

“Inhumanity, n. One of the signal and characteristic qualities of humanity.”

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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Rotten Rejections: Jacqueline Susann and Valley of the Dolls

Posted on April 25, 2018 | Leave a comment

“She is painfully dull, inept, clumsy, undisciplined, rambling and thoroughly amateurish writer whose every sentence, paragraph and scene calls for the hand of a pro. She wastes endless pages on utter trivia, writes wide-eyed romantic scenes that would not make the back pages of True Confessions, hauls out every terrible show biz cliché in all the books, lets every good scene fall apart in endless talk and allows her book to ramble aimlessly…most of the first 200 pages are virtually worthless and dreadfully dull and practically every scene is dragged out and stomped on by her endless talk….”

Excerpted from: Barnard, Andre, and Bill Henderson, eds. Pushcart’s Complete Rotten Reviews and Rejections. Wainscott, NY: Pushcart Press, 1998.

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The Devil’s Dictionary: Platitude

Posted on April 23, 2018 | Leave a comment

“Platitude, n. The fundamental element and special glory of popular literature. A thought that snores in words that smoke. The wisdom of a million fools in the diction of a dullard. A fossil sentiment in artificial rock. A moral without the fable. All that is mortal of a departed truth. A demi-tasse of milk-and-morality. The Pope’s-nose of a featherless peacock. A jelly-fish withering on the shore of the sea of thought. The cackle surviving the egg. A desiccated epigram.”

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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Oscar Wilde on Skepticism

Posted on April 19, 2018 | Leave a comment

“To believe is very dull. To doubt intensely engrossing. To be on the alert is to live, to be lulled into security is to die.”

Oscar Wilde

Excerpted from: Winokur, Jon, ed. The Portable Curmudgeon. New York: Plume, 1992.

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