Tag Archives: literary oddities

Montaigne on His Preferred Company

Posted on March 27, 2026 | Leave a comment

“I prefer the company of peasants because they have not been educated sufficiently to reason incorrectly.”

Michel de Montaigne

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

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Fran Lebowitz on the Wellsprings of American Culture

Posted on March 13, 2026 | Leave a comment

“If you removed all of the homosexuals and homosexual influence from what is generally regarded as American culture you would be pretty much left with ‘Let’s Make a Deal.’”

Fran Lebowitz

N.Y. Times, 13 Sept. 1987

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

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Miss Manners on Education

Posted on March 6, 2026 | Leave a comment

“Parents should conduct their arguments in quiet, respectful tones, but in a foreign language. You’d be surprised what an inducement that is to the education of children.”

Judith “Miss Manners” Martin

Excerpted from: Sherrin, Ned, ed. The Oxford Dictionary of Humorous Quotations. New York: Oxford University Press. 1996.

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The Algonquin Wits: Aleck Woollcott and Charles MacArthur Take a Vacation

Posted on January 30, 2026 | Leave a comment

“Aleck Woollcott and playwright Charles MacArthur once took a voyage to Europe together. After their ship had been two days at sea, MacArthur emerged onto the deck to join Aleck, confiding to him, ‘I can’t get over the feeling that I’m on a boat.’”

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

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Voltaire with Some Timely Words on Government

Posted on January 23, 2026 | Leave a comment

“In general, the art of government consists in taking as much money as possible from one class of citizens to give to another.”

Voltaire

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

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Rotten Reviews: A Joseph Heller Omnibus

Posted on January 9, 2026 | Leave a comment

We Bombed in New Haven

“A dud of the first magnitude…”

Saturday Review

Something Happened

“…surely it’s time to declare a moratorium on brain-damaged children used as metaphors for mental and emotional decay.”

Library Journal 

Good as Gold

“…a self-indulgent ventilation of private spleen…Heller operates as if he were a jewel thief wearing boxing gloves.”

Newsweek

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

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H.L. Mencken on Communism

Posted on December 5, 2025 | Leave a comment

“Communism, like any other revealed religion, is largely made up of prophecies.”

H.L Mencken

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

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Potboiler

Posted on December 1, 2025 | Leave a comment

“Potboiler: A work written merely to gain a livelihood. The term is at least as old as the 18th c. A classic example of the potboiler that transcends its immediate end is Johnson’s philosophical ‘novel’ or didactic ‘romance’ (qq.v.) Rasselas (1759), which was written in the evenings of a week to defray the expenses of his mother’s funeral and to pay her debts. See KITSCH. 

Excerpted from: Cuddon, J.A. The Penguin Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory. New York: Penguin, 1998.

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G.K. Chesterton on Social Class

Posted on October 31, 2025 | Leave a comment

“The classes that wash most are those that work least.”

G.K. Chesterton

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

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The Devil’s Dictionary: Architect

Posted on October 24, 2025 | Leave a comment

“Architect, n. One who drafts a plan of your house, and plans a draft of your money.”

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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