All the Secrets of the Universe and Some Really Important Stuff Too!
Aphorisms, proverbs, wise sayings and other witty, pithy stuff
Let’s call this W. C. Fields Week
“The work I’m doing on the screen differs from that of anyone else. My comedy is of a peculiar nature…no writers have been developed along the lines of my type of comedy and this is why I sometimes have differences with writers, supervisors and directors alike.”
W. C. Fields
Let’s call this W. C. Fields Week
“You can’t cheat an honest man.”
W. C. Fields
Let’s call this W. C. Fields Week
I beg your indulgence over these specialty quotes but I am a big fan of Fields so I like to spoil myself sometimes.
“I always made up my own acts; built them out of my knowledge and observation of real life. I’d had wonderful opportunities to study people; and every time I went out on the stage I tried to show the audience some bit of true human nature.”
W. C. Fields
To me W.C. Fields is the quintessential American comedian. If he didn’t understand why people laughed then he was instinctively able to make it happen.
“The funniest thing about comedy is that you never know why people laugh. I know what makes them laugh but trying to get your hands on the why of it is like trying to pick an eel out of a tub of water.”
W. C. Fields
Yes, we journalists are so very brave.
“Journalism is printing what someone else does not want printed: everything else is public relations.”
George Orwell
Orwell knew of what he spoke, being a communist himself. Incredibly relevant today.
“The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history.”
George Orwell
Determining who has style may be too subjective, but I get his meaning about men who have lived and thought as opposed to just scribblers.
“To be well informed, one must read quickly a great number of merely instructive books. To be cultivated, one must read slowly and with a lingering appreciation the comparatively few books that have been written by men who lived, thought, and felt with style.”
Aldous Huxley
Americans should distrust puffery Someone should have told this to Obama when he went on about it’s not who we are.
“Only kings, presidents, editors, and people with tapeworms have the right to use the editorial ‘we.'”
Mark Twain
But sometimes it’s difficult to distinguish between belittling and sane caution.
“Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that but the really great make you feel that you too can become great. When you are seeking to bring big plans to fruition it is important with whom you regularly associate. Hang out with friends who are like-minded and who are also designing purpose-filled lives. Similarly be that kind of a friend for your friends.”
Mark Twain
This is a man who has made some detours.
“There is a charm about the forbidden that makes it unspeakably desirable.”
Mark Twain