Friday 18 February 2022

The Friday Joke - The English language at its best - A selection of the finest insults

 These glorious insults are from an era before the English language got boiled down to 4-letter words.

 

 

A member of Parliament to Disraeli: "Sir, you will either die on the gallows or of some unspeakable disease.”

"That depends, Sir, " said Disraeli, "whether I embrace your policies or your mistress."

 

 

"He had delusions of adequacy ."

-Walter Kerr

 

 

"He has all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire."

- 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)

 

 

"Thank you for sending me a copy of your book; I'll waste no time reading it."

-Moses Hadas

 

 

"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 simply a shiver looking for a spine to run up."

- Paul Keating

 

 

"In order to avoid being called a flirt, she always yielded easily."

-Charles, Count Talleyrand

 

 

"He loves nature in spite of what it did to him."

-Forrest Tucker

 

 

"Why do you sit there looking like an envelope without any address on it?"

-Mark Twain

 

 

"His mother should have thrown him away and kept the stork."

-Mae West

 

 

"Some cause happiness wherever they go; others, whenever they go."

-Oscar Wilde

 

 

"He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lamp-posts... for support rather than illumination."

-Andrew Lang (1844-1912)

 

 

"He has Van Gogh's ear for music."

-Billy Wilder

 

 

"I've had a perfectly wonderful evening. But I'm afraid this wasn't it."

 

Groucho Marx

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