It is commonly said, and more particularly by Lord Shaftesbury, that ridicule is the best test of truth; for that it will not stic...k where it is not just. I deny it. A truth learned in a certain light, and attacked in certain words, by men of wit and humour, may, and often doth, become ridiculous, at least so far, that the truth is only remembered and repeated for the sake of the ridicule.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Mr. Bernstein: The Mob put up the money for the club but the Mob doesn't consider homosexuality an acceptable lifestyle. Todd...y: Kill him, but mustn't kiss him.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Whenever [Leonard Bernstein] entered or exited a country he would fill in on his passport form not composer or conductor, but musi...cian. Of course people in the press spent a lot of Lenny's life telling him what he should have done; he should have been a concert pianist, he should have composed more.... And people wouldn't let him live his own life. But he created his own career, in his own image.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
No drug, not even alcohol, causes the fundamental ills of society. If we're looking for the sources of our troubles, we shouldn't ...test people for drugs, we should test them for stupidity, ignorance, greed and love of power.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Bernstein: "Girls delightful in Cuba stop. Could send you prose poems about scenery but don't feel right spending your money stop.... There is no war in Cuba. Signed Wheeler." Any answer? Charles Foster Kane: Yes--Dear Wheeler, You provide the prose poems, I'll provide the war.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Thompson: Nothing particular the matter with him, they tell me, just ... Bernstein: Just old age. It's the only disease, Mr. ...Thompson, that you don't look forward to being cured of.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
I have come to believe ... that the stage may do more than teach, that much of our current moral instruction will not endure the t...est of being cast into a lifelike mold, and when presented in dramatic form will reveal itself as platitudinous and effete. That which may have sounded like righteous teaching when it was remote and wordy will be challenged afresh when it is obliged to simulate life itself.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The only way therefore to try a Piece of Wit, is to translate it into a different Language: If it bears the Test you may pronounce... it true; but if it vanishes in the Experiment you may conclude it to have been a Punn.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »