Now narrow minds can develop as well through persecution as through benevolence; they can assure themselves of their power by tyra...nnizing cruelly or beneficently over others; they go the way their nature guides them. Add to this the guidance of interest, and you will have the key to most social riddles.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
When Mabelle Webb died, Clifton began the mourning that lasted until his own death. Noel Coward noted in a letter, . . . "Poor Cli...fton . . . is still, after two months, wailing and sobbing over Mabelle's death. As she was well over ninety, gaga, and driving him mad for years, this seems excessive and over indulgent. . . ." The most famous remark to go the rounds of Clifton Webb's friends was Noel Coward's final, acerbic one to him: "It must be tough to be orphaned at seventy-one!"LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Basically, I have no place in organized politics. By coming to the British Parliament, I've allowed the people to sacrifice me at ...the top and let go the more effective job I should be doing at the bottom.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
"... What are you seeing out the window, lady?" "What I'll be seeing more of in the years... To come as here I stand and go the round Of many plates with towels many times."LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Any discussion of the problems of being funny in America will not make sense unless we substitute the word wit for humor. Humor in...spires sympathetic good-natured laughter and is favored by the "healing-power" gang. Wit goes for the jugular, not the jocular, and it's the opposite of football; instead of building character, it tears it down.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Along the avenue of cypresses, All in their scarlet cloaks and surplices... Of linen, go the chanting choristers, The priests in gold and black, the villagers. . . .LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
America does to me what I knew it would do: it just bumps me.... The people charge at you like trucks coming down on you--no aware...ness. But one tries to dodge aside in time. Bump! bump! go the trucks. And that is human contact.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »