Quotes Library

April 16, 2025

To knock a thing down, especially if it is cocked at an arrogant angle, is a deep delight of the blood.

George Santayana, 1863-1962, Spanish-born American philosopher, The Portable Curmudgeon, Jon Winokur, ed. (New York: 1987), p.8

Which things, cocked at the angle here specified, would you most enjoy knocking down?

The watchword is caution! If possible, leave no fingerprints. The depth of delight is doubled if the knocked-down party knows not whom to blame!


More Quotes

November 15, 2025
All ceremonial is ridiculous unless it is perfect.
November 27, 2025
Politics is not the art of the possible. It consists in choosing between the disastrous and the unpalatable.
April 26, 2026
01:07
Trickle down theory---the less than elegant metaphor that if one feeds the horse enough oats, some will pass through [the horse] to the road for the sparrows.
Page 109 of 126