September 30, 2025

[Definition of] Class: when they’re running you out of town, to look like you’re leading the parade.

Bill Battie (?–?), American sports coach, in The Cynic’s Lexicon, Jonathon Green, ed. (London: 1986), p.17. The definition is also attributed to “style”.

Put yourself in that situation—being run out of town, and ask whether you are a sufficiently good an actor to look like you’re leading a parade?

Hemingway defined courage in much the same way: grace under pressure. Somehow the image Battie summons is made more potent by the smile it engenders.