“The voice of Love seemed to call to me, but it was a wrong number.”
“Red hair, sir, in my opinion, is dangerous.”
“Unseen in the background, Fate was quietly slipping lead into the boxing-glove.”
“Hell, it is well known, has no fury like a woman who wants her tea and can't get it.”
“As Shakespeare says, if you're going to do a thing you might as well pop right at it and get it over.”
“There is no time, sir, at which ties do not matter.”
“I don't know why it is, but women who have anything to do with Opera, even if they're only studying for it, always appear to run to surplus poundage.”
“Jeeves," I said. "A rummy communication has arrived. From Mr. Glossop."
"Indeed, sir?"
"I will read it to you. Handed in at Upper Bleaching. Message runs as follows:
When you come tomorrow, bring my football boots. Also, if humanly possible, Irish water-spaniel. Urgent. Regards. Tuppy.
"What do you make of that, Jeeves?"
"As I interpret the document, sir, Mr. Glossop wishes you, when you come tomorrow, to bring his football boots. Also, if humanly possible, an Irish water-spaniel. He hints that the matter is urgent, and sends his regards."
"Yes, that is how I read it. But why football boots?"
"Perhaps Mr. Glossop wishes to play football, sir.”
“One more toot--just one single, solitary suggestion of the faintest shadow or suspicion of anything remotely approaching a toot--and may the Lord have mercy on your soul.”
“There's no doubt about it, being a policeman warps a man's mind and ruins that sunny faith in his fellow human beings which is the foundation of a lovable character. There seems to be no way of avoiding this.”
“Remember what the poet Shakespeare said, Jeeves? 'Exit hurriedly, pursued by a bear.' You'll find it in one of his plays.”
“One of the first lessons life teaches us is that on these occasions of back-chat between the delicately-natured, a man should retire into the offing, curl up in a ball, and imitate the prudent tactics of the opossum, which, when danger is in the air, pretends to be dead, frequently going to the length of hanging out crêpe and instructing its friends to gather round and say what a pity it all is.”
“Why has the car stopped?"
"Ah!" I said with manly frankness that became me well. "There you have me."
You see, I'm one of those birds who drive a lot but don't know the first thing about the works. The policy I pursue is to get aboard, prod the self-starter, and leave the rest to Nature. If anything goes wrong, I scream for an A.A. scout. It's a system that answers admirably as a rule, but on the present occasion it blew a fuse owing to the fact that there wasn't an A.A. scout within miles.”
“I have always had a suspicion that Aunt Dahlia, while invariably matey and bonhomous and seeming to take pleasure in my society, has a lower opinion of my intelligence than I quite like. Too often it is her practice to address me as ‘fathead’, and if I put forward any little thought or idea or fancy in her hearing it is apt to be greeted with the affectionate but jarring guffaw.”
“You know how it is. Love's flame flickers and dies, reason returns to her throne, and you aren't nearly as ready to hop about and jump through hoops as in the first pristine glow of the divine passion.”
“I thank God daily for the good fortune of my birth, for I am certain I would have made a miserable peasant.”
“There was a fine line between fear that would excite and fear that would paralyze the senses.”
“What do you suppose it means, Hudson, when I dream of a beautiful blond lady and awaken to find a long blond hair in my bed?” Hudson chuckled. “My goodness, sir. What vivid dreams you must have!” “You have no idea.”
“It is not proper, you being closeted up here with him --"
"Delphinia, don't be absurd. I am so firmly on the shelf that the maids are tempted to dust me.”
“I know the bottom, she says. I know it with my great tap root:
It is what you fear.
I do not fear it: I have been there.
--From the poem "Elm", written 19 April 1962”
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