“After all, you know,” he said, “they say that familiarity breeds contempt.” Churchill replied, “I would like to remind you that without a degree of familiarity we could not breed anything.” Winston Churchill, a fan of Bartlett’s “Familiar Quotations,” wrote: “It is a good thing for an uneducated man to read books of quotations … The quotations when engraved upon the memory give you good thoughts.

Montgomery doubted that he should become involved in such technical matters. Here’s a lesser-known bit from his time as prime minister during World War II:īefore the battle of El Alamein, he summoned General Montgomery and suggested he study logistics. “Her way of speaking” was Agatha Christie’s reply.Īnecdotes about the often-quoted-and often mis-quoted-Winston Churchill fill over four pages of this anthology.

This story about actress Zsa Zsa Gabor neatly sums up her sense of humor and her take on men:Ī women’s magazine once printed the replies of a number of famous women to the question: “What is the first thing you notice about a woman?” Calling to her to make herself visible, the tall Lincoln said of his 5-foot-3-inch Mary Todd Lincoln, “Well, here’s the long and the short of it.” Mary Todd Lincoln, 1861, in a portrait photo by Matthew Brady. After his election in 1861, Lincoln spoke to a crowd at Pennsylvania Station in Washington, who were anxious to catch a glimpse of his wife, about whom they were curious.

Our 16th president, for instance, was renowned for his folksy wit. Politicians, military commanders, actors, artists, and athletes-if they possessed a silver tongue for repartee, they likely appear in this goulash of zingers and sly humor. The editors of “Bartlett’s” offer a lavish smorgasbord of talented personalities who could turn a phrase into a chuckle. “Bartlett’s Book of Anecdotes” offers a lavish smorgasbord of talented personalities who could turn a phrase into a chuckle. He refused: ‘I should be trading on the blood of my men.’”īut the majority of these entries sparkle with a wit that often brings a smile. We read, for instance: “After the Civil War, Lee was encouraged to write his memoirs. Lee or American author Willa Cather, are somber in tone, indicative of the character of the speaker. Many of these brief encounters, such as the ones centered on figures like Civil War general Robert E. Then there are those people who, as my online dictionary puts it, possess “a natural aptitude for using words and ideas in a quick and inventive way to create humor.”Īt my elbow is a copy of “Bartlett’s Book of Anecdotes,” a compendium of more than 700 pages of snapshot narratives taken from the lives of the famous and the not-so-famous. A progressive mom whose daughter has just announced that she intends to vote Republican in next week’s election runs (there’s that word again!) out of arguments to change the young rebel’s mind and so finds herself “at her wit’s end.” The guy with the disarming smile and ready charm who plays the horses at the track and hustles tourists in the Big Easy’s French Quarter lives “by his wits.” Short Short Stories More familiar to us is wit when used as a synonym for raw or native intelligence. “Wit” is just one member of this boisterous crowd.Īsk a professor of 17th-century literature to define wit, and he will delve into metaphysical poetry, expound on conceits-there’s another word colored with several shades of meaning-and possibly point you to a poem like John Donne’s “Batter My Heart, Three-Person’d God” as an example of wit with its dissimilar and at times racy comparisons. To the consternation of those trying to learn English and to the delight of native speakers, many words in our eccentric tongue have multiple meanings. We run in a footrace, yes, and we also “run to the store” while driving our car, a candidate “runs” for governor, Sally’s nose is “running,” and Wolftrap Run in Virginia is a stream. Scheduled for publication in another 15 years or so, the next edition of the Oxford English Dictionary will contain over 600 definitions of the word “run.” To some of us, that figure seems impossible.

Whats another word for running