Quotes Worth Remembering.

The Columbia World

of Quotations. 1996.

NUMBER: 12388
QUOTATION: This is the sort of

English up with which I will not put.
ATTRIBUTION: Winston Churchill (1874–1965),

British statesman, writer. Quoted in The Complete Plain Words, “The Handling of Words,” Ernest Gowers (1954).



Said to be a marginal comment by Churchill against a sentence that clumsily avoided ending with a preposition.

Speaking of Sir

Winston.
He was said to be a man with an extremely extensive vocabulary. What was said to have made the difference was

that his understood and wrote several languages.
This accounts for the wide variety of words and thier uses. His

vocabulary was to such an extent, that on trips to some forign countries, he would be accomponied by a translator.

You may have learned

that ending a sentence with a preposition is a serious breach of grammatical etiquette. It doesn't take a grammarian to spot

a sentence-ending preposition, so this is an easy rule to get caught up on (!). Although it is often easy to remedy the

offending preposition, sometimes it isn't, and repair efforts sometimes result in a clumsy sentence. "Indicate the book you

are quoting from" is not greatly improved with "Indicate from which book you are quoting."

Based on shaky historical

precedent, the rule itself is a latecomer to the rules of writing. Those who dislike the rule are fond of recalling

Churchill's rejoinder: We should also

remember the child's complaint:

go figure...!

Great examples, Douglas and Jespah, of how to deflate stuffed shirts. Ask any modern grammarian and they will have real difficulty explaining where this dictum that a sentence cannot end with a preposition came from. In modern English usage, this is long outdated. With a preposition, you shouldn't begin a sentence, though. Unless...

Since I have been on Abuzz, I have become acutely aware of how I end my sentences with prepositions. I keep attempting to modify, and then the posts come out stuffy looking!

There's no need for it, Phoenix. You're an intelligent and articulate person. If it looks right, it probably IS right, no matter what part of speech it ends with.

wellcome message
Hello gays, my name is Paulo Bucco, but my friends tell me "PB" (I don't know if it's a nick name...), i'm a new (crazy) student of Douglas, The Mad Teacher!!!
First I need to understand correctly who this site work. Douglas explain that, but...
Regards for all!

PB

You're doing fine, paolobucco - just add a reply to whatever you feel like answering. :-D

I have many, many favorites, and old Winston Spencer was certainly a gold-mine (it is said that during a dinner party, Lady Astor accused him of being drunk, to which he is reputed to have replied: "Yes, Madam, I am drunk--but you are ugly, and in the morning, i shall be sober.")

Here's my two all-time favorites:

When confronted by the Chief Justice about what was then considered the scandalous behavior of his oldest daughter, Theodore Roosevelt Jr. is said to have replied: "Look, I can do one of two things, I can be President of the United States, or I can do something about Alice--I can't do both!"

and the other:

"If you haven't anything nice to say about anyone, come here and sit by me." -- attributed to Alice Roosevelt Longford.

Probably no one could top Dorothy Parker in the quick and quotable quip department. Just two examples:

She and Claire Booth Luce were sworn enemies, hated each other bitterly. One time the two ladies found themselves standing in the lobby of a building, waiting for the same elevator. When the elevator arrived, Ms. Luce stepped aside and said, "Age before beauty." Ms. Parker replied, "Pearls before swine," and stepped in.

Another time, Dorothy had missed a deadline on a column she was supposed to submit to the New Yorker. When her editor asked what had happened, she said, "I've been too f***ing busy. And vice versa."

Merry

Churchill was, of course, a fount of wonderful quotes. A particular favorite was his description of an opposition political figure whom he described as 'a sheep in sheep's clothing'.

But my vote for the best group of words to have exited anyone's mouth goes to Voltaire. He was an extraordinary fellow who possessed an intelligence likely without match in his generation, who had received a Jesuit education but who still maintained an unusual independence of mind. He was, thus, something of a persistent thorn in the side of the church. As he lay on his death bed, the priest in attendance asked him he he was now finally ready to renounce the devil. Voltaire's reported response was, "This is no time to be making new enemies."

I am so ashamed for missing this thread.....

Please forgive me.

Blatham, great Voltaire quote.

The deathbed words of Henry David Thoreau are also worth noting. If the story be not apocryphal, Thoreau, known to be dying, was visited by his great friend Ralph Waldo Emerson. Emerson asked, solicitously, "Don't you think that it's time you made peace with your God?" To which Thoreau is said to have replied, "I am not aware that the Almighty and I have ever quarreled."

"When Called by a Panther, Don't Anther"
(Ogden Nash)

In a physical anthropology class fifteen years ago, the professors was going on at some length, apparently trying to soothe any disgruntled religious folks who might have been in his lecture, about how science and religion stand as two dissimilar ways of knowing, and that physical evidence for supernatural phenomena are probably not to be expected. He asked, rhetorically, "What possible evidence could there be for the existence of God". From the rear of the class, a voice suggested "Really big footprints?"

Well - at least the student did not speculate about the likely dimensions of divine droppings!

In the 70's - Australia had a Prime Minister famous for his wit., Gough Whitlam.

One of his wickedest quips occurred on the occasion from parliament of the leader of an opposing party, a party which represented "the bush" (the country).

Whitlam was no fan of the man, and obviously became very disaffected as tribute after long, boring tribute was made by various folk.

The last speech ended with the words: "And, ladies and gentlemen, the thing we must always remember about x was that above all he was proud to be a country member!"

Whitlam was then heard to make a very audible aside to his neighbour: " Yes! We remember!"

(If you don't get it it is probably better for you that you don't!)

It took me a minute, Deb, but I finally got it. (It's early here and I'm still on first cuppa coffee.)

well there are two examples of some of the best and funniest quotes ever

"Yes, Madam, I am drunk--but you are ugly, and in the morning, i shall be sober".

"If you haven't anything nice to say about anyone, come here and sit by me".