Stephen Leacock
Economist
1869-12-30
Quotes by Stephen Leacock
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Advertising - A judicious mixture of flattery and threats.
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The writing of solid, instructive stuff fortified by facts and figures is easy enough. There is no trouble in writing a scientific treatise on the folk-lore of Central China, or a statistical enquiry into the declining population of Prince Edward Island. But to write something out of one's own mind, worth reading for its own sake, is an arduous contrivance only to be achieved in fortunate moments, few and far in between. Personally, I would sooner have written Alice in Wonderland than the whole Encyclopedia Britannica.
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Advertising - A judicious mixture of flattery and threats.
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The writing of solid, instructive stuff fortified by facts and figures is easy enough. There is no trouble in writing a scientific treatise on the folk-lore of Central China, or a statistical enquiry into the declining population of Prince Edward Island. But to write something out of one's own mind, worth reading for its own sake, is an arduous contrivance only to be achieved in fortunate moments, few and far in between. Personally, I would sooner have written Alice in Wonderland than the whole Encyclopedia Britannica.
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A sportsman is a man who every now and then, simply has to get out and kill something.
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In ancient times they had no statistics so they had to fall back on lies.
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What we call creative work, ought not to be called work at all, because it isn't. I imagine that Thomas Edison never did a day's work in his last fifty years.
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Life, we learn too late, is in the living, the tissue of every day and hour.
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Men are able to trust one another, knowing the exact degree of dishonesty they are entitled to expect.
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Each section of the British Isles has its own way of laughing, except Wales, which doesn't.
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The Lord said 'let there be wheat' and Saskatchewan was born.
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There are two things in ordinary conversation which ordinary people dislike - information and wit.
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Too much has been said of the heroes of history-the strong men, the troublesome men; too little of the amiable, the kindly, the tolerant.
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Many a man in love with a dimple makes the mistake of marrying the whole girl.
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I owe a lot to my teachers and mean to pay them back some day.
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