Some collections of wit, collected mostly from the Futility Closet – an excellent blog.
P. Picasso
Picasso said of his portrait of Gertrude Stein, “Everybody thinks that the portrait is not like her, but never mind, in the end she will look like the portrait.”
T. Carlyle
John Stuart Mill once suggested that Thomas Carlyle write a history of the French Revolution. When Mill received the finished manuscript, his maid mistook it for trash and burned it. Carlyle had to write the whole thing over again from memory.
He said the final book came “direct and flamingly from the heart.”
P. Erdos
“Why are numbers beautiful? It’s like asking why is Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony beautiful. If you don’t see why, someone can’t tell you. I know numbers are beautiful. If they aren’t beautiful, nothing is.” — Paul Erdös
W. Churchill
In 1931, George Bernard Shaw wired Winston Churchill: “Am reserving two tickets for you on opening night of my new play. Come bring a friend — if you have one.”
Churchill wired back: “Impossible for me to attend first performance. Would like to attend second night — if there is one.”
ericryangrant.com 