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The Oxford Dictionary of Humorous Quotations
Mark Twain once noted that Adam had a unique advantage--"When he said a good thing he knew nobody had said it before." But once our primordial ancestors began quoting one another--perhaps to show off their keen humor and erudition--the habit became part of what makes us human. And though we
often quote sage advice and learned homilies, by far our favorite quote is the one that makes us, and our audience, laugh.
Now, in The Oxford Dictionary of Humorous Quotations , noted writer and satirist Ned Sherrin has gathered nearly 5,000 quotations in a rollicking collection drawn from an international cast of humorists and pundits, ranging from Shakespeare, Jane Austen, and Oscar Wilde to Groucho Marx, Monty
Python, and Roseanne. Arranged in themes, from Actors and Acting (including Dorothy Parker's famous barb on Katherine Hepburn's Broadway debut, "She ran the whole gamut of the emotions from A to B") to Parents (P. J. O'Rourke, "Because of their size, parents may be difficult to discipline
properly"), to Youth (Georges Courteline, "It's better to waste one's youth than to do nothing with it at all"), Sherrin has left no turn unstoned to collect the sharpest, the wittiest, the wryest in quips, put-downs, and one-liners.
Here is Senator Wyche Fowler's come-back when asked if he had smoked marijuana in the permissive sixties ("Only when committing adultery"), William Faulkner on Henry James ("One of the nicest old ladies I ever met"), George Bush on boredom ("What's wrong with being a boring sort of guy?"), S. J.
Perelman on God ("Whom you doubtless remember as that quaint old subordinate of General Douglas MacArthur"), and Adlai Stevenson on Republicans ("If they will stop telling lies about Democrats, we will stop telling the truth about them"). The wits of stage and screen are here--including Woody Allen
("I don't want to achieve immortality through my work...I want to achieve it by not dying"), Noel Coward, Cole Porter, Mae West, Will Rogers, and George Bernard Shaw--as are the literary wags from Kingsley Amis and Saul Bellow to Evelyn Waugh and Gore Vidal (on Eisenhower in 1964, "reading a speech
with his usual sense of discovery"). Each quotation comes with details of who said it, where, and when, while separate keyword and author indices mean the reader will never have to wonder "whose line is it anyway?"
With quotations courtesy of comedians and playwrights, novelists and producers, cartoonists and moguls, soldiers and lawyers, and displaying all shades of humor, from dry to sly, subtle to wacky, and even unintended, The Oxford Dictionary of Humorous Quotations will be the perfect resource for
public speakers, writers and anyone else who enjoys a sparkling line, a clever pun, or a wickedly clever after all, says W. Somerset Maughm, "Impropriety is the soul of wit."
often quote sage advice and learned homilies, by far our favorite quote is the one that makes us, and our audience, laugh.
Now, in The Oxford Dictionary of Humorous Quotations , noted writer and satirist Ned Sherrin has gathered nearly 5,000 quotations in a rollicking collection drawn from an international cast of humorists and pundits, ranging from Shakespeare, Jane Austen, and Oscar Wilde to Groucho Marx, Monty
Python, and Roseanne. Arranged in themes, from Actors and Acting (including Dorothy Parker's famous barb on Katherine Hepburn's Broadway debut, "She ran the whole gamut of the emotions from A to B") to Parents (P. J. O'Rourke, "Because of their size, parents may be difficult to discipline
properly"), to Youth (Georges Courteline, "It's better to waste one's youth than to do nothing with it at all"), Sherrin has left no turn unstoned to collect the sharpest, the wittiest, the wryest in quips, put-downs, and one-liners.
Here is Senator Wyche Fowler's come-back when asked if he had smoked marijuana in the permissive sixties ("Only when committing adultery"), William Faulkner on Henry James ("One of the nicest old ladies I ever met"), George Bush on boredom ("What's wrong with being a boring sort of guy?"), S. J.
Perelman on God ("Whom you doubtless remember as that quaint old subordinate of General Douglas MacArthur"), and Adlai Stevenson on Republicans ("If they will stop telling lies about Democrats, we will stop telling the truth about them"). The wits of stage and screen are here--including Woody Allen
("I don't want to achieve immortality through my work...I want to achieve it by not dying"), Noel Coward, Cole Porter, Mae West, Will Rogers, and George Bernard Shaw--as are the literary wags from Kingsley Amis and Saul Bellow to Evelyn Waugh and Gore Vidal (on Eisenhower in 1964, "reading a speech
with his usual sense of discovery"). Each quotation comes with details of who said it, where, and when, while separate keyword and author indices mean the reader will never have to wonder "whose line is it anyway?"
With quotations courtesy of comedians and playwrights, novelists and producers, cartoonists and moguls, soldiers and lawyers, and displaying all shades of humor, from dry to sly, subtle to wacky, and even unintended, The Oxford Dictionary of Humorous Quotations will be the perfect resource for
public speakers, writers and anyone else who enjoys a sparkling line, a clever pun, or a wickedly clever after all, says W. Somerset Maughm, "Impropriety is the soul of wit."
568 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1995
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116 people want to read
About the author
Ned Sherrin
31 booksNed Sherrin was an English broadcaster, author and stage director.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
April 15, 2008
This is a very good resource and one that I'd like to have in my permanent collection. Not something for leisure reading but incredibly useful.
August 11, 2010
There are a lot of gems in here. There are also not a few misfires, given that they're all selected by one man with a rather stereotypically British sense of humor. Sherrin includes too many quotations that aren't funny out of context (I can vouch that many of them are funny in context). But despite the many suggestions I have for improvements, I keep reading it (this is my third or fourth time), and I still like it.
[This review applies to the original 1995 edition.:]
[This review applies to the original 1995 edition.:]
December 26, 2009
The true joy of a book of quotations is that you get to read the best bits of generally the best books. Not only is this book filled with hilarious best bits, it also has sharp and witty comments for any occasion... if you can just recall them!
November 29, 2011
Not my style. The quotations needed more "filler" before and/or after to anchor the bon mots. They must have been funny at the time, but I always got the feeling after each one that "you really had to be there."
February 25, 2011
Being a boy at heart, I need my book fixes in small bites, and this book has kept me sane on many a dark day.
April 2, 2012
A bible (very thick) of joy.
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May 1, 2017Edition: New edition
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews