The League of Frightened Men Quotes

“Wolfe was drinking beer and looking at pictures of snowflakes in a book someone had sent him from Czechoslovakia...
...Wolfe seemed absorbed in the pictures. Looking at him, I said to myself, "He's in a battle with the elements. He's fighting his way through a raging blizzard, just sitting there comfortably looking at pictures of snowflakes. That's the advantage of being an artist, of having imagination." I said aloud, "You mustn't go to sleep, sir, it's fatal. You freeze to death.”
― Rex Stout, The League of Frightened Men

“A man may debar nonsense from his library of reason, but not from the arena of his impulses.”
― Rex Stout, The League of Frightened Men

“Being broke is not a disgrace, it is only a catastrophe.”
― Rex Stout, The League of Frightened Men

“To assert dignity is to lose it.”
― Rex Stout, The League of Frightened Men

“You know, that idea could be developed into a first-rate little article. Six hundred to seven hundred words, about. The Tyranny of the Wheel, you could call it, with a colored margin of trains and airplanes and ocean liners at top speed—of course liners don’t have wheels, but you could do something about that—if I could persuade you, Mr. Wolfe—”
― Rex Stout, The League of Frightened Men

“Wolfe leaned back in his seat with his chin down and his forearms laid out on the arms of the chair; it was his custom to make no effort to join his fingers at the high point of his middle mound sooner than a full hour after a meal.”
― Rex Stout, The League of Frightened Men

“Ye should have killed me, watched the last mean sigh
Sneak through my nostril like a”
― Rex Stout, The League of Frightened Men

“that culture was like money, it comes easiest to those who need it least.”
― Rex Stout, The League of Frightened Men

“The evening traffic was out playing tag, and it took long enough to get to West Thirty-fifth Street.”
― Rex Stout, The League of Frightened Men

“I dropped the book on the table, stretched for a good yawn, went and opened the window and stood there looking down on the street long enough to let the sharp cold air make me feel like blankets and hopped for the hay.”
― Rex Stout, The League of Frightened Men

“When he was taking his coat off I had to stand back so as not to get socked in the eye with his arms swinging around, and I don’t cotton to a guy with that sort of an attitude towards his fellowmen in confined spaces. Particularly I think they ought to be kept out of elevators, but I’m not fond of them anywhere.”
― Rex Stout, The League of Frightened Men

“It was a large cardboard letter-file, old and faded but intact. I passed it to Wolfe, and he opened it with the deliberate and friendly exactness which his hands displayed towards all inanimate things.”
― Rex Stout, The League of Frightened Men

“The least offensive way of refusing a request is not to let it be made.”
― Rex Stout, The League of Frightened Men