The Knife Slipped Quotes

“I like loose clothes, loose company, and loose talk, and to hell with the people who don’t.”
― Erle Stanley Gardner, The Knife Slipped

“A nurse,” I said, “would be wearing a starched uniform, and she’d have a fever thermometer ready to jab into a patient’s mouth at the first sign of acute convalescence.”
― Erle Stanley Gardner, The Knife Slipped

“No, Donald, precious, people are sheep. They were made to be sheared. They love to worship public officials who play politics. Every eight years, the people swallow some politician hook, line, and sinker and make him president. They hold him on the political stomach for about six years. Then they commence to get indigestion because the politicians quit pouring the soda bicarbonate of publicity into their stomachs. At the end of eight years, they vomit him up in order to swallow someone else, and the process is repeated. “Why,”
― Erle Stanley Gardner, The Knife Slipped

“You know, Donald, that’s your big trouble. You fall in love every time you fall for a jane. You shouldn’t do that. If a girl looks good to you, go on the make. Love her where you find her, and leave her where you love her.”
― Erle Stanley Gardner, The Knife Slipped

“There were young men trying to look important; important men trying to look young.”
― Erle Stanley Gardner, The Knife Slipped

“Personally, I wouldn’t have a man who was true to me, not that I’d want him to flaunt his affairs in my face or to the neighborhood, but a man who doesn’t step out once in a while isn’t worth the powder and shot to blow him to hell.”
― Erle Stanley Gardner, The Knife Slipped

“I always use the word ‘houses of prostitution’ in talking to Edith, Mrs. Cool.” “I don’t. I call ’em whorehouses,” Bertha said acidly. “It’s easier to say. It’s more expressive, and it leaves no room for doubt.”
― Erle Stanley Gardner, The Knife Slipped

“You can’t have understanding without empathy, and you can’t have empathy without losing money.”
― Erle Stanley Gardner, The Knife Slipped

“She flowed across that office with the rippling, effortless progress of a cylinder of jelly sliding off a tilted plate.”
― Erle Stanley Gardner, The Knife Slipped

“did you ever hear of a politician who wasn’t elected on a platform of economy in office?” “That isn’t it,” I said. “Oh yes it is, lover. I can remember way back. Even then all politicians were promising economy, and still it wasn’t new. They’d always hold up the extravagances of the past administration before the horrified eyes of the voters. They’d pledge greater economy and get elected.—And there’s never a case on record, lover, where a politician hasn’t spent more than his predecessor in office.”
― Erle Stanley Gardner, The Knife Slipped

“Every eight years, the people swallow some politician hook, line, and sinker and make him president. They hold him on the political stomach for about six years. Then they commence to get indigestion because the politicians quit pouring the soda bicarbonate of publicity into their stomachs. At the end of eight years, they vomit him up in order to swallow someone else,”
― Erle Stanley Gardner, The Knife Slipped

“We have graft today. A hundred years ago we had graft. We probably have more today than we had a hundred years ago. For three generations now people have been following reformers, fighting all sort of graft.—And what has it brought them, sweetheart? Not a damn thing, except more graft than when they started”
― Erle Stanley Gardner, The Knife Slipped

“And then what happens to the reformer, lover? He either has to build up a political machine or else he’s defeated at the next election. If he builds up a political machine, he has to do it by distributing gravy to the boys who are on the inside.—Hell, Donald, politicians always have cake. The people pass it to them on silver platters, and when the politicians cut it, they have to cut a piece for each of their friends. Otherwise, the friend becomes an enemy.—”
― Erle Stanley Gardner, The Knife Slipped

“He called the police and told them I was trying to blackmail him.” “Were you?” “Not exactly. Bertha was trying to cut herself a piece of cake, and—” “And what?” I asked. “And the knife slipped,” she said.”
― Erle Stanley Gardner, The Knife Slipped

“If you ask me, this younger generation is altogether too careless about their morals.”
― Erle Stanley Gardner, The Knife Slipped

“The secretary was a good-looking girl—or would have been if she’d given herself a chance. Some discouraging experience in her background had made her feel that she couldn’t be bothered with sex appeal, and so she slicked her hair back, used no make-up, and hated men.”
― Erle Stanley Gardner, The Knife Slipped

“Married men get so they make a routine even of keeping a mistress”
― Erle Stanley Gardner, The Knife Slipped

“You can't have understanding without having empathy, and you can't have empathy without losing money.”
― Erle Stanley Gardner, The Knife Slipped