Something Fresh Quotes

“As we grow older and realize more clearly the limitations of human happiness, we come to see that the only real and abiding pleasure in life is to give pleasure to other people.”
― P.G. Wodehouse, Something Fresh

“Mr Beach was too well bred to be inquisitive, but his eyebrows here not.
'Ah!' he said.
'?', cried the eyebrows. '? ? ?'
Ashe ignored the eyebrows.
...
Mr Beach's eyebrows were still mutely urging him to reveal all, but Ashe directed his gaze at that portion of the room which Mr Beach did not fill. He was hanged if he was going to let himself be hypnotized by a pair of eyebrows into incriminating himself.”
― P.G. Wodehouse, Something Fresh

“This is peculiarly an age in which each of us may, if he do but search diligently, find the literature suited to his mental powers.”
― P.G. Wodehouse, Something New

“Joan was nothing more than a friend. He was not in love with her. One does not fall in love with a girl whom one has met only three times. One is attracted, yes; but one does not fall in love.
A moment's reflection enabled him to diagnose his sensations correctly. This odd impulse to leap across the compartment and kiss Joan was not love. It was merely the natural desire of a good-hearted young man to be decently chummy with his species.”
― P.G. Wodehouse, Something Fresh

“You remind me of an old cat I once had. Whenever he killed a mouse he would bring it into the drawing-room and lay it affectionately at my feet. I would reject the corpse with horror and turn him out, but back he would come with his loathsome gift. I simply couldn’t make him understand that he was not doing me a kindness. He thought highly of his mouse and it was beyond him to realize that I did not want it.

You are just the same with your chivalry. It’s very kind of you to keep offering me your dead mouse; but honestly I have no use for it. I won’t take favors just because I happen to be a female.”
― P.G. Wodehouse, Something Fresh

“Trouble, after all, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder”
― P.G. Wodehouse, Something New

“One of the King Georges of England–I forget which–once said that a certain number of hours’ sleep each night–I cannot recall at the moment how many–made a man something, which for the time being has slipped my memory.”
― P.G. Wodehouse, Something New

“Science, with a thousand triumphs to her credit, has not yet succeeded in discovering the correct reply for a young man to make who finds himself in the appalling position of being apologized to by a pretty girl.”
― P.G. Wodehouse, Something Fresh

“Tell me," said Ashe gratefully, leaning forward in an attitude of attention, "all about the lining of your stomach.”
― P.G. Wodehouse, Something Fresh

“she was usually keenly susceptible to weather conditions and reveled in sunshine like a kitten.”
― P.G. Wodehouse, Something New

“If girls realized their responsibilities they would be so careful when they smiled that they would probably abandon the practice altogether. There are moments in a man's life when a girl's smile can have as important results as an explosion of dynamite.”
― P.G. Wodehouse, Something Fresh

“beggars approached the task of trying to persuade perfect strangers to bear the burden of their maintenance with that optimistic vim which makes all the difference. It was one of those happy mornings.”
― P.G. Wodehouse, Something New

“Cold is the ogre that drives all beautiful things into hiding”
― P.G. Wodehouse, Something New

“There was something about this girl that made the most bizarre happenings seem right and natural. Ever since he had met her his life had changed from an orderly succession of uninteresting days to a strange carnival of the unexpected, and use was accustoming him to it.”
― P.G. Wodehouse, Something Fresh:

“It is the saddest spectacle in the world, that of the crowd collected by a ‘Wanted’ advertisement. They are so palpably not wanted by any one for any purpose whatsoever; yet every time they gather together with a sort of hopeful hopelessness.”
― P.G. Wodehouse, Something Fresh

“After all, what could be pleasanter than a little literature in the small hours?”
― P.G. Wodehouse, Something New

“As we grow older and realize more clearly the limitations of human happiness, we come to see that the only real and abiding pleasure in life is to give pleasure to other people. One”
― P.G. Wodehouse, Something Fresh

“But the southwest wind of Spring brings also remorse. We catch the vague spirit of unrest in the air and we regret our misspent youth.”
― P.G. Wodehouse, Something Fresh

“beggars approached the task of trying to persuade perfect strangers to bear the burden of their maintenance with that optimistic vim which makes all the difference.”
― P.G. Wodehouse, Something New

“found him. It is curious how frequently in this world our attempts to stimulate and uplift swoop back on us and smite us like boomerangs.”
― P.G. Wodehouse, Something New

“Arundell Street, Leicester Square. Passing along the north sidewalk of the square, just where it joins Piccadilly, you hardly notice the bottleneck opening of the tiny cul-de-sac. Day and night the human flood roars past, ignoring it. Arundell Street is less than forty yards in length; and, though there”
― P.G. Wodehouse, Something Fresh

“Cold is the ogre which drives all beautiful things into hiding”
― P.G. Wodehouse, Something Fresh

“One of the King Georges of England, I forget which, once said that a certain number of hours’ sleep each night—I cannot recall at the moment how many—made a man something, which for the time being has slipped my memory. Baxter agreed with him. It went against all his instincts to sit up in this fashion; but it was his duty and he did it.”
― P.G. Wodehouse, Something Fresh:

“His astonishment was short-lived. Next moment the only thing that surprised him was the fact that he was not more surprised. There was something about this girl that made the most bizarre happenings seem right and natural. Ever since he had met her his life had changed from an orderly succession of uninteresting days to a strange carnival of the unexpected, and use was accustoming him to it. Life had taken on the quality of a dream, in which anything might happen and in which everything that did happen was to be accepted with the calmness natural in dreams.”
― P.G. Wodehouse, Something Fresh:

“AMONG the compensations of advancing age is a wholesome pessimism, which, though it takes the fine edge off of whatever triumphs may come to us, has the admirable effect of preventing Fate from working off on us any of those gold bricks, coins with strings attached, and unhatched chickens, at which ardent youth snatches with such enthusiasm, to its subsequent disappointment. As we emerge from the twenties we grow into a habit of mind that looks askance at Fate bearing gifts. We miss, perhaps, the occasional prize, but we also avoid leaping light-heartedly into traps.”
― P.G. Wodehouse, Something Fresh:

“If girls realized their responsibilities they would be so careful when they smiled that they would probably abandon the practice altogether. There are moments in a man’s life when a girl’s smile can have as important results as an explosion of dynamite.”
― P.G. Wodehouse, Something Fresh:

“He was conscious of a wish that he understood girls. Girls, in his opinion, were odd.”
― P.G. Wodehouse, Something Fresh:

“You might just as well argue with a wolf on the trail of a fat Russian peasant.”
― P.G. Wodehouse, Something Fresh:

“Joan Valentine was a tall girl with wheat-gold hair and eyes as brightly blue as a November sky when the sun is shining on a frosty world. There was in them a little of November’s cold glitter, too, for Joan had been through much in the last few years; and experience, even when it does not harden, erects a defensive barrier between its children and the world.”
― P.G. Wodehouse, Something Fresh:

“George Emerson showed a trace of confusion. Being honest with himself, he had to admit that he did not exactly know what he did mean—if he meant anything. That, he felt rather bitterly, was the worst of Aline. She would never let a fellow’s good things go purely as good things; she probed and questioned and spoiled the whole effect. He was quite sure that when he began to speak he had meant something, but what it was escaped him for the moment.”
― P.G. Wodehouse, Something Fresh: