The World’s Wit and Humor: An Encyclopedia in 15 Volumes. 1906.
Vols. VI–IX: British | | | | Odd Ideas | | By Lionel Strachey (1864–1927) |
| | | TO be fashionable, either in this world or the next, you must belong to the minority—that is, the best people. | 1 |
| The only life to be endured for ever would be one of unfulfilled desires. Therefore pray for descent after death: in that place never a single wish will be gratified. Paradise itself offers no such inducement. | 2 |
| Who says marriage is a failure? It is nothing of the kind—provided you let it alone. | 3 |
| To be patriotic, hate all nations but your own; to be religious, all sects but your own; to be moral, all pretences but your own. | 4 |
| A law is a caprice of the majority. | 5 |
| Any woman in the world—even a nun—would rather lose her virtue than her reputation. | 6 |
| Statistics are mendacious truths. | 7 |
| “The English,” said Napoleon, “are a nation of shop-keepers.” Their cousins, the Americans, are a nation of commercial travellers. | 8 |
| Americans guess because they are in too great a hurry to think. | 9 |
| A “brilliant epigram” is a solemn platitude gone to a masquerade ball. | 10 |
| When humour is meant to be taken seriously, it’s no joke. | 11 | | |
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