The World’s Wit and Humor: An Encyclopedia in 15 Volumes. 1906. 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
