Algernon, Act I.
Variant: All women become like their mothers. That is their tragedy. No man does. That’s his.
Source: The Importance of Being Earnest (1895)
ZMskyuza
@ttEstiNg2023, member from Dec. 30, 2023
Groucho Marx
(1890–1977) American comedian
As quoted in Halliwell’s Filmgoer’s Companion (1984) by Leslie Halliwell
Variant: I find TV very educational. Every time someone switches it on I go into another room and read a good book.
“You have enemies? Good. That means you’ve stood up for something, sometime in your life.”
Victor Hugo
book
Things Seen
Often attributed to Churchill, this thought was originally expressed by the French author Victor Hugo in Villemain (1845), as follows: You have enemies? Why, it is the story of every man who has done a great deed or created a new idea. It is the cloud which thunders around everything that shines. Fame must have enemies, as light must have gnats. Do not bother yourself about it; disdain. Keep your mind serene as you keep your life clear.
Villemain is a brief segment taken from Hugo’s Choses Vues (Things Seen), a running journal Hugo kept of events he witnessed. The original French versions of these journals were published after Hugo's death.
Misattributed
“When I was a kid my parents moved a lot, but I always found them.”
Rodney Dangerfield
(1921–2004) American actor and comedian
