“Nigel: I don't regard clever as a dirty word.
Jack: Rule one, it's never clever to appear to be clever. Long words actually hurt people, you know that? Rule two, speak slowly and clearly as though to a group of malignant kids. Rule three, keep it short. Very short. Half-truths take less time than whole ones, old mate. Oh and I see you've let your locks sprout a bit. Get 'em cut, there's a good chap. Rolling stones gather no votes.”
Vote, vote, vote for Nigel Barton (1965)
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Dennis Potter19
English television dramatist, screenwriter and journalist 1935–1994Related quotes
Robert Kuok (1923) Malaysian businessman
Cap 3 "Under the Japanese Heel"
“Half of seeming clever is keeping your mouth shut at the right times.”
Patrick Rothfuss book The Wise Man's Fear
Source: The Wise Man's Fear
“I am so clever that sometimes I don't understand a single word of what I am saying.”
Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish writer and poet
Source: The Happy Prince and Other Stories
“You're clever, quick with words,”
Laxmi Prasad Devkota (1909–1959) Nepali poet
Lunatic. 3
पागल (The Lunatic)
Context: You're clever, quick with words, your exact equations are right forever and ever. But in my arithmetic, take one from one- and there's still one left. You get along with five senses, I with a sixth. You have a brain, friend, I have a heart. A rose is just a rose to you- to me it's Helen and Padmini. You are forceful prose I liquid verse. When you freeze I melt, When you're clear I get muddled and then it works the other way around. Your world is solid, mine vapor, yours coarse, mine subtle. You think a stone reality; harsh cruelty is real for you. I try to catch a dream, the way you grasp the rounded truth of cold, sweet coin.
“How clever are you, my dear! You never mean a single word you say!”
Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish writer and poet
