“It's discouraging to think how many people are shocked by honesty and how few by deceit.”
Source: Blithe Spirit
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Noel Coward49
English playwright, composer, director, actor and singer 1899–1973Related quotes
Jane Taylor (1783–1824) British poet
"Essays in Rhyme" from On Morals and Manners, Prejudice, Essay i. Stanza 45, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).
“How did thinking that benefited the few gain the acceptance of the many?”
Herbert Schiller (1919–2000) American media critic
Source: Living In The Number One Country (2000), Chapter Four, Communication Theorists Of Empire, p. 108
“How many deserters there are from the rigours of virtue, how few from the cause of love!”
Antoine François Prévost (1697–1763) French novelist
Combien trouve-t-on de déserteurs de la sévère vertu et combien en trouvez-vous peu de l'amour?
Part 1, p. 123; translation p. 64.
L'Histoire du chevalier des Grieux et de Manon Lescaut (1731)
Louis L'Amour (1908–1988) Novelist, short story writer
Source: The Lonesome Gods (1983), Ch. 19
“Think how many blameless lives are brightened by the blazing indiscretions of other people.”
Saki (1870–1916) British writer
"Reginald at the Carlton"
Reginald (1904)
Jack Valenti (1921–2007) President of the MPAA
On being informed there were no legitimate DVD players for Linux after four years, in "Real Dialogue: The Tech interviews Jack Valenti" by Keith J. Winstein of The Tech (16 April 2004) http://www-tech.mit.edu/V124/N20/ValentiIntervie.20f.html
“How many times does an angel fall?
How many people lie instead of talking tall?”
David Bowie (1947–2016) British musician, actor, record producer and arranger
"Blackstar"
Song lyrics, Blackstar (2016)
Context: Something happened on the day he died
Spirit rose a metre and stepped aside
Somebody else took his place, and bravely cried
(I’m a blackstar, I’m a blackstar) How many times does an angel fall?
How many people lie instead of talking tall?
He trod on sacred ground, he cried loud into the crowd
(I’m a blackstar, I’m a blackstar, I’m not a gangster)