Méfie-toi de celui qui rit avant de parler!
Tartarin sur les Alpes (1885; repr. New York: H. Holt, 1917) p. 89; Katharine Prescott Wormeley (trans.) Tartarin of Tarascon. To Which is Added Tartarin on the Alps (Boston: Little, Brown, 1900) p. 241.
Méfie-toi de celui qui rit avant de parler!
“The superior man acts before he speaks, and afterwards speaks according to his action.”
1940s–present, A Mencken Chrestomathy (1949)
Source: Chasm City (2001), Chapter 12 (p. 197).
“Will smiled the way Lucifer might have smiled, moments before he fell from Heaven.”
Source: Clockwork Angel
“He who kneels before God, can stand before any man.”
Chap. 11, "The Fat Man"
Dialogue between the characters Kasper Gutman (the "fat man") and Sam Spade.
Source: The Maltese Falcon (1930)
Context: "We begin well, sir," the fat man purred … "I distrust a man that says when. If he's got to be careful not to drink too much it's because he's not to be trusted when he does. … Well, sir, here's to plain speaking and clear understanding. … You're a close-mouthed man?"
Spade shook his head. "I like to talk."
"Better and better!" the fat man exclaimed. "I distrust a close-mouthed man. He generally picks the wrong time to talk and says the wrong things. Talking's something you can't do judiciously unless you keep in practice."
“He was a person who couldn't fake a smile but smiled often.”
Source: We Were Liars
