Introductio ad prudentiam: Part II (1727), Gnomologia (1732)
“He who makes a beast out of himself gets rid of the pain of being a man.”
Source: Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe
Source: "Too Much Happiness", in Too Much Happiness (2009)
“Man is an evasive beast, given to cultivating strange notions about himself.”
Introductory, "Bootstrap-lifting"
The Profits of Religion (1918)
Context: Man is an evasive beast, given to cultivating strange notions about himself. He is humiliated by his simian ancestry, and tries to deny his animal nature, to persuade himself that he is not limited by its weaknesses nor concerned in its fate. And this impulse may be harmless, when it is genuine. But what are we to say when we see the formulas of heroic self-deception made use of by unheroic self-indulgence? What are we to say when we see asceticism preached to the poor by fat and comfortable retainers of the rich? What are we to say when we see idealism become hypocrisy, and the moral and spiritual heritage of mankind twisted to the knavish purposes of class-cruelty and greed? What I say is — Bootstrap-lifting!
Letter (1801-05-12) [Letters of Jane Austen -- Brabourne Edition]
Letters
“He who makes a beast of himself gets rid of the pain of being a man.”
Quoted in "Anecdotes of the Revd. Percival Stockdale" (1809) in Johnsonian Miscellanies (1897), vol. II, p. 333, edited by George Birkbeck Hill; also quoted in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas by Hunter S. Thompson, in the Avenged Sevenfold song "Bat Country", and in Kingdom S02E04.
Introductory Essay, p. xiv
The Encyclopedia of Modern Murder 1962-1983 (1983)
“And it ain't a fit night out for man nor beast.”
The Fatal Glass of Beer (1933). Fields adapts an English proverb that was popular in the 17th century. (James Howell, English Proverbs (1659): "When the wind is in the east it is good for neither man nor beast"; John Ray, English Proverbs (1670): "When the wind's in the East, It's neither good for man nor beast." In rhyming "east" with "beast" the proverb refers to weather patterns in the British isles.)
“Mr. Fields, could you tell me the reason for your well-known aversion to water?” “Delighted, my dear,” he replied with suddenly increased bonhomie. “Never touch the stuff—very unhealthy. Fish fuck in it.”
Source: Halliwell’s Hundred: A filmgoer’s nostalgic choice of films from the golden age By Leslie Halliwell, New York, NY: Charles Scribner’s Sons 1982, Pg. 231: "The story goes that a polite young lady journalist invited him to lunch at Chasen’s in hope of a story. Lunch in his case was a liquid affair, and left him uncommunicative. Noticing the passion with which he shooed away the hovering waiter with the ice water jug, she seized an opening. “Mr. Fields, could you tell me the reason for your well-known aversion to water?” “Delighted, my dear,” he replied with suddenly increased bonhomie. “Never touch the stuff—very unhealthy. Fish fuck in it.”
"A Far Cry from Africa" (1962)
