38 quotes
The more snuff Frederick took, the more memoirs he wrote. He loved literature, but not enough to let it alone and stop trying to improve it.
The Decline and Fall of Practically Everybody (1950)
Attila was now sixtyish. His mind was weakening and he decided to marry again, as he had been terribly misunderstood the first three hundred times.
The Decline and Fall of Practically Everybody (1950)
He believed you could reach the East by going west. That is true enough, if you don't overdo it. You can reach Long Island City by taking the ferry for Weehawken, but nobody does it on purpose.
The Decline and Fall of Practically Everybody (1950)
Aristotle was famous for knowing everything. He taught that the brain exists merely to cool the blood and is not involved in the process of thinking. This is true only of certain persons.
The Decline and Fall of Practically Everybody (1950)
[Footnote] Carthage was governed by its rich men and was therefore a plutocracy. Rome was also governed by its rich men and was therefore a republic.
The Decline and Fall of Practically Everybody (1950)
They [Xanthippus, Aristides the Just, and Themistocles] all won lasting renown by constantly accusing one another of peculation and fraud and calling names at election time.
The Decline and Fall of Practically Everybody (1950)
The moral of the story of the Pilgrims is that if you work hard all your life and behave yourself every minute and take no time out for fun you will break practically even, if you can borrow enough money to pay your taxes.
The Decline and Fall of Practically Everybody (1950)
Thenceforth Jeanne's deeper infatuations always seemed to concern gentlemen of a certain age and standing in the financial world. Older men say such interesting things, and Jeanne was always a good listener. Anything you said was news to her.
The Decline and Fall of Practically Everybody (1950)
Then Hamilcar … was drowned in 228 B.C. while crossing a stream with a herd of elephants.
The Decline and Fall of Practically Everybody (1950)
[Footnote] Great men seem to have only one purpose in life — getting into history. That may be all they are good for.
The Decline and Fall of Practically Everybody (1950)
Catherine announced that he died of hemorrhoidal colic, and people who went to the funeral wondered why, in that case, the large bandage was tied around his neck. And that, gentle reader, is what comes from playing with dolls at the wrong time.
The Decline and Fall of Practically Everybody (1950)
After a while Louis let her [du Barry] draw her own drafts on the comptroller-general. It saved time and bother in a field he much disliked. Jeanne never took more than she needed for urgent current expenses — that is, whatever was in the treasury.
The Decline and Fall of Practically Everybody (1950)
[on the Borgias' illegitimate births] All children are natural, but some are more so than others and are therefore known as natural children.
The Decline and Fall of Practically Everybody (1950)
The Egyptians of the First Dynasty were already civilized in most respects. They had hieroglyphics, metal weapons for killing foreigners, numerous government officials, death, and taxes.
The Decline and Fall of Practically Everybody (1950)
[Footnote] It's easy to see the faults in people, I know; and it's harder to see the good. Especially when the good isn't there.
The Decline and Fall of Practically Everybody (1950)
Whenever a thousand or so of his men would fall off an Alp, he [Hannibal] would tell the rest to cheer up, the elephants were all right. If someone had given him a shove at the right moment, much painful history might have been avoided.
The Decline and Fall of Practically Everybody (1950)
Egypt has been called the Gift of the Nile. Once every year the river overflows its banks, depositing a layer of rich alluvial soil on the parched ground. Then it recedes and soon the whole countryside, as far as the eye can reach, is covered with Egyptologists.
The Decline and Fall of Practically Everybody (1950)
[Footnote] He [Alexander] was often extremely brutal to his captives, whom he sold into slavery, tortured to death, or forced to learn Greek.
The Decline and Fall of Practically Everybody (1950)