Quotes by Stephen Leacock

“Advertising - A judicious mixture of flattery and threats.”

“The writing of solid, instructive stuff fortified by facts and figures is easy enough. There is no trouble in writing a scientific treatise on the folk-lore of Central China, or a statistical enqui...”

“Now, the essence, the very spirit of Christmas is that we first make believe a thing is so, and lo, it presently turns out to be so.”

“I detest life-insurance agents: they always argue that I shall some day die, which is not so.”

“The classics are only primitive literature. They belong to the same class as primitive machinery and primitive music and primitive medicine.”

“Advertising: the science of arresting the human intelligence long enough to get money from it.”

“I am a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it.”

“A half truth, like half a brick, is always more forcible as an argument than a whole one. It carries better.”

“It takes a good deal of physical courage to ride a horse. This, however, I have. I get it at about forty cents a flask, and take it as required.”

“Many a man in love with a dimple makes the mistake of marrying the whole girl.”

“Men are able to trust one another, knowing the exact degree of dishonesty they are entitled to expect.”

“Personally, I would sooner have written Alice in Wonderland than the whole Encyclopedia Britannica.”

“It is to be observed that 'angling' is the name given to fishing by people who can't fish.”

“It's called political economy because it is has nothing to do with either politics or economy.”

“When actors begin to think it is time for a change. They are not fitted for it.”

“Advertising may be described as the science of arresting the human intelligence long enough to get money from it.”

“The sorrows and disasters of Europe always brought fortune to America.”

“The Lord said 'let there be wheat' and Saskatchewan was born.”

“In Canada we have enough to do keeping up with two spoken languages ... so we just go right ahead and use English for literature Scotch for sermons and American for conversation.”

“I'm a great believer in luck. I find the harder I work the more I have of it.”