Saki quotes - page 2

I think oysters are more beautiful than any religion," [Clovis] resumed presently. "They not only forgive our unkindness to them; they justify it, they incite us to go on being perfectly horrid to them. Once they arrive at the supper-table they seem to enter thoroughly into the spirit of the thing. There's nothing in Christianity or Buddhism that quite matches the sympathetic unselfishness of an oyster. (Saki)
Addresses are given to us to conceal our whereabouts. View quote
Saki
I love Americans, but not when they try to talk French. What a blessing it is that they never try to talk English. View quote
Saki
Romance at short notice was her speciality. View quote
Saki
By insisting on having your bottle pointing to the north when the cork is being drawn, and calling the waiter Max, you may induce an impression on your guests which hours of laboured boasting might be powerless to achieve. For this purpose, however, the guests must be chosen as carefully as the wine. View quote
Saki
Whenever a massacre of Armenians is reported from Asia Minor, every one assumes that it has been carried out "under orders" from somewhere or another; no one seems to think that there are people who might like to kill their neighbours now and then. View quote
Saki
Mother, may I go and maffick, Tear around and hinder traffic? View quote
Saki
Sophie Chattel-Monkheim was a Socialist by conviction and a Chattel-Monkheim by marriage. View quote
Saki
It is an admitted fact that the ordinary tomtit of commerce has a sounder aesthetic taste than the average female relative in the country. View quote
Saki
I'm living so far beyond my income that we may almost be said to be living apart. View quote
Saki
You can't expect the fatted calf to share the enthusiasm of the angels over the prodigal's return. (Saki)
Sredni Vashtar went forth, His thoughts were red thoughts and his teeth were white. His enemies called for peace, but he brought them death. Sredni Vashtar the Beautiful. View quote
Saki
Temptations came to him, in middle age, tentatively and without insistence, like a neglected butcher-boy who asks for a Christmas box in February for no more hopeful reason than that he didn't get one in December. View quote
Saki
Put that bloody cigarette out! View quote
Saki
To have reached thirty," said Reginald, "is to have failed in life. View quote
Saki
Mrs. Troyle paused again, with the self-applauding air of one who has detected an asp lurking in an apple-charlotte. View quote
Saki
Madame was not best pleased at being contradicted on a professional matter, and when Madame lost her temper you usually found it afterwards in the bill. View quote
Saki
Reginald sat in a corner of the Princess's salon and tried to forgive the furniture, which started out with an obvious intention of being Louis Quinze, but relapsed at frequent intervals into Wilhelm II. View quote
Saki
Which reminds me of the man I read of in some sacred book who was given a choice of what he most desired. And because he didn't ask for titles and honours and dignities, but only for immense wealth, these other things came to him also." "I am sure you didn't read about him in any sacred book." "Yes; I fancy you will find him in Debrett. View quote
Saki
To die before being painted by Sargent is to go to Heaven prematurely. View quote
Saki
I found everyone talking nervously and feverishly of the weather and the war in South Africa, except Reginald, who was reclining in a comfortable chair with the dreamy, far-away look that a volcano might wear just after it had desolated entire villages. (Saki)
And they tried to rag me in the smoking room about not being able to hit a bird at five yards, a sort of bovine ragging that suggested cows buzzing round a gadfly and thinking they were teasing it. So I got up the next morning at early dawn – I know it was dawn, because there were lark-noises in the sky, and the grass looked as if it had been left out all night. View quote
Saki
Cyprian was a boy who carried with him through early life the wondering look of a dreamer, the eyes of one who sees things that are not visible to ordinary mortals, and invests the commonplace things of this world with qualities unsuspected by plainer folk – the eyes of a poet or a house agent. View quote
Saki
And like every woman who has ever preached repentance to unregenerate youth, she dwelt on the sin of an empty life, which always seems so much more scandalous in the country, where people rise early to see if a new strawberry has happened during the night. View quote
Saki
Reginald closed his eyes with the elaborate weariness of one who has rather nice eyelashes and thinks it useless to conceal the fact. View quote
Saki