Home > Work > Fer-de-Lance/The League of Frightened Men
1 " The back-seat driving of the less charitable emotions often makes me wonder that the brain does not desert the wheel entirely, in righteous exasperation. Not "
― Rex Stout , Fer-de-Lance/The League of Frightened Men
2 " Good heavens.” Wolfe pushed back his chair, not of course with violence, but with determination. “Archie. Understand this. As a man of action you are tolerable, you are even competent. But I will not for one moment put up with you as a psychologist. I "
3 " At first, yes. But a long intimacy frees you of that illusion, and it also acquaints you with their scantiness of character. The effect they have produced on you is only their bluff. There is not such a thing as too much beauty. "
4 " It was delightful; but on awakening this morning I felt so completely water-logged that with only myself to consider I would have remained in bed to await disintegration. Names battered at me: Archie Goodwin, Fritz Brenner, Theodore Horstmann; responsibilities; and I arose to resume my burden. Not that I complain; the responsibilities are mutual; but my share can be done only by me. "
5 " I would not have believed it. That of course is the advantage of being a pessimist; a pessimist gets nothing but pleasant surprises, an optimist nothing but unpleasant. So "
6 " the Anglo-Saxon theory of the treatment of emotions and desserts: freeze them and hide them in your belly. She "
7 " —“To assert dignity is to lose it. "
8 " pessimist gets nothing but pleasant surprises, an optimist nothing but unpleasant. "
9 " culture was like money, it comes easiest to those who need it least. "
10 " To be broke is not a disgrace, it is only a catastrophe. "