Home > Work > Fer-de-Lance (Nero Wolfe, #1)
1 " To pronounce French properly you must have within you a deep antipathy, not to say scorn, for some of the most sacred of the Anglo-Saxon prejudices. "
― Rex Stout , Fer-de-Lance (Nero Wolfe, #1)
2 " [A] pessimist gets nothing but pleasant surprises, an optimist nothing but unpleasant. "
3 " ...it is our good fortune that the exigencies of birth and training furnish all of us with the opportunities for snobbery. "
4 " ... nature has arranged that when you overcome a given inertia the resulting momentum is proportionate. If I were to begin borrowing money I would end by devising means of persuading the Secretary of the Treasury to lend me the gold reserve. "
5 " calm. "
6 " You know what my boss says? He says that skepticism is a good watchdog if you know when to take the leash off. "
7 " As long as I live I'll never forget the time he had a bank president pinched, or rather I did, on no evidence whatever except that the fountain pen on his desk was dry. I was never so relieved in my life as when the guy shot himself an hour later. "
8 " I understand the technique of eccentricity; it would be futile for a man to labor at establishing a reputation for oddity if he were ready at the slightest provocation to revert to normal action. "
9 " but I had long since learned from Wolfe that the corner the light doesn’t reach is the one the dime rolled to. "
10 " The essence of sainthood is expiation. "
11 " skepticism is a good watchdog if you know when to take the leash off. "
12 " The corner the light doesn’t reach is the one the dime rolled to. "
13 " ...he does not admit this, but no man is so poor that he cannot afford a what if... "
14 " You are so engrossed in the fact that you are oblivious to its environment "
15 " Third, I understand the technique of eccentricity; it would be futile for a man to labor at establishing a reputation for oddity if he were ready at the slightest provocation to revert to normal action. "
16 " seemed likely to remain so for another seven, or even twenty-seven, for the only girl I had ever been really soft on had found another bargain she liked "
17 " He smacked his lips, tasting the fifth brand, and holding up the glass looked through the amber at the light. "This is a pleasant surprise, Archie. 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 far, none of this is sewage. "
18 " I have just been explaining to Mr. Anderson that the ingenious theory of the Barstow case which he is trying to embrace is an offense to truth and an outrage on justice, and since I cherish the one and am on speaking terms with the other, it is my duty to demonstrate to him its inadequacy. "
19 " Some day, Archie, when I decide you are no longer worth tolerating, you will have to marry a woman of very modest mental capacity to get an appropriate audience for your wretched sarcasms. "
20 " amanuensis "
