Henry Thoreau (the poet who invented a lead pencil and refused to patent it and cash in on it) enjoyed looking at birds through a telescope. He said, “A gun gives you the body not the bird”.
John Lentell
26th January, 1971
Friday’s Piece
We can have a little secrecy without having a Government that is altogether secret. Each added measure of secrecy, however, measurably diminishes our freedom.
(James Russell Wiggins, 1903 – 2000)
John Lentell
25th January, 1971
Thursday’s Piece
When Beau Brummel was asked the secret of his success with women, he answered: “Oh, I merely treat the charwomen like a duchesses, and the duchesses like charwomen”.
John Lentell
24th January, 1971
Wednesday’s Piece
He was so narrow minded he could see through a keyhole with two eyes.
John Lentell
23rd January, 1971
Tuesday’s Piece
We live in a world that is part reality, part dreams; the tension between the two is the source of our creativity.
(Edwin Warner – Time essay, 18th Jan, 1971)
John Lentell
22nd January, 1971
Monday’s Piece
Perhaps the only true dignity of man is his capacity to despise himself.
(George Santayana, 1863 – 1952)
John Lentell
21st January, 1971
Sunday’s Piece
Remember the most beautiful things in the world are the most useless; peacocks and lilies for example.
(John Ruskin, 1819 – 1900)
John Lentell
20th January, 1971
Saturday’s Piece
Grow up as soon as you can. It pays. The only time you can live fully is from thirty to sixty.
(Hervey Allen, 1889 – 1949)
John Lentell
19th January, 1971
Friday’s Piece
Tobacco is a dirty weed. I like it.
It satisfies no normal need. I like it.
It makes you thin, it makes you lean,
It takes the hair right off your bean.
It’s the worse darn stuff I’ve ever seen.
I like it.
(Graham Lee Hemminger, 1895 – 1949)
John Lentell
18th January, 1971
Thursday’s Piece
Tea! Thou soft, thou sober, sage, and venerable liquid,thou innocent pretence for bringing the wicked of both sexes together in a morning; thou female tongue-running, smile-smoothing, heart-opening, wink-tippling cordial….
(Colley Cibber, 1671 – 1757)
John Lentell
17th January, 1971
Wednesday’s Piece
Twixt optimist and pessimist
The difference is droll..
The optimist sees the doughnut,
The pessimist, the hole.
John Lentell
16th June, 1971
Tuesday’s Piece
Happiness is like a kiss – in order to get any good out of it you have to give it to somebody else.
John Lentell
15th January, 1971
Monday’s Piece
One secretary to another:
“If I can’t spell the words in the first place how does he expect me to find them in a dictionary?”
John Lentell
14th January, 1971
Sunday’s Piece
A statistician is a man who draws a mathematically precise line from an unwarranted assumption to a foregone conclusion.
(Anon)
John Lentell
13th January, 1971
Saturday’s Piece
The only means of strengthening ones intellect is to make up one’s mind about nothing – to let the mind be a thoroughfare for all thoughts. Not a select party.
(John Keats, 1795 – 1821)
John Lentell
12th January, 1971
Friday’s Piece
Inscription on tombstone:
“This man died at 30;
He was buried at 70.”
John Lentell
11th January, 1971
Thursday’s Piece
I live in a constant endeavour to fence against the infirmities of ill health, and other evils of life, by mirth; being firmly persuaded that every time a man smiles —but much more so, when he laughs, that it adds something to this Fragment of Life.
(Laurence Sterne, 1713 – 1768)
John Lentell
10th January, 1971
Wednesday’s Piece
If men knew all that women think, they’d be twenty times more daring.
(Alphonse Karr, 1808 – 1890)
John Lentell
9th January, 1971
Tuesday’s Piece
PREJUDICE: being down on something you’re not up on.
(G.W. Allport, 1897 – 1967)
John Lentell
8th January, 1971
Monday’s Piece
Farm: what a city man dreams of at 5 pm, never at 5 am.
John Lentell
7th January, 1971
Lentell Soup 