1001 insults, put-downs and comebacks - Steven Price

"The stupid person's idea of a clever person."--Elizabeth Bowen on Aldous Huxley"That insolent little ruffian, that crapulous lout. When he quitted a sofa, he left behind him a smear."--Norman Cameron on Dylan ThomasAn insult can be bad-mannered, offensive, and infuriating, but every one of us has surely had one of those moments when we just wish we had thought of a good one. Unlike most of us, however, there are those who always seem to have the perfect comeback. 1001 Insults, Put-Downs, and Comebacks gathers together the very sharpest of these barbs from a wide variety of sources, with some of the wickedest put-downs from the literary, political, and entertainment worlds, along with many others, including:-"A large shaggy dog unchained scouring the beaches of the world and baying at the moon."--Robert Louis Stevenson on Walt Whitman -"The triumph of sugar over diabetes."--George Nathan on J. M. Barrie -"He was another one that was a complete fizzle . . . Pierce didn't know what was going on, and even if he had, he wouldn't have known what to do about it."--Harry Truman on Franklin Pierce -"He is such an infernal liar."--Ulysses Grant on Andrew Johnson -"Just the omission of Jane Austen's books alone would make a fairly good library out of a library that hadn't a book in it."--Mark Twain-"I've had a perfectly wonderful evening. But this wasn't it."--Groucho Marx -"Every time I look at you I get a fierce desire to be lonesome."--Oscar Levant