Russell Lynes

“the only graceful way to accept an insult is to ignore it; if you cant ignore it, top it; if you cant top it, laugh at it; if you cant laugh at it, its probably deserved”

“Camouflage is a game we all like to play, but our secrets are as surely revealed by what we want to seem to be as by what we want to conceal.”

“It is always well to accept your own shortcomings with candor but to regard those of your friends with polite incredulity.”

“A lady is nothing very specific. One man's lady is another man's woman; sometimes, one man's lady is another man's wife. Definitions overlap but they almost never coincide.”

“Cynicism is the intellectual cripple's substitute for intelligence.”

“In my estimation, the only thing that is more to be guarded against than bad taste is good taste.”

“Ragtime was a fanfare for the 20th century.”