Nigel Rees Quotes

• Democracy is too good to share with just anybody.

  Nigel Rees

  Democracy, Share

  44 Copy quote

• Lord Castlerosse was taken to task by Nancy Astor over the size of his stomach. 'What would you say if that was on a woman?' she asked, pointedly. 'Half an hour ago it was,' he replied.

  Nigel Rees

  Taken, Tasks, Half

  7 Copy quote

• It is part of politics to make things look better than they really are. What is a spin doctor but a serial euphemiser?

  Nigel Rees

  Doctors, Looks, Spin Doctors

  "The art of political euphemisms", news.bbc.co.uk. August 5, 2008.

  4 Copy quote

• I was terribly shy and never said anything in class. Then I started getting into school plays. When you've got words to say, you've got a sort of armour.

  Nigel Rees

  School, Class, Play

  7 Copy quote

• Rees's First Law of Quotations: When in doubt, ascribe all quotations to George Bernard Shaw.

  Nigel Rees

  Law, Doubt, Firsts

  Nigel Rees (2002). “Mark my words: great quotations and the stories behind them”

  4 Copy quote

• People will say what they want to say, in the way they want to.

  Nigel Rees

  People, Want, Way

  "In other words ..." by Nigel Rees, www.theguardian.com. October 14, 2006.

  4 Copy quote

• Euphemism in the workplace does not end with job descriptions. It reaches a pusillanimous peak at the other end of the work process - in dismissal.

  Nigel Rees

  Jobs, Doe, Workplace

  "In other words ..." by Nigel Rees, www.theguardian.com. October 14, 2006.

  4 Copy quote

• I was absolutely a non-starter at games. My report for rugby said, 'Nigel's chief contribution is his presence on the field.' I used to pray for rain and sometimes it did rain - and we played anyway.

  Nigel Rees

  Rain, Games, Fields

  4 Copy quote

• I am only too aware that I am open to Rees's Second Law of Quotation: "However sure you are that you have attributed a quotation correctly, an earlier source will be pointed out to you."

  Nigel Rees

  Law, Source, Quotations

  "Brewer's Famous Quotations" by Nigel Rees, London: Cassell, (p. x), 1994.

  4 Copy quote

• How come there's only one Monopolies Commission?

  Nigel Rees

  Funny, Laughter, Monopoly

  10 Copy quote

• I was broadcast-struck from an early age; I had saved up for a tape recorder and started making programmes.

  Nigel Rees

  Age, Tape, Recorders

  4 Copy quote

• My toils in the quotation field have led me to formulate two or three laws about the way people use and abuse quotations. My first law is: When in doubt, ascribe all quotations to Bernard Shaw - which I don't mean to be taken literally, but as a general observation of the habit people have of attaching remarks to the nearest obvious speaker. Churchill, Wilde, Orson Welles and Alexander Woollcott are other useful figures upon whom to father remarks when you don't know who really said them.

  Nigel Rees

  Father, Taken, Mean

  "Sayings of the Century". Book by Nigel Rees, 1984.

  4 Copy quote

• I got into New College, Oxford. The ethos was that you could work - or not.

  Nigel Rees

  College, Ethos, Oxford

  4 Copy quote

• My job involves searching for 'lost' quotations - that is, trying to find out who came up with a quotable saying that lingers in someone's mind and which they wish to use for their own purpose and which they cannot find in conventional dictionaries of quotation.

  Nigel Rees

  Jobs, Mind, Wish

  4 Copy quote

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