141 Quotes by Christopher Buckley

How many times had those awful words – “I know what I’m doing” – been uttered throughout history as prelude to disaster?

Speechwriters are fundamentally Calvinist: They become nervous if their principals exhibit free will and depart from the prepared text.

People believe unbelievable things because it’s self-flattering to think that you are intellectually daring enough to accept what others find preposterous.

The vice-president’s tongue is several time zones ahead of his brain.

The best advice on writing I’ve ever received was from William Zinsser: ‘Be grateful for every word you can cut.’

Justices look solemn in their formal black robes, but every so often they like to have a little fun by taking on a strange case, or overturning a presidential election, that sort of thing.

There is no point in arguing if you are not susceptible to reason. Embrace your cynicism. Hug it.

In our corrupt times, the virtue of a Pontiff is commended when he does not surpass the wickedness of other men. – Francesco Guicciardini, History of Italy, 1561.

It’s the fate of many propositions,” Terry said, “to begin as heresies and end as truths. I read that somewhere, anyway.