The Complete Short Stories

Book cover

Penguin Adult

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Book cover

The Complete Short Stories

Saki

Quotes

  1. The sacred duty of hospitality.

  2. [...] be surrounded by Americans trying to talk French? No, thank you. I love Americans, but not when they try to talk French. What a blessing it is that they never try to talk English.

    spoken by Susan Mebberley · The Chronicles of Clovis · Adrian · p. 142

  3. [...] cats, [...] wonderful creatures which have assimilated themselves so marvellously with our civilization while retaining all their highly developed feral instincts.

    spoken by Mr. Appin · The Chronicles of Clovis · Tobermory · p. 109

  4. [...] the Duchess declared I shouldn't write anything nasty in her book, and I said I shouldn't write anything in her nasty book, so there wasn't a very wide point of difference between us.

    Reginald · Reginald's Rubaiyat · p. 37

  5. [...] the Mayor gave us a graphic account of a struggle he had with a wounded bear. I privately wished that the bears would win sometimes on these occasions; at least they wouldn't go vapouring about it afterwards.

    Reginald · Reginald's Christmas Revel · p. 34

  6. The young have aspirations that never come to pass, the old have reminiscences of what never happened. It's only the middle-aged who are really conscious of their limitations [...].

    spoken by Reginald · Reginald · Reginald at the Carlton · p. 25

  7. Life is full of disappointments, [...] and I suppose the art of being happy is to disguise them as illusions.

    spoken by The Duchess Irene · Reginald · Reginald at the Carlton · p. 25

  8. [...] if you want a lesson in elaborate artificiality, just watch the studied unconcern of a Persian cat entering a crowded salon, and then go and practise it for a fortnight.

    Reginald · Reginald on Worries · p. 20

  9. The reason one's elders know so comparatively little is because they have to unlearn so much that they acquired by way of education before we were born.

    Reginald · Reginald on Worries · p. 20

  10. [...] never be flippantly rude to any inoffensive, grey-bearded stranger that you may meet in pine forests or hotel smoking-rooms on the Continent. It always turns out to be the King of Sweden.

    spoken by Reginald · Reginald · Reginald at the Theatre · p. 14

  11. [...] the art of life was the avoidance of the unattainable.

    spoken by Reginald · Reginald · Reginald on the Academy · p. 11

  12. There ought [...] to be technical education classes on the science of present-giving. No one seems to have the faintest notion of what any one else wants, and the prevalent ideas on the subject are not creditable to a civilized community.

    spoken by Reginald · Reginald · Reginald on Christmas Presents · p. 8