This is an oldie which has been travelling around the Internet for a while, but is worth preserving here. These glorious insults are from an era that valued cleverness with words; an era when the leaders of society didn’t need to use profanity or the middle finger to make their point.
He had delusions of adequacy
-Walter Kerr
He has all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire
-Winston Churchill
He has never been known to use a word that might send a reader to the dictionary.
-William Faulkner (about Ernest Hemingway)
I didn’t attend the funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying I approved of it.
-Mark Twain
He has no enemies, but is intensely disliked by his friends.
-Oscar Wilde
I feel so miserable without you; it’s almost like having you here.
-Stephen Bishop
He is a self-made man and worships his creator.
-John Bright
I’ve just learned about his illness. Let’s hope it’s nothing trivial.
-Irvin S. Cobb
He is not only dull himself; he is the cause of dullness in others.
-Samuel Johnson
He is simply a shiver looking for a spine to run up.
-Paul Keating
In order to avoid being called a flirt, she always yielded easily.
-Charles, Count Talleyrand
He loves nature in spite of what it did to him.
-Forrest Tucker
Why do you sit there looking like an envelope without any address on it?
-Mark Twain
His mother should have thrown him away and kept the stork.
-Mae West
Some cause happiness wherever they go; others, whenever they go.
-Oscar Wilde
He has Van Gogh’s ear for music.
-Billy Wilder
I’ve had a perfectly wonderful evening. But I’m afraid this wasn’t it.
-Groucho Marx