Quotes

"Fascism and communism both promise "social welfare," "social justice," and "fairness" to justify authoritarian means and extensive arbitrary and discretionary governmental powers." - F. A. Hayek"

"Life is a Bungling process and in no way educational." in James M. Cain

Jean Giraudoux who first said, “Only the mediocre are always at their best.”

If you have ten thousand regulations, you destroy all respect for the law. Sir Winston Churchill

"summum ius summa iniuria" ("More laws, more injustice.") Cicero

As Christopher Hitchens once put it, “The essence of tyranny is not iron law; it is capricious law.”

"Government’s view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it." Ronald Reagan

"Law is where you buy it." Raymond Chandler

"Why did God make so many damn fools and Democrats?" Clarence Day

"If I feel like feeding squirrels to the nuts, this is the place for it." - Cluny Brown

"Oh, pshaw! When yu' can't have what you choose, yu' just choose what you have." Owen Wister "The Virginian"

Oscar Wilde said about the death scene in Little Nell, you would have to have a heart of stone not to laugh.

Thomas More's definition of government as "a conspiracy of rich men procuring their own commodities under the name and title of a commonwealth.” ~ Winston S. Churchill, A History of the English Speaking Peoples

“Laws are like cobwebs, which may catch small flies, but let wasps and hornets break through.” ~ Jonathon Swift

Sunday, April 18, 2010

Preston Sturges ... for Richer or Poorer

Preston Sturges was one of the best screenwriters and directors. He made two of my favorite films with some of the most insightful quotes to be spoken on nitrate.
He was able have great stars in his best films, including Henry Fonda, Barbara Stanwick, Joel McCrea and Claudette Colbert. The one thing I always found imponderable was why he had Eddy Bracken star in his later films.
In the LA TV market, Tom Hatten, the former "Popeye the Sailor Man" cartoon show sketch doodler, M.C.-ed an old movie show. He was terrific at introducing movies from the Universal and Paramount Library. He gave the viewers the film's historical and biographical context and thankfully he introduced Preston Sturges' films to me.

Sullivan's Travels (1941)
ON POVERTY

Burrows the Butler: Good morning, sir.
Burrows: I don't like it at all, sir. Fancy dress, I take it?
John L. Sullivan: What's the matter with it?
Burrows: I have never been sympathetic to the caricaturing of the poor and needy, sir.
John L. Sullivan: Who's caricaturing?
John L. Sullivan: I'm going out on the road to find out what it's like to be poor and needy and then I'm going to make a picture about it.
Burrows: If you'll permit me to say so, sir, the subject is not an interesting one. The poor know all about poverty and only the morbid rich would find the topic glamorous.
John L. Sullivan: But I'm doing it for the poor. Don't you understand?
Burrows: I doubt if they would appreciate it, sir. They rather resent the invasion of their privacy, I believe quite properly, sir. Also, such excursions can be extremely dangerous, sir. I worked for a gentleman once who likewise, with two friends, accoutered themselves as you have, sir, and then went out for a lark. They have not been heard from since.
Burrows: You see, sir, rich people and theorists - who are usually rich people - think of poverty in the negative, as the lack of riches - as disease might be called the lack of health. But it isn't, sir. Poverty is not the lack of anything, but a positive plague, virulent in itself, contagious as cholera, with filth, criminality, vice and despair as only a few of its symptoms. It is to be stayed away from, even for purposes of study. It is to be shunned.
Sullivan:
Well, you seem to have made quite a study of it.
Burrows: (dryly)
Quite unwillingly, sir. Will that be all, sir?
(Sullivan watches him exit, then turns to the valet.)
Sullivan:
He gets a little gruesome every once in a while.
The Valet:
Always reading books, sir.


"There's a lot to be said for making people laugh. Did you know that that's all some people have? It isn't much, but it's better than nothing in this cockeyed caravan."--John Lloyd Sullivan (Joel McCrea)


The Palm Beach Story (1942)

Gerry Jeffers: Anyway, men don't get smarter as they get older. They just lose their hair.

Princess Centimillia: I'd marry Captain McGloo tomorrow, even with that name.
John D. Hackensacker III: And divorce him the next month.
Princess Centimillia: Nothing is permanent in this world - except for Roosevelt.

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