I loathe the expression "What makes him tick." It is the American mind, looking for a simple and singular solution, that uses the foolish expression. A person not only ticks, but also chimes and strikes the hour, falls and breaks and has to be put together again, and sometimes stops like an electric clock in a thunderstorm.~James Thurber

I must take issue with the term "a mere child," for it has been my invariable experience that the company of a mere child is infinitely preferable to that of a mere adult.~Fran Lebowitz

"No comment" is a splendid expression. I am using it again and again.~Winston Churchill

The composition of this book has been for the author a long struggle of escape, and so must the reading of it be for most readers if the author’s assault upon them is to be successful,—a struggle of escape from habitual modes of thought and expression. The ideas which are here expressed so laboriously are extremely simple and should be obvious. The difficulty lies, not in the new ideas, but in escaping from the old ones, which ramify, for those brought up as most of us have been, into every corner of our minds.

John Maynard Keynes (1883-1946), The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money, Preface, p. viii (1936).

I wonder if the guy who invented the expression 'smoother than a baby's bottom' had kids, because if he didn't, you gotta be concerned about how he tested his hypothesis
~ Slick Sharkey

Old expressions are the best, and short ones even better
~ Winston Churchill

As a matter of fact, is an expression that precedes many an expression that isn't.
~ Dr. Laurence J. Peter

"Grant me some wild expressions, Heavens, or I shall burst."


George Farquhar (1678 - 1707) Irish dramatist
"Lady Lurewell, in The Constant Couple, act 5, sc. 3."