Saki Quotes

78 Sourced Quotes

A little inaccuracy sometimes saves tons of explanation.

Saki
You needn't tell me that a man who doesn't love oysters and asparagus and good wines has got a soul, or a stomach either. He's simply got the instinct for being unhappy highly developed.

Saki
We all know that Prime Ministers are wedded to the truth, but like other married couples they sometimes live apart.

Saki
People talk vaguely about the innocence of a little child, but they take mighty good care not to let it out of their sight for twenty minutes.

Saki
A relative of mine... spends his time producing improved breeds of sheep and pigs and chickens. So patronising and irritating to teh Almighty, I should think.

Saki
It's no use growing older if you only learn new ways of misbehaving yourself.

Saki
When people grow gradually rich their requirements and standard of living expand in proportion, while their present-giving instincts often remain in the undeveloped condition of their earlier days. Something showy and not-too-expensive in a shop is their only conception of the ideal gift.

Saki
Hating anything in the way of ill-natured gossip ourselves, we are always grateful to those who do it for us and do it well.

Saki
Confront a child, a puppy, and a kitten with a sudden danger; the child will turn instinctively for assistance, the puppy will grovel in abject submission to the impending visitation, the kitten will brace its tiny body for a frantic resistance.

Saki
Women and elephants never forget an injury.

Saki
The Western custom of one wife and hardly any mistresses.

Saki
A beautifully constructed borsch, such as you are going to experience presently, ought not only to banish conversation but almost to annihilate thought.

Saki
But there were other objects of delight and interest claiming his instant attention: there were quaint twisted candlesticks in the shape of snakes, and a teapot fashioned like a china duck, out of whose open beak the tea was supposed to come. How dull and shapeless the nursery teapot seemed in comparison!

Saki
I found everyone talking nervously and feverishly of the weather and the war in South Africa, except Reginald, who was reclining in a comfortable chair with the dreamy, far-away look that a volcano might wear just after it had desolated entire villages.

Saki
And like every woman who has ever preached repentance to unregenerate youth, she dwelt on the sin of an empty life, which always seems so much more scandalous in the country, where people rise early to see if a new strawberry has happened during the night.

Saki
"Which reminds me of the man I read of in some sacred book who was given a choice of what he most desired. And because he didn't ask for titles and honours and dignities, but only for immense wealth, these other things came to him also."
"I am sure you didn't read about him in any sacred book."
"Yes; I fancy you will find him in Debrett."

Saki
Reginald sat in a corner of the Princess's salon and tried to forgive the furniture, which started out with an obvious intention of being Louis Quinze, but relapsed at frequent intervals into Wilhelm II.

Saki
The people of Crete unfortunately make more history than they can consume locally.

Saki
Waldo is one of those people who would be enormously improved by death.

Saki
People will do things from a sense of duty which they would never attempt as a pleasure.

Saki
'But why should you want to shield him?' cried Egbert; 'the man is a common murderer.' 'A common murderer, possibly, but a very uncommon cook.'

Saki
Sophie Chattel-Monkheim was a Socialist by conviction and a Chattel-Monkheim by marriage.

Saki
Why are women so fond of raking up the past? They're as bad as tailors, who invariably remember what you owe them for a suit long after you've ceased to wear it.

Saki
I believe that I once considerably scandalised her by declaring that a clear soup was a more important factor in life than a clear conscience.

Saki
And the sleeper, eye unlidding,
Heard a voice for ever bidding
Much farewell to Dolly Gray;
Turning weary on his truckle-
Bed he heard the honey-suckle
Lauded in apiarian lay.

Saki
It occurred to me that I would like to be a poet. The chief qualification, I understand is that you must be born. Well, I hunted up my birth certificate, and found that I was all right on that score.

Saki
But, good gracious, you've got to educate him first. You can't expect a boy to be vicious till he's been to a good school.

Saki
I think she must have been very strictly brought up, she's so desperately anxious to do the wrong thing correctly.

Saki
You can't expect the fatted calf to share the enthusiasm of the angels over the prodigal's return.

Saki
"To have reached thirty," said Reginald, "is to have failed in life."

Saki