Great Throughts Treasury

"More people are flattered into virtue than bullied out of vice."

"'Humph!' grunted Mr. Romford, seeing his worst fears about to be realized. He had dreamt that he had timbled over a poodle in the drawing-room, and squirted a bottle of porter right into a lady's face. 'Who's goin' besides ourselves?' asked Romford, wishing to know the worst at once. 'Better be killed than frightened to death,' thought he. "

"Humph!' grunted Mr. Romford, seeing his worst fears about to be realized. He had dreamt that he had tumbled over a poodle in the drawing-room, and squirted a bottle of porter right into a lady's face. 'Who's going besides ourselves?' asked Romford, wishing to know the worst at once. 'Better be killed than frightened to death,' thought he."

"Better be killed than frightened to death."

"He was a gentleman who was generally spoken of as having nothing a-year, paid quarterly."

"I am a sportsman all over, and to the back-bone ? 'Unting is all that's worth living for ? all time is lost wot is not spent in 'unting ? it is like the hair we breathe ? if we have it not we die ? it's the sport of kings, the image of war without its guilt, and only five-and-twenty per cent of its danger."

"It is best to let the horse go his way, and pretend it is yours. There is no secret so close as that between a rider and his horse."

"It was a murky October day that the hero of our tale, Mr Sponge, or Soapey Sponge, as his good-natured friends call him, was seen mizzling along Oxford Street, wending his way to the west."

"Life would be very pleasant if it were not for its enjoyments."

"Mr. Jorrocks then called upon the company in succession for a toast, a song, or a sentiment. Nimrod gave, "The Royal Staghounds"; Crane gave, "Champagne to our real friends, and real pain to our sham friends.""

"No man rides harder than my Lord Scamperdale ? always goes as if he had a spare neck in his pocket."

"No one knows how ungentlemanly he can look, until he has seen himself in a shocking bad hat."

"The country has its charms ? cheapness for one."

"I'll fill hup the chinks wi' cheese."

"It is an inwariable rule with the dealers to praise the bad points and let the good 'uns speak for themselves."

"The only infallible rule we know is, that the man who is always talking about being a gentleman never is one."

"The supply of good fellows is by no means in excess of the demand. A man has only to hoist the flag of hospitality to insure a very considerable amount of custom."

"There is no secret so close as that between a rider and his horse."

"There may be said to be three sorts of lawyers, able, unable, and lamentable."

"Three things I never lends - my 'oss, my wife, and my name."

"Thus attired, with smiles assumed at the door, the young ladies entered the drawing-room in the full fervour of sisterly animosity."

"'Untin' fills my thoughts by day, and many a good run I have in my sleep. Many a dig in the ribs I gives Mrs. J. when I think they're runnin' into the warmint?No man is fit to be called a sportsman wot doesn't kick his wife out of bed on a haverage once in three weeks!"

"'Unting is all that's worth living for - all time is lost wot is not spent in 'unting - it is like the hair we breathe - if we have it not we die - it's the sport of kings, the image of war without its guilt, and only five-and-twenty percent of its danger."

"When at length they rose to go to bed, it struck each man as he followed his neighbour upstairs that the one before him walked very crookedly."

"Women never look so well as when one comes in wet and dirty from hunting."