“No one can be as calculatedly rude as the British, which amazes Americans, who do not understand studied insult and can only offer abuse as a substitute.”
“It is not he who gives abuse that affronts, but the view that we take of it as insulting; so that when one provokes you it is your own opinion which is provoking.”
“The only gracious way to accept an insult is to ignore it; if you can't ignore it, top it; if you can't top it, laugh at it; if you can't laugh at it, it's probably deserved.”
“I am not going to spend any time whatsoever in attacking the Foreign Secretary. If we complain about the tune, there is no reason to attack the monkey when the organ grinder is present.”
“People think that they just want movies like Pretty Woman, when really they -- at least the ones that I know personally -- have been waiting for something that doesn't completely insult them.”
“The slight that can be conveyed in a glance, in a gracious smile, in a wave of the hand, is often the knee plus ultra of art. What insult is so keen or so keenly felt, as the polite insult which it is impossible to resent?”