Osbert Lancaster

“The English are predisposed to pride themselves on their plain-speaking, which is a curious delusion, because in fact they are the most reticent and evasive people in the world.”

“High-brow is the kind of person who looks at a sausage and thinks of Picasso.”

“For a people who are famously shy and reserved, the English seem to possess a disproportionate number of buildings that scream for attention.”

“A committee is a group of people who individually can do nothing, but who as a group can meet and decide that nothing can be done.”

“Like all great artists, he is a man of profound convictions, which he is always prepared to change.”

“It is the function of the artist to provide what life does not.”

“A gentleman is a man who can disagree without being disagreeable.”

“The first duty of a government is to be dull.”

“Economists are people who are too clever for their own good, and who employ language that is deliberately obscure.”