Mark Forsyth

Quotes

• “A bar, as any good dictionary will tell you, is a rod of wood or iron that can be used to fasten a gate. From this came ...”
• “The Latin word for sausage was botulus, from which English gets two words. One of them is the lovely botuliform, which m...”
• “If Jupiter was in the ascendant when you were born, you are of a jovial disposition; and if you're not jovial but misera...”
• “Genius, as we tend to talk about it today, is some sort of mysterious and combustible substance that burns brightly and ...”
• “Thank God for modern medicine. It was not until 1905 that ergophobia (the morbid fear of returning to work) was first id...”
• “Shakespeare was not a genius. He was, without the distant shadow of doubt, the most wonderful writer who ever breathed. ...”
• “A poet is not somebody who has great thoughts. That is the menial duty of the philosopher. A poet is somebody who expres...”
• “Pot itself has nothing to do with pots and pans, but comes from the Mexican-Spanish word potiguaya, which means marijuan...”
• “You can spend all day trying to think of some universal truth to set down on paper, and some poets try that. Shakespeare...”
• “The glamour's off. Almost any question you ask can be answered. It's only the questions that you didn't know to ask that...”
• “We all know that scientific words need an obscure classical origin to make them sound impressvie to those who wouldn't k...”
• “A ham sandwich is better than nothing. Nothing is better than eternal happiness. So eternal happiness is beaten by a ham...”
• “It is much harder than you might think to show people your bottom.”
• “I had to go outside. I had to let the element of chance in.”