Famous Exchanges

To do is to be.

To be is to do.

Do be do be do.

“I am enclosing two tickets to the first night of my new play; bring a friend…. if you have one.” – George Bernard Shaw to Winston Churchill

“Cannot possibly attend first night, will attend second…. if there is one.” – Winston Churchill, in response.

Lady Astor to Winston Churchill: “Sir, if you were my husband, I would poison your drink.”

His reply: “Madam, if you were my wife, I would drink it.”

Lady Astor: “Mr. Churchill, you’re drunk!”

Winston Churchill: “Yes, and you, Madam, are ugly. But tomorrow, I shall be sober.”

A member of Parliament to Disraeli: “Sir, you will either die on the gallows or of some unspeakable disease.”

“That depends, Sir,” said Disraeli, “whether I embrace your policies or your mistress.”

If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.

If I have not seen as far as others, it is because giants were standing on my shoulders.

Necessity is the mother of invention.

Sometimes ascribed to Richard Franck, who used it in his book Northern Memoirs, Calculated for the Meridian of Scotland (1658)

Mothers are the necessity of invention.

Communicating Authentically