Quotes from Ernest Bramah

The province of philosophy is not so much to prevent calamities befalling as to demonstrate that they are blessings when they have taken place.

However entrancing it is to wander unchecked through a garden of bright images, are we not enticing your mind from another subject of almost equal importance?

Even a mole may instruct a philosopher in the art of digging.

Although there exist many thousand subjects for elegant conversation, there are persons who cannot meet a cripple without talking about feet.

There is a time to silence an adversary with the honey of logical persuasion, and there is a time to silence him with the argument of a heavily directed club.

When struck by a thunderbolt it is unnecessary to consult the Book of Dates as to the precise meaning of the omen.

It is a mark of insincerity of purpose to spend one's time in looking for the sacred Emperor in the low-class tea-shops.

The inimitable stories of Tong-King never have any real ending, and this one, being in his most elevated style, has even less end than most of them. But the whole narrative is permeated with the odour of joss-sticks and honourable high-mindedness, and the two characters are both of noble birth.

There are few situations in life that cannot be resolved promptly, and to the satisfaction of all concerned, by either suicide, a bag of gold, or thrusting a despised antagonist over a precipice on a dark night.

Exile from the Loved One; or, Farewell and Return.

I have been asked to take up a ghost, Carlyle began to explain. Then I don't believe in it, declared Carrados. Why not? Because it is a pushful, notoriety-loving ghost, or it would not have gone so far. Probably it wants to get into The Daily Mail.

That is about the limit, exclaimed Flinders with some emphasis. Do you know, Carrados, if I hadn't always led a very blameless life I should be afraid to have you around the place.

declared Mr Marrable magniloquently;

Is not the clay pit of which you speak that in which you fashioned exceedingly unsymmetrical imitations of rat-pies in your childhood?

To escape from fire men will plunge into boiling water.

You knew, Monsieur Carrados, reiterated Dompierre, and yet you ventured here. You are either a fool or a hero. An enthusiast—it is the same thing as both, interposed the lady.

He who aspires to dine with the vampire must bring his own meat.

He who thinks he is raising a mound may only in reality be digging a pit.

Although there exist many thousand subjects for elegant conversation, there are persons who cannot meet a cripple without talking about feet.

However deep you dig a well it affords no refuge in the time of flood.

Do not adjust your sandals while passing through a melon-field, nor yet arrange your hat beneath an orange-tree.

Where the road bends abruptly, take short steps.