“You can't expect the fatted calf to share the enthusiasm of the angels over the prodigal's return.”
"Reginald on the Academy"
Reginald (1904)
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"The Achievement of the Cat"
The Square Egg (1924)
Kontext: The animal which the Egyptians worshipped as divine, which the Romans venerated as a symbol of liberty, which Europeans in the ignorant Middle Ages anathematised as an agent of demonology, has displayed to all ages two closely blended characteristics — courage and self-respect. No matter how unfavourable the circumstances, both qualities are always to the fore. Confront a child, a puppy, and a kitten with a sudden danger; the child will turn instinctively for assistance, the puppy will grovel in abject submission to the impending visitation, the kitten will brace its tiny body for a frantic resistance. And disassociate the luxury-loving cat from the atmosphere of social comfort in which it usually contrives to move, and observe it critically under the adverse conditions of civilisation — that civilisation which can impel a man to the degradation of clothing himself in tawdry ribald garments and capering mountebank dances in the streets for the earning of the few coins that keep him on the respectable, or non-criminal, side of society. The cat of the slums and alleys, starved, outcast, harried, still keeps amid the prowlings of its adversity the bold, free, panther-tread with which it paced of yore the temple courts of Thebes, still displays the self-reliant watchfulness which man has never taught it to lay aside.
"The Achievement of the Cat"
The Square Egg (1924)
Kontext: The animal which the Egyptians worshipped as divine, which the Romans venerated as a symbol of liberty, which Europeans in the ignorant Middle Ages anathematised as an agent of demonology, has displayed to all ages two closely blended characteristics — courage and self-respect. No matter how unfavourable the circumstances, both qualities are always to the fore. Confront a child, a puppy, and a kitten with a sudden danger; the child will turn instinctively for assistance, the puppy will grovel in abject submission to the impending visitation, the kitten will brace its tiny body for a frantic resistance. And disassociate the luxury-loving cat from the atmosphere of social comfort in which it usually contrives to move, and observe it critically under the adverse conditions of civilisation — that civilisation which can impel a man to the degradation of clothing himself in tawdry ribald garments and capering mountebank dances in the streets for the earning of the few coins that keep him on the respectable, or non-criminal, side of society. The cat of the slums and alleys, starved, outcast, harried, still keeps amid the prowlings of its adversity the bold, free, panther-tread with which it paced of yore the temple courts of Thebes, still displays the self-reliant watchfulness which man has never taught it to lay aside.
“Mother, may I go and maffick,
Tear around and hinder traffic?”
"Reginald's Peace Poem"
Reginald (1904)
“The people of Crete unfortunately make more history than they can consume locally.”
Saki
The Chronicles of Clovis
"The Jesting of Arlington Stringham"
The Chronicles of Clovis (1911)
“The cook was a good cook, as cooks go; and as cooks go she went.”
"Reginald on Besetting Sins"
Reginald (1904)
“Children are given us to discourage our better emotions.”
"Reginald on Besetting Sins"
Reginald (1904)
"Cross Currents"
Reginald in Russia (1910)
“Poverty keeps together more homes than it breaks up.”
Saki
The Chronicles of Clovis
"Esmé"
The Chronicles of Clovis (1911)
“The Western custom of one wife and hardly any mistress.”
"A Young Turkish Catastrophe"
Reginald in Russia (1910)
"Reginald's Choir Treat"
Reginald (1904)
“I'm living so far beyond my income that we may almost be said to be living apart.”
The Unbearable Bassington http://books.google.com/books?id=xOXizk60YroC&q="I'm+living+so+far+beyond+my+income+that+we+may+almost+be+said+to+be+living+apart"&pg=PA59#v=onepage (1912)
"Reginald on Besetting Sins"
Reginald (1904)
"The Reticence of Lady Anne"
Reginald in Russia (1910)
"Reginald on Christmas Presents"
Reginald (1904)
“Put that bloody cigarette out!”
His last words, before being shot by a German sniper who'd heard the remark, as reported in The Square Egg (1924), p. 102
“Romance at short notice was her speciality.”
Saki
buch
Beasts and Super-Beasts
"The Open Window"
Beasts and Super-Beasts (1914)
“To have reached thirty," said Reginald, "is to have failed in life.”
"Reginald on the Academy"
Reginald (1904)
Saki
The Chronicles of Clovis
"Filboid Studge, the Story of a Mouse That Helped"
The Chronicles of Clovis (1911)
