Samuel Johnson Quotes

When two Eglishmen meet, their first talk is of the weather.

One is not born English without knowing how to converse easily about the weather.

It is in bad taste," is the most formidable word an Englishman can pronounce.

An Englishman never enjoys himself, except for a noble purpose.

I have been in meetings where a head of state will say, 'I like your tie,' to a man... or, 'I like your country because the weather's good,' or whatever. So for me, the pins in some ways were openers.

We are a complex species to observe.

Don't knock the weather; nine-tenths of the people couldn't start a conversation if it didn't change once in a while.

I think maybe the English don't want to try something and look stupid, because they are a bit reserved.

Change of weather is the discourse of fools.

I can't abide small talk.

Scotland's a pretty place. I mean, as long as it ain't raining.

London is too full of fogs and serious people. Whether the fogs produce the serious people, or whether the serious people produce the fogs, I don't know.

In 'A Room With a View,' you have three young Englishmen running around naked and laughing and whooping and jumping in the water. It's something the English don't apparently find troublesome.

If you think meet-and-greets are fundamentally stupid, then you're never not gonna think that.

Believe it or not, it actually does rain in L.A. from time to time.

I always overtip. When I go to England, people think I'm stupid.

Let me tell you about customs, James," said Lillian. "I am not accustomed to being summoned to someone else's home. You're very fortunate that I came." "I am indeed blessed," Dad told her. "I am also, by the way, called Jon." Lillian looked faintly surprised. "Are you?" "Really?" Dad asked. "Really? I was the only Asian guy who went to our school. I kind of stood out. While you are an identical twin, and I still managed to know your name.

WEATHER, n. The climate of an hour. A permanent topic of conversation among persons whom it does not interest, but who have inherited the tendency to chatter about it from naked arboreal ancestors whom it keenly concerned. The setting up of official weather bureaus and their maintenance in mendacity prove that even governments are accessible to suasion by the rude forefathers of the jungle.

It is worth repeating at this point the theories that Ford had come up with, on his first encounter with human beings, to account for their peculiar habit of continually stating and restating the very very obvious, as in "It's a nice day," or "You're very tall," or "So this is it, we're going to die." His first theory was that if human beings didn't keep exercising their lips, their mouths probably shriveled up. After a few months of observation he had come up with a second theory, which was this--"If human beings don't keep exercising their lips, their brains start working.

A cocktail party is a place where you talk with a person you do not know about a subject you have no interest in.

Lena Smoothed her hair. "Crazy weather you have down here.

I give boring people something to discuss over corn.

On the Continent there is one topic which should be avoided-the weather; in England, if you do not repeat the phrase "Lovely day, isn't it?" at least two hundred times a day, you are considered a bit dull.

the English, although partakers in the most variable and quixotic climate in the world, never become used to its vagaries, but comment upon them with shock and resentment as if all their lives had been spent in the predictable monsoon.

I am always saying "Glad to've met you" to somebody I'm not at all glad I met. If you want to stay alive, you have to say that stuff, though.