Wednesday, September 10, 2008

A true democrat ...

... `His Dictionary is Poor'.

"He recognizes distinctions in social class but they mean nothing." Oddly, this is also true of genuine aristicrats. I have been told that the late Robert Montgomery Scott, for many years the CEO of the Philadelphia Museum of Art (and the son of Hope Montgomery Scott of Philadelphia Story fame) could have walked into any working-class bar and hit it off with everybody within minutes.

2 comments:

  1. And Mr Nabokov, who was so critical of translations (". . . the queer world of verbal transmigration"), said-- hearteningly for those of us who must depend on translations--

    "I heartily recommend taking as often as possible Chekhov's books (even in the translations they have suffered) and dreaming through them as they are intended to be dreamed through. In an age of ruddy Goliaths it is very useful to read about delicate Davids. Those bleak landscapes, the withered sallows along dismally muddy roads, the gray crows flapping across gray skies, the sudden whiff of some amazing recollection at a most ordinary corner—all this pathetic dimness, all this lovely weakness, all this Chekhovian dove-gray world is worth treasuring in the glare of those strong, self-sufficient worlds that are promised us by the worshippers of totalitarian states."

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  2. It has always been my belief that the TRULY classy have no need for airs or arrogance, because they do no believe themselves above anyone. They are easy in their own skin and want everyone else to be at ease as well, which is the true purpose of manners. It's the insecure that are insufferable snobs.

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