I doubt the attribution of the Larkin and the Parker quotations. The Larkin goes back to the turn of the 20th Century (About Shaw? About Churchill?), and the Parker I have seen quoted as an Irish folk saying.
The context is that a person is trying to fall asleep by recalling proverbs, maxims, aphorisms, etc.
“How do people go to sleep? I’m afraid I’ve lost the knack. I might try busting myself smartly over the temple with the night-light. I might repeat to myself, slowly and soothingly, a list of quotations beautiful from minds profound; if I can remember any of the damn things.That might do it.” (Page 209)
I doubt the attribution of the Larkin and the Parker quotations. The Larkin goes back to the turn of the 20th Century (About Shaw? About Churchill?), and the Parker I have seen quoted as an Irish folk saying.
ReplyDeleteDorothy Parker did write in her short story “The Little Hours”:
ReplyDelete“If you would learn what God thinks about money, you have only to look at those to whom He has given it."
See The collected stories of Dorothy Parker, with a foreword by Franklin P. Adams (New York: The Modern Library, ©1942), page 211.
The context is that a person is trying to fall asleep by recalling proverbs, maxims, aphorisms, etc.
Delete“How do people go to sleep? I’m afraid I’ve lost the knack. I might try busting myself smartly over the temple with the night-light. I might repeat to myself, slowly and soothingly, a list of quotations beautiful from minds profound; if I can remember any of the damn things.That might do it.” (Page 209)