Maurice Bowra - Quotations

Quotations

• "Buggers can't be choosers." (explaining his engagement, later called off, to a "plain" girl, Audrey Beecham, niece of the conductor)
• "I am a man more dined against than dining." (parodying King Lear's 'more sinned against than sinning')
• "Buggery was invented to fill that awkward hour between evensong and cocktails" or was "useful for filling that awkward time between tea and cocktails."
• "I expect to pass through this world but once and therefore if there is anybody I want to kick in the crotch I had better kick them in the crotch now, for I do not expect to pass this way again."
• "With one or two exceptions, colleges expect their players of games to be reasonably literate."
• "Splendid couple-—slept with both of them", (on hearing of the engagement of a well-known literary pair).
• "Though like Our Lord and Socrates he does not publish much, he thinks and says a great deal and has had an enormous influence on our times." (writing about Isaiah Berlin)
• "I don't know about you, gentlemen, but in Oxford I, at least, am known by my face." (Allegedly after being caught skinny-dipping in the River Cherwell and placing his hands over his face rather than his privates)