Snake Oil Salesman

Famous quotes containing the words snake, oil and/or salesman:

    The great snake lies ever half awake, at the bottom of the pit of the world, curled
    In folds of himself until he awakens in hunger and moving his head to right and to left prepares for his hour to devour.
    —T.S. (Thomas Stearns)

    I bade, because the wick and oil are spent
    And frozen are the channels of the blood....
    William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)

    Nobody dast blame this man.... For a salesman, there is no rock bottom to the life. He don’t put a bolt to a nut, he don’t tell you the law or give you medicine. He’s a man way out there in the blue, riding on a smile and a shoeshine. And when they start not smiling back—that’s an earthquake. And then you get yourself a couple of spots on your hat, and you’re finished. Nobody dast blame this man. A salesman is got to dream, boy. It comes with the territory.
    Arthur Miller (b. 1915)