Famous quotes containing the word decent:
“They are a very decent generous lot of people out here and they don’t expect you to listen.... It’s the secret of social ease in this country. They talk entirely for their own pleasure. Nothing they say is designed to be heard.”
—Evelyn Waugh (1903–1966)
“A decent provision for the poor is the true test of civilization.”
—Samuel Johnson (1709–1784)
“All generous minds have a horror of what are commonly called “facts.” They are the brute beasts of the intellectual domain. Who does not know fellows that always have an ill-conditioned fact or two that they lead after them into decent company like so many bull-dogs, ready to let them slip at every ingenious suggestion, or convenient generalization, or pleasant fancy? I allow no “facts” at this table.”
—Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809–1894)