Shakespeare:
There are a sort of men whose visages
Do cream and mantle like a standing pond,
And do a willful stillness entertain
With purpose to be dressed in an opinion
Of wisdom, gravity, profound conceit,
As who should say, “I am Sir Oracle,
And when I ope my lips, let no dog bark!”
Ambrose Bierce:
We know by one’s reading
His learning and breeding;
By what draws his laughter
We know his Hereafter.
Read nothing, laugh never —
The Sphinx was less clever!
Ogden Nash:
I shall pronounce with profundity
Judgments solemn and pundity,
Steal quotations from Bartlett’s
To impress nymphets and tartlets,
And interpret Kafka
To the rifka and rafka.
