Lady Astor to Winston Churchill:

'If you were my husband, I would put poison in your coffee.'

Churchill: 'And if I were married to you, I would drink it.'

These memorable insults are from an era before the English language got boiled down to 4-letter words.

·    A member of Parliament to Disraeli: "Sir, you will either die on the gallows or of some unspeakable disease."  "That depends, Sir," said Disraeli, "whether I embrace your policies or your mistress."

·    "He had delusions of adequacy." - Walter Kerr

·    "He has all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire." - Winston Churchill

·    "I have never killed a man, but I have read many obituaries with great pleasure."  Clarence Darrow

·    "He has never been known to use a word that might send a reader to the dictionary." - William Faulkner (about Ernest Hemingway).

·    "Thank you for sending me a copy of your book; I'll waste no time reading it." - Moses Hadas

·    "I didn't attend the funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying I approved of it." - Mark Twain

·    "He has no enemies, but is intensely disliked by his friends.." - Oscar Wilde

·    "I am enclosing two tickets to the first night of my new play; bring a friend, if you have one." - George Bernard Shaw to Winston Churchill    "Cannot possibly attend first night, will attend second ... if there is one." -  Winston Churchill, in response.

·    "I feel so miserable without you; it's almost like having you here." - Stephen Bishop

·    "He is a self-made man and worships his creator." - John Bright

·    "I've just learned about his illness. Let's hope it's nothing trivial." - Irvin S. Cobb

·    "He is not only dull himself; he is the cause of dullness in others." - Samuel Johnson

·    "He is simply a shiver looking for a spine to run up." - Paul Keating

·    "In order to avoid being called a flirt, she always yielded easily." - Charles, Count Talleyrand

·    "He loves nature in spite of what it did to him." - Forrest Tucker

·    "Why do you sit there looking like an envelope without any address on it?" - Mark Twain

·    "His mother should have thrown him away and kept the stork." - Mae West

·    "Some cause happiness wherever they go; others, whenever they go." - Oscar Wilde

·    "He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lamp-posts ... for support rather than illumination." - Andrew Lang (1844-1912)

·    "He has Van Gogh's ear for music." - Billy Wilder