"In physical science a first essential step in the direction of learning any subject is to find principles of numerical reckoning and practicable methods for measuring some quality connected with it. I often say that when you can measure what you are speaking about and express it in numbers you know something about it; but when you cannot measure it, when you cannot express it in numbers, your knowledge is of a meagre and unsatisfactory kind: it may be the beginning of knowledge, but you have scarcely, in your thoughts, advanced to the stage of science, whatever the matter may be.
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Dorothy Parker
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I‘ve been too fucking busy – or vice versa. (in response to a letter from her editor asking for more stories during her honeymoon)
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Of Ayn Rand‘s Atlas Shrugged, Parker said: “This is not a novel to be tossed aside lightly. It should be thrown with great force.”
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When asked to use the word horticulture during a game of Can-You-Give-Me-A-Sentence, Parker replied: You can lead a horticulture, but you can‘t make her think.
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If you want to know what God thinks of money, just look at the people he gave it to.
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I‘ve never been a millionaire but I just know I‘d be darling at it.
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Ducking for apples — change one letter and it‘s the story of my life.
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I like to have a martini,
Two at the very most.
After three I‘m under the table,
after four I‘m under my host.
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All I need is room enough to lay a hat and a few friends.
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It serves me right for keeping all my eggs in one bastard. (Said when leaving hospital after an abortion).
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The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity.