“Of course,” he said, “I’ve got no objection to your reading if it amuses you.”
“It’s very good of you to say so.”
“I don’t pretend to have any book-learning; I’m a practical man, and it’s not required. In my business you find that the man who reads books, comes a mucker!”
“You seem to think that ignorance is creditable.”
“It’s better to have a good and pure heart, Bertha, and a clean mind, than any amount of learning.”
“It’s better to have a grain of wit than a collection of moral saws.”
“I don’t know what you mean by that, but I’m quite content to be as I am, and I don’t want to know a single foreign language. English is quite good enough for me.”
“So long as you’re a good sportsman and wash yourself regularly, you think you’ve performed the whole duty of man.”
“If there’s one chap I can’t stick, it’s a measly bookworm.”
“I prefer him to the hybrid of a professional cricketer and a Turkish-bath man.”