Charles Dickens' Creation Of Mr. Pickwick Did

The Writing Of Solid, Instructive Stuff Fortified By Facts And Figures Is Easy Enough. There Is No Trouble In Writing A Scientific Treatise On The Folk-lore Of Central China, Or A Statistical Enquiry Into The Declining Population Of Prince Edward Island. But To Write Something Out Of One's Own Mind, Worth Reading For Its Own Sake, Is An Arduous Contrivance Only To Be Achieved In Fortunate Moments, Few And Far In Between. Personally, I Would Sooner Have Written Alice In Wonderland Than The Whole Encyclopedia Britannica.

All Dickens's Humour Couldn't Save Dickens, Save Him From His Overcrowded Life, Its Sordid And Neurotic Central Tragedy And Its Premature Collapse. But Dickens's Humour, And All Such Humour, Has Saved Or At Least Greatly Served The World.

Most People Can Tire Of A Lecture In Fifteen Minutes, Clever People Can Do It In Five, And Sensible People Don't Go To Lectures At All.

Any Man Will Admit If Need Be That His Sight Is Not Good, Or That He Cannot Swim Or Shoots Badly With A Rifle, But To Touch Upon His Sense Of Humour Is To Give Him Mortal Affront.

There Are Two Things In Ordinary Conversation Which Ordinary People Dislike - Information And Wit