The martini which he proceeded to pour proved an agreeable surprise

The martini which he proceeded to pour proved an agreeable surprise. It did not bite like a serpent and sting like an adder, but it was not without a certain quiet authority, and he had taken it into his system and was feeling much invigorated, when the door opened and his sister Hermione appeared.

P.G. Wodehouse, Galahad at Blandings (1965), 204

Yes, but it's a good picture

On seeing Tammy Wynette's mother reading the National Enquirer, Burt Reynolds said:

My mother does the same thing. I caught her reading a story about me last week and I said, 'Mama you know those stories aren't true.' And she said, 'Yes, but it's a good picture, son.'

Tammy Wynette with J. Dew, Stand by your man (1979), 272-3

[Money] sure can take the edge off misery!

Sometimes it's hard for me to realise that I lived like that just fourteen short years ago. I would have been overjoyed then just to own an old secondhand car. Now I have a Corvette and a Thunderbird, a pickup truck and a van, a bus and an airplane. And am I any happier? You bet I am! It kills me to hear people who are well off talk about the "good old days" when they didn't have a dime. I wonder how many of them would go back to that. It's true that money cannot buy you happiness. but it can buy conveniences, and it sure can take the edge off misery!

Tammy Wynette with J. Dew, Stand by your man (1979), 57

He was a highbrow – her deadliest word

He was a highbrow–her deadliest word–a highbrow, to be classed with Lenin, A. J. Cook and the dirty little poets in the Montparnasse cafés
G. Orwell, Burmese Days (1934), 

There is a prevalent idea that the men at the ‘outposts of Empire’ are at least able and hardworking

There is a prevalent idea that the men at the ‘outposts of Empire’ are at least able and hardworking. It is a delusion. Outside the scientific services–the Forest Department, the Public Works Department and the like–there is no particular need for a British official in India to do his job competently. Few of them work as hard or as intelligently as the postmaster of a provincial town in England. The real work of administration is done mainly by native subordinates; and the real backbone of the despotism is not the officials but the Army. Given the Army, the officials and the business men can rub along safely enough even if they are fools. And most of them are fools. A dull, decent people, cherishing and fortifying their dullness behind a quarter of a million bayonets

G. Orwell, Burmese Days (1934), 

the farther its devotees were from the bleeding frontier, the more devoutly they believed it

This was the particular and very strong belief shared by many people in the civilized East that the Indian wars were principally the fault of white men. The governing idea was that the Comanches and other troublesome tribes would live in peace if only they were treated properly, and the farther its devotees were from the bleeding frontier, the more devoutly they believed it.

S.C. Gwynne, Empire of the Summer Moon (2011), Kindle ed. loc 4381

There is no essential difference between a beggar's livelihood and that of numberless respectable people

Yet if one looks closely one sees that there is no essential difference between a beggar's livelihood and that of numberless respectable people. Beggars do not work, it is said; but, then, what is work? A navvy works by swinging a pick. An accountant works by adding up figures, A beggar works by standing out of doors in all weathers and getting varicose veins, chronic bronchitis, etc. It is a trade like any other; quite useless, of course  - but, then, many reputable trades are quite useless. And as a social type a beggar compares well with scores of others. He is honest compared with the sellers of most patent medicines, high-minded compared with a Sunday newspaper proprietor, amiable compared with a hire-purchase tout - in short, a parasite, but a fairly harmless parasite

G. Orwell, Down and Out in Paris and London (1933), 154