Humor
Marshall was known for his quick wit and a good sense of humor. On hearing of his nomination as vice president, he announced that he was not surprised, as "Indiana is the mother of Vice Presidents; home of more second-class men than any other state." One of his favorite jokes was about a woman with two sons, one of whom went to sea and one of whom was elected vice president; neither was ever heard of again. On his election as vice president, he sent Woodrow Wilson a book, inscribed "From your only Vice."
His humor caused him trouble during his time in Washington. He was known to greet citizens walking by his office on the White House tour by saying to them, "If you look on me as a wild animal, be kind enough to throw peanuts at me." This prompted Wilson to move Marshall's office to the Senate Office building, where he would not be disturbed by visitors. In response to a proposal to the board of the Smithsonian Institution to send a team to excavate for ruins in Guatemala, Marshall suggested that the team instead excavate around Washington. When asked why, he replied that, judging by the looks of the people walking on the street, they should be able find buried cave-men no more than six feet down. The joke was not well received, and he was shut out of board meetings for nearly a year.
His serious remarks could get him in trouble as well. Some of his public utterances in 1913, in which he appeared to advocate radical ideas in regard to the inheritance of property, caused much criticism.
Marshall's wit is best remembered from a phrase he introduced to the American lexicon. During a Senate debate in 1917, as Senator Joseph L. Bristow cataloged a long list of what he felt the country needed, Marshall leaned over to one of his clerks and said, "What this country needs is more of this; what this country needs is more of that." He then quipped, loudly enough for most of the chamber to hear, "What this country needs is a really good five-cent cigar", which provoked laughter from a number of senators.
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Famous quotes containing the word humor:
“When humor can be made to alternate with melancholy, one has a success, but when the same things are funny and melancholic at the same time, it’s just wonderful.”
—François Truffaut (1932–1984)
“Affection, indulgence, and humor alike are powerless against the instinct of children to rebel. It is essential to their minds and their wills as exercise is to their bodies. If they have no reasons, they will invent them, like nations bound on war. It is hard to imagine families limp enough always to be at peace. Wherever there is character there will be conflict. The best that children and parents can hope for is that the wounds of their conflict may not be too deep or too lasting.”
—New York State Division of Youth Newsletter (20th century)
“Let me work;
For I can give his humor the true bent.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)