Top 11 Quotes by Stephen Potter

Never say the number because it suggest that you are unable to pronounce the name of the wine you are ordering.

Never say the number because it suggest that you are unable to pronounce the name of the wine you are ordering.

Wine, Names, Numbers

Stephen Potter (1962). “Three-upmanship: The theory & practice of gamesmanship: Some notes on lifemanship [and] One-upmanship”

Your function as a critic is to show that it is really you yourself who should have written the book, if you had had the time, and since you hadn't you are glad that someone else had, although obviously it might have been done better.

Stephen Potter

Book, Should Have, Might

Talk of the imperial decay of your invalid port. Its gracious withdrawal from perfection, keeping a hint of former majesty withal, as it hovers between oblivion and the divine Untergang of infinite recession.

Stephen Potter

Perfection, Majesty, Withdrawal

"One-Upmanship". Book by Stephen Potter, p. 143, 1952.

Women are quite unlike men. Women have higher voices, longer hair, smaller waistlines, daintier feet and prettier hands. They also invariably have the upper hand.

Stephen Potter

Women, Hair, Hands

Cogg would suddenly stand stock still. "Listen," he would say. Some feeble quack would be heard from the willow beyond the pond. "That's an easy one to tell. The frog-pippit." Then he would add, As a safety measure, "As I believe they call it in these parts."

Stephen Potter

Believe, Safety, Bird

Stephen Potter (1962). “Three-upmanship: The theory & practice of gamesmanship: Some notes on lifemanship [and] One-upmanship”

Each of us can, by ploy or gambit, most naturally gain the advantage.

Stephen Potter

Gains, Gambit, Advantage

'Lifemanship' (1950) p. 15

Remember the basic rule. Make friends with your caddie and the game will make friends with you. How true this is. It is easy to arrange that your guest opponent shall be deceived in to undertipping his caddie at the end of the morning round, so that the news gets round among the club employees that your opponent is a no good, and the boys will gang up against him.

Stephen Potter

Morning, Golf, Boys

Stephen Potter (1950). “Some notes on lifemanship: with a summary of recent researches in gamesmanship”

In our small chess community in Marylebone it would be mock modesty on my part to deny that I have built up for myself a considerable name without ever actually having won a single game. Even the best players are sometimes beaten, and that is precisely what happens to me.

Stephen Potter

Player, Games, Names

Stephen Potter (1962). “Three-upmanship: The theory & practice of gamesmanship: Some notes on lifemanship [and] One-upmanship”

In lawn tennis mixed, the basic chivalry move is to pretend to serve less fiercely to the woman than to the man. This is particularly useful if your first service tends to be out in any case.

Stephen Potter

Moving, Men, Tennis

Stephen Potter (1950). “Some notes on lifemanship: with a summary of recent researches in gamesmanship”