George Grossmith and Weedon Grossmith Quotes: Sources, Meanings & Themes
Browse quotations by George Grossmith and Weedon Grossmith with named works, context notes, meanings and recurring themes.
Source identified1
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“What’s the good of a home, if you are never in it?”
Meaning & context
Pooter turns his preference for staying home into a miniature philosophy, funny because the diary repeatedly treats ordinary domestic habits as matters of high principle.
Source details
The Diary of a Nobody, Chapter I, before the dated diary entries; Project Gutenberg #1026. After describing The Laurels and its back garden, Charles Pooter says “What’s the good of a home, if you are never in it?” and makes “Home, Sweet Home” his motto. The sentence belongs to Pooter’s domestic self-characterization inside diary fiction rather than a general lifestyle rule from the Grossmith brothers.
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“Must get the scraper removed, or else I shall get into a scrape. I don’t often make jokes.”
Meaning & context
The deliberately weak pun is followed by Pooter’s proud announcement that he rarely jokes, making his satisfaction with the line more comic than the wordplay itself.
Source details
The Diary of a Nobody, Chapter I, April 4 entry; Project Gutenberg #1026. After Cummings trips over the scraper while leaving, Charles Pooter writes “Must get the scraper removed, or else I shall get into a scrape. I don’t often make jokes.” The deliberately weak pun and Pooter’s pride in it are part of the novel’s characterization and comic timing.
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“He replied he was very glad to hear it, and wanted to know whether I had ever come across one, for he hadn’t.”
Meaning & context
The butterman’s retort reverses Pooter’s claim that a City clerk can be a gentleman, making the insult sharper because it first pretends to welcome the possibility.
Source details
The Diary of a Nobody, Chapter I, April 6 entry; Project Gutenberg #1026. Pooter reports Borset the butterman’s sarcastic response after Pooter says that a City clerk can be a gentleman: Borset is glad to hear it and asks whether Pooter has ever met one. The retained line is reported fictional dialogue by Borset inside Pooter’s diary, not a statement by either Grossmith author.
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“When he had gone, I thought of a splendid answer I ought to have given him. However, I will keep it for another occasion.”
Meaning & context
Pooter’s perfect comeback arrives only after the argument has ended, a familiar social failure made comic by his confidence that the delayed answer can simply be saved for later.
Source details
The Diary of a Nobody, Chapter I, April 6 entry; Project Gutenberg #1026. Immediately after Borset leaves, Charles Pooter thinks of the “splendid answer” he should have given and decides to save it for another occasion. This is the same continuous comic exchange as the preceding Borset record and illustrates Pooter’s delayed wit rather than generic communication advice.
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“Why should I not publish my diary? I have often seen reminiscences of people I have never even heard of, and I fail to see—because I do not happen to be a ‘Somebody’—why my diary should not be interesting.”
Meaning & context
Pooter’s perfectly reasonable defense of an ordinary diary is also comic because the novel builds humor from the gap between his confidence in his importance and the triviality he records.
Source details
The Diary of a Nobody, “Introduction by Mr. Pooter”; Project Gutenberg #1026. Charles Pooter asks why his diary should not be published even though he is not a “Somebody,” establishing the novel’s fictional self-important diarist before Chapter I begins. This is Pooter’s comic narrative voice, not autobiographical testimony by George or Weedon Grossmith.
