"He could not see a belt without hitting below it"
About this Quote
A thrust of wit doubles as a verdict on character: the man being described treats every encounter as an invitation to break the rules. The boxing idiom hitting below the belt denotes unfair, unsporting tactics; by saying he could not see a belt without hitting below it, Margot Asquith paints a portrait of someone for whom the forbidden blow is not an exception but a reflex. Opportunity itself, the mere presence of a line, becomes a provocation to cross it.
The line gains bite from its political context. Margot Asquith, incisive diarist and wife of British Prime Minister H. H. Asquith, moved at the center of Liberal politics during the years surrounding the First World War. The he is widely taken to be David Lloyd George, her husband’s dazzling, populist colleague who replaced him as prime minister in 1916 with the aid of Conservative allies and the press barons. Lloyd George was famed for slashing rhetoric and fearless maneuver, from the Limehouse speech to the backroom deals that fractured the Liberal Party, and later for the cash-for-honours scandal. His gifts were undeniable: energy, fluency, a feel for the crowd. So too, in the eyes of those who prized propriety, was his readiness to fight dirty.
Asquith’s epigram compresses a larger anxiety about modern politics. It contrasts an older ideal of gentlemanly contest, with acknowledged boundaries and restraints, against a newer style that treats rules as obstacles to be gamed. The hyperbole suggests not occasional lapse but compulsion: seeing the belt triggers the illicit blow. It hints at a cold attentiveness to other people’s vulnerabilities and a capacity to exploit them, the virtues of a winner in mass democracy and the vices of an unreliable colleague.
The brilliance of the line is its economy. It converts a boxer’s rulebook into a moral measure and leaves its subject found wanting, while capturing a turning point when British politics began to reward the low hit over the clean punch.
The line gains bite from its political context. Margot Asquith, incisive diarist and wife of British Prime Minister H. H. Asquith, moved at the center of Liberal politics during the years surrounding the First World War. The he is widely taken to be David Lloyd George, her husband’s dazzling, populist colleague who replaced him as prime minister in 1916 with the aid of Conservative allies and the press barons. Lloyd George was famed for slashing rhetoric and fearless maneuver, from the Limehouse speech to the backroom deals that fractured the Liberal Party, and later for the cash-for-honours scandal. His gifts were undeniable: energy, fluency, a feel for the crowd. So too, in the eyes of those who prized propriety, was his readiness to fight dirty.
Asquith’s epigram compresses a larger anxiety about modern politics. It contrasts an older ideal of gentlemanly contest, with acknowledged boundaries and restraints, against a newer style that treats rules as obstacles to be gamed. The hyperbole suggests not occasional lapse but compulsion: seeing the belt triggers the illicit blow. It hints at a cold attentiveness to other people’s vulnerabilities and a capacity to exploit them, the virtues of a winner in mass democracy and the vices of an unreliable colleague.
The brilliance of the line is its economy. It converts a boxer’s rulebook into a moral measure and leaves its subject found wanting, while capturing a turning point when British politics began to reward the low hit over the clean punch.
Quote Details
| Topic | Witty One-Liners |
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