"The clever men at Oxford, know all that there is to be knowed. But they none of them know one half as much, as intelligent Mr. Toad"
About this Quote
The joke lands because it’s double-edged. On one side, it lampoons the grandiose egotist: Mr. Toad, in The Wind in the Willows, is a creature of swagger, entitlement, and impulsive fantasies (especially around status and machines). He’s the archetype of the man who mistakes his own appetite for insight. The line’s lopsided comparison - Oxford versus one pompous amphibian - is absurd on its face, which is precisely how vanity sounds when it talks.
On the other side, Grahame needles the prestige factory too. “Know all that there is” is an exaggeration meant to expose how institutions can project omniscience, and how easily that aura provokes both resentment and parody. The subtext: expertise can become a costume, and the crowd can’t always tell the difference between authority and bluster. In an Edwardian Britain wrestling with class signals and the cult of “proper” education, the gag isn’t just literary; it’s social commentary in bedtime clothing.
Toad wins the sentence not because he’s smarter, but because he’s louder - and Grahame knows how often the world rewards that.
Quote Details
| Topic | Witty One-Liners |
|---|---|
| Source | The Wind in the Willows, Kenneth Grahame (1908). Line spoken by Mr. Toad in the novel; appears in standard editions of The Wind in the Willows. |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Grahame, Kenneth. (2026, January 17). The clever men at Oxford, know all that there is to be knowed. But they none of them know one half as much, as intelligent Mr. Toad. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/the-clever-men-at-oxford-know-all-that-there-is-78826/
Chicago Style
Grahame, Kenneth. "The clever men at Oxford, know all that there is to be knowed. But they none of them know one half as much, as intelligent Mr. Toad." FixQuotes. January 17, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/the-clever-men-at-oxford-know-all-that-there-is-78826/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"The clever men at Oxford, know all that there is to be knowed. But they none of them know one half as much, as intelligent Mr. Toad." FixQuotes, 17 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/the-clever-men-at-oxford-know-all-that-there-is-78826/. Accessed 22 Feb. 2026.
