History has recorded some very classy and clever insults. Some of the classics come from people of the likes of Winston Churchill, Mark Twain, and Abraham Lincoln.

President Obama's remark to England on Epstein's Churchill bust, did not make the list.

I am enclosing two tickets to the first night of my new play, bring a friend... if you have one." -- George Bernard Shaw to Winston Churchill

"Cannot possibly attend first night, will attend second...if there is one." -- Winston Churchill, in response.

The exchange between Churchill & Lady Astor:
She said, "If you were my husband I'd give you poison," and he said, “If you were my wife, I'd drink it."

He has all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire." -- Winston Churchill

"A modest little person, with much to be modest about." -- Winston Churchill

"Why do you sit there looking like an envelope without any address on it?"

I didn't attend the funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying I approved of it."

He has never been known to use a word that might send a reader to the dictionary." -- William Faulkner (about Ernest Hemingway)

"Poor Faulkner. Does he really think big emotions come from big words?" -- Ernest Hemingway (about William Faulkner)

"He can compress the most words into the smallest idea of any man I
know."

"Thank you for sending me a copy of your book; I'll waste no time reading it."

"I've had a perfectly wonderful evening. But this wasn't it."

"He has the attention span of a lightning bolt."

"He has Van Gogh's ear for music."

"In order to avoid being called a flirt, she always yielded easily."

"I've just learned about his illness. Let's hope it's nothing trivial."

"I have never killed a man, but I have read many obituaries with great pleasure."

"There's nothing wrong with you that reincarnation won't cure."

"He loves nature in spite of what it did to him."

To England -- "Thanks, but no thanks."