The list of 10 quotations offered by the Scottish section of the English-Speaking Union as possible subjects for its 2004 essay competition range from the poet Dryden (“Beware the fury of a patient man”) to playwright John Osborne (“The injustice of it is almost perfect”).
The competition is aimed at S4 to S6 pupils, some of whom might be attracted to the anarchic possibilities presented by Mark Twain’s “I’ve never let my school interfere with my education”.
If teachers were eligible, there is no doubt which quotation would be the most appealing - “headmasters have powers at their disposal with which Prime Ministers have never been invested” (Winston Churchill), though they might have trouble sticking to the allocated 500 words.
