From Aaron Elkins:

Jacques wouldn't know 'devious' if it walked up to him and said bonjour.

***

He was wearing a shapeless, colorless canvas fisherman's hat, a decrepit old windbreaker, worn cotton jeans, and old tennis shoes. His stubby, metal-stemmed pipe, unlit, was clenched in his teeth, the bowl upside down. He was, Gideon thought, working at looking like an archaeologist. What he looked like was Monsieur Hulot.

***

"There's an old story.... Skolnick borrows a kettle from Mandlebaum, and when he brings it back, Mandlebaum says, 'Look, there's a big hole in this kettle; how am I supposed to use it anymore? You got to give me another one.' Skolnick says no he won't, so they argue about it, and finally they agree to go in front of the rabbi to settle it. You know this story?"
"Does a horse in a bathtub come into it?"
"No, that's a different story."

***

From Marion Boyd Havighurst:

Only the silence of printed words fell about my ears.

***

A novel by Carolyn Wells opens with this oath:

"Well, by the Great Catamaran!"

***

From Anthony Berkeley:

"He's absolutely genuine, nearly always says just what he thinks, and is the only man I've ever met called Philip who isn't a prig."