Jump to content

User:Afterword

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Welcome to Wikipedia

the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit
Today's featured article
Mandy Rice-Davies
Mandy Rice-Davies

"Well he would, wouldn't he?" is an aphorism that is commonly used as a retort to a self-interested denial. It was said by the model Mandy Rice-Davies (pictured) while giving evidence at the 1963 trial of Stephen Ward, who had been accused of living off money paid to Rice-Davies and her friend Christine Keeler for sex: part of the larger Profumo affair. While being cross-examined Rice-Davies was told that Lord Astor, who owned the Cliveden estate on which Ward rented a cottage, had denied an affair with her; she replied: "Well he would, wouldn't he?" Political, communications and psychological experts have interpreted it as a phrase which indicates the speaker believes a person is making a self-interested, obvious or irrelevant denial. They have also stated it functions as a retort to mistruths made by public figures. Linguistically, it has been noted for its use of the modal verb would to create rhetorical effect. The phrase has been included in The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations since 1979. (Full article...)

Recently featured:
On this day...

June 28: Vidovdan in Serbia

Gavrilo Princip
Gavrilo Princip
More anniversaries:
In the news
Julian Assange in 2014
Julian Assange
Picture of the day
Wikipedia:POTD row/June 28, 2024
Did you know?
Exterior of the Stonewall Inn
Exterior of the Stonewall Inn
Participate in Wikipedia
  • The Community Portal — The center of community involvement. Learn about projects and activities you can join to help improve Wikipedia.
  • The Help Desk — Come here if you need help editing. You browse help topics or ask questions about using Wikipedia.
  • The Reference Desk — For questions about any subject you're researching or curious about (not about Wikipedia itself), just like at a library's reference desk.
  • The Village Pump — The main discussion forums of Wikipedia.
  • The Signpost — Wikipedia's newspaper, where you can read and post news about what's happening on this website.
Wikipedia in other languages
Wikipedia's sister projects

Wikipedia is hosted by the Wikimedia Foundation, a non-profit organization that operates several other multilingual and free-content projects:

wikt:Main Page Wiktionary
Dictionary and thesaurus
b:Main Page Wikibooks
Free textbooks and manuals
q:Main Page Wikiquote
Collection of quotations
s:Main Page Wikisource
The free library
Wikispecies:Main Page Wikispecies
Directory of species
n:Main Page Wikinews
Free content news source
commons:Main Page Commons
Shared media repository
m:Main Page Meta-Wiki
Wikimedia project coordination