A true Englishman doesn't joke when he is talking about so serious a thing as a wager
 Jules Verne, Around the World in 80 Days (1873). copy citation

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Author Jules Verne
Source Around the World in 80 Days
Topic seriousness Englishman wager
Date 1873
Language English
Reference
Note Translated by George Makepeace Towle
Weblink http://www.gutenberg.org/files/103/103-h/103-h.htm

Context

“"But, in order not to exceed it, you must jump mathematically from the trains upon the steamers, and from the steamers upon the trains again."
"I will jump—mathematically."
"You are joking."
"A true Englishman doesn't joke when he is talking about so serious a thing as a wager," replied Phileas Fogg, solemnly. "I will bet twenty thousand pounds against anyone who wishes that I will make the tour of the world in eighty days or less; in nineteen hundred and twenty hours, or a hundred and fifteen thousand two hundred minutes.” source
Original quote

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