About a Boy

"Fine. Great. Prove it. I just don't think couples are the future."

"Oh, well, thank you...Einstein."

Will had wanted his comeback to be sharper than that. He wanted to think of the name of some sort of socio-cultural marriage expert whose name two twelve-year-olds would instantly recognize, but Einstein was all he could come up with. He knew it wasn't right.

(Nick Hornby. About a Boy)

Nick Hornby does an excellent job of describing the thought process when you know you've failed at making your point, but also suspect you were never going to be able to make that point, no matter how much time you had to craft your response.