Once Ferenc Deák inquired of a young man from a prestigious Zalaegerszeg family the reason for his raffish and rowdy way of life. The young man replied, “My dear sir, every genius is a night-bird.” Deák lectured the young man by saying, “But not every night-bird is a genius.”
Another time, Ferenc Deák was having lunch in one of the restaurants at the time of one of the county assemblies where he acted as a regional judge for Zala. He held the menu aloft as he addressed those sitting at his table, “Look, gentlemen, the Somlai has become a nobleman.” As an explanation, he pointed at the menu on which the waiter misspelt the name of the Somlai wine ending it with “wye”. The pun being that surnames of the Hungarian nobility traditionally end in a “wye”.