Josh Billings

“Every man has his follies and often they are the most interesting thing he has got.”

“There is nothing so easy to learn as experience and nothing so hard to apply”

“Man was created a little lower than the angels and has been getting a little lower ever since.”

“Be like a postage stamp. Stick to one thing until you get there.”

“Reason often makes mistakes, but conscience never does.”

“the squeeky wheel gets the grease.”

“There is no revenge so complete as forgiveness.”

“Half of the troubles of this life can be traced to saying yes too quickly and not saying no soon enough.”

“One of the greatest victories you can gain over someone is to beat him at politeness.”

“Flattery is like cologne water, to be smelt of, not swallowed.”

“Silence is one of the hardest arguments to refute".”

“Success does not consist in never making blunders, but in never making the same one a second time.”

“There is one kind of laugh that I always did recommend; it looks out of the eye first with a merry twinkle, then it creeps down on its hands and knees and plays around the mouth like a pretty moth around the blaze of a candle, then it steals over into the dimples of the cheeks and rides around in those whirlpools for a while, then it lights up the whole face like the mellow bloom on a damask rose, then it swims up on the air, with a peal as clear and as happy as a dinner-bell, then it goes back again on gold tiptoes like an angel out for an airing, and it lies down on its little bed of violets in the heart where it came from.”

“Common sense is instinct, and enough of it is genius”

“Adversity has the same effect on a man that severe training has on the pugilist: it reduces him to his fighting weight.”

“About the most originality that any writer can hope to achieve honestly is to steal with good judgment.”

“The trouble with most folks isn't their ignorance. It's knowin' so many things that ain't so.”

“If there was no faith there would be no living in this world.”

“In the whole history of the world there is but one thing that money cannot buy...to wit--the wag of a dog's tail.”

“Lying is like trying to hide in a fog: If you move about you're in danger of bumping your head against the truth, and as soon as the fog blows off, you are gone anyhow.”

“Learning sleeps and snores in libraries, but wisdom is everywhere, wide awake, on tiptoe. ”

“Love looks through a telescope; envy, through a microscope.”

“Laughing is the sensation of feeling good all over and showing it principally in one spot.”

“Genius ain't anything more than elegant common sense”

“There's a great power in words, if you don't hitch too many of them together.”

“Life consists not in holding good cards but in playing those you hold well”

“Consider the postage stamp: its usefulness consists in the ability to stick to one thing till it gets there.”

“Don't put off till tomorrow what can be enjoyed today.”

“Remember the poor, it costs nothing.”

“It's not only the most difficult thing to know one's self, but the most inconvenient.”

“As scarce as truth is, the supply has always been in excess of the demand.”

“Genius after all ain't anything more then elegant common sense.”

“To bring up a child in the way he should go, travel that way yourself once in a while.”

“A dog is the only thing on earth that loves you more than he loves himself.”

“The best time for you to hold your tongue is the time you feel you must say something or bust.”