Austin O'Malley Quotes

The statesman shears the sheep; the politician skins them.

Civilization is the world with its leg asleep.

The fact that you have been knocked down is interesting, but the length of time you remained down is important.

Patience has tender feet.

A hole is nothing at all, but you can break your neck in it.

A politician is like quicksilver: if you try to put your finger on him, you find nothing under it.

Charity is the only lubricant that keeps the axle of the world creaking.

Charity that is always beginning at home stays there.

Religion often gets credit for curing rascals when old age is the real medicine.

Childhood has no necessary connection with age.

Humility is pride in God.

There are ten church-members by inheritance for one by conviction.

Charity is the note that resolves the discord.

Human truth is always soiled with falsehood.

When you are dealing with a child, keep all your wits about you, and sit on the floor.

A book reviewer is usually a barker before the door of a publisher's circus.

A worship of truth can be idolatry if the truth is small enough.

A sane man often reasons from sound premises; an insane man commonly reasons as well, but the premises are unsound.

Public opinion is the pennant on a nation's mast which shows the politician and the editor how to trim the sails.

A habit of debt is very injurious to the memory.

Truth and eggs are useful only while they are fresh.

Truth lives in the cellar, error on the doorstep.

Those who have suffered are best able to help those who are suffering.

Boards of public charity were invented by the devil to prevent real individual charity.

A small poet repeats himself like a clock.

Exclusiveness is a characteristic of recent riches, high society, and the skunk.

Originality in literature is only a new coat of paint on an old house.

There is a form of literature that is a deed, and a form that is only talk, and the latter passes away like a conversation.

The only original part in a work of art is the infusion of the artist's own character, if he has one.

Treat kindly every miserable truth that knocks begging at your door, otherwise you will some day fail to recognize Truth Himself when He comes in rags.

The weaker the man in authority... the stronger his insistence that all his privileges be acknowledged.

It is easier to prevent thistles and habits than to uproot them.

Sermons are like pie-crust, the shorter the better.

An Irishman can be worried by the consciousness that there is nothing to worry about.

Some men are like a clock on the roof; they are useful only to the neighbors.

Those who deserve love the least need it the most.

Art knows, life applies knowledge; art feels, life acts.

Some men are like a church-organ -- you can play on them for a lifetime and always find new harmonies; others are like a music-box -- they have four or five thin jingles.

Reason is the miner's lamp used in bringing up ore from the mind.

The only thing on earth that can determine itself is a human soul.

Delay is a bitter tonic, but it increases appetite.

The American government is a rule of the people, by the people, for the bosses.

The Son of the Carpenter made the door of heaven so low that you must either take off your plumes or stoop humbly to enter it.

Some men, like a wet dog, sprinkle a shower of advice over you when you are least prepared for a bath.

The habits of a young man are, like his coat, removable; the habits of an old man are like the drapery of a statue.

Those who listen to lies lose the ability to hear the truth.

The modern king has become a vermiform appendix: useless when quiet; when obtrusive, in danger of removal.

Ordinarily when a man in difficulty turns to prayer, he has already tried every other means of escape.

Law is the rudder of the ship of state.

Sorrow, like rain makes roses and mud.