E.W. Howe Quotes

The greatest thing in the world is for a man to be able to do something well, and say nothing about it.

Americans detest all lies except lies spoken in public or printed lies.

It is a matter of regret that many low, mean suspicions turn out to be well founded.

A successful man cannot realize how hard an unsuccessful man finds life.

No man can smile in the face of adversity and mean it.

No man is smart, except by comparison to those who know less

Everyone hates a martyr; it's no wonder martyrs were burned at the stake.

Honesty is largely a matter of information, of knowing that dishonesty is a mistake. Principle is not as powerful in keeping people straight as a policeman.

Most of us are either too think to enjoy eating, or too fat to enjoy walking.

A woman does not spend all her time in buying things; she spends part of it in taking them back.

Men are virtuous because women are; women are virtuous from necessity.

Success does not mean happiness: it means an unusual number of industrious enemies.

There is no such thing as a convincing argument, although every man thinks he has one.

If the fools do not control the world, it isn't because they are not in the majority.

As soon as the people fix one Shame of the World, another turns up.

The man who insists he as good as anybody, believes he is better.

People tolerate those they fear further than those they love.

If this world isn't good enough for us then an afterlife won't be enough.

These are the rules of big business...Get a monopoly; let society work for you; and remember that the best of all business is politics.

People do not want war. War springs from causes wholly outside the lives, interests, and feelings of the people.

The art of plucking the goose without making it cry out has been developed to a high state of perfection at the hands of the war makers.

It's one of the reasons [professional politicians] why people's confidence in the electoral system has declined so much. They have all become shadowy political creatures

I think the notion of success is fairly destructive. You can see elements of this surrounding any band becoming too popular. On the other hand, survival means you are doing fine.

The cruelest thing anyone can do to Portnoy's Complaint is to read it twice.

Sometimes kids just act impulsively, but it's because we have strong feelings, not because we're trying to make trouble.

Occasionally projects just take off unexpectedly, sometimes you can work away at sketches and ideas for years before they are published. There are a number of authors I would be eager to illustrate.

As He died to make men holy, let us live to make men free.

Every life has its actual blanks, which the ideal must fill up, or which else remain bare & profitless forever.

In the nature of things, I must soon lose sight of this sense of constant metamorphosis whose limits bound our human life.

I probably have reported, probably more about the unusual animal death stories then anyone else on this planet.

Until all students are faced by the tragedies, the contradictions and the stark questions of life, they cannot understand the need for redemption or God's redemptive action.

We too often love things and use people when we should be using things and loving people.

Persons are to be loved; things are to be used.

I often think of the space of a page as a stage, with words, letters, syllable characters moving across.

Dear Skeezie, Today I ran after a boy as he was trying to get away. I tackled him and we both landed in the mud. Do you think I appeared desperate?-Joe Bunch

If you want to know how old a woman is . . . ask her sister-in-law.

The little trouble in the world that is not due to love is due to friendship.

Men have as exaggerated an idea of their rights as women have of their wrongs.

The more wealth a man has, the louder his children talk.

Faith may have removed mountains way off somewhere, a long time ago, but it won't remove a wart at home this week.

A man has his clothes made to fit him; a woman makes herself fit her clothes.

Don't be crazy to do a lot of things you can't do.

Most people eat as if they were fattening themselves for market.

Nothing pleases a woman quite so well as to look so sweet that a man wants to kiss her, and then abuse him for his impudence.

As a man handles his troubles during the day, so he goes to bed at night a General, Captain, or Private.

How good we all are, in theory, to the old; and how in fact we wish them to wander off like old dogs, die without bothering us, and bury themselves.

No man's credit is ever as good as his money.

It is your enemies who keep you straight. For real use one active, sneering enemy is worth two ordinary friends.

Reading is like permitting a man to talk a long time, and refusing you the right to answer.

Most people have seen worse things in private than they pretend to be shocked at in public.