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Famous Josh Billings Quotes
“When good-natured people leave us we look forward with extra pleasure to their return.”
“Too many individuals are like Shakespeare's definition of "echo,"--babbling gossips of the air.”
“Dr. Holmes says, both wittily and truly, that crying widows are easiest consoled.”
“Ignorance is the wet-nurse of prejudice.”
“Selfish people, with no heart to speak of, have the best time of it.”
“Morally considered, laughter is next to the Ten Commandments.”
“As a general thing, an individual who is neat in his person is neat in his morals.”
“Our continual desire for praise ought to convince us of our mortality, if nothing else will.”
“Prejudice is a house-plant which is very apt to wilt if you take it out-of-doors among folks.”
“Take the humbug out of this world, and you haven't much left to do business with.”
“A witty writer is like a porcupine; his quill makes no distinction between friend and foe.”
“Where religion is a trade, morality is a merchandise.”
“There is no passion of the human heart that promises so much and pays so little as revenge.”
“Show me a thoroughly contented person, and I will show you a useless one.”
“Fortune is like a coquette; if you don't run after her, she will run after you.”
“You cannot analyze a kiss any more than you can dissect the fragrance of flowers.”
“Nature makes all the noblemen; wealth, education, or pedigree never made one yet.”
“Opinions should be formed with great caution, and changed with greater.”
“If you do not know how to lie, cheat, and steal, turn your attention to politics and learn.”
“Rumor is a vagrant without a home, and lives upon what it can pick up.”
“Rumor is like bees; the more you fight them the more you don't get rid of them.”
“Silence never makes any blunders.”
“Society is composed of slow Christians and wide-awake sinners.”
“We mingle in society not so much to meet others as to escape ourselves.”
“I do not know of a better cure for sorrow than to pity somebody else.”
“It is a great art to be superior to others without letting them know it.”
“People travel to learn; most of them before they start should learn to travel.”