Quotes By Josh Billings

Most people repent their sins by thanking God they ain't so wicked as their neighbors.

Knowledge is like money: the more he gets, the more he craves.

Silence is one of the hardest arguments to refute.

There is no greater evidence of superior intelligence than to be surprised at nothing.

I have never known a person to live to be one hundred and be remarkable for anything else.

There are people who are always anticipating trouble, and in this way they manage to enjoy many sorrows that never really happen to them.

There are two things in life for which we are never truly prepared: twins.

If you ever find happiness by hunting for it, you will find it, as the old woman did her lost spectacles, safe on her own nose all the time.

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

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

Honesty is the rarest wealth anyone can possess, and yet all the honesty in the world ain't lawful tender for a loaf of bread.

A dog is the only thing on earth that loves you more than you love yourself.

Most people when they come to you for advice, come to have their own opinions strengthened, not corrected.

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

Common sense is instinct, and enough of it is genius.

Marrying for love may be a bit risky, but it is so honest that God can't help but smile on it.

Life is short, but it's long enough to ruin any man who wants to be ruined.

A puppy plays with every pup he meets, but an old dog has few associates.

The trouble with people is not that they don't know but that they know so much that ain't so.

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

Take all the fools out of this world and there wouldn't be any fun living in it, or profit.

Confess your sins to the Lord and you will be forgiven; confess them to man and you will be laughed at.

Wisdom has never made a bigot, but learning has.

There are some people so addicted to exaggeration that they can't tell the truth without lying.

It ain't often that a man's reputation outlasts his money.

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

Genius ain't anything more than elegant common sense.

Remember the poor, it costs nothing.

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

Advice is like castor oil, easy enough to give but dreadful uneasy to take.