John Billings quotes

Here are some great Josh Billings quotes I recently read:

About the most originality that any writer can hope to achieve honestly is to steal with good judgment. (As a computer programmer who seldom writes anything from scratch, I truly appreciate this one).

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

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

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

Economy is a savings-bank, into which men drop pennies, and get dollars in return.

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.

If there was no faith there would be no living in this world. We could not even eat hash with any safety.

It is much easier to repent of sins that we have committed than to repent of those that we intend to commit.

It is not all bad, this getting old, ripening. After the fruit has got its growth it should juice up and mellow. God forbid I should live long enough to ferment and rot and fall to the ground in a squash.

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

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

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

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

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

Remember the poor, it costs nothing.

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

The thinner the ice, the more anxious is everyone to see whether it will bear.

The trouble with most folks ain't so much their ignorance as knowing so many things that ain't so.

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 kinds of fools: those who can't change their opinions and those who won't.

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

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

There is no revenge so complete as forgiveness.

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

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

Wisdom has never made a bigot, but learning has.

Words are often seen hunting for an idea, but ideas are never seen hunting for words.