Henry Wheeler Shaw Quotes

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

  Henry Wheeler Shaw

• Every man has his follies – and often they are the most interesting thing he has got.

  Henry Wheeler Shaw

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

  Henry Wheeler Shaw

• I have lived in this world just long enough to look carefully the second time into things that I am most certain of the first time.

  Henry Wheeler Shaw

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

  Henry Wheeler Shaw

• I haven’t got as much money as some folks, but I’ve got as much impudence as any of them, and that’s the next thing to money.

  Henry Wheeler Shaw

• I think when the full horror of being fifty hits you, you should stay home and have a good cry.

  Henry Wheeler Shaw

• If a man should happen to reach perfection in this world, he would have to die immediately to enjoy himself.

  Henry Wheeler Shaw

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

  Henry Wheeler Shaw

• 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.

  Henry Wheeler Shaw

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

  Henry Wheeler Shaw

• It is a very delicate job to forgive a man, without lowering him in his own estimation, and yours too.

  Henry Wheeler Shaw

• It is better to know nothing than to know what ain’t so.

  Henry Wheeler Shaw

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

  Henry Wheeler Shaw

• One of the rarest things that a man ever does, is to do the best he can.

  Henry Wheeler Shaw

• Reason often makes mistakes, but conscience never does.

  Henry Wheeler Shaw

• Remember the poor, it costs nothing.

  Henry Wheeler Shaw

• Silence is one of the hardest arguments to refute.

  Henry Wheeler Shaw

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

  Henry Wheeler Shaw

• The best medicine I know for rheumatism is to thank the Lord that it ain’t gout.

  Henry Wheeler Shaw

Henry Wheeler Shaw (95)

Birth:	21st April, 1818
Death:	14th October, 1885
Nationality:	American
Profession:	Humorist, Writer

About

Josh Billings was the pen name of 19th-century American humorist Henry Wheeler Shaw. He was born in Lanesborough, Massachusetts, USA. He was a famous humor writer in the United States, perhaps second only to Mark Twain, during the latter half of the 19th century. He wrote several books include: Josh Billings, Hiz Sayings, Josh Billings on Ice, and Other Things, The Complete Works Of Josh Billings, Farmers' Allminax, and Old Probability.

Related Authors

• Alan Coren
• Douglas William Jerrold
• Wolcott Gibbs
• Will Stanton
• Edward V. Lucas
• Stephen Leacock
• Emily Levine
• George S. Kaufman
• Leo Rosten
• Edmund Clerihew Bentley

Advertisement

Today's Anniversary - 7th January

Births

• 1800 - Millard Fillmore
• 1898 - Sigmund Graff
• 1945 - Shulamith Firestone
• 1963 - Rand Paul
• 1977 - Dustin Diamond

Deaths

• 1988 - Trevor Howard
• 1995 - Murray Rothbard
• 1981 - William Feather
• 1980 - Larry Williams
• 1943 - Nikola Tesla