Josh Billings
Josh Billings
Josh Billings was the pen name of 19th-century American humorist Henry Wheeler Shaw. He was a famous humor writer and lecturer in the United States, perhaps second only to Mark Twain, during the latter half of the 19th century...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth21 April 1818
CityLanesborough, MA
CountryUnited States of America
men design poverty
I am a poor man, but I have this consolation: I am poor by accident, not by design.
giving long luck
As long as we are lucky we attribute it to our smartness; our bad luck we give the gods credit for.
owing-a-debt enough easy
Debt is like any other trap, easy enough to get into, but hard enough to get out of.
sarcastic sorry men
When I see a man of shallow understanding extravagantly clothed, I feel sorry - for the clothes.
funny-life heart journey
My advice to those who are about to begin, in earnest, the journey of life, is to take their heart in one hand and a club in the other.
peace shadow virtue
Peace is the soft and holy shadow that virtue casts.
truth truth-is
Truth is the edict of God.
bird together bills
And now the lads and lasses, following the example of the birds, bill and coo together.
honesty men doe
True valor is like honesty; it enters into all that a man sees and does.
thinking vanity world
There is no limit to the vanity of this world. Each spoke in the wheel thinks the whole strength of the wheel depends upon it.
jobs passion vanity
Vanity is a strange passion; rather than be out of a job it will brag of its vices.
morning dew paper
The morning paper is just as necessary for an American as dew is to the grass.
pay virtue easier
It is easier to be virtuous than it is to appear so, and it pays better.
passion doe virtue
Virtue does not consist in the absence of the passions, but in the control of them.