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
happiness hunting skeletons
Hunting after happiness is like hunting after a lost sheep in the wilderness--when you find it, the chances are that it is a skeleton.
fun sugar
Fun is a sugar-coated physic.
way half half-sister
Fuss is half-sister to hurry, and neither of them can do anything without getting in their own way.
people looks return
When good-natured people leave us we look forward with extra pleasure to their return.
air echoes gossip
Too many individuals are like Shakespeare's definition of "echo,"--babbling gossips of the air.
grief widows drs
Dr. Holmes says, both wittily and truly, that crying widows are easiest consoled.
running disposition ill
Ill-nature is a sort of running sore of the disposition.
ignorance nurse prejudice
Ignorance is the wet-nurse of prejudice.
selfish heart people
Selfish people, with no heart to speak of, have the best time of it.
thinking men judgment
The very thing that men think they have got the most of, they have got the least of; and that is judgment.
laughter next ten-commandments
Morally considered, laughter is next to the Ten Commandments.
men law enough
Every man should know something of law; if he knows enough to keep out of it, he is a pretty good lawyer.
arithmetic method
Method is the arithmetic of success.
moral individual neat
As a general thing, an individual who is neat in his person is neat in his morals.