E. W. Howe (1853–1937,) fully Edgar Watson Howe, was an American novelist, essayist, and editor. Known for his iconoclasm and cynicism, he wrote realistic regional and romantic novels and coined widely circulated aphorisms.
Born in Treaty, Indiana, Howe started working on his father’s homestead in Missouri at age seven. He acquired much of his education while learning and practicing the printer’s trade, eventually becoming a journalist. He was editor and proprietor of The Daily Globe of Atchison, Kansas, 1877–1911, and later of E.W. Howe’s Monthly 1911–37. The latter was well-known for his aphoristic editorials.
Howe’s most famous novel, The Story of a Country Town (1883,) is a harshly realistic tale of the narrow life of Midwestern small-town life. Later Howe turned from realism to romance and wrote The Mystery of the Locks (1885) and The Moonlight Boy (1886,) which were less successful.
Known as “the Sage of Potato Hill,” Howe won celebrity as a commonsense coiner of shrewd and disillusioned aphorisms and observations. A character in The Story of a Country Town remarks, “A man with a brain large enough to understand mankind, is always wretched, and ashamed of himself.” One of Howe’s great admirers was the journalist and literary critic H. L. Mencken, who also wrote cynical aphorisms.
Howe’s other works include The Confession of John Whitlock (1891,) Country Town Savings (1911,) Ventures in Common Sense (1919,) The Anthology of Another Town (1920,) and Plain People (1929.) His autobiography is The Indignations of E.W. Howe (1933.)
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by E. W. Howe
If a woman doesn’t chase a man a little, she doesn’t love him.
—E. W. Howe
Topics: Love
Everyone suffers wrongs for which there is no remedy.
—E. W. Howe
Topics: Injury
To avoid mistakes and regrets, always consult your wife before engaging in a flirtation.
—E. W. Howe
No one can help you in holding a good job except Old Man You.
—E. W. Howe
Topics: Confidence, Self-reliance, Success
Abuse a man unjustly, and you will make friends for him.
—E. W. Howe
Topics: Adversity
Don’t be crazy to do a lot of things you can’t do .
—E. W. Howe
Topics: Difficulties, Difficulty
All of the troubles that some people have in life is that which they married into.
—E. W. Howe
Topics: Justice, Trials
As a man handles his troubles during the day, so he goes to bed at night a General, Captain, or Private.
—E. W. Howe
Topics: Difficulty, Difficulties
A modest man is usually admired, if people ever hear of him.
—E. W. Howe
Topics: Modesty, Humility
Many a man is saved from being a thief by finding everything locked up.
—E. W. Howe
Topics: Crime, Criminals
When I am idle and shiftless, my affairs become confused; when I work, I get results… not great results, but enough to encourage me.
—E. W. Howe
Topics: Secrets of Success
Man is still a savage to the extent that he has little respect for anything that cannot hurt him.
—E. W. Howe
Topics: Respect
The greatest thing in the world is for a man to be able to do something well, and say nothing about it.
—E. W. Howe
Topics: Doing
A woman who can’t forgive should never have more than a nodding acquaintance with a man.
—E. W. Howe
Topics: Forgiveness
Probably no man ever had a friend he did not dislike a little; we are all so constituted by nature that no one can possibly entirely approve of us.
—E. W. Howe
Topics: Friendship
You can make up a quarrel, but it will always show where it was patched.
—E. W. Howe
Topics: Forgiveness
If you attend to your work, and let your enemy alone, someone else will come along some day, and do him up for you.
—E. W. Howe
A young man is a theory, an old man is a fact.
—E. W. Howe
Topics: Theory, Assumptions
There is only one thing people like that is good for them; a good night’s sleep.
—E. W. Howe
Topics: Sleep, Relaxation
Nothing is wonderful when you get used to it.
—E. W. Howe
Topics: Familiarity
Half the promises people say were never kept, were never made.
—E. W. Howe
Topics: Promises
The underdog often starts the fight, and occasionally the upper dog deserves to win.
—E. W. Howe
Topics: Fight, Fighting
To be an ideal guest, stay at home.
—E. W. Howe
A man should be taller, older, heavier, uglier, and hoarser than his wife.
—E. W. Howe
Instead of loving your enemies, treat your friends a little better.
—E. W. Howe
Topics: Friends and Friendship, Enemies, Friendship
No man’s credit is ever as good as his money.
—E. W. Howe
Topics: Money
I believe in grumbling; it is the politest form of fighting known.
—E. W. Howe
Topics: Pessimism, Complaining, Complaints
The man who can keep a secret may be wise, but he is not half as wise as the man with no secrets to keep
—E. W. Howe
Topics: Secrets
Virtue must be valuable, if men and women of all degrees pretend to have it.
—E. W. Howe
Topics: Virtue
Friends are like a pleasant park where you wish to go; while you may enjoy the flowers, you may not eat them.
—E. W. Howe
Topics: Courtesy, Friendship
The sounder your argument, the more satisfaction you get out of it.
—E. W. Howe
Topics: Satisfaction, Arguments, Argument
When people hear good music, it makes them homesick for something they never had, and never will have.
—E. W. Howe
Topics: Music
Youth is about the only thing worth having, and that is about the only thing youth has.
—E. W. Howe
Topics: Youth
American freedom consists largely in talking nonsense.
—E. W. Howe
Topics: Freedom
Never tell a secret to a bride or a groom; wait until they have been married longer.
—E. W. Howe
Topics: Secrets
The little trouble in the world that is not due to love is due to friendship.
—E. W. Howe
Topics: Reason
The worst feeling in the world is the homesickness that comes over a man occasionally when he is at home.
—E. W. Howe
Topics: Home
Don’t abuse your friends and expect them to consider it criticism.
—E. W. Howe
Topics: Friends, Friendship
If you knew how cowardly your enemy is, you would slap him. Bravery is knowledge of the cowardice in the enemy.
—E. W. Howe
Topics: Fear, Cowardice, Anxiety, Courage
What people say behind your back is your standing in the community.
—E. W. Howe
Topics: Reputation, Character
Wondering Whom to Read Next?
Thomas Bailey Aldrich American Writer
Kurt Vonnegut American Novelist
Booth Tarkington American Novelist
Josiah Gilbert Holland American Editor, Novelist
William Dean Howells American Writer, Critic
Toni Morrison American Novelist
Arthur Brisbane American Editor
William Allen White American Editor
Ken Kesey American Novelist
Ayn Rand Russian-born American Novelist