I honestly believe it is better to know nothing than to know what ain’t so.
—Josh Billings (Henry Wheeler Shaw)
Topics: Knowledge, Attitude
Take the selfishness out of this world and there would be more happiness than we should know what to do with.
—Josh Billings (Henry Wheeler Shaw)
Topics: Selfishness
Adam invented love at first sight, one of the greatest labor-saving machines the world ever saw.
—Josh Billings (Henry Wheeler Shaw)
Topics: Love
When a man comes to me for advice, I find out the kind of advice he wants, and I give it to him.
—Josh Billings (Henry Wheeler Shaw)
Topics: Advice
When a man gets talking about himself, he seldom fails to be eloquent and often reaches the sublime.
—Josh Billings (Henry Wheeler Shaw)
Topics: Conversation, Eloquence
The happiest time in a man’s life is when he is in the red hot pursuit of a dollar with a reasonable prospect of overtaking it.
—Josh Billings (Henry Wheeler Shaw)
Topics: Business
Genius ain’t anything more than elegant common sense.
—Josh Billings (Henry Wheeler Shaw)
Topics: Genius
To bring up a child in the way he should go, travel that way—yourself once in a while.
—Josh Billings (Henry Wheeler Shaw)
Topics: Parenting, Children
Better make a weak man your enemy than your friend.
—Josh Billings (Henry Wheeler Shaw)
Topics: Weakness
Man was created a little lower than the angels, and has been getting lower ever since.
—Josh Billings (Henry Wheeler Shaw)
Topics: Angels, Creation
We hate those who will not take our advice, and despise them who do.
—Josh Billings (Henry Wheeler Shaw)
Topics: Advice
Music hath the charm to soothe a savage beast, but I’d try a revolver first.
—Josh Billings (Henry Wheeler Shaw)
Topics: Music
It is always safe to follow the religious belief that our mother taught us; there never was a mother yet who taught her child to be an infidel.
—Josh Billings (Henry Wheeler Shaw)
It is a statistical fact that the wicked work harder to reach hell than the righteous do to enter heaven.
—Josh Billings (Henry Wheeler Shaw)
Topics: Hypocrisy, Defects, Wickedness, Evil
I don’t care how much a person talks, if they only say it in a few words.
—Josh Billings (Henry Wheeler Shaw)
Topics: Speaking, Speakers
It’s not what we don’t know that prevents us from succeeding; it’s what we know that just ain’t so that is our greatest obstacle.
—Josh Billings (Henry Wheeler Shaw)
Topics: Now, Great
About the only difference between the poor and the rich, is this, the poor suffer misery, while the rich have to enjoy it.
—Josh Billings (Henry Wheeler Shaw)
Topics: Wealth, Riches
Woman’s influence is powerful, especially when she wants something.
—Josh Billings (Henry Wheeler Shaw)
Topics: Power
There is no greater evidence of superior intelligence than to be surprised at nothing.
—Josh Billings (Henry Wheeler Shaw)
There is a sort of charm in ugliness, if the person has some redeeming qualities and is only ugly enough.
—Josh Billings (Henry Wheeler Shaw)
Topics: Charm
Reason often makes mistakes, but conscience never does.
—Josh Billings (Henry Wheeler Shaw)
Topics: Right, Conscience
Faith is the soul riding at anchor.
—Josh Billings (Henry Wheeler Shaw)
Topics: Faith, Belief
It is not only the most difficult thing to know oneself, but the most inconvenient, too.
—Josh Billings (Henry Wheeler Shaw)
Topics: Self-Knowledge, Awareness, Self-Discovery
The thinner the ice, the more anxious is everyone to see whether it will bear.
—Josh Billings (Henry Wheeler Shaw)
Topics: Worry, Anxiety
Most everyone seems willing to be a fool himself, but he can’t bear to have anyone else one.
—Josh Billings (Henry Wheeler Shaw)
Topics: Hypocrisy
I have never known a person to live to be one hundred and be remarkable for anything else.
—Josh Billings (Henry Wheeler Shaw)
Topics: Aging, Age
There’s a great power in words, if you don’t hitch too many of them together.
—Josh Billings (Henry Wheeler Shaw)
Topics: Brevity, Words
Time is like money, the less we have of it to spare the further we make it go.
—Josh Billings (Henry Wheeler Shaw)
Topics: Time, Time Management, Spending time wisely
Prejudice assumes the garb of reason, but the cheat is too thin.
—Josh Billings (Henry Wheeler Shaw)
Topics: Prejudice
A good way I know to find happiness, is to not bore a hole to fit the plug.
—Josh Billings (Henry Wheeler Shaw)
Topics: Happiness
Incredulity is the wisdom of the fool.
—Josh Billings (Henry Wheeler Shaw)
Topics: Belief, Fools
No one can disgrace us but ourselves.
—Josh Billings (Henry Wheeler Shaw)
Topics: Self Respect, Self-Esteem
Don’t mistake pleasure for happiness. They are a different breed of dogs.
—Josh Billings (Henry Wheeler Shaw)
Topics: Happiness, Pleasure
It is much easier to repent of sins that we have committed than to repent of those that we intend to commit.
—Josh Billings (Henry Wheeler Shaw)
Topics: Repentance, Forgiveness
Advice is like castor oil, easy enough to give but dreadful uneasy to take.
—Josh Billings (Henry Wheeler Shaw)
Topics: Advice
Laughter is the sensation of feeling good all over and showing it principally in one place.
—Josh Billings (Henry Wheeler Shaw)
Topics: Feelings, Laughter
A good place to visit, but a poor place to stay.
—Josh Billings (Henry Wheeler Shaw)
Topics: Travel
The best way to convince a fool that he is wrong is to let him have his way.
—Josh Billings (Henry Wheeler Shaw)
Topics: Fools, Foolishness
Remember the poor, it costs nothing.
—Josh Billings (Henry Wheeler Shaw)
Topics: Poverty
Men mourn for what they have lost; women for what they ain’t got.
—Josh Billings (Henry Wheeler Shaw)
Topics: Men & Women, Men, Women
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