Inspirational Quotations

Inspirational Quotes by E. W. Howe (American Novelist)

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

Don’t be crazy to do a lot of things you can’t do .
—E. W. Howe
Topics: Difficulty, Difficulties

The way to keep a cat is to try to chase it away.
—E. W. Howe
Topics: Cats

You may easily play a joke on a man who likes to argue—agree with him.
—E. W. Howe
Topics: Agreement

Youth is about the only thing worth having, and that is about the only thing youth has.
—E. W. Howe
Topics: Youth

A modest man is usually admired, if people ever hear of him.
—E. W. Howe
Topics: Humility, Modesty

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

At first a woman doesn’t want anything but a husband, but as soon as she gets one, she wants everything else in the world.
—E. W. Howe
Topics: Husbands

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

People are always neglecting something they can do in trying to do something they can’t do.
—E. W. Howe

The sounder your argument, the more satisfaction you get out of it.
—E. W. Howe
Topics: Arguments, Argument, Satisfaction

I do not love my neighbor as myself, and apologize to no one.
—E. W. Howe

Many people would be more truthful were it not for their uncontrollable desire to talk.
—E. W. Howe
Topics: Truth

The underdog often starts the fight, and occasionally the upper dog deserves to win.
—E. W. Howe
Topics: Fight, Fighting

You can make up a quarrel, but it will always show where it was patched.
—E. W. Howe
Topics: Forgiveness

The only way to amuse some people is to slip and fall on an icy pavement.
—E. W. Howe
Topics: Pleasure

Instead of loving your enemies, treat your friends a little better.
—E. W. Howe
Topics: Friendship, Friends and Friendship, Enemies

I believe in grumbling; it is the politest form of fighting known.
—E. W. Howe
Topics: Pessimism, Complaining, Complaints

Marriage is a good deal like a circus: there is not as much in it as is represented in the advertising
—E. W. Howe
Topics: Advertising, Marriage

The most agreeable thing in life is worthy accomplishment. It is not possible that the idle tramp is as contented as the farmers along the road who own their own farms, and whose credit is good at the bank in town. When the tramps get together at night, they abuse the farmers, but do not get as much satisfaction out of it as do the farmers who abuse the tramps. The sounder your argument, the more satisfaction you get out of it.
—E. W. Howe
Topics: Argument, Arguments, Satisfaction

Everyone suffers wrongs for which there is no remedy.
—E. W. Howe
Topics: Injury

A thief believes everybody steals.
—E. W. Howe
Topics: Crime

When a man has no reason to trust himself, he trusts in luck.
—E. W. Howe
Topics: Trust

There is only one thing people like that is good for them; a good night’s sleep.
—E. W. Howe
Topics: Sleep, Relaxation

When a man says money can do anything, that settles it. He hasn’t any.
—E. W. Howe
Topics: Money

A woman who can’t forgive should never have more than a nodding acquaintance with a man.
—E. W. Howe
Topics: Forgiveness

American freedom consists largely in talking nonsense.
—E. W. Howe
Topics: Freedom

The natural man has a difficult time getting along in the world. Half the people think he is a scoundrel because he is not a hypocrite.
—E. W. Howe
Topics: Deception, Honor

The average man’s judgment is so poor, he runs a risk every time he uses it.
—E. W. Howe
Topics: Judgment, Judgement, Judges, Judging

The real tragedy of life is not being limited to one talent, but in failing to use that one talent.
—E. W. Howe
Topics: Appreciation, Gratitude, Blessings

We must be truthful and fair in the ordinary affairs of life before we can be truthful and fair in patriotism and religion.
—E. W. Howe
Topics: Truth

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