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
The way out of trouble is never as simple as the way in.
—E. W. Howe
Topics: Justice, Trials
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
Many a man is saved from being a thief by finding everything locked up.
—E. W. Howe
Topics: Criminals, Crime
If a woman doesn’t chase a man a little, she doesn’t love him.
—E. W. Howe
Topics: Love
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: Friendship, Courtesy
Instead of loving your enemies, treat your friends a little better.
—E. W. Howe
Topics: Friendship, Friends and Friendship, Enemies
When men are not regretting that life is so short, they are doing something to kill time.
—E. W. Howe
Topics: Spending time wisely, Time, Time Management
Virtue must be valuable, if men and women of all degrees pretend to have it.
—E. W. Howe
Topics: Virtue
If you don’t learn to laugh at trouble, you won’t have anything to laugh at when you grow old.
—E. W. Howe
To avoid mistakes and regrets, always consult your wife before engaging in a flirtation.
—E. W. Howe
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
No man would listen to you talk if he didn’t know it was his turn next.
—E. W. Howe
Topics: Listening
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
None of us can boast about the morality of our ancestors. The record does not show that Adam and Eve were ever married.
—E. W. Howe
Topics: Ancestors, Ancestry
Common sense is compelled to make its way without the enthusiasm of anyone; all admit it grudgingly.
—E. W. Howe
Topics: Common Sense, Common Sense
Youth is about the only thing worth having, and that is about the only thing youth has.
—E. W. Howe
Topics: Youth
When people hear good music, it makes them homesick for something they never had, and never will have.
—E. W. Howe
Topics: Music
You may easily play a joke on a man who likes to argue—agree with him.
—E. W. Howe
Topics: Agreement
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
The sounder your argument, the more satisfaction you get out of it.
—E. W. Howe
Topics: Argument, Arguments, Satisfaction
To be an ideal guest, stay at home.
—E. W. Howe
Most of us are either too thin to enjoy eating, or too fat to enjoy walking.
—E. W. Howe
Topics: Food, Eating
Farmers only worry during the growing season, but towns people worry all the time.
—E. W. Howe
Topics: Farming
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
The underdog often starts the fight, and occasionally the upper dog deserves to win.
—E. W. Howe
Topics: Fight, Fighting
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: Satisfaction, Argument, Arguments
Everyone suffers wrongs for which there is no remedy.
—E. W. Howe
Topics: Injury
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
There is nothing so well known as that we should not expect something for nothing—but we all do and call it Hope.
—E. W. Howe
Topics: Hope
The average man’s judgment is so poor, he runs a risk every time he uses it.
—E. W. Howe
Topics: Judges, Judgement, Judgment, Judging
The only way to amuse some people is to slip and fall on an icy pavement.
—E. W. Howe
Topics: Pleasure
Families with babies and families without babies are sorry for each other.
—E. W. Howe
Topics: Family, Children, Babies
Even if a farmer intends to loaf, he gets up in time to get an early start.
—E. W. Howe
Topics: Morning, Punctuality
The feeling of sleepiness when you are not in bed, and can’t get there, is the meanest feeling in the world.
—E. W. Howe
Topics: Sleep
Don’t be crazy to do a lot of things you can’t do .
—E. W. Howe
Topics: Difficulties, Difficulty
Nothing is wonderful when you get used to it.
—E. W. Howe
Topics: Familiarity
The most destructive criticism is indifference.
—E. W. Howe
Topics: Boredom
Man is still a savage to the extent that he has little respect for anything that cannot hurt him.
—E. W. Howe
Topics: Respect
A theory is no more like a fact than a photograph is like a person.
—E. W. Howe
Topics: Assumptions, Theory
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