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 abuse your friends and expect them to consider it criticism.
—E. W. Howe
Topics: Friends, Friendship
A modest man is usually admired, if people ever hear of him.
—E. W. Howe
Topics: Humility, Modesty
A reasonable probability is the only certainty.
—E. W. Howe
Topics: Doubt, Uncertainty
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
A thief believes everybody steals.
—E. W. Howe
Topics: Crime
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
You can make up a quarrel, but it will always show where it was patched.
—E. W. Howe
Topics: Forgiveness
The sounder your argument, the more satisfaction you get out of it.
—E. W. Howe
Topics: Argument, Satisfaction, Arguments
Any man who will look into his heart and honestly write what he sees there, will find plenty of readers.
—E. W. Howe
Topics: Writing
The most destructive criticism is indifference.
—E. W. Howe
Topics: Boredom
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
I think I am better than the people who are trying to reform me.
—E. W. Howe
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: Marriage, Advertising
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
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 Management, Time
Abuse a man unjustly, and you will make friends for him.
—E. W. Howe
Topics: Adversity
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
If there were no schools to take the children away from home part of the time, the insane asylums would be filled with mothers
—E. W. Howe
Topics: School
The average man’s judgment is so poor, he runs a risk every time he uses it.
—E. W. Howe
Topics: Judgement, Judgment, Judging, Judges
To be an ideal guest, stay at home.
—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
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
Half the promises people say were never kept, were never made.
—E. W. Howe
Topics: Promises
A theory is no more like a fact than a photograph is like a person.
—E. W. Howe
Topics: Assumptions, Theory
One of the surprising things in this world is the respect a worthless man has for himself.
—E. W. Howe
Topics: Self Respect, Respect, Respectability
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 worst feeling in the world is the homesickness that comes over a man occasionally when he is at home.
—E. W. Howe
Topics: Home
Fishing seems to be the favorite form of loafing.
—E. W. Howe
Instead of loving your enemies, treat your friends a little better.
—E. W. Howe
Topics: Friends and Friendship, Enemies, Friendship
Living up to ideals is like doing everyday work with your Sunday clothes on.
—E. W. Howe
Topics: Ideals, Perfection
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