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

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

The most destructive criticism is indifference.
—E. W. Howe
Topics: Boredom

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, Arguments, Argument

Nothing is wonderful when you get used to it.
—E. W. Howe
Topics: Familiarity

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

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

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

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: Ancestry, Ancestors

Some people never have anything except ideals.
—E. W. Howe
Topics: Ideals

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

Every successful man I have heard of has done the best he could with conditions as he found them…
—E. W. Howe
Topics: Success, Success & Failure

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

Half the promises people say were never kept, were never made.
—E. W. Howe
Topics: Promises

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

A loafer never works except when there is a fire; then he will carry out more furniture than anybody.
—E. W. Howe
Topics: Motivation

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: Difficulties, Difficulty

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

When people hear good music, it makes them homesick for something they never had, and never will have.
—E. W. Howe
Topics: Music

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

When a friend is in trouble, don’t annoy him by asking if there is anything you can do. Think up something appropriate and do it.
—E. W. Howe
Topics: Trouble, Friends, Friendship

A young man is a theory, an old man is a fact.
—E. W. Howe
Topics: Theory, Assumptions

I declare my belief that it is not your duty to do anything that is not to your own interest. Whenever it is unquestionably your duty to do a thing, then it will benefit you to perform that duty.
—E. W. Howe
Topics: Duty

Most of us are either too thin to enjoy eating, or too fat to enjoy walking.
—E. W. Howe
Topics: Eating, Food

Virtue must be valuable, if men and women of all degrees pretend to have it.
—E. W. Howe
Topics: Virtue

One of the surprising things in this world is the respect a worthless man has for himself.
—E. W. Howe
Topics: Respectability, Respect, Self Respect

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

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

Fishing seems to be the favorite form of loafing.
—E. W. Howe

No man would listen to you talk if he didn’t know it was his turn next.
—E. W. Howe
Topics: Listening

Half the unhappiness in the world is due to the failure of plans which were never reasonable, and often impossible.
—E. W. Howe
Topics: Realistic Expectations

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