A man is never astonished or ashamed that he does not know what another does; but he is surprised at the gross ignorance of the other in not knowing what he knows.
—Thomas Chandler Haliburton
Topics: Ignorance, Work
Fellows who have no tongues are often all eyes and ears.
—Thomas Chandler Haliburton
Topics: Silence
The memory of past favors is like a rainbow, bright, vivid, and beautiful; but it soon fades away. The in memory of injuries is engraved on the heart, and remains forever.
—Thomas Chandler Haliburton
Topics: Memory, Memories
Every woman is wrong until she cries, and then she is right – instantly.
—Thomas Chandler Haliburton
Topics: One liners, Women, Crying
It is as old as the creation, and yet as young and fresh as ever. It pre existed, still exists, and always will exist. Depend upon it, Eve learned it in Paradise, and was taught its beauties, virtues, and varieties by an angel, there is something so transcendent in it.
—Thomas Chandler Haliburton
Topics: Kisses
Let all seen enjoyments lead to the unseen fountain from whence they flow.
—Thomas Chandler Haliburton
Topics: Enjoyment
The ocean’s surfy, slow, deep, mellow voice is full of mystery and awe, moaning over the dead it holds in its bosom, or lulling them to unbroken slumbers in the chambers of its vasty depths.
—Thomas Chandler Haliburton
People have no right to make fools of themselves, unless they have no relations to blush for them.
—Thomas Chandler Haliburton
Topics: Fools
Wherever there is authority, there is a natural inclination to disobedience.
—Thomas Chandler Haliburton
Topics: Power, Authority
The bee, though it finds every rose has a thorn, comes back loaded with honey from his rambles, and why should not other tourists do the same.
—Thomas Chandler Haliburton
Topics: Travel
To carry care to bed is to sleep with a pack on your back.
—Thomas Chandler Haliburton
A brave man is sometimes a desperado; but a bully is always a coward.
—Thomas Chandler Haliburton
Nicknames stick to people, and the most ridiculous are the most adhesive.
—Thomas Chandler Haliburton
Topics: Names, Identity
Punctuality is the soul of business.
—Thomas Chandler Haliburton
Topics: One liners, Punctuality
When a man is wrong and won’t admit it, he always gets angry.
—Thomas Chandler Haliburton
Topics: Men, Anger
Hear one side and you will be in the dark; hear both sides, and all will be clear.
—Thomas Chandler Haliburton
Topics: Argument
Cheerfulness is health; its opposite, melancholy, is disease.
—Thomas Chandler Haliburton
Topics: Cheerfulness
A college education shows a man how little other people know.
—Thomas Chandler Haliburton
Topics: Education
Hope is a pleasant acquaintance, but an unsafe friend, not the man for your banker, though he may do for a traveling companion.
—Thomas Chandler Haliburton
Topics: Hope
There is the kiss of welcome and of parting; the long, lingering, loving, present one; the stolen, or the mutual one; the kiss of love, of joy, and of sorrow; the seal of promise and receipt of fulfilment. Is it strange, therefore, that a woman is invincible whose armory consists of kisses, smiles, sighs, and tears?
—Thomas Chandler Haliburton
Topics: Kiss, Kisses
Don’t stand shivering upon the bank; plunge in at once, and have it over.
—Thomas Chandler Haliburton
Topics: Decisions, Indecision
Contentment is, after all, simply refined indolence.
—Thomas Chandler Haliburton
Topics: Contentment
There is nothing like fun, is there? I haven’t any myself, but I do like it in others. We need all the counter weights we can muster to balance the sad relations of life. God has made sunny spots in the heart; why should we exclude the light from them?
—Thomas Chandler Haliburton
Vanity is not half a bad principle, if it will but stick to legitimate business.
—Thomas Chandler Haliburton
Topics: Vanity
A suspicious parent makes an artful child.
—Thomas Chandler Haliburton
Topics: Parents
Failures to heroic minds are the stepping stones to success.
—Thomas Chandler Haliburton
Topics: Mistakes, Failure
The happiness of every country depends upon the character of its people, rather than the form of its government.
—Thomas Chandler Haliburton
Topics: Character
Fastidiousness is the envelope of indelicacy.
—Thomas Chandler Haliburton
A woman has two smiles that an angel might envy—the smile that accepts a lover before words are uttered, and the smile that lights on the first-born babe, and assures it of a mother’s love.
—Thomas Chandler Haliburton
Topics: Pregnancy, Smiles, Angels, Smile
What a sight there is in that word “smile!” it changes like a chameleon. There is a vacant smile, a cold smile, a smile of hate, a satiric smile, an affected smile; but, above all, a smile of love.
—Thomas Chandler Haliburton
Topics: Smiles
Wondering Whom to Read Next?
- Richard J. Needham Canadian Humorist
- Grenville Kleiser Canadian Author
- Bill Bryson American Humorist
- Garrison Keillor American Broadcaster, Writer
- S. J. Perelman American Humorist
- Albert Benjamin Simpson Canadian Protestant Preacher
- Jim Carrey Canadian Actor
- Wilfred Grenfell Canadian Humanitarian
- William Osler Canadian Physician
- Frederick Banting Canadian Medical Scientist
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