January '01 Epigrams of the Day

The millennium will be here when Washington, D.C., goes dry. (Fra's Note: This is a real Roycroft epigram. Obviously, Elbert miscalculated slightly.)

There is no joy in life equal to the joy of putting salt on the tail of an idea.

Write to please yourself, and you will please a part of the people a part of the time.

Abolish fear and every man and woman is an orator and an artist.

Fame is delightful, but as collateral it doesn't rank high.

The graveyards are full of people the world could not do without.

The excellence of every work depends upon the intensity with which it is followed - the enthusiasm that is brought to bear - making all difficulties vanish, melting hardships into nothingness.

Every good thing has been rejected and jumped on by the glibsome party with overweening faith in his own omniscience.

Plan wisely and work hard, expecting nothing from luck, and all the merry villagers will say, "Oh, he is a lucky dog."

Success is a matter of outliving your sins.

The sculptor produces the beautiful statue by chipping away such parts of the marble block as are not needed - it is the process of elimination.

A man with all the time there is to do a task is like a cigarette smoker who can quit anytime.

Troubles are not really troubles unless you quit work and incubate them - otherwise they are only incidental diversions.

It is what we think and what we do that make us what we are.

Hypocrites sometimes tell the truth -after all, accidents do happen.

Choose ye this day whom ye will serve - the house or the bunch.

If a man write a better book or preach a better sermon than his neighbors, the world will bring rat-traps to his door, tho he live in a forest.

How beautiful that most of our troubles never happen!

Love is an uplift and intoxication: eighty pounds of steam, with the monkeywrench on the blow-off; and the poem you write or the picture you paint is utilization of the exhaust.

Difficulties afford heroism its opportunity. Blessed be difficulty!

Everything is waiting and watching you to see what signal you hoist from within - you attract that which you desire to attract.

There is a difference between joyous work and joyless toil - it is love that lightens labor.

I do not want any one to "belong" to me. I would hold my friend only by the virtue that is in my own soul.

Be severe with nobody but yourself.

A good laugh is sunshine in a house.

It is a good policy to leave a few things unsaid.

The Roycroft Orb To return to the Epigram Guide Webpage.