September '99 Epigrams of the Day

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

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

The sad thing about an optimist is his attitude of mind concerning himself.

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

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

I am today what I am because I was yesterday what I was.

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

If you do not know what to say, don't say it.

Distinctions are transient and trivial. Behind all differences of opinions there lurks a grinning Mephisto.

The best way to learn to write, is to write.

Success is a matter of outliving your sins.

Solitude is the only thing that can hold the balance true.

Self-esteem is a good thing, but not when you carry a pedestal under your arm ready for instant use.

The common people listen to themselves gladly.

I am not sure but that sympathy is love's own self, vitalized by some divine actinic ray.

The way to live the Ideal Life is to make life Ideal for someone else.

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

The way to begin living the Ideal Life is to begin.

Art is only a point of view.

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

Expression is that mode of creation by which we coin things out of our hearts.

There are only two classes of men who live in history: those who crowd a thing to its extreme limit, and those who then arise and cry, "Hold!"

Minimize friction and create harmony. You can get friction for nothing, but harmony costs courtesy and self-control.

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

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

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.

Mankind can be released from the power of weakness only by slow degrees.

Poetry is a substitute for the impossible.

Sympathy is the first attribute of love as well as the last.

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.

The Roycroft Orb To return to the Epigram Guide Webpage.