"The trouble with the world is not that people know too little, it is that they know so much that isn't so. . ."
-- Mark Twain
"As scarce as truth is, the supply has always been in excess of the demand. . ."
-- Josh Billings (American humorist, 1818-85)
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Gives a whole new (knew?) concept to April Fools
ReplyDeleteThis brings to mind the ole Thompson Twins favorite, "Lies, Lies, Lies"
ReplyDeletemark twain is a brilliant and pithy observer of humanity.
ReplyDeleteSkip - You know, I advance-posted this a couple weeks ago; I didn't even think about its appropriateness for April Fool's. . .
ReplyDeleteBijoux - I had to look that song up; I don't ever recall hearing it.
These quotes don't make me think of lies, so much as our boundless capacity for self-delusion, and commitment to pet ideas, regardless of the facts. . .
Lime - That's why he's on my short-short list of favorite authors. He got bitter and cynical in his later years, so those aren't quite as fun. . .
ignorance is my blissful steady-state, don't go messin' withat, ok?
ReplyDeleteXavier - Lissen. . . I know that Truth can sometimes (often?) be hard in the finding, but. . .
ReplyDeleteI don't believe that for a minute, my friend. . .
;)
" As long as you are reading the obituaries instead of starring in them...It's OK!"
ReplyDelete~~Galen Haynes
Billings is one of the most-overlooked funny quote machines of his age (which fairly much overlapped Twain's.) He didn't write at length with the same richness and variety that Twain did, but he still doesn't deserve to be as forgotten as he is.
ReplyDeleteG-Man - See, now that's True. . .
ReplyDeleteSuldog - Somehow, I just knew that you, of all people, would be fully up-to-speed on Josh Billings. . .
My fav one of Mark Twain's - Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.
ReplyDelete