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The great art of writing is knowing when to stop.

Josh Billings

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Josh Billings
Age: 67 †
Born: 1818
Born: April 21
Died: 1885
Died: October 14
Humorist
Writer
Lanesboro
Massachusetts
Henry Wheeler Shaw
Art
Great
Writing
Stop
Knowing

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Flattery is like cologne water, to be smelt, not swallowed.
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Wisdom has never made a bigot, but learning has.
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I called my cat William because no shorter name fits the dignity of his character. Poor old man, he has fits now, so I call him Fitz-William.
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As the flint contains the spark, unknown to itself, which the steel alone can awaken to life, so adversity often reveals to us hidden gems, which prosperity or negligence would forever have hidden.
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There never yet was a mother who taught her child to be an infidel.
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There are people so addicted to exaggeration that they actually can't tell the truth without lying.
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When a young man begins to go down hill everything seems to be greased for the occasion.
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As a general thing, when a woman wears the pants in a family, she has a good right to them.
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Fuss is half-sister to hurry, and neither of them can do anything without getting in their own way.
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Words are often seen hunting for an idea, but ideas are never seen hunting for words.
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When good-natured people leave us we look forward with extra pleasure to their return.
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Genuine laughing is the vent of the soul, the nostrils of the heart, and just as necessary for health and happiness as spring water is for a trout.
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If men were stubborn just in proportion as they were right, stubbornness would take her seat among the virtues but men are generally stubborn just in proportion as they are ignorant and wrong.
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Pyrotechnically considered, [laughing] is the fire-works of the soul.
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Fun is a sugar-coated physic.
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The more humble a man is before God the more he will be exalted the more humble he is before man, the more he will get rode roughshod.
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Ignorance is the wet-nurse of prejudice.
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One of the greatest victories you can gain over someone is to beat him at politeness.
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Pedantry is paraded knowledge.
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A secret ceases to be a secret if it is once confided - it is like a dollar bill, once broken, it is never a dollar again.
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