Thomas Chandler Haliburton Quotes

One of the old philosophers says that it is the part of wisdom to sometimes seem a fool; but in our day there are too many ready-made ones to render this a desirable policy.

Some people have a perfect genius for doing nothing, and doing it assiduously.

Hope is a pleasant acquaintance, but an unsafe friend, not the man for your banker, though he may do for a traveling companion.

Women forgive injuries, but never forget slights.

Every man's religion is his own, and nobody else's business.

The suspicious parent makes an artful child.

Whenever there is authority, there is a natural inclination to disobedience.

Over-confidence is as evil as undue anxiety.

When a man is wrong and won't admit is, he always gets angry.

A temperate anger has virtue in it.

Women will sometimes confess their sins, but I never knew one to confess her faults.

Coerced innocence is like an imprisoned lark,--open the door, and it is off forever. The bird that roams through the sky and the groves unrestrained knows how to dodge the hawk and protect itself; but the caged one, the moment it leaves its bars and bolts behind, is pounced upon by the fowler or the vulture.

A man is never astonished that he doesn't know what another does, but he is surprised at the gross ignorance of the other in not knowing what he does.

Avarice fills its purse at the expense of its belly.

Favoritism manifests itself in all departments of government, public and private. It is the harder to avoid, because it is so natural.

Punctuality is the soul of business.

A coxcomb is four-fifths affectation and one-fifth vanity.

Fastidiousness is the envelope of indelicacy.

Nature's bank-dividends.

Self-possession is the backbone of authority.

Absurdities die of self-strangulation.

Ceremony is all backbone.

Money is a necessity; so is dirt.

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 fulfillment.

Give me a chance, says Stupid, and I will show you. Ten to one he has had his chance already, and neglected it.

Failures to heroic minds are the stepping stones to success.

What a sight there is in that "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.

Wishes, like castles in the air, are inexpensive and not taxable.

Hope is a pleasant acquaintance, but an unsafe friend.

No one is rich whose expenditures exceed his means, and no one is poor whose incomings exceed his outgoings.

Punctuality is the sole of business.

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.

A woman who wants a charitable heart wants a pure mind.

Vanity is not half a bad principle, if it will but stick to legitimate business.

Loud-dressing men and women have also loud characters.

I have learnt a good deal from my own talk.

[Grateful] Cheerfulness is health; its opposite, [ungrateful] melancholy, is disease.

Life ain't all beer and skittles.

Hurry is only admissible in catching flies.

Death and taxes are inevitable.

Contentment is, after all, simply refined indolence.

There is nothing like fun, is there? I haven't any myself, but I do like it in others.

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?

If you have a thrust to make at your friend's expense, do it gracefully, it is all the more effective. Some one says the reproach that is delivered with hat in hand is the most telling.

Look not to a woman's head for her brains, but rather to her heart.

The happiness of every country depends upon the character of its people, rather than the form of its government.

He who sports compliments, unless he takes good aim, may miss his mark, and be wounded by the recoil of his own weapon.

As soon as a woman begins to dress "loud," her manners and conversation partake of the same element.