WIST Quotations

Franklin, Benjamin -- Poor Richard (1742 ed.)

Dave — Thu, 02 Oct 2025 15:03:55 +0000

What knowing Judgment, or what piercing Eye,
Can Man’s mysterious Maze of Falshood try?
Intriguing Man, of a suspicious Mind,
Man only knows the Cunning of his Kind;
With equal Wit can counter-work his Foes,
And Art with Art, and Fraud with Fraud oppose.
Then heed ye Fair, e’er you their Cunning prove,
And think of Treach’ry, while they talk of Love.

Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) American statesman, scientist, philosopher, aphorist
Poor Richard (1742 ed.)
(Source)

Lincoln, Abraham -- (Attributed)

Dave — Mon, 26 Dec 2016 19:04:09 +0000

The sharpness of a refusal or the edge of a rebuke may be blunted by an appropriate story so as to save wounded feelings and yet serve the purpose.

Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) American lawyer, politician, US President (1861-65)
(Attributed)

In Anthony Gross, ed. Lincoln's Own Stories, ch. 6 (1912).

Sheen, Fulton -- Life Is Worth Living, s.5 (1957)

Dave — Mon, 06 Jul 2015 17:10:47 +0000

To tell a woman who is forty, “You look like sixteen,” is baloney. The blarney way of saying it is: “Tell me how old you are, I should like to know at what age women are most beautiful.”

Fulton Sheen (1895-1979) American Catholic archbishop, preacher, televangelist
Life Is Worth Living, s.5 (1957)

Franklin, Benjamin -- Poor Richard (1744 ed.)

Dave — Tue, 12 May 2015 12:05:38 +0000

Tart Words make no Friends: a spoonful of honey will catch more flies than Gallon of Vinegar.

Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) American statesman, scientist, philosopher, aphorist
Poor Richard (1744 ed.)
(Source)

Not original with Franklin. See Giovanni Torriano, A Common Place of Italian Proverbs [Piazza universale di proverbi Italiani] (1666):

Il mele catta più mosche, che non fà l'aceto.

Honey gets more flyes to it, than doth viniger.

Billings, Josh -- Josh Billings’ Farmer’s Allminax, 1870-02 (1870 ed.)

Dave — Sun, 01 Feb 2004 16:00:00 +0000

Flattery iz like colone water, tew be smelt ov, not swallered.

[Flattery is like cologne water, to be smelt of, not swallowed.]

Josh Billings (1818-1885) American humorist, aphorist [pseud. of Henry Wheeler Shaw]
Josh Billings’ Farmer’s Allminax, 1870-02 (1870 ed.)
(Source)

This passage can be originally found in column material, e.g., in the Middlesex County Journal (Massachusetts) (1969-07-10), "Sollum Thoughts":

Flattery is like kolone water, tew be smelt ov, not swallowed.