Mr. Warner’s humorous quotes for life situations reveal his observation, understanding and interpretation of attitudes in old fashioned America.

17 Quotes From Charles Dudley Warner
1829-1900



  • Everybody talks about the weather, but nobody does anything about it.

  • Goodness comes out of people who bask in the sun, as it does out of a sweet apple roasted before the fire.

  • Happy is said to be the family which can eat onions together. They are, for the time being, separate, from the world, and have a harmony of aspiration.

  • I am convinced that the majority of people would be generous from selfish motives, if they had the opportunity.

  • It is fortunate that each generation does not comprehend its own ignorance. We are thus enabled to call our ancestors barbarous.

  • Lettuce is like conversation; it must be fresh and crisp, so sparkling that you scarcely notice the bitter in it.

  • Mud-pies gratify one of our first and best instincts. So long as we are dirty, we are pure.

  • No man but feels more of a man in the world if he have a bit of ground that he can call his own. However small it is on the surface, it is four thousand miles deep; and that is a very handsome property.

  • One of the best things in the world to be is a boy; it requires no experience, but needs some practice to be a good one.

  • People always overdo the matter when they attempt deception.

  • Politics makes strange bedfellows.

  • Public opinion is stronger than the legislature, and nearly as strong as the ten commandments.

  • Regrets are idle; yet history is one long regret. Everything might have turned out so differently.

  • The thing generally raised on city land is taxes.

  • There is nothing that disgusts a man like getting beaten at chess by a woman.

  • We are half ruined by conformity, but we should be wholly ruined without it.

  • What a man needs in gardening is a cast-iron back, with a hinge in it.

counter easy hit

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