Carolyn Wells Quotes

Patriotism covers a multitude of sins.

On account of disastrous losses in Wall Street that morning, I had determined to kill myself. I'm not of much account, any way, and I was desperate. I knew Uncle Robert would give me no money to repay my stock losses, for he always thought speculation no better than any other sort of gambling - and it isn't.

There are many ways of discarding [books]. You can give them to friends,
or enemies,
or to associations or to poor Southern libraries. But the surest way is to lend them. Then they never come back to bother you.

I hate to do what everybody else is doing. Why, only last week, on Fifth Avenue and some cross streets, I noticed that every feminine citizen of these United States wore an artificial posy on her coat or gown. I came home and ripped off every one of the really lovely refrigerator blossoms that were sewn on my own bodices.

See my finger wet, see my finger dry, see my finger cut my throat if I tell a lie," said the girl, in a singsong tone, and with accompanying dramatic gestures of fearful histrionic fervour.

Every dogma must have its day.

By the way, remember that, all of you. On no account go up to the fourth floor.

A fool and his money are soon married.

Musicians rarely have a sense of humour, at least, about themselves.

Reward is its own virtue.

Since you have a choice between life and death, why not choose life and live.

In December people give no thought to the Past or the Future. They thing only of the Present.

And Your modest ambition is to be a good housekeeper, isn't it?"
"Well, yes, Papa; but not only that. I was thinking about it afterward by myself, and I think housekeeping is a the practical part of it - and that's a good big part too - but What I really want to be is a lovely, good, womanly woman, like Aunt Alice, you know.

Actions lie louder than words.

How could advice be successful? If it turns out right, the adviser is ignored and the advisee takes all the credit. If it proves mistaken, the adviser receives all the blame.

Grieving is an expression of gratitude, and that expression doesn't have to be rushed.

What you can't afford to lose, you can't afford to buy

Adversity is neither friend nor foe. It is a common acquaintance that is desired less and rewarded most when embraced.

'Tis blessed to bestow, and yet,
Could we bestow the gifts we get,
And keep the ones we give away,
How happy were our Christmas day!

When I feel that I'm going to write a detective story, I buy a five pound box of chocolates and a ream of paper. When the candy is all gone and the paper all used up, I know that the book is long enough.

Invitation is the sincerest flattery.

One of the first principles of perseverance is to know when to stop persevering.

Where there's a will there's a detective story.

A profit is not without honor save in Boston.

I love the Christmas-tide, and yet,
I notice this, each year I live;
I always like the gifts I get,
But how I love the gifts I give!

A cynic is a man who looks at the world with a monocle in his mind's eye.

A guilty conscience is the mother of invention.

The subjective viewpoint is the only one to use regarding a library. Your true library is a collection of the books you want.You may have deplorably poor taste or bad judgment. Never mind. Correct those traits before you exchange your books.

Almost before the big motor-car stopped, the girl sprang out.

A blunder at the right moment is better than cleverness at the wrong time.

I think, for the rest of my life, I shall refrain from looking up things. It is the most ravenous time-snatcher I know. You pull one book from the shelf, which carries a hint or a reference that sends you posthaste to another book, and that to successive others. It is incredible, the number of books you hopefully open and disappointedly close, only to take down another with the same result.

I view askance a book that remains undisturbed for a year. Oughtn't it to have a ticket of leave? I think I may safely say no bookin my library remains unopened a year at a time, except my own works and Tennyson's.

Advice ... is a habit-forming drug. You give a dear friend a bit of advice today, and next week you find yourself advising two or three friends, and the week after, a dozen, and the week following, crowds!

Advice is one of those things it is far more blessed to give than to receive.

Flirtation envies Love, and Love envies Flirtation.

Contentment is the result of a limited imagination.

We should live and learn; but by the time we've learned, it's too late to live.

To make a library It takes two volumes And a fire. Two volumes and a fire, And interest. The interest alone will do If logs are few.

Insistent advice may develop into interference, and interference, someone has said, is the hind hoof of the devil.

Happiness is the ability to recognize it.

I don't care very much for literary shrines and hauntsI knew a woman in London who boasted that she had lodgings from the windows of which she could throw a stone into Carlyle's yard. And when I said, "Why throw a stone into Carlyle's yard?" she looked at me as if I were an imbecile and changed the subject.

Society's the mother of convention.

At times there is nothing so unnatural as nature.

You wouldn't believe On All Hallow Eve What lots of fun we can make, With apples to bob, And nuts on the hob, And a ring-and-thimble cake.