Richard Armour Quotes

Here is where people,
One frequently finds,
Lower their voices
And raise their minds.

[Beowolf] is considered an epic because of its long speeches, its digressions, its repetition, and its being required.

Each year it grows harder to make ends meet - the ends I refer to are hands and feet.

Beauty is only skin deep, and the world is full of thin skinned people.

(Francis) Bacon's best known writings are his essays. They are loved for many reasons, such as their being so short.

Some libraries are no longer called libraries but are known as Learning Resource Centers or Media Centers. Librarians, however, are still generally known as librarians and not yet as Learning Resourcists or Media Centerists, though this may be only a matter of time.

I love a finished speaker, I really, truly do I don't mean one who's polished, I just mean one who's through.

Middle -age is the time of life, that a man first notices - in his wife.

Book burning is a charming old custom, hallowed by antiquity. It has been practiced for centuries by fascists, communists, atheists, school children, rival authors, and tired librarians. Like everything of importance since the invention of the cloak and the shroud, its origins are cloaked in mystery and shrouded in secrecy. Some scholars believe that the first instance of book burning occurred in the Middle Ages, when a monk was trying to illuminate a manuscript. All agree that book burning was almost non-existent during the period when books were made of stone.

How I love to get a letter! I can think of nothing better Than perusing an epistolary item. But deep is my despondence, For I've found that correspondence Means that if you want to get 'em, You must write 'em!

Although practice swings Can be helpful things, Twere better, indeed, not take any Than to fiddle and fret And before playing get Exhausted from taking too many.

"Do you want my honest opinion?" People ask. I say, "Yes," for I'm curious. So they give me their honest opinion, And I - well, I'm always furious.

They head the list of bad to bet on: But I insist they're worse to get on

That money talks, I'll not deny, I heard it once: it said, 'goodbye

If I ever make a hole in one, A thrill that I've never known, I won't be believed and I'll have no fun, For I'm sure to be playing alone.

G is for Green, that's constructed to roll in every direction away from the hole.

Rockefeller made his money in oil, which he discovered at the bottom of wells. Oil was considered crude in those days, but so was Rockefeller. Now both are considered quite refined.

If we cannot define stupidity, at least we can trace most human misfortunes and weaknesses to it. Its manifestations are legion, its symptoms are endless.

Some people can carry a tune, but they seem to stagger under the load.

Good sportsmanship we hail, we sing, It's always pleasant when you spot it. There's only one unhappy thing: You have to lose to prove that you've got it.

Of late I appear To have reached that stage When people who look old Who are only my age.

In larger things we are convivial; what causes trouble is the trivial.

When it comes to eating, you can sometimes help yourself more by helping yourself less.

The bride, white of hair, is stooped over her cane Her faltering footsteps need guiding. While down the church aisle, with wan toothless smile, The groom in a wheelchair comes riding. And who is this elderly couple you ask? You'll find, when you've closely explored it, That here is that rare, most conservative pair, Who waited 'til they could afford it.

Politics, it seems to me, for years, or all too long, has been concerned with right or left instead of right or wrong.

The author apologizes for being unable to afford a ghost writer, which explains the lack of a distinctive prose style.

You would do well to turn from Chapter XXXVI to Chapter CXXXIII without further delay, thus saving nearly a hundred chapters without anybody's knowing the difference if you keep quiet. After all, Ahab isn't the only one entitled to be a skipper.

Oregon was discovered when someone followed the Oregon Trail right out to the end.

Children are supposed to help hold a marriage together. They do this in a number of ways. For instance, they demand so much attention that a husband and wife, concentrating on their children, fail to notice each other's faults.

Rather than earn money, it was Thoreau's idea to reduce his wants so that he would not need to buy anything. As he went around preaching this ingenious idea, the shopkeepers of Concord hoped he would drop dead.

In such novels as This Side of Paradise and The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald depicts the spirit of the hour which is usually about 4 a.m. His suave young men, always commuting between Princeton and The Plaza in Stutz Bearcats never sat still for long. It was too uncomfortable, with a large flask in the hip pocket.

A rumor is one thing that gets thicker instead of thinner as it is spread.

The great improvement of the radio over the telephone is that it may be turned off without offending the speaker.

Shakespeare, who never could think up a plot by himself, found this one [Macbeth] in Holinshed's Chronicles, changing it just enough so that no one would recognize the source. He didn't count on the resourcefulness of modern scholars, who have to discover things like this to become associate professors.

I miss my mattress when I am gone; It's one thing I've made an impression on.