Evan Esar quotes:
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Definition of Statistics: The science of producing unreliable facts from reliable figures.
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America believes in education: the average professor earns more money in a year than a professional athlete earns in a whole week.
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A signature always reveals a man's character - and sometimes even his name.
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Definition of a Statistician: A man who believes figures don't lie, but admits than under analysis some of them won't stand up either.
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Success is the good fortune that comes from aspiration, desperation, perspiration,and inspiration.
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Zoo: An excellent place to study the habits of human beings.
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All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy - and Jill a wealthy widow.
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Etymology: from Latin ad-, "to" + visum, past participle of videre, "to see". Advice is what you get from your parents when you are growing up, and from your children when you are growing old.
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Adolescence begins when children stop asking questions-because they know all the answers.
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The quizzical expression of the monkey at the zoo comes from his wondering whether he is his brother's keeper, or his keeper's brother.
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Anger is the feeling that makes your mouth work faster than your mind.
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Housework is what a woman does that nobody notices unless she hasn't done it.
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Don't tear your hair out over a woman; it'll be harder to attract the next one if you're bald.
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Every bride and groom would do well to remember that in wedding, the we comes before the I.
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Walking isn't a lost art: one must, by some means, get to the garage.
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Common sense is usually lack of imagination, and imagination is usually lack of common sense.
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Hindsight is good, foresight is better; but second sight is best of all.
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This may be the age of automation, but love is still being made by hand.
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Women diet to retain their girlish figures or their boyish husbands.
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With a braggart, it's no sooner done than said.
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A bright eye indicates curiosity; a black eye, too much.
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Many a man works himself to death by burying himself in his work.
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A husband may forget where he went on his honeymoon, but he never forgets why.
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The most popular form of altruism is giving to others the advice you cannot use yourself.
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A hamburger by any other name costs twice as much.
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Don't be a hog: the only time a hog helps the community is when he dies.
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The honeymoon is the only period when a woman isn't trying to reform her husband.
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Some women get divorces on the grounds of incompatibility; others, on just the first two syllables.
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Many a girl who can't dance well makes up for it during intermission.
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A special skill, like speaking several languages, or keeping your mouth shut in one.
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If you can't bear to have your face stepped on, don't try to climb the ladder of success.
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[A mathematician is a] scientist who can figure out anything except such simple things as squaring the circle and trisecting an angle.
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The mint makes it first, it is up to you to make it last.
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The modern dance is no dance in the first place, and when you've finally learned it, it's not modern any more.
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Canada's climate is nine months winter and three months late in the fall.
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If you want to be successful, you must either have a chance or take one.
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Family: A social unit where the father is concerned with parking space, the children with outer space, and the mother with closet space.
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There would be no population explosion if people who are trying to keep the wolf from the door wouldn't let the stork fly in through the window.
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Public speaking is the art of diluting a two-minute idea with a two-hour vocabulary.
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A husband is like a fire - he goes out when unattended.
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Conscience is what makes a boy tell his mother before his sister does.
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A creature that never cries over spilt milk: a cat.
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Statistics: The only science that enables different experts using the same figures to draw different conclusions.
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The Lord takes care of his own, but church trustees still put lightning rods on the steeple.
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The car was invented as a convenient place to sit out traffic jams
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A vacation is like love - anticipated with pleasure, experienced with discomfort, and remembered with nostalgia.
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Hope is tomorrow's veneer over today's disappointment.
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Compare what you want with what you have, and you'll be unhappy; compare what you deserve with what you have, and you'll be happy.
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A word to the wise is -- unnecessary.
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An epigram is the marriage of wit and wisdom; a wisecrack, their divorce.
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Character is what you have left when you've lost everything you can lose.
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An expert is someone who takes something you already know and makes it sound confusing.
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If it required some effort to go from today to tomorrow, some people would always remain in yesterday.
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The lazy man claims he is too heavy for light work and too light for heavy work.
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There's only one thing worse than to live without working, and that is to work without living.
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Worry makes people thin, except when they worry about being fat.
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If you don't like to make excuses or apologies, stop making promises.
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All men are born equal, but some of them outgrow it.
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Egocentricity: The vanity that makes you wonder what people are thinking about you when they are really wondering what you are thinking about them.
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Communism is a form of society where the less people have to eat, the more they have to swallow.
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Ego: The only thing that can keep growing without nourishment.
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Children grow out of childhood, but parents never grow out of parenthood.
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Egocentric: A person who has his I's too close together.
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There is a lot of difference between the man who is not able and his brother who is notable.
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A bacteriologist is a man whose conversation always start with the germ of an idea.
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In elections, the undecided vote is usually the deciding factor.
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A compromise is a settlement by which each side gets what neither side wanted.
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The reason why men who mind their own business succeed is that they have so little competition.
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Conceit is a disease That the doctors got no cure They've done a lot of research on it But what it is, they're still not sure.
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A batch of credit cards fattens a wallet before it thins it.
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Life is a game played on us while we are playing other games.
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The only thing worse than being on the wrong side of an argument is to be on the right side with no one listening.
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Experience is a great teacher, and sometimes a pretty teacher is a great experience.
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[Statistics] The science that can prove everything except the usefulness of statistics.
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A bureaucrat is an official who is clothed with power and whom it doesn't fit.
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[Statistics] Fiction in its most uninteresting form.
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All things come to him who waits, but they are mostly leftovers from those who didn't wait.
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You can always make a loan at a bank if you can show sufficient evidence that you don't need it.
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Egotist: 1. A person who is his own best friend. 2. An I specialist. 3. A man whose opinions all change, except the one he has of himself.
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Good teachers cost a lot; but, poor teachers cost a lot more.
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Nothing ages your car as much as the sight of your neighbor's new one.
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The trouble with the world is that laziness is seldom curable and never fatal.
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A man is known by the company he keeps, but a woman is known by the company she keeps waiting.
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More diets start in dress shops than in doctors' offices.
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If you want to be different nowadays, just act normal.
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The man who avoids debt doesn't have to worry about avoiding his creditors.
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The trouble with dieting is that a pound of will power takes off only an ounce of weight.
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Hard work never hurt anyone who hired someone else to do it.
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Diets show to what great lengths women will go so as not to go to great widths.
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The man who doctors himself with the aid of medical books, runs the risk of dying of a typographical error.
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It takes far more courage to violate a custom than a law.
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The only time a lazy man ever succeeds is when he tries to do nothing.
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The lecturer who is full of his subject is usually very slow in emptying himself.
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Conscience gets a lot of credit that really belongs to cowardice.
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In a democracy, you believe it or not; in a dictatorship, you believe it or else.
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Eloquence is the art of saying as little as possible but making it sound as much as possible.
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You can't judge the ability of a doctor by the amount of praise the undertakers give him.
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Divorce is the price people play for playing with matches.
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The survival of the fittest is going to make some man very lonesome some day.
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The diamond is the hardest stone -- to get.
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Corrupt officials are usually close-mouthed and open-handed.
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The best way to make a long story short is to stop listening.
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Under dictatorship, the people in prison are always superior to the people who put them there.
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The difference between us and other people is that their money looks bigger and their troubles smaller.
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A cynic sees little to admire in the world, while the world sees even less to admire in him.
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There are two kinds of leaders: those who are interested in the flock, and those who are interested in the fleece.
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When you make your mark in the world, watch out for the envious with erasers.
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You are not fully dressed until you wear a smile.
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Reactionary: One who wants the rules enforced so nobody can take his pile away from him the way he got it from others.
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Think twice before you speak, and then you may be able to say something more insulting than if you spoke right out at once.
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All men are created equal and endowed by their Creator with a mighty urge to become otherwise.
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The word impossible is peculiar because if you examine it closely, you'll find that most of it is possible.
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A bore finds it easy to start talking, and even easier to get others to stop listening.
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Consistency is a jewel, but too much jewelry is vulgar.
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Times change: it was once the custom to take a bath weekly and religion daily.
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Only one man has the right to boast, and that's the man who never does.
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Adam and Eve were the first of all unions to defy management.
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It's not the loss of life that makes the death bitter -- it's the obituaries.
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The best way to spoil a good story is by sticking to the facts.
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The man who has a girl in every port is not a sailor but a wholesaler.