___________________________________________________________
General sayings and quotations
Dictionary definitions
"Literary" Quotations
Jokes
Miscellaneous
Folk sayings, expressions and turns of speech
and by Sam Eskin
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My father, in his later years, was in the habit of jotting down on small cards or slips of paper items he read or heard which attracted his attention. I've put these into the somewhat perfunctory and not always consistent categories that follow. Many of them reflect his professional interest in folklore: the colorful figures of speech, aphorisms, observations of common people from many cultures--stock expressions, variants, or idiosyncracies. Others are quotations on a wide variety of subjects from many sources, often heard on television in the late sixties. Some are straightforward literary quotations, some are jokes, some are definitions he looked up--or intended to--and a few are thoughts by Sam Eskin himself.

Note: Sam, like my mother, was in the habit of using simplified spelling, a fashion from the twenties ("lite," "altho," "thru," "enuf," etc.).

*
General sayings and quotations:

The smallest speck is seen in snow.

What's the use of being stupid if you don't show it [TV].

Good luck is a lazy man's estimate of a worker's success.

It is easier to forgive an enemy than a friend.

He who doesn't have sense enuf to get out of the rain, is a damp fool [Confucius Says].

There is nothing new except what is forgotten.

It is better to lite one candle than to curse the darkness {Sam lists this three times, sge}.

You can recognize a bad egg without trying to lay one [Dick Cavitt on TV].

The path of civilization is paved with tin cans.
Where there's a will there's a relative [E.G. Marshall on TV]

Smoother than hair on a frog [TV]

You should never get so far out in front that get shot in the rear [TV]

Dogs chase cars but they can't drive.

Illegitimati non carborundum (Don't let the bastards wear you down) [Gen. Vinegar Joe Stillwell].

The distillation of their own agony.

Strategy is a system of make-shifts.

Every tub must stand upon its own bottom.

Men are but children of a larger growth.

How do your train a mule? Hit him on the head with a 2 X 4.

If I felt any better I'd have to send for a doctor.

Take your time, not your life [road sign in New Mexico].

Every New Years my brake fluid's been low [overheard at a cafe on Coast Road and Topanga Road, L.A., 12.30.65].

Are you dying for a smoke? [Conn. road sign].

No actress plays to an empty house [TV, on children's tantrums].

He who pleads his own case has a fool for a client [Otho in law school].

Some of us fear crosses & others carve them out [Chia 1.'69].

Do you think the rain will hurt the rhubarb? [Forest Goodenough via Chia].

You look a million bucks after taxes [Greer 1.'69].

No soup is ever served as hot as it is cooked.

Blow your nose on the old school tie [Gwen Verden on TV].

You have to eat a lot of spinach before you get to the dessert [TV].
A question of whose ox is gored [George Reedy on TV].

You've got to build the cake first before you put the cherries on [Hugh O'Brien on TV].

Life is too much weight to lift [Eleanor McKinney, 5.27.66].

It's better to do nothing at all than to be idle [Manuel Komroff, 9.72].

Liberal (or what have you): one who has both feet firmly planted in the air.

He cut a very large hole in the air [Charlton Heston on TV].

Checking the gas tank with a match [TV].

Just hanging by the eyelashes [TV].

I haven't got the cherry but I've got the box it came in.

Giving grease to the axle that squeaks [TV].

If you can't stand the heat get out of the kitchen [TV, The Defender, 3/11/65].

Wading in sensitive waters [Mayor John Lindsay on TV].

They wait until the cook stove burns up before cleaning out the chimney [TV].

He's like an itch I can't scratch [movie, Magnificent 7].

Why settle for one dish when there is smorgasbord [movie, "The Prize"].

Naked & pregnant in the kitchen.

Raise your gun (sights) & you'll shoot your toes off.

Like robbing a bank and taking a dime [Minn. Fats on TV].

So affluent: Every flea has its own dog [Rep. Wright Patman].

All they gave him to hang on to was the end of a burning rope [TV].

Leaning heavily on an open door [Sunday Telegraph, London, 3.9.'69, p. 4, col. 7].

Cute enuf to make a tiger smile [TV].

Didn't have the strength of a wet noodle [TV].
We were all praying withour fists clenched [TV].

You have to prime a man before he can spit [from Bad Day at Black Rock, TV, 6.2.65]

When they had their feet held to the fire they . . . [Drew Pearson on TV, 10.20.68].

Like scissor blades we part to meet again [TV on Circus, ch. 13, 7.5.67].

If you don't like anybody who is naked, don't look at them with binoculars [TV on Woodstock {festival}, ch. 4, 11.22.69].

I felt like a nun in a whorehouse [John Roches, Newsweek, p. 92, 11.24.69].

When they get finished shaking this henhouse there will be a lot of big roosters falling out of the rafters [Newsweek, p. 35, 12.1.69].

There is nothing constant except change.

Everything for labor, nothing for management [Dr. Gough, Singapore, 2.11.67].

Shoveling smoke [TV].

How big are you? You'd better count yourself again [Unit. minister in Wilmington, 4.21.68].

I stubbed my toe the right way [Elkin Smith, 10.7.71, Oxo Boxo, Conn].

The law prohibits both the rich & poor alike from stealing bread & sleeping under bridges [British TV].

He'd have to stand twice to make a shadow [Jimmy Dean on TV].

There's more to life than dying [Robt. Cronie on TV}.

I don't want to be the richest man in the cemetery [{illeg} 4.23.65].

It's such a short trip and so far to ge, so much to do.

God ain't dead--he just never was.

---use a big bat to swat a fly [TV 1.13.66, Ch 2, 4:30].

They didn't die, they just smell that way [Lee Friedlander, 4.4.67].

You can't take it with you but you can't go nowhere without it [John Bubble, TV 12.3.65].

If you can't take the heat, stay out of the kitchen [Pres. Truman].

If a Greek has no passion, then his father was an Englishman [Melina Mercouri, TV 5.3.65].

They shit in pots & wipe their arses with linen clothes [Samuel Pepys--Tangier Report on Spain].

Won't piss in the streets but will against your door [same].

He could tell by looking at him that he wasn't dealing with a full deck of cards [Minnie Pearl on TV}.

He's like the bottom of a double boiler; he gets all steamed up but he doesn't know what's cooking [same]

Cerebral rectolitis (having one's head up his ass) [Pete Warner, 8.2.66].

A bad case of optal rectosis = having shitty outlook [same].

It's better to be pissed off than pissed on [same].

Make love, not war [protest moment, Berkeley].

Whichever way the neck turns the head's got to follow [Candid Camera, 8.13.68].

They are human beings like you and I {sic} who pull on their pants one leg at a time [James Reston, KWED (NET) Frisco -- 1.17.66].

So everyone would get a fair crack at the whip [John Schlesinger, director of "Midnight Cowboy" on TV].

My crystal ball is a bit cloudy [TV].

You're a gentleman & a scholar & there are very few of us left [TV].

So dumb his ears rubbed [Dick Cavitt, TV].

We used to eat in the house & shit in the yard--now, vv [Gentry, 4.26.65].

By the time I realized that my father was right I had a son who disagreed with me [Weizman on TV].

Grinning like a possum eating shit [E.G. Cook].

If you get a reputation for getting up early, you can sleep late [Jim Farley].

I may be rancid butter, but I'm on your side of the bread [Movie "Inherit the Wind"].

You don't have to be a bug on the windshield to prove you've got guts [heard on TV].

Every man for himself, said the elephant, as he danced amongst the chickens [Rep. Emanuel Cellar on TV].

It's a stupid rabbit that has only one hole to run to [same].

The trouble with politicians is that they get elected [TV].

A man who won't lie to his wife has no regard for her feelings [P. Seeger].

Maybe we've come to the end of the string [NY Times Magazine, 9.15.68, p. 124].

Like what is the sound of one hand clapping [Truman Capote on Wm. Buckley, TV 9.15.68].

The land of the lost past participle [Jim Dwyer, 5.11.69].

What lies between the hammer & the anvil soon gets knocked flat ["The Journey of the 5th. Horse" by Ronald Ribman].

War is too important to be left to the generals [Clemenceau].

I should march to a different drummer [Chuck Stone on TV {with no acknowledgement to Whitman, sge}].

A man's best friends are his scars [Jose Ferrer on TV].

When horses have no hay they bite each other [Gunnar Myrdal on Ch. 13. 12/5/67].

Just because there's snow on the roof doesn't mean there's no fire in the furnace [Burke on TV, 11.2.67].

Once on the tiger's back, we cannot always find a place to dismount [George Ball].

A burnt child dreads the fire [LBJ on TV 12.19.67].

You might as well jump in a bucket & pull the lid over your head [Margaret Kellog on T.V.]

A rising tide lifts all boats [Pres. Kennedy].

They had to put a fence around Greenwich Village to keep the fruits from picking the people [Bob, Serendipity Singers].

*

Folk sayings, expressions, and turns of speech; proverbs; commonplaces:

Marry in spring if the angels sing

It takes two to tango

A burr under his saddle.

Low man on the totem pole.

Heavens to Betsy [Faith Petric].

A dog's limp and a woman's tears are not to be believed [Spanish proverb]

Darker than the deed of Judas [Nat. Hist., Jan. '74, Stephen Jay Gould].

You don't leave the goat to guard the cabbage patch [quoted from Kruschev].

Driving thumbtacks with a sledge hammer.

Trying to carry water in a sieve

Whoever wants to beat a dog will always find a stick to do so [Czech proverb].

No reason to throw your house out of the window [used in Latin America to describe overwhelming & extravagant hospitality].

The friend of my enemy is my enemy [Arab]

Eyes like pissholes in the snow [{Emory} Cook]

You should wander around like a fart in a hot borsht [Jewish saying].

Putting his foot in his mouth.

I'll be lopsided with one. I've got to have another get me an even keel [Oscar Copley, Perth, Aus., 2.27.66]

What you get for nothing is valued at nothing.

He wouldn't give his piss for the crows, and the crows wouldn't come for it [Eileen Sherwood --from Ireland, July 1965].
Up to my lips and over gums, here she comes [Harry Jackson -- Wyoming bar, Aug., 1965].

Raise hell and stick a chunk under it [Harry Jackson -- Wyoming Talk, Aug. 1965].

If it wasn't for bad luck he wouldn't have any luck at all [Harry Jackson, from an Italian-American ex-con. Aug. 1965].

He's so lucky he had heads on a two tailed coin [Harry Jackson, from an Italian-American ex-con].

You talk like a man with a paper asshole [Harry Jakson, heard in So, Pacific, U.S. Marine Corps].

If a bull frog had a square asshole he'd shit bricks [Harry Jackson from Joe Neble, a Negro itinerant, Aug. 1965].

She looked five cents worth of God help us [fellow passenger aboard SS Ellen Bakke bound for Hong Kong, 4.27.66].

Bottoms up. [Yem Sing (Chinese)].

Dog's nose: beer with gin [Australia].

Bubble and squeak: left over vegetables used for breakfast (Australia).

Those who sow the wind reap the whirlwind [TV].

No place for a poor man unless he's got lots of money [H. Siemsen].

You can't make an omelette without breaking eggs [TV - LA 12.29.65].

I'd rather be a sailor & sail before the mast than be a lousy 2nd. mate & kiss the captain's ass [Joe Strolkirk].

Pardon me while I shake the dew off the lily [Richard B. Allen, Tulane University].

If you haven't got it in your head you have to have it in your heels [Leo Murphy, Western Penna].

If wishes were horses, beggars might ride.

Strain at a gnat and swallow a camel.

He runs a tight ship.

Even a blind hog can find an acorn once in a while [from Jas. Mc Carlan via Pete Warner].

When we are cleaning hens we don't invite many guests [Burmese saying].

Needs to take no one's backwash [N.E. Folklore Newsletter, 3.15.65, p. 4].

He who loves you most will make you cry [Spanish proverb].

Like a one-eyed cat peeping in a sea food store [Joe Turner Song Blues].

We were out behind the barn shootin' dice for who'd drink and who'd smell [Faith Petric from a migrant camp].

Fish or cut bait.

No mother ever broke a child by hitting him [old Jewish proverb].

Man chases woman until she catches him.

A fog as thick as she crab soup [over radio in Charleston, S.C., 3.11.68].

Two things spread quickly: gossip & a forest fire [Cypriot proverb, Bitter Lemons, Durrell].

The hardest crusts always fall to the toothless [same].

So long as he has a tooth left, a fox won't be pious [same].

Work is hard, no work is harder [same].

Everyone pulls the quilt over to his side [same].

A hedge of thorns for us to climb thru [same].

The fox in her sleep dreams always of chickens [same].

If the baby doesn't cry, mother won't suckle [same].

One doesn't go to Hell to light a cigarette [same].

He wears too many hats [TV etc.]

A journey of a thousand miles has to begin with a single step [TV].

Brite-eyed & bushy tailed [TV]Some noses are out of joint.

Bulls make money, bears make money, but hogs don't [Cleveland Amory on TV about Wall St. sayings].
Feed a cold & starve a fever.

--Has a long fuse, --a short fuse.

Why buy a cow when milk is so cheap.

We never know the worth of water until the well runs dry.

Peppery as a pig on ice.

What you need is a good cat idea to get rid of your mouse ideas [Sidney Cowell, April '69].

Tall trees cast long shadows.

A poor workman always blames his tools.

May you have a calm sea & a safe harbor all your days.

No sweat.

Let 'em stew in their own juices.

{labeled "pronunciations"} Blocks & tackle (t cle); peonies (p nees) [from Margaret Hilga, Highwoods, N.Y., 7.9.64].

If we knew where we were going to fall we could first lay down a carpet [Russian proverb].

You wouldn't know which end of a sinking ship to get off [TV].

Step on a crack, break somebody's back.

He has a second string to his bow.

Have a tiger by the tail.

Shit or get off the pot.

Keep on a short rein.

Never say never.

Get off dead center.

. . . didn't call the Fire Dept. until the house burned down.

Blow his gasket [TV].

I'm not just scratching fleas [TV 7.9.68, Perry Mason on 3].

The more things change, the more they remain the same [French proverb].

Busy as a bedbug in a boarding house [heard on a Woodstock street].

Like using a cannon to kill rabbits [TV}.

Italian peasants have a saying, "He was born with his shirt on," when they want to indicate that a person is lucky [APA Magazine, Vol 4, # 2, Feb. 1969].

Beating a dead horse (useless, futile).

Gone the wine fumes, thinking resumes [Arab proverb].

Cliff hanger.

A can of worms.

Nothing dries sooner than a tear.

Coming events cast their shadows before.

Man is his own worst enemy.

Endurance is patience concentrated.

One today is worth two tomorrow.

Beware of little expenses; a small leak will sink a great ship.

Better half a loaf than no bread.

Man is cold as ice to the truth, hot as fire to falsehood.

Facts are stubborn things.

It's like trying to hide an elephant under a handkerchief.

Unable to jump over our own shadow [German saying].

Old golfers never lose their puts, they only lose their balls.

If one has an itch he will find a way to scratch it.

Whatever touches all should be decided by all [Roman proverb-- Ralph Nader].

Too many chiefs and no Indians.

You shoot ducks where they are.

The harder the winter the quicker the spring.

It is easier to go round a rock than to jump over it.

You don't miss a slice off a cut loaf [Willard Beecher via Sidney Cowell, 1966].

Like putting a fox in a chicken coop [Rep. Emanuel Cellar on TV].

It's the pig that's caught on the fence that squeals [Sen. Hugh Scott on TV].

A fool and his money are soon parted.

Just as thick as hair on a dog [Squire Elwyn Davis].

Let the dust settle before . . .

Just like a fart in a whirlwing [Jack Coles, S. Dakota, 1.24.67].

There's a cover for every pot [heard on TV 5.13.67. The love Seekers, Ch2, 4 PM].

Lower your voice and strengthen your argument [Lebanese proverb].

I can't run away from me.

We never know the worth of water until the well runs dry.

You shouldn't say it if you're not willing to carve it on bamboo [old Chinese saying].

Spends money like it's going out of style [Jae Balto, 4.23.65].

Shivering like a hound-dog taking a piss in a briar patch [Ben Older, Middle Grove, N.Y.].

He's got a heavy foot on the throttle.

You pick up things by the smooth handle.

Whose ax are you grinding? [TV].
Like washing your feet with your socks on [from Severn A. White, Princess Anne, Md.].

They sow their oats all week and then spend their week ends praying for a crop failure [same].

Feeding a dead horse [same].

Shine, shine shine/ I wish my color would fade/ Shine, shine, shine / It will with the devil's aid [from Dorothy Lacasse, 12.4.65, Woodstock, N.Y.].

A nod is as good as a wink to a blind horse [Eileen Shewood--from Ireland, July, 1965].

Waiting for the other shoe to drop [Peggy Cass on TV, 12.23.69]

More (guts) than a mule got shit [Lee Friedlander, 7.16.66, from Wash.].

You cannot walk in the same stream twice [Betsy Palmer on TV].

If you fart your guts will fall out [Lee Friedlander, State of Wash., 7.17.66].

Speaking about good whisky: The highlanders in Scotland like two things naked . . . one is a woman.

Like a kiss from your brother . . . ditto your father . . . ditto your partner's wife [Canada and Chicago].

Yard arm time: time to take a drink [British navy].

He don't do bugger-all [aboard Ellen Bakke].

They run the price up and down every day--just like a yo yo [from a Canadian on Ellen Bakke].

Monday morning or armchair quarterback. 2nd. guessing.

You can't leave it right where Moses put the apple.

You slap her down and I'll make her bounce [from a Canadian on SS Ellen Bakke].

The older the fiddler, the better the tune.

Like beating a hornet's nest with a short stick.

The older a lamb gets the more sheepish it gets.

A standing cock has nae conscience [old Scots proverb].

They've given us a leg up [Joan Littlewood on NET, 8.18.66].

He bit the bullet.

He don't know his ass from a handfull of wild rice [attributed to James Whitecomb Riley].

An expert is a person who avoids the small eroors as he sweeps on to the grand fallacy [Dean Wilson quoting an old saying, in "Fact," p. 53, vol. 3, #1].

We see what is behind our eyes [Chinese proverb]

The devil seeks idle hands.

Like watchinga man's beard grow -- Like watching grass grow -- Like watching paint dry.

As black as the devil's right eye [Col. Craig, kingdom of the Sea, TV, ch. 9, 8.15.68].

Built for stout hell [Red Haynes, heard all his life-- N.W.].

No gains without pains [TV].

Now wouldn't that bust your galluses [heard on Hee Haw TV].

Little strokes fell hard oaks.

Able to carry water on both shoulders [TV].

He couldn't make a button on a shithouse door [George Wilson, Balto., Md].

When you're being led astray there's a lot of slack in the rope [Howard Greer, 1.'69].

Why take a lunch box to a banquet?

It's the cat's meow.

I don't say he didn't steal some bananas off the bunch [Clayton Gentry, Balto. 4.5.68].

A bird never flies so high but what he has to come down to earth [Gentry from his father].

You don't clean house without stirring up dust [Arnold Miller, Pres. UMW].

Still waters run no mills.

Evil often triumphs, but never conquers.

Silence gives consent.

Half-knowledge is worse than ignorance.

The law sometimes sleeps, but never dies.

A friend is one who dislikes the same people you dislike.

The greatest of faults is to be conscious of none.

A father is a banker provided by nature.

Why does that man hate me so, I never did him a favor [old French proverb, John Gunther on TV].

Whenever Wall St. sneezes, Europe catches a cold.

If you don't know where you're going, you're likely to end up somewhere else [TV].

Two wrongs don't make a right.

Misers may be hard to live with but they make great ancestors.

Tell her to put an egg in her shoe and beat it [Bill Spence, vol. 2, # 6, Newsletter of Kickin' & Singin' Gatherin'].

It's going to get worse before it gets worser [heard on TV, 6.6.74].

Fine as a frog's hair [on radio, 3.1968].

Fire makes a good servant but a bad master.

Procrastination is the thief of time [TV].

He who hates sin hates humanity.

Fish & guests stink after 3 days.

Colder than a whore's heart [Newsweek, 3.10.69, p. 26].

Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.

It's too good a thing to let sit on the back burner [on TV, ch. 2, 3.28.68].

If you want to play ball you got to come into the park [NY Times magazine, 9.15.68].
He who sees the dawn catches the herring [British movie].

He who goes to bed early to save a candle begets twins [Eng. movie, maybe Chinese].

Like nailing a custard pie to the wall.

Caught with his hand in the till.

Figures don't lie but liars figure.

I don't give a rambling damn.

Knocks them off like fish in a rain barrel.

It's a can of worms.

Fools' names & fools' faces are often found in public places.

It only hurts when I laugh.

No use blaming the mirror if it's your mug that's crooked [folk saying, after cast of characters in "The Inspector General," Gogol, Great Russian Plays].

The apple doesn't fall far from the tree [TV].

Going to hell in a bucket [Robt. Young].

He who tells the truth must have one foot in the stirrup [Turkish proverb].

May be leaning on a slender reed [Hugh Downes on TV].

Ordinary citizens are murdered, leaders are assassinated.

Like travellers looking at flowers while riding on horseback [Chinese saying].

Fat hens lay few eggs.

It has been said that much of the good work of the world has been done by the dull man who has done his best [p. 14, Sonya Richmond, Yoga].

A monkey in silk is still a monkey [Viva Zapata].

You may not live to be a hundred years old, but it may seem that long.

Like rolling a peanut up a mountain [Billy Rose's sister on TV, 4.18.68].
What the eye doesn't see the heart never grieves.

A sword that cuts two ways [TV].

--against throwing bricks at tanks [Black Panther on TV 12.19.69].

Trying to walk on both sides of the street [TV].

If you want to catch a thief, get a thief to catch him.

He's turned tight corners [Connie from her Ohio background]

What can you expect from a pig but a grunt?

From your mouth to God's ears [heard on TV].

If the priests wore their pants the same way they wear their collars, there wouldn't be so many illegitimate in the world [Sunny Storm's mother--Penna.].

It's better to live a short life like a lion than a long life like a chicken [Masai saying].

The cure worse than the disease.

The only one who makes my motor race [TV].

If I don't get home real quick Mama's gonna give me a hot tongue and a cold shoulder [from a gas station attendant in Indiana].

He throws a long rope (with a wide loop in it) [Cowboys TV, Virginan 5/18/65].

A whistling woman & a crowing hen brings the devil out of his den [Irish heard on TV].

He hasn't a pot to piss in or a window to throw it out [Rebel Voices, p. 30].

I'm going to squeeze it (hold on) till the eagle grins [Nobody Knows You When You're Down & Out].

That woman is nasty nice & dirty particular [Sasafras River, Fredericktown, from Amy Cook].

When she opens her mouth she looks half undressed [J. Herman Cook, Maine].

Here's to you because I love you/ I love you because you're good/ You're good because God made you/ I wish to God I could [Amy Cook].

We say or keep still at our own sweet will [over fireplace in the Potter house in Arden].
I'm ready if I never got to go [Jolly Robinson].

"You ain't got the sense God promised a billygoat"--Florida. ". . . the sense God gave a goldfish"--N.H. "Another brain and you'd have one." "Another brain and it'd be lonesome." "Another brain like than 'un and you'd be a half-wit." N.H. [Stray Notes, Atlanta F.M. Society, Vol. 1, # 4].

God made 'em/ God matched 'em/ Goddam 'em [Gentry 6.7.65].

A different kettle of fish.

Your liberty stops where my nose begins [Sen. Hugh Scott from his father].

He's a hard nosed fellow.

Not enuf room to swing a cat around [from English capt. on a freighter up the Amazon].

It's like pissing in a well [Emory Cook, 9.8.67].

There's fire under the ashes [ex-Sen. Paul H. Douglas, TV 6.13.68].

--bootshop their way [TV}.

He who pays the piper, calls the tune.

Don't die till you're dead [Mississippi John Hurt].

To understand is to forgive [French saying {unattributed to Voltaire, sge}].

I thot I had wings & the ocean was knee deep [Aba Chassin 7.22.72].

A fine one to call the kettle black.

Have one more string to his (their) bow.

Some of our experts are getting sweaty palms [Wm. Lawrence TV 11.4.68].

He'll never make old bones [cge{Connie?}].

The Jews are just like everyone else--only more so [anon].

When you're hungry, sing; when you're hurt, laugh [Joys of Yiddish, Rosten, p. xxiv].

There is no pot so ugly it can't find a lid [Bolivian maid of Nicole Maxwell, Americas].

Little fish do not eat big fish [same].

What was hatched a hen must not try to be a rooster [same].

If the dose is nasty, swallow it fast [same].

One hand washes the other, but together they wash the face [same].

He who works has no time to make money [same].

Who purposely swallows a bone puts great faith in his throat [same].

It is very expensive to be poor [same].

I am not a hen to keep on laying eggs when given no corn [same].

How porcupines make love--carefully.

*

"Literary" Quotations:

Good luck--when the arrow hits the guy next you [Aristotle {loosely translated, sge}].

A friend is one before (or with) whom you can think aloud [Emerson].

Fools make feasts for wise men to eat [Benjamin Franklin].

All sail and no anchor [Lord Macaulay].

Speech is silver, silence golden {unattributed to Goethe. sge}.

What needs must be no man can flee [The Uprooted, Handlin, p. 106].

Modest doubt is the beacon of the wise [Shakespeare].

Quakery began when the first knave met the first fool [Voltaire].

"Take what you want," said God. "Take it & pay for it' [old proverb, The Tower of Babel, Morris L. West, p. 187].

It's not enuf that one should be successful; one's best friend should fail [Rochefoucaut].

If you are alone, you are you own man [Leonardo da Vinci].

You can't get clear water from a muddy stream [Lincoln].

Plain lies, damn lies, & statistics [Mark Twain].

Work--it's the only thing you can do for 8 hours a day [Wm. Faulkner].

To win a war without striking a blow is perfection [Sun-Tze, 2500 years ago, great Chinese theorist of war].

Nobody gave him a candle at [t]his funeral [Hugo, "When in Spain," p. 11].

No man fords a stream until he comes to it [Bernard Shaw].

Stick his orders under a dog's tail [Tolstoy, The Power of Darkness].

One little worm hole didn't spoil a red apple [same].

Every pimple has a cause [The Lower Depths, Maxim Gorky].

Nothing can stand against an idea whose time has come [Victor Hugo}.

There is no cure for birth & death save to enjoy the interval [Santayana].

On a cloth untrue/ With a twisted cue/ And elliptical billiard balls [W.S. Gilbert anant a billiard sharp who is condemned to play:].

Cold as a witch's tit [The Catcher in the Rye, p. 4, J.D. Salinger].

I'll bet a lot of Spaniards spilled their songs in this room [Michener, Iberia, p. 190].

Those who do not understand the past are doomed to relive it [Goethe].

When experience is not retained . . . infancy is perpetual.. Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it [George Santayana, Reason in Common Sense].

Be realistic--demand the impossible [Marcuse].

The guest will judge better of the feast than the cook [Aristotle].

The journey is the goal [John Ciardi].

There is no truth on earth which I fear to be known [Thomas Jefferson].

A little enchanteth, too much taketh away {Shakespeare, re alcohol].

If any man could disover a means of judging and choosing men correctly and rationally, he would, by that act alone establish a perfect form of government [Montaigne, On the Art of Conversing].

Marriage without love means love without marriage [Kenneth Clark, Civilization].

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Dictionary definitions:

ri-fa-ci-men-to: a reworking or recasting; an adaptation, esp. of a literary work or musical composition.

gaufre (French waffles).

Macaronics {presumably to be looked up, sge}.

Catsup, or ketchup, was originally "ke-tsiap," a Chinese word meaning pickled fish sauce. The Malay language took the word over as kechup--and Americans later changed its spelling and turned it into a tomato-sauce condiment [newspaper clipping].

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Jokes:

"It's a boy," said Mrs. Schickelgruber, causing a small furor.

"You have a flat," said Jack with despair.

"Put down my camera," he said bellowing and howling.

"I've dropped my toothpaste," said Tom crestfallen.

"Get off my feet," he said flatly.

That runs into money, like the monkey said when he pissed in the cash registere [Gentry, Balto. 4.23.65].

Let's go into the dark room and see what develops--that's what the guy said to his girl friend [Jae, Balto. 4.23.65].

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Miscellaneous:

Ships. Why "she": because it takes a good man to handle her. -- Because she uses a bit of paint from time to time. -- Because she moves with grace & beauty.

List of folk categories: superstition, magic, folk medicine, weather lore, plant lore.

Drinking: half-snakkered. Beer and ginger beer shandigaff.

*

By Sam Eskin:

One should compromise only on unimportant matters; not with one's integrity.

We are victims of democracy.

We are told of the great spaces beyond our planet, the inconceivable vastness of the universe. Further, it is impressed upon us what an insignificant spec we are in this awesome complex. Yet, this space is the only known member of the big bang who can conceive & delve into this vastness & appreciate his place "in" it all [9.25.72].

We've all got our own thing do--every one of us, but we can't do our thing without some awareness of the other man's thing or accommodation to others' thing. There is the rub--that accommodation.

I'll make my own tomorrow, as much as I can, & fill today with my own doings.

Disaster lurks around every corner, especially if you happen to be going around in circles ['74 {the year of his death}].