Copyright 2004 by Bob Phillips. All rights reserved.
The unattributed quotes in this book have no verifiable or agreed-upon source.
Phillips treasury of humorous quotations / [compiled by] Bob Phillips.
p. cm.
1. Quotations, English. 2. Wit and humor. I. Phillips, Bob.
ABNORMAL
An abnormal person is anyone who behaves differently from you.
ABORTION
Isnt it funny how everyone in favor of abortion has already been born?
Patrick Murray
ABSENTMINDEDNESS
No man knows what absentmindedness really is until he finds himself dialing his own telephone number.
ABSURDITY
You never know how absurd your own opinion is until you hear somebody else quoting it.
There is no opinion so absurd but that some philosopher will express it.
Cicero
ACCIDENTS
What is better than presence of mind in a railway accident? Absence of body.
If most auto accidents happen within five miles of home, why dont we move ten miles away?
Michael Davis
There would be far fewer accidents if we could only teach telephone poles to be more careful.
Most accidents happen at home maybe we ought to move.
ACCORDIONS
Accordion: an instrument in harmony with the sentiments of an assassin.
Ambrose Bierce
ACCOUNTANTS
Old accountants never die; they just lose their balance.
ACTING
The most important thing in acting is honesty. If you can fake that, youve got it made.
George Burns
ACTION
A man can do more than he thinks he can, but he usually does less than he thinks he does.
The finest eloquence is that which gets things done.
David Lloyd George
Footprints on the sands of time are not made by sitting down.
As I grow older, I pay less attention to what men say. I just watch what they do.
Andrew Carnegie
ACTIONS
Actions speak louder than words but not so often.
Actions speak louder than words, and they tell fewer lies.
ACTIVITY
Activity is contagious.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
ACTORS
Never turn your back on an actor; remember, it was an actor who shot Lincoln.
An actor is a man with an infinite capacity for taking praise.
I deny I ever said that actors are cattle. What I said was, Actors should be treated like cattle.
Alfred Hitchcock
You can pick out the actors by the glazed look that comes into their eyes when the conversation wanders away from themselves.
Michael Wilding
ACTRESSES
The girl who has half a mind to become an actress doesnt realize thats all it requires.
ADAM
Adam was the only man who, when he said a good thing, knew that nobody had said it before him.
Mark Twain
ADAMS RIB
Adams rib: the original bone of contention.
Oliver Herford and John Clay
ADOLESCENCE
Gods way of making separation with children easier was to invent adolescence.
Mark Patinkin
An adolescent is a teenager who acts like a baby when you dont treat him like an adult.
ADVERSARIES
The rule is perfect: in all matters of opinion our adversaries are insane.
Mark Twain
ADVERSITY
By trying, we can easily learn to reduce adversity another mans, I mean.
Mark Twain
Adversity introduces a man to himself.
Adversity makes men wise but not rich.
John Ray
ADVERTISING
The codfish lays ten thousand eggs,
The homely hen lays one.
The codfish never cackles
To tell you what shes done.
And so we scorn the codfish,
While the humble hen we prize,
Which only goes to show you
That it pays to advertise.
ADVICE
Among the many remedies that wont cure a cold, the most common is advice.
The easiest way to escape being hated is to mind your own business and refrain from giving good advice.
W. Burton Baldry
We hate to have some people give us advice because we know how badly they need it themselves.
We always admire the intelligence of those who ask us for advice.
The best time to give advice to your children is while theyre still young enough to believe you know what youre talking about.
Advice is seldom welcome, and those who need it the most like it the least.
Lord Chesterfield
If at first you dont succeed, youll find everyone giving you advice.
Healthy people have one thing in common: They always give advice to the sick.
When a man seeks your advice, he generally wants your praise.
Lord Chesterfield
When a man comes to me for advice, I find out the kind of advice he wants, and I give it to him.
Josh Billings
How is it possible to expect mankind to take advice when they will not so much as take warning?
Jonathan Swift
Advice is like castor oil, easy enough to give but dreadful uneasy to take.
Josh Billings
If you want people to notice your faults, start giving advice.
Kelly Stephens
Never trust the advice of a man in difficulties.
Aesop
If you want to get rid of somebody, just tell em something for their own good.
Frank McKinney Hubbard
AESOPS FOX
Like Aesops fox, when he had lost his tail, he would have all his fellow foxes cut off theirs.
Robert Burton
AFFLICTIONS
If afflictions refine some, they consume others.
John Ray
AFTER-DINNER SPEECHES
An after-dinner speech should be like a ladys dress: long enough to cover the subject and short enough to be interesting.
AGE
I think age is a very high price to pay for maturity.
Age is so deceiving. It is amazing how much faster sixty comes after fifty compared to fifty after forty!
When youre over the hill, you pick up speed.
Age is a question of mind over matter. If you dont mind, it doesnt matter.
Satchel Paige
Ive reached that age when a good day is one when you get up and nothing hurts.
H. Martin
The years that a woman subtracts from her age are not lost. They are added to the ages of other women.
Diane de Poitiers
I refuse to admit that I am more than fifty-two, even if that does make my sons illegitimate.
Nancy Astor
Age is like love it cannot be hid.
Thomas Dekker
Age is not a particularly interesting subject. Anyone can get old. All you have to do is live long enough.
Groucho Marx
AGING
The only good thing about [aging] is youre not dead.
Lillian Hellman
The reason mature men look younger than mature women is that a woman of forty is usually fifty.
AGNOSTICS