Gelett Burgess Quotes

Imagination is like a lofty building reared to meet the sky; whereas fancy is a balloon that soars at the wind's will.

To appreciate nonsense requires a serious interest in life.

There is work that is work and there is play that is play; there is play that is work and work that is play. And in only one of these lies happiness.

Love is only chatter, friends are all that matter.

I never saw a purple cow; I never hope to see one; But I can tell you, anyhow, I'd rather see than be one.

The fear of women is the beginning of knowledge.

Old friends, we say, are best, when some sudden disillusionment shakes our faith in a new comrade.

If in the last few years you have not discarded a major opinion or acquired a new one, check your pulse. You may be dead.

It was Matisse who took the first step into the undiscovered land of the ugly.

To make fun of a person to his face is a brutal way of amusing one's self; be delicate and cunning, and keep your laugh in your sleeve, lest you frighten away your game.

Most women have all other women as adversaries; most men have all other men as their allies.

A good woman would rather be the mother of a genius than the wife of a hero

Her heart is older than her head; yea, her emotion is the mother of her reason

Men like to pursue an elusive woman like a cake of wet soap - even men who hate baths.

The temptation to vivify the tale and make it walk abroad on its own legs is hard to deny.

If thou makest a statement concerning women, lo, she shall immediately try to disprove it straightway. She goeth by contraries.

Without bigots, eccentrics, cranks and heretics the world would not progress.

When the waitress puts the dinner on the table, the old men look at the dinner. The young men look at the waitress.

Our bodies are apt to be our autobiographies.

Repeat not the manner of a flirtation; for lo, all the world shall hear of it, and women will taunt thee.

To take the world as one finds it

Maxims are like lawyers who must need to see but one side of the case.

Count no matron happy until she hath passed thirty, and hath not waxed fat.

My feet, they haul me Round the House, They hoist me up the Stairs; I only have to steer them, and They Ride me Everywheres.

Love endeth like the chianti flask, its drops are bitter.

A woman findeth in her last lover much of her first love; but a man seeth his next-to-the-last love, alway.

As the cat lapses into savagery by night, and barbarously explores the dark, so primal and titanic is a woman with the love madness.

Woo her not till thou hast seen her mother, for a score of years worketh wonders.

Thinking a smile all the time will keep your face youthful.

If you wish to be positive, which means youthful, never speak of the past any more than you can help.

A woman and a mouse, they carry a tale wherever they go.

A reproof entereth more into a woman of sense than an hundred compliments into a fool.

Some women are to be captured by storm and some taken by siege; yet if there be not a traitor in her heart that shall deliver up the garrison, thou shalt not prevail over her.

In the mind of a woman, to give birth to a child is the short cut to omniscience.

Style is doing things not in any way but in the best way.

A maiden's first kiss cometh hard, yea, it is as the first olive out of a bottle, requiring much skill; but the rest are easy.

Tell not thy previous loves to a woman, lest she also telleth thee hers.

Verily, men do foolish things thoughtlessly, knowing not why; but no woman doeth aught without a reason.

No man knoweth how another man maketh his love, for women tell not.

Many a maid have I won by a quarrel, when flattery was in no wise helpful; but take heed that thou art in the wrong, so that thou mayest acknowledge thine error.

The old say, "I remember when." The young say, "What's the news?"

Can a woman entertain a man and a pet at the same time? I say unto thee, one of the twain shall suffer jealousy.

It is in the blood of genius to love play for its own sake, and whether one uses one's skill on thrones or women, swords or pens, gold or fame, the game's the thing.

A wedding in haste is worth two at leisure.

As the dog becomes thoroughbred in the laws of clan and caste; obedient, fraternal and loyal; so is the man who accepts the gentleman's code.

Beware of a woman who signeth not her name to her letters; she will bear watching, aye, she hath a past.

Son, heed my instruction, and apply thyself to know women; let thine eyes observe her when she is with another, for what she doeth with him, she will do with thee, also.

My son, beware of a plain damsel who charmeth thee, for she needeth much wile, and useth diverse weapons.

Ah, yes! I wrote the "Purple Cow" - I'm sorry, now, I wrote it! But I can tell you anyhow, I'll kill you if you quote it!

Every person has some splendid traits and if we confine our contacts so as to bring those traits into action, there is no need of ever being bored or irritated or indignant.