By Jim Hagarty
2007
I don’t know whether it is possible to live your life successfully just following a rag-tag bunch of old sayings, but when I compare the following ones to what passes sometimes today for wisdom, I think it might just be worth a try. Here are a few such nuggets I’ve heard over the years, some more helpful than others. All of them thought-provoking.
On Planning
If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will get you there.
On Finances
A man begins to grow up when he realizes he does not have to work for his money, that his money can work for him.
On Running Away
It’s the same face you’re shaving in New York as it is in Toronto.
On Growing Old
Old age is not for sissies.
On True Helping
Give a man a fish, you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish, you feed him for a lifetime.
On The Wonders of Compound Interest
Sell the milk and spend the money in whatever way you like but never sell the cow.
On Gratitude
Pneumonia is the old man’s friend.
On Arrogance
We mock what we shall become.
On Resentment
Acid corrodes the vessel in which it’s stored more than the one into which it is poured.
On Gossip
What Dick says about Jane says more about Dick.
On True Humour
The basis of all good humour is truth.
On Industriousness
If you want something done, ask a busy person.
And Laziness …
The less we do, the less we want to do.
On Taking Chances
I may as well be hanged for a sheep as a lamb (often heard around euchre tables).
On Character Development
Every good man should be fired three times in his life.
On Fear
Fear knocked on the door, faith answered and there was nobody there.
On Bad Luck
What we fear, we attract.
On Hard Times
In God’s economy, nothing is wasted: What’s good is good and what’s bad is good.
More Euchre Sayings
Never send a boy to do a man’s work.
God hates a coward.
On Hardship
The only way to temper steel is to stick it in the fire.
On Achieving Potential
You can never become what you want to be until you accept what you are.
On Talking Too Much
Well, now we’re just sawing sawdust.
On Misery
Hell is being concerned only with your own welfare.
On Who’s the Boss
If you want to know who wears the pants in a farm family, check the following. If the house is beautiful and the outbuildings are wrecks, the wife’s in charge. If the barns and sheds and machinery are topnotch and the house is falling down, the man’s in charge.
On Intuition
Follow your first instinct; that’s the right one.
On Being Rich
A horse’s behind who wins a million dollars is now just a horse’s behind with a million dollars.
