Franklin P. Adams Quotes & Sayings

Chaos breeds life, while order breeds success. — Franklin P. Adams

The best part of the fiction in many novels is the notice that the characters are imaginary. — Franklin P. Adams

We deny that it is fun to be saving. It is fun to be prodigal. Go to the butterfly, thou parsimonious sluggard; consider her ways and get wise. — Franklin P. Adams

Ninety-two percent of the stuff told you in confidence you couldn't get anyone else to listen to. — Franklin P. Adams

There are hundreds who can stand failure to one who can stand success; the good loser is far more common than the good winner. — Franklin P. Adams

Every time we tell anybody to cheer up, things might be worse, we run away for fear we might be asked to specify how. — Franklin P. Adams

Count the day won, when the earth, turning on its axis, imposes no additional taxes — Franklin P. Adams

To err is human; to forgive, infrequent. — Franklin P. Adams

When the political columnists say 'Every thinking man' they mean themselves, and when candidates appeal to 'Every intelligent voter' they mean everybody who is going to vote for them — Franklin P. Adams

Day after day, night after night, my life at home is far from bright, but even home has more variety, than I can find in cafe society. — Franklin P. Adams

If a man keeps his trap shut, the world will beat a path to his door. — Franklin P. Adams

Having imagination, it takes you an hour to write a paragraph that, if you were unimaginative, would take you only a minute. Or you might not write the paragraph at all. — Franklin P. Adams

Money isn't everything, but lack of money isn't anything. — Franklin P. Adams

These are the saddest of possible words, Tinker-to-Evers-to-Chance. Trio of Bear Cubs fleeter than birds, Tinker-to-Evers-to-Chance. Ruthlessly pricking our gonfalon bubble, Making a Giant hit into a double, Words that are weighty with nothing but trouble, Tinker-to-Evers-to-Chance. This brief poem, immortalized the Chicago Cubs' double-play combination: Shortstop Joe Tinker, second baseman Johnny Evers, and first baseman Frank Chance. — Franklin P. Adams

Accustomed as I am to public speaking, I know the futility of it. — Franklin P. Adams

Nobody can write such ironic things unless he has a deep sense of injustice-injustice to those members of the race who are victims of the stupid, the pretentious and the hypocritical. — Franklin P. Adams

And of all glad words of prose or rhyme, The gladdest are Act while there yet is time — Franklin P. Adams

If, my dear, you seek to slumber;
Count of stars an endless number;
If you will continue wakeful;
Count the drops that make a lakeful;
Then if vigilance yet above you
Hover, Count the times I love you;
And if slumber sill repel you
Count the times I do not tell you. — Franklin P. Adams

Drinking is bad taste but tastes good. — Franklin P. Adams

You can learn many things from children. How much patience you have, for instance. — Franklin P. Adams

Nothing is more responsible for the good old days than a bad memory. — Franklin P. Adams

In the order named, these are the hardest to control: Wine, Women, and Song. — Franklin P. Adams

I hate the pollyanna pest who says that all is for the best. — Franklin P. Adams

Prohibition is an awful flop. We like it. It can't stop what it's meant to stop. We like it. It's left a trail of graft and slime It don't prohibit worth a dime It's filled our land with vice and crime, Nevertheless, we're for it. — Franklin P. Adams

I am easily influenced. Compared with me a weather vane is Gibraltar. — Franklin P. Adams

The best bet you get is an even break. — Franklin P. Adams

Elections are won by men and women chiefly because most people vote against somebody rather than for somebody. — Franklin P. Adams

When a man you like switches from what he said a year ago, or 4 years ago, he is a broad-minded person who has courage enough to change his mind with changing conditions. When a man you don't like does it, he is a liar who has broken his promises. — Franklin P. Adams

Seeing ourselves as others see us would probably confirm our worst suspicions about them. — Franklin P. Adams

Conscience: A small, still voice that makes minority reports. — Franklin P. Adams

An extravagance is something you buy which is no earthly use to your wife. — Franklin P. Adams

While the work or play is on, it is a lot of fun if while you are doing one you don't constantly feel that you ought to be doing the other. — Franklin P. Adams

As we see censorship it is a stupid giant traffic policeman answering "Yes" to "Am I my brother's copper?" He guards a one-way street and his semaphore has four signs, all marked "stop. — Franklin P. Adams

I find that a great part of the information I have acquired by looking up something and finding something else on the way — Franklin P. Adams

There is no accounting for tastes, as the woman said when someone told her her son was wanted by the police. — Franklin P. Adams

Life, lift the full goblet
away with all sorrow
The circle of friendship what freedom would sever? To-day is our own, and a fig for to-morrow
Here's to the Fourth and our country forever. — Franklin P. Adams

Remember how excited you were when you turned five years old. Today, you should be 10 times that excited. Happy 50th birthday! — Franklin P. Adams

The rich man has his motorcar, His country and his town estate, He smokes a fifty-cent cigar And jeers at Fate. He frivols through the livelong day, He knows not Poverty, her pinch. His lot seems light, his heart seems gay; He has a cinch. Yet though my lamp burns low and dim, Though I must slave for livelihood- Think you that I would change with him? You bet I would! — Franklin P. Adams

One man's pointlessness is another's barbed satire. — Franklin P. Adams

Our notion of an optimist is a man who knowing that each year was worse than the preceding, thinks next year will be better. And a pessimist is a man who knows the next year can't be worse than the last one. — Franklin P. Adams