Skip to content
quotesby

24 Artemus Ward Quotes

Artemus Ward delivers witty, quirky musings that poke fun at politics and everyday life.

Artemus Ward quotes

  1. I am not a politician, and my other habits are good, also.

    Permalink to quote #1
  2. The prevailin' weakness of most public men is to Slop over. G. Washington never slopt over.

    Permalink to quote #2
  3. I can't sing. As a singist I am not a success. I am saddest when I sing. So are those who hear me. They are sadder even than I am.

    Permalink to quote #3
  4. Did you ever have the measels, and if so, how many?

    Permalink to quote #4
  5. The Puritans nobly fled from a land of despotism to a land of freedim, where they could not only enjoy their own religion, but could prevent everybody else from enjoyin his.

    Permalink to quote #5
  6. Why is this thus? What is the reason of this thusness?

    Permalink to quote #6
  7. He is dreadfully married. 'He's the most married man I ever saw in my life.'

    Permalink to quote #7
  8. Let us all be happy and live within our means, even if we have to borrow the money to do it with.

    Permalink to quote #8
  9. The sun has a right to 'set' where it wants to, and so, I may add, has a hen.

    Permalink to quote #9
  10. They cherish his mem'ry, and them as sell picturs of his birthplace, etc., make it prof'tible cherishin' it.

    Permalink to quote #10
  11. I now bid you a welcome adoo.

    Permalink to quote #11
  12. ...their eyes sparkled like diminds, their cheeks was like roses, and they was charmin enuff to make a man throw stuns at his granmother, if they axed him to.

    Permalink to quote #12
  13. My pollertics, like my religion, being of an exceedin' accommodatin' character.

    Permalink to quote #13
  14. The fack can't be no longer disgised that a Krysis is onto us.

    Permalink to quote #14
  15. N.B. This is rote sarcastikul.

    Permalink to quote #15
  16. The female woman is one of the greatest institooshuns of which this land can boste.

    Permalink to quote #16
  17. I have given two cousins to war and I stand ready to sacrifice my wife's brother.

    Permalink to quote #17
  18. My wife is one of the best wimin on this Continent, altho' she isn't always gentle as a lamb with mint sauce.

    Permalink to quote #18

    Attribution disputed; shown as originally published.

  19. The happy married man dies in good stile at home, surrounded by his weeping wife and children. The old bachelor don't die at all - he sort of rots away, like a pollywog's tail.

    Permalink to quote #19

    Attribution disputed; shown as originally published.

  20. They drink with impunity, or anybody who invites them.

    Permalink to quote #20

    Attribution disputed; shown as originally published.

  21. Why don't you show us a statesman who can rise up to the emergency, and cave in the emergency's head?

    Permalink to quote #21
  22. It ain't so much the things we don't know that get us into trouble, it's the things we do know that just ain't so.

    Permalink to quote #22

Also attributed

  1. “I have never heard any of your lectures, but from what I can learn I should say that for people who like the kind of lectures you deliver, they are just the kind of lectures such people like. Yours respectfully, O. Abe.”

  2. “I am happiest when I am idle. I could live for months without performing any kind of labor, and at the expiration of that time I should feel fresh and vigorous enough to go right on in the same way for numerous more months.”