Carolyn Wells Quotes

42 Sourced Quotes

A cynic is a man who looks at the world with a monocle in his mind's eye.

Carolyn Wells
It is the interest one takes in books that makes a library.

Carolyn Wells
I am more fond of achieving than striving. My theories must prove to be facts or be discarded as worthless. My efforts must soon be crowned with success, or discontinued.

Carolyn Wells
Advice is one of those things it is far more blessed to give than to receive.

Carolyn Wells
I have always hated biography, and more especially, autobiography. If biography, the writer invariably finds it necessary to plaster the subject with praises, flattery and adulation and to invest him with all the Christian graces. If autobiography, the same plan is followed, but the writer apologizes for it.

Carolyn Wells
Advice... is a habit-forming drug. You give a dear friend a bit of advice today, and next week you find yourself advising two or three friends, and the week after, a dozen, and the week following, crowds!

Carolyn Wells
A critic is a necessary evil, and criticism is an evil necessity.

Carolyn Wells
When strolling forth, a beast you view
Whose hide with spots is peppered;
As soon as it has leapt on you,
You'll know it is the Leopard.

Carolyn Wells
Forgive us our Christmases as we
Forgive those who Christmas against us!

Carolyn Wells
What! Out of Oil, Nothing to invoke
A Powerful Something, born of Fire and Smoke!
An Unremitting Pleasure, if it goes;
An Everlasting Worriment, if broke.

Carolyn Wells
A yardstick thus to himself did muse
As he walked along the street;
'I must buy a pair and a half of shoes
Because I have three feet.'

Carolyn Wells
He who loves and runs away, may live to love another day.

Carolyn Wells
Insistent advice may develop into interference, and interference, someone has said, is the hind hoof of the devil.

Carolyn Wells
'Tis blessed to bestow, and yet,
Could we bestow the gifts we get,
And keep the ones we give away,
How happy were our Christmas Day!

Carolyn Wells
The subjective viewpoint is the only one to use regarding a library. Your true library is a collection of the books you want.You may have deplorably poor taste or bad judgment. Never mind. Correct those traits before you exchange your books.

Carolyn Wells
I hate to do what everybody else is doing. Why, only last week, on Fifth Avenue and some cross streets, I noticed that every feminine citizen of these United States wore an artificial posy on her coat or gown. I came home and ripped off every one of the really lovely refrigerator blossoms that were sewn on my own bodices.

Carolyn Wells
Or if some time when roaming round, A noble wild beast greets you, With black stripes on a yellow ground, Just notice if he eats you. This simple rule may help you learn The Bengal tiger to discern.

Carolyn Wells
Almost before the big motor-car stopped, the girl sprang out.

Carolyn Wells
I think, for the rest of my life, I shall refrain from looking up things. It is the most ravenous time-snatcher I know. You pull one book from the shelf, which carries a hint or a reference that sends you posthaste to another book, and that to successive others. It is incredible, the number of books you hopefully open and disappointedly close, only to take down another with the same result.

Carolyn Wells
To take pride in a library kills it. Then, its motive power shifts over to the critical if admiring visitor, and apologies are necessary and acceptable and the fat is in the fire.

Carolyn Wells
If strolling forth, a beast you view, Whose hide with spots is peppered, As soon as he has lept on you, You'll know it is the leopard. 'Twill do no good to roar with pain, He'll only lep and lep again.

Carolyn Wells
The true Chameleon is small, A lizard sort of thing; He 'asn't any ears at all, And not a single wing. If there is nothing on the tree, 'Tis the Chameleon you see.

Carolyn Wells
To make a library
It takes two volumes
And a fire.
Two volumes and a fire,
And interest.
The interest alone will do
If logs are few.

Carolyn Wells
Secure from observation
A Bookworm made his home
And pursued his occupation
In a dry and dusty tome,
Made by some wise old sages
That lesser minds might learn.
The Bookworm turned the pages
(For even a worm will turn).
He said, 'What prosy leaders! And, judging by its look,
This book has bored its readers,
Now I will bore the book.'

Carolyn Wells
A hen who resided in Reading
Attended a gentleman's weading.
As she walked up the aisle,
The guests had to smaisle,
In spite of the tears they were sheading.

Carolyn Wells
What is a magazine? A small body of Literature entirely surrounded by advertisements.

Carolyn Wells
Take care of your common sense, and your dignity will take care of itsself

Carolyn Wells
One of the first principles of perseverance is to know when to stop persevering.

Carolyn Wells
In December people give no thought to the Past or the Future. They thing only of the Present.

Carolyn Wells
How could advice be successful? If it turns out right, the adviser is ignored and the advisee takes all the credit. If it proves mistaken, the adviser receives all the blame.

Carolyn Wells