Josh Billings Quotes

I guess you could say I'm cautious, or a coward.

I do this so you cannot help but hear. A wise man views a moonless night with fear.

It's a wise man who profits by his own experience, but it's a good deal wiser one who lets the rattlesnake bite the other fellow.

My errors will point to thinking men the various roads, and will teach them the great art of treading on the brink of the precipice without falling into it.

No, I'm not at all adventurous. I'm terribly cowardly.

To withdraw is not to run away, and to stay is no wise action, when there's more reason to fear than to hope.

A good scare is worth more to a man than good advice.

I was always suspicious and looking over my shoulder because that's how I was raised.

Unfortunates learn from their own mistakes, and the lucky ones learn from other's mistakes.

What is cowardice in the young is wisdom in the old, but all the same one can be ashamed of wisdom.”

Timidity is the root of prudence in the majority of men.

Silence is the residue of fear.

Where duty is plain delay is both foolish and hazardous; where it is not, delay may be both wisdom and safety.

Thin-lipped wisdom spoke at her from the worn chair, hinted at prudence, quoted from that book of cowardice whose author apes the name of common sense.

You got to know your limits. Once is enough, but you got to learn. A little caution never hurt anyone. A good woodsman has only one scar on him. No more, no less.

A MAN FEARED A man feared that he might find an assassin; Another that he might find a victim. One was more wise than the other.

Wise man also fears a weak enemy.

No, that is the great fallacy: the wisdom of old men. They do not grow wise. They grow careful.

Look before you leap.

The wise speak only of what they know

Only a fool is not afraid.

Experience is a safe guide.

I've lived long enough to have learned, the closer you get to the fire, the more you get burned.

Cowardice is not synonymous with prudence. It often happens that the better part of discretion is valor.

Fear bespeaks of wisdom. Recognition of responsibility.