Stephen Leacock Quotes

Quotes about:

• It may be those who do most, dream most.

  Stephen Leacock

  Inspirational, Inspiring, Success

  Stephen Leacock, Gerald Lynch (2002). “Leacock on Life”, p.52, University of Toronto Press

  47 Copy quote

• Now, the essence, the very spirit of Christmas is that we first make believe a thing is so, and lo, it presently turns out to be so.

  Stephen Leacock

  Christmas, Believe, Essence

  52 Copy quote

• I am a great believer in luck, and I find the harder I work the more I have of it.

  Stephen Leacock

  Inspirational, Motivational, Positive

  Stephen Leacock, Gerald Lynch (2002). “Leacock on Life”, p.91, University of Toronto Press

  50 Copy quote

• There is an old motto that runs, "If at first you don't succeed, try, try again." This is nonsense. It ought to read, "If at first you don't succeed, quit, quit at once."

  Stephen Leacock

  Running, Trying, Firsts

  Stephen Leacock (2015). “Frenzied Fiction”, p.145, Sheba Blake Publishing

  6 Copy quote

• How strange it is, our little procession of life! The child says, "When I am a big boy." But what is that? The big boy says, "When I grow up." And then, grown up, he says, "When I get married." But to be married, what is that after all? The thought changes to "When I'm able to retire." And then, when retirement comes, he looks back over the landscape traversed; a cold wind seems to sweep over it; somehow he has missed it all, and it is gone.

  Stephen Leacock

  Life, Retirement, Growing Up

  Stephen Leacock (2012). “Feast of Stephen”, p.105, McClelland & Stewart

  32 Copy quote

• Many a man in love with a dimple makes the mistake of marrying the whole girl.

  Stephen Leacock

  Love, Marriage, Girl

  "Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

  175 Copy quote

• There are two things in ordinary conversation which ordinary people dislike - information and wit

  Stephen Leacock

  Two, People, Ordinary

  Stephen Leacock, Gerald Lynch (2002). “Leacock on Life”, p.82, University of Toronto Press

  23 Copy quote

• Advertising: the science of arresting the human intelligence long enough to get money from it.

  Stephen Leacock

  Money, Fear, Animal Intelligence

  Stephen Leacock, Gerald Lynch (2002). “Leacock on Life”, p.29, University of Toronto Press

  25 Copy quote

• Success is 10% inspiration and 90% perspiration.

  Stephen Leacock

  Inspirational, Billiards, Pool

  11 Copy quote

• Writing is not hard. Just get paper and pencil, sit down, and write as it occurs to you. The writing is easy-it's the occurring that's hard.

  Stephen Leacock

  Writing, Paper, Down And

  9 Copy quote

• Most people can tire of a lecture in fifteen minutes, clever people can do it in five, and sensible people don't go to lectures at all.

  Stephen Leacock

  Inspirational, Clever, Work

  9 Copy quote

• If I were founding a university I would begin with a smoking room; next a dormitory; and then a decent reading room and a library. After that, if I still had more money that I couldn't use, I would hire a professor and get some text books.

  Stephen Leacock

  Reading, Book, Smoking

  14 Copy quote

• About the only good thing you can say about old age is, it's better than being dead!

  Stephen Leacock

  Age, Aging, Good Things

  9 Copy quote

• American politicians do anything for money... English politicians take the money and won't do anything.

  Stephen Leacock

  Politician

  6 Copy quote

• The minute a man is convinced he is interesting, he isn't.

  Stephen Leacock

  Wisdom, Men, Interesting

  11 Copy quote

• In ancient times they had no statistics so they had to fall back on lies.

  Stephen Leacock

  Lying, Fall, Statistics

  15 Copy quote

• The Lord said 'let there be wheat' and Saskatchewan was born

  Stephen Leacock

  Wheat, Lord, Economy

  Stephen Leacock, Gerald Lynch (2002). “Leacock on Life”, p.46, University of Toronto Press

  14 Copy quote

• Hockey captures the essence of Canadian experience in the New World. In a land so inescapably and inhospitably cold, hockey is the chance of life, and an affirmation that despite the deathly chill of winter we are alive.

  Stephen Leacock

  Hockey, Winter, Nhl

  21 Copy quote

• I detest life-insurance agents: they always argue that I shall some day die, which is not so.

  Stephen Leacock

  Funny, Life, Business

  Literary Lapses (1910) "Insurance up to Date"

  22 Copy quote

• He flung himself from the room, flung himself upon his horse and rode madly off in all directions.

  Stephen Leacock

  Horse, Rooms, Economy

  Nonsense Novels "Gertrude the Governess; or, Simple Seventeen" (1911)

  17 Copy quote

• Being a specialist is one thing, getting a job is another.

  Stephen Leacock

  Jobs, Work, Specialists

  Stephen Leacock, (2013). “The Boy I Left Behind Me”, p.79, Read Books Ltd

  15 Copy quote

• You know, many a man realizes late in life that if when he was a boy he had known what he knows now, instead of being what he is he might be what he won't; but how few boys stop to think that if they knew what they don't know instead of being what they will be, they wouldn't be?

  Stephen Leacock

  Boys, Men, Thinking

  Stephen Leacock (2014). “Literary Lapses”, p.26, The Floating Press

  8 Copy quote

• In earlier times they had no statistics and so they had to fall back on lies. Hence the huge exaggerations of primitive literature, giants, miracles, wonders! It's the size that counts. They did it with lies and we do it with statistics: but it's all the same.

  Stephen Leacock

  Lying, Fall, Science

  Stephen Leacock (1939). “Model memoirs and other sketches from simple to serious”

  20 Copy quote

• In Canada we have enough to do keeping up with two spoken languages ... so we just go right ahead and use English for literature, Scotch for sermons, and American for conversation.

  Stephen Leacock

  Two, Scotch, Canada

  6 Copy quote

• It takes a good deal of physical courage to ride a horse. This, however, I have. I get it at about forty cents a flask, and take it as required.

  Stephen Leacock

  Horse, Economy, Flasks

  1910 Literary Lapses,'Reflections on Riding'.

  19 Copy quote

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