The Complete Works of Josh Billings Part 13
Good, old-fashioned common sense iz one ov the hardest things in the world to out-wit, out-argy, or beat in enny way, it iz az honest az a loaf ov good domestik bread, alwus in tune, either hot from the oven or 8 days old.
Common sense kan be improved upon by edukashun--genius kan be too, sum, but not much.
Edukashun gauls genius like a bad setting harness.
Common sense iz like biled vittles, it is good right from the pot, and it is good nex day warmed up.
If every man waz a genius, mankind would be az bad oph az the heavens would be, with every star a comet, things would git hurt badly, and n.o.boddy tew blame.
Common sense iz instinkt, and instinkt don't make enny blunders mutch, no more than a rat duz, in coming out, or going intew a hole, he hits the hole the fust time, and just fills it.
Genius iz always in advance ov the times, and makes sum magnificent hits, but the world owes most ov its tributes to good hoss sense.
SILENCE.
Silence is a still noise.
One ov the hardest things for a man to do, iz tew keep still.
Everyboddy wants tew be heard fust, and this iz jist what fills the world with nonsense.
Everyboddy wants tew talk, few want to think, and n.o.boddy wants tew listen.
The greatest talkers amung the feathered folks, are the magpie and ginny hen, and neither ov them are ov mutch account.
If a man ain't sure he iz right the best kard he kan play iz a blank one.
I have known menny a man tew beat in an argument by just nodding his hed once in a while and simply say, "_jess so, jess so_."
It takes a grate menny blows tew drive in a nail, but one will clinch it.
Sum men talk just az a French pony trots, all day long, in a haff bushel meazzure.
Silence never makes enny blunders, and alwus gits az mutch credit az iz due it, and oftimes more.
When i see a man listening to me cluss i alwus say to mi self, "_look out, Josh_, that fellow iz taking your meazzure."
I hav herd men argy a pint two hours and a haff and not git enny further from whare they started than a mule in a bark mill, they did a good deal ov going round and round.
I hav sot on jurys and had a lawyer talk the law, fakts and evidence ov the kase all out ov me, besides starting the taps on mi boots.
I hav bin tew church hungry for sum gospel, and c.u.m hum so phull ov it that i couldn't draw a long breth without starting a b.u.t.ton.
Brevity and silence are the two grate kards, and next to saying nothing, saying a little, iz the strength ov the game.
One thing iz certain, it iz only the grate thinkers who kan afford tew be brief, and thare haz bin but phew volumes yet published which could not be cut down two-thirds, and menny ov them could be cut klean back tew the t.i.tle page without hurting them.
Iz hard tew find a man ov good sense who kan look back upon enny occason and wish he had sed sum more, but it iz eazy tew find menny who wish they had said less.
A thing sed iz hard tew recall, but unsed it kan be spoken any time.
Brevity iz the child of silence, and iz a great credit tew the old man.
BRAVERY.
True bravery iz very eazy tew detekt, for it iz az mutch a part and parcel of a man's every day life az hiz clothes iz.
Everything that a truly brave man duz iz did from principle not impulse, and when no one sees him he iz just az heroik az he would be if he waz in the eyes of the mult.i.tude.
Thare iz a grate deal ov bravery that iz simply ornamental, and if it wan't for its spurs and c.o.c.kade wouldn't amount tew mutch.
It iz not bravery to face what we kan't dodge, but it iz true courage tew face all things that are honest and dodge nothing.
True bravery exists amung the lowly just az mutch az amung the grate, and a man really haz no more right tew expekt praise for his courage than he haz for hiz virtue.
It often requires more bravery tew tell the simple truth than it duz tew win a battle.
He who fills to the brim the stashun in life, which nature or fortune haz given him, iz a hero; i don't kare whether he iz a peasant on the hillside, or chieftian in the tented field.
The most sublime courage I hav ever witnessed, hav been among that kla.s.s who waz too poor to know that they possessed it, and too humble for the world ever to diskover it.
When I want to see a hero, or commune with one, i don't go tew the pages ov history; i kan find them in among the bipaths ov every day life, i hav known them tew liv out their lives and die without enny reckord here; but hereafter, when the grate sorting takes place, they will be found among the jewels.
DISPATCH.
Dispatch iz the gift, or art ov doing a thing right quick. To do a thing right, and to do it quick iz an attribute ov genius.
Hurry iz often mistaken for dispatch; but thare iz just az much difference az thare iz between a hornet and a p.i.s.smire when they are both ov them on duty.
A hornet never takes any steps backwards, but a p.i.s.smire alwus travels just as tho he had forgot sumthing.
Hurry works from morning until night, but works on a tred-wheel.
Dispatch never undertakes a job without fust marking out the course to take, and then follows it, right or wrong, while hurry travels like a blind hoss, stepping hi and often, and spends most ov her time in running into things, and the ballance in backing out agin.
Dispatch iz alwus the mark ov grate abilitys, while hurry iz the evidence ov a phew branes, and they, flying around so fast in the hed, they keep their owner alwus dizzy.