Most people have seen worse things in private than they pretend to be shocked at in public.

Abuse a man unjustly, and you will make friends for him.

—Edgar Watson Howe

The worst feeling in the world is the homesickness that comes over a man occasionally when he is at home.

—Edgar Watson Howe

A poem is no place for an idea.

—Edgar Watson Howe

If you don't learn to laugh at trouble, you won't have anything to laugh at when you're old.

—Edgar Watson Howe

A boy doesn't have to go to war to be a hero; he can say he doesn't like pie when he sees there isn't enough to go around.

—Edgar Watson Howe

Sometimes I get so immersed in my own company, if I unexpectedly run into someone I know, it's a bit of a shock and takes me a while to adjust.

—Kazuo Ishiguro in Never Let Me Go

Of course I lie to people. But I lie altruistically—for our mutual good. The lie is the basic building block of good manners. That may seem mildly shocking to a moralist—but then what isn't?

—Quentin Crisp

A person is always startled when he hears himself seriously called an old man for the first time.

—Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr.

Most people have seen worse things in private than they pretend to be shocked at in public.

—Edgar Watson Howe