Destiny has a constant passion for the incongruous.
BOOTH TARKINGTONDestiny has a constant passion for the incongruous.
BOOTH TARKINGTONOne of the hardest conditions of boyhood is the almost continuous strain put upon the powers of invention by the constant and harassing necessity for explanations for every natural act.
BOOTH TARKINGTONWhatever does not pretend at all has style enough.
BOOTH TARKINGTONThe understanding smile of an old wife to her husband is one of the loveliest things in the world.
BOOTH TARKINGTONYouth cannot imagine romance apart from youth.
BOOTH TARKINGTONBoyhood is the longest time in life for a boy. The last term of the school-year is made of decades, not of weeks, and living through them is like waiting for the millennium.
BOOTH TARKINGTONGossip is never fatal until it is denied.
BOOTH TARKINGTONThe only safe male rebuke to a scornful female is to stay away from her – especially if that is what she desires.
BOOTH TARKINGTONThey were upon their great theme: “When I get to be a man!” Being human, though boys, they considered their present estate too commonplace to be dwelt upon. So, when the old men gather, they say: “When I was a boy!” It really is the land of nowadays that we never discover.
BOOTH TARKINGTONTake your work seriously but never take yourself seriously and do not take what happens either to yourself or your work seriously.
BOOTH TARKINGTONArguments only confirm people in their own opinions.
BOOTH TARKINGTONSo long as we can lose any happiness, we possess some.
BOOTH TARKINGTONSome day the laws of glamour must be discovered, because they are so important that the world would be wiser now if Sir Isaac Newton had been hit on the head, not by an apple, but by a young lady.
BOOTH TARKINGTONMen were just like sheep, and nothing was easier than for women to set up as shepherds and pen them up in a field.
BOOTH TARKINGTONMothers see the angel in us because the angel is there. If it’s shown to the mother, the son has got an angel to show, hasn’t he? When a son cuts somebody’s throat the mother only sees it’s possible for a misguided angel to act like a devil – and she’s entirely right about that!
BOOTH TARKINGTONI’m not so sure he’s wrong about automobiles,” he said, “With all their speed forward they may be a step backward for civilization-that is, spiritual civilization … But automobiles have come, and they bring a greater change in our life than most of us expect.
BOOTH TARKINGTON