Explore our new BookBrowse Community Forum!

Who said: "When men are not regretting that life is so short, they are doing something to kill time."

BookBrowse's Favorite Quotes

E. W. Howe "When men are not regretting that life is so short, they are doing something to kill time." - Edgar Watson Howe

Born in 1853 in Wabash County, Indiana, Howe acquired much of his education while working as a printer, before eventually becoming a journalist. He became known as a coiner of commonsense but somewhat bitter aphorisms, which may have been due in part to his unhappy domestic life - he married in 1873 but was apparently 'wretchedly unhappy' and divorced in 1901 never to marry again.

From 1877-1911 he was both editor and proprietor of the Atchison Daily Globe (Kansas). Then from 1911 to 1937 he edited E.W. Howe's Monthly, which contained many of his observations - which were collected in a number of contemporary books of aphorisms.

His first and best known novel, The Story of a Country Town, was published in 1883. It received praise from prominent contemporaries such as Mark Twain; but after this he turned his hand to writing romances which were less well received. He died in 1937.


More from Edgar Watson Howe

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

A man will do more for his stubbornness than for his religion or his country.

A woman is as old as she looks before breakfast.

Every successful person I have heard of has done the best he could with the conditions as he found them, and not waited until next year for better.

For every quarrel a man and wife have before others, they have a hundred when alone.

Many a man is saved from being a thief by finding everything locked up.

The most destructive criticism is indifference.

The underdog often starts the fight, and occasionally the upper dog deserves to win.

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

Image from the George Grantham Bain collection, Library of Congress

More Quotes

This quote & biography originally ran in an issue of BookBrowse's membership magazine. Full Membership Features & Benefits.

Top Picks

  • Book Jacket: Graveyard Shift
    Graveyard Shift
    by M. L. Rio
    Following the success of her debut novel, If We Were Villains, M. L. Rio's latest book is the quasi-...
  • Book Jacket: The Sisters K
    The Sisters K
    by Maureen Sun
    The Kim sisters—Minah, Sarah, and Esther—have just learned their father is dying of ...
  • Book Jacket: Linguaphile
    Linguaphile
    by Julie Sedivy
    From an infant's first attempts to connect with the world around them to the final words shared with...
  • Book Jacket
    The Rest of You
    by Maame Blue
    At the start of Maame Blue's The Rest of You, Whitney Appiah, a Ghanaian Londoner, is ringing in her...

Members Recommend

  • Book Jacket

    Pony Confidential
    by Christina Lynch

    In this whimsical mystery, a grumpy pony must clear his beloved human's name from a murder accusation.

Who Said...

There are two kinds of light - the glow that illuminates, and the glare that obscures.

Click Here to find out who said this, as well as discovering other famous literary quotes!

Wordplay

Solve this clue:

F the M

and be entered to win..

Your guide toexceptional          books

BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.