Our Ancestors’ Age-Old Sayings from 100 Years Ago, Part II

Introduction: Mary Harrell-Sesniak is a genealogist, author and editor with a strong technology background. In this blog article, Mary presents some of the enlightening and entertaining sayings she found from 100 years ago while browsing through newspapers from the year 1915.

The allure of genealogy makes genealogists curious – or perhaps it is the desire to return to simpler days that keeps us avidly researching our family trees!

Whatever the reason, family historians love to read historical news accounts of the past – and one of the most enjoyable discoveries is reading the old sayings and quotes of our ancestors.

What were our ancestors reading about and saying 100 years ago? To find out, I explored the year 1915 in GenealogyBank’s Historical Newspaper Archives. What I found were hundreds of wonderful old sayings and good time-tested advice in the newspapers read by our ancestors.

Some of these old sayings were offered in jest. Some are inappropriate by today’s standards, but others we truly should revive. The following are all from 1915, a mere 100 years ago! (Earlier this month we posted Part I of this series: see Our Ancestors’ Age-Old Sayings from 100 Years Ago, Part I.)

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Good Advice

• It’s so much easier to pay compliments than bills. –Evening Star (Washington, D.C.), 5 January 1915, page 12
• Let’s not attempt to light our paths through life by burning the candle at both ends. –Evening Star (Washington, D.C.), 14 October 1915, page 23
• Once a coward, always a liar. –Evening Star (Washington, D.C.), 5 January 1915, page 12
• One way to sidetrack bad luck is to be prepared for it. –Trenton Evening Times (Trenton, New Jersey), 2 January 1915, page 6
• Opinions and visits should not be forced upon people. –Omaha World Herald (Omaha, Nebraska), 27 November 1915, page 6
• Politeness is one luxury that all may indulge in. –Tampa Tribune (Tampa, Florida), 13 March 1915, page 8
• Worry is a bad bedfellow. Kick it out. –Omaha World Herald (Omaha, Nebraska), 28 March 1915, page 27

Keen Observations

• Poetry is the pastry of literature; prose the corn bread and bacon. –Omaha World Herald (Omaha, Nebraska), 15 February 1915, page 4
• Procrastination is the thief of a good time. –Omaha World Herald (Omaha, Nebraska), 15 February 1915, page 4
• Revenge is a boomerang that often returns to the borrower and puts him in the hospital. –Miami Herald (Miami, Florida), 11 March 1915, page 9
• Silence may be golden or it may be an admission of guilt. –Omaha World Herald (Omaha, Nebraska), 19 February 1915, page 6
• The chronic kicker is always looking for something to boot. –Omaha World Herald (Omaha, Nebraska), 15 February 1915, page 4
• The world cannot come to an end because it is round. –Tampa Tribune (Tampa, Florida), 20 March 1915, page 6
• There are times when even the parson imagines there is no earthly hope for the choir. –Omaha World Herald (Omaha, Nebraska), 13 May 1915, page 6
• Trying to dodge work tires more men than hard labor. –Miami Herald (Miami, Florida), 23 March 1915, page 11

• There comes a time in the life of every man when he feels justified in kicking himself. –Trenton Evening Times (Trenton, New Jersey), 28 January 1915, page 6
• Weak solutions may be all right in chemistry, but they don’t go in politics. –Miami Herald (Miami, Florida), 11 March 1915, page 12
• When men grow suddenly good it’s dollars to doughnuts they are thinking of running for office. –Evening Star (Washington, D.C.), 18 March 1915, page 14
• Words of wisdom are few, but there are many echoes. –Cleburne Morning Review (Cleburne, Texas), 5 January 1915, page 2
• You have a right to express your opinion of the weather, but what’s the use? –Miami Herald (Miami, Florida), 6 March 1915, page 10
• You may lead the landlord to your house, but you can’t always make him repair it. –Evening Star (Washington, D.C.), 18 March 1915, page 14
• Your neighbors have a lot of nerve to imagine that they are as good as you are. –Evening Star (Washington, D.C.), 5 January 1915, page 12

Genealogical Musings

• People boast of their ancestors only after the world has forgotten their records. –Omaha World Herald (Omaha, Nebraska), 19 February 1915, page 6
• Usually when people say nice things about a man he is too dead to appreciate them. –Omaha World Herald (Omaha, Nebraska), 11 August 1915, page 5

Gossiping Hurts

• Gossips believe all they hear, and what they merely think they often take for granted. –Evening Star (Washington, D.C.), 14 October 1915, page 23
• If a woman chases her children out of the room when another woman calls, there is gossip in the air. –Evening Star (Washington, D.C.), 27 February 1915, page 8
• A good deal of conversation should be canned and the can thrown away. –Evening Star (Washington, D.C.), 25 July 1915, page 67

Hankering for Happiness

• Our idea of an unhappy man is a proud person with last year’s automobile. –Tampa Tribune (Tampa, Florida), 22 April 1915, page 6
• Self-made men don’t always make themselves agreeable. –Greensboro Record (Greensboro, North Carolina), 6 August 1915, page 4
• Were it not for clouds, people would be unable to appreciate sunshine. –Omaha World Herald (Omaha, Nebraska), 9 August 1915, page 4

• Self-pity is what many people relish most. They delight to revel in imaginary grievances and to roll their wounded sensibilities about in a large ball. –Tampa Tribune (Tampa, Florida), 20 March 1915, page 6
• Some people are never happy unless they are in a position to make others miserable. –Evening Star (Washington, D.C.), 5 January 1915, page 12
• Somehow intellect doesn’t seem to have much to do with happiness. –Omaha World Herald (Omaha, Nebraska), 15 February 1915, page 4

On Love, Courtship & Marriage

• After a young man has called on a girl at least three nights in one week she imagines there is an odor of orange blossoms in the air. –Miami Herald (Miami, Florida), 18 March 1915, page 10
• Almost any young man will do anything a pretty sister asks – that is, if she happens to be some other fellow’s sister. –Rockford Republic (Rockford, Illinois), 11 February 1915, page 2
• Every woman is a conundrum that keeps some men guessing. –Miami Herald (Miami, Florida), 11 March 1915, page 12
• Fewer marriages would be failures if love were blind only in one eye. –Evening Star (Washington, D.C.), 18 March 1915, page 14
• If love were contagious girls would work overtime trying to catch it. –Miami Herald (Miami, Florida), 18 March 1915, page 10
• It’s up to the lovesick youth to take his from a spoon. –Evening Star (Washington, D.C.), 1 January 1915, page 14
• Look not for peace in family jars. –Rockford Republic (Rockford, Illinois), 11 February 1915, page 2
• The early maid catches the bridal train. –Trenton Evening Times (Trenton, New Jersey), 2 January 1915, page 6
• Women are so tender-hearted they will not even deliberately step on a mouse. –Cleburne Morning Review (Cleburne, Texas), 31 January 1915, page 2

Money Matters

• It’s a wise man to pick a fool whose money he can spend. –Evening Star (Washington, D.C.), 13 December 1915, page 1
• Poverty has its good points. A poor man never has the gout. –Omaha World Herald (Omaha, Nebraska), 19 February 1915, page 6
• Poverty may pinch an honest man, but it never lands him in jail. –Evening Star (Washington, D.C.), 7 January 1915, page 16
• When a man offers you something for nothing, you will save money by going out of your way to avoid accepting it. –Miami Herald (Miami, Florida), 11 March 1915, page 12

• The man who tells others how to make a fortune in a short time is seldom able to show a bank balance of more than three figures. –Miami Herald (Miami, Florida), 3 March 1915, page 10
• Those who offer bargains get rich quicker than those who seek them. –Evening Star (Washington, D.C.), 5 January 1915, page 12
• What the average woman thinks she would do if she had plenty of money is nothing in comparison to what she does do because she hasn’t got it. –Trenton Evening Times (Trenton, New Jersey), 2 January 1915, page 6

Parental Insight

• Of course it is all right to establish nurseries in the movie theaters. It is hard on a baby to stay at home by itself. –Tampa Tribune (Tampa, Florida), 22 April 1915, page 6
• The sweet music that children make in a home has nothing to do with piano lessons. –Cleburne Morning Review (Cleburne, Texas), 21 September 1915, page 4
• The trouble with too many children is that the education of their parents has been neglected. –Evening Star (Washington, D.C.), 13 December 1915, page 1

If you want to search for more ancestor sayings in old newspapers, try some of these keywords – and don’t forget to tell us in the comments section about some of the gems you find.

• Gathered Jests
• Good Advice
• Pellets of Thoughts
• Pointed Paragraphs
• Tips from Texas
• Waifs of Wisdom
• Week’s Wit

Related Sayings Articles:

• Genealogy Humor: 101 Funny Quotes & Sayings for Genealogists
• More Genealogy Humor: Funny Quotes & Sayings for Genealogists
• 101 Genealogy Proverbs: Family Sayings from around the World
• Our Ancestors’ Age-Old Sayings from 100 Years Ago, Part I

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