By the time a bartender knows what drink a man will have before he orders, there is little else about him worth knowing.

About Don Marquis

Donald Robert Perry Marquis was an American humorist, journalist, and author. He was variously a novelist, poet, newspaper columnist, and playwright.

More about the author

More quotes from Don Marquis

Writing a book of poetry is like dropping a rose petal down the Grand Canyon and waiting for the echo.

Don Marquis

American humorist

Man cannot be uplifted; he must be seduced into virtue.

Don Marquis

American humorist

Ideas pull the trigger, but instinct loads the gun.

Don Marquis

American humorist

Successful people are the ones who think up things for the rest of the world to keep busy at.

Don Marquis

American humorist

Pity the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.

Don Marquis

American humorist

There is nothing so habit-forming as money.

Don Marquis

American humorist

A hypocrite is a person who – but who isn’t?

Don Marquis

American humorist

Blood will tell, but often it tells too much.

Don Marquis

American humorist

Punctuality is one of the cardinal business virtues: always insist on it in your subordinates.

Don Marquis

American humorist

One of the most important things to remember about infant care is: don’t change diapers in midstream.

Don Marquis

American humorist

It takes all sorts of people to make the underworld.

Don Marquis

American humorist

The art of newspaper paragraphing is to stroke a platitude until it purrs like an epigram.

Don Marquis

American humorist

Some persons are likeable in spite of their unswerving integrity.

Don Marquis

American humorist

Did you ever notice that when a politician does get an idea he usually gets it all wrong.

Don Marquis

American humorist

Of middle age the best that can be said is that a middle-aged person has likely learned how to have a little fun in spite of his troubles.

Don Marquis

American humorist

An idea is not responsible for the people who believe in it.

Don Marquis

American humorist

Prohibition makes you want to cry into your beer and denies you the beer to cry into.

Don Marquis

American humorist

An optimist is a guy that has never had much experience.

Don Marquis

American humorist

Procrastination is the art of keeping up with yesterday.

Don Marquis

American humorist

Publishing a volume of verse is like dropping a rose petal down the Grand Canyon and waiting for the echo.

Don Marquis

American humorist

A pessimist is a person who has had to listen to too many optimists.

Don Marquis

American humorist

We pay for the mistakes of our ancestors, and it seems only fair that they should leave us the money to pay with.

Don Marquis

American humorist

Middle age is the time when a man is always thinking that in a week or two he will feel as good as ever.

Don Marquis

American humorist

The trouble with the public is that there is too much of it; what we need in public is less quantity and more quality.

Don Marquis

American humorist

Fate often puts all the material for happiness and prosperity into a man’s hands just to see how miserable he can make himself with them.

Don Marquis

American humorist

Bores bore each other too; but it never seems to teach them anything.

Don Marquis

American humorist

By the time a bartender knows what drink a man will have before he orders, there is little else about him worth knowing.

Don Marquis

American humorist

Every cloud has its silver lining but it is sometimes a little difficult to get it to the mint.

Don Marquis

American humorist

Honesty is a good thing, but it is not profitable to its possessor unless it is kept under control.

Don Marquis

American humorist

There is luxury in self-reproach. When we blame ourselves, we feel no one else has a right to blame us.

Don Marquis

American humorist

Ours is a world where people don’t know what they want and are willing to go through hell to get it.

Don Marquis

American humorist

A sequel is an admission that you’ve been reduced to imitating yourself.

Don Marquis

American humorist

In all systems of theology the devil figures as a male person. Yes, it is women who keep the church going.

Don Marquis

American humorist

When a man tells you that he got rich through hard work, ask him: ‘Whose?’

Don Marquis

American humorist

If you want to get rich from writing, write the sort of thing that’s read by persons who move their lips when they’re reading to themselves.

Don Marquis

American humorist

A demagogue is a person with whom we disagree as to which gang should mismanage the country.

Don Marquis

American humorist

Fishing is a delusion entirely surrounded by liars in old clothes.

Don Marquis

American humorist

I have often noticed that ancestors never boast of the descendants who boast of ancestors. I would rather start a family than finish one. Blood will tell, but often it tells too much.

Don Marquis

American humorist

In order to influence a child, one must be careful not to be that child’s parent or grandparent.

Don Marquis

American humorist

I would rather start a family than finish one.

Don Marquis

American humorist

The chief obstacle to the progress of the human race is the human race.

Don Marquis

American humorist

An idea isn’t responsible for the people who believe in it.

Don Marquis

American humorist

Poetry is what Milton saw when he went blind.

Don Marquis

American humorist

Age is not a particularly interesting subject. Anyone can get old. All you have to do is live long enough.

Don Marquis

American humorist

Happiness is the interval between periods of unhappiness.

Don Marquis

American humorist