Old Adage Quotes

“There's an old adage," he said, "translated from the ancient Coptic, that contains all the wisdom of the ages
"Life is life and fun is fun, but it's all so quiet when the goldfish die.”

— Beryl Markham

“It is an old, old adage that if you want someone to do something, get them to believe it is their idea. Humanity is mind controlled and onlyslightly more conscious than your average zombie. Far fetched? No, no. I define mind control as the manipulation of someone's mind so that they think, and therefor act, the way you want them to.”

— David Icke

“Mum repeated the old adage that money can't buy you everything ... before adding that she prefers using credit cards instead.”

— Kirkland Ciccone

“There's an old adage about everything looking better in the morning light. I'm guessing that whoever thought of that had never been punched in the face.”

— Tammy Blackwell

“The old adage applied: if God were in the details, Colonel Washington would have been there to greet him upon arrival.”

— Joseph J. Ellis

“The old adage "If you can't beat them, join them", to me is just a way of saying that you're weak. My motto is : "If you can't beat them, then you aren't fighting dirty enough".”

— Quinn Loftis

“A lesser man might have begrudged
him that, but remembering the old adage, "The finder's goods shall
he retain / Nor mind the loser's dreadful pain," I rejoiced, rather, in his good
fortune.”

— Vinnie Tesla

“Live and let live" is an old adage. "Live and help live" is a better one.”

— David O. McKay

“A pointed illustration indeed of the old adage that "extremes meet".”

— Charlotte Brontë

“I don't know what I believe anymore, and really, I try not to think about it. But the psychologists say that suicide is a behavioral contagion. It's the old adage "If all your friends jumped off a bridge, would you, too?" Apparently the answer is yes. To”

— Suzanne Young

“There is an old adage that the quickest way to drop your tax take is to increase taxes. If capital gains tax is going to be 50 percent, my contingent capital gains tax is going to be 250 million pounds.”

— Peter Hargreaves

“Just like the old adage
what you dislike most in other people is what you dislike the most in yourself
”

— Shannon Hale

“It's the old adage: You can make a pizza so cheap, nobody will eat it. You can make an airline so cheap, nobody will fly it.”

— Gordon Bethune

“It's an old adage that the way to be safe is never to be secure ... Each one of us requires the spur of insecurity to force us to do our best.”

— Harold W. Dodds

“The old adage about giving a man a fish versus teaching him how to fish has been updated by a reader: Give a man a fish and he will ask for tartar sauce and French fries! Moreover, some politician who wants his vote will declare all these things to be among his 'basic rights.'”

— Thomas Sowell

“There's that old adage about how there's only seven plots in the world and Shakespeare's done them all before.”

— Terri Windling

“The old adage is, 'Write what you know.' But if you only do that, your work becomes claustrophobic. I say, 'Write what you want to know.'”

— Julia Glass

“I went with the old adage that you should write what you know. What I knew was 18th century Britain, so what I decided I would do is write a novel based on my dissertation research.”

— David Liss

“I really subscribe to that old adage that you should never let the audience get ahead of you for a second. So if the film's abrasive and wrongfoots people then, y'know, that's great. But I hope it involves an audience.”

— Paul Thomas Anderson

“The old adage is true, people will only be as good to you as you are to yourself. They will follow your example, and those who don't will be left by the wayside.”

— Niecy Nash

“So it's like that old adage about seeing the cup as half full rather than half empty?"
"That's a fair way to look at it. No matter what happens to you in your life, you alone have the capacity to choose your response to it. When you form the habit of searching for the positive in every circumstance, your life will move into its highest dimensions. This is one of the greatest of all the natural laws."
"And it all starts with using your mind more effectively?"
"Exactly, John. All success in life, whether material or spiritual, starts with that twelve-pound mass sitting between your shoulders. Or more specifically, with the thoughts that you put into your mind every second of every minute of every day. Your outer world reflects the state of your inner world. By controlling the thoughts that you think and the way you respond to the events of your life, you begin to control your destiny.”

— Robin S. Sharma

“If we provide the young with a strong foundation, we can leave behind a legacy substantially greater than most are able to bequeath. As for the women, the old adage that you invest in a woman, you invest in a generation, still rings true today.”

— Joyce Banda

“That break comes for all of us, at different times and in different ways. The nourishment of food, the bonds of friendship, the occasions for celebration, and the delights of legitimate pleasure end in a matter of a moment for each life and each relationship. It is to this vulnerability of living that Jesus points His finger. The poet puts it in these words: Our life contains a thousand springs and dies if one be gone; Strange that a harp of a thousand strings can stay in tune so long. There is an old adage that says you can give a hungry man a fish, or better still, you can teach him how to fish. Jesus would add that you can teach a person how to fish, but the most successful fisherman has hungers fish will not satisfy. G”

— Ravi Zacharias

“You know the old adage that the customer's always right? Well, I kind of think that the opposite is true. The customer is rarely right.”

— Charlie Trotter

“I believe in that old adage that 'as goes California, so goes the country.'”

— Kamala Harris

“Aspiring novelists should be taught that the old adage, "Write about what you know," isn't limited to what you have personally experienced. Vicarious experience is also a great part of what you know. Read a lot of history and it becomes part of your store of knowledge, part of what you're prepared to write about. The same goes for stories and memories that other people share with you.”

— James Carlos Blake

“Old Lights include the resurgent fundamentalists in every religion who put a freeze on history and fortify their adherents against the "new dark age" in which they are forced to live. "Back to the Bible," Old Lights shout; "back to the Koran," Old Lights thunder. But not everything Old Lights say is wrong. Much is right. Even a stopped clock is right twice a day, the old adage reminds us.”

— Leonard Sweet

“I find it surreal, then perfectly normal. I'm struck by how fast the surreal becomes the norm. I marvel at how unexciting it is to be famous, how mundane famous people are. They're confused, uncertain, insecure, and often hate what they do. It's something we always hear - like that old adage that money can't buy happiness-but we never believe it until we see it ourselves. Seeing it in 1992 brings me a new measure of confidence.”

— Andre Agassi

“No more quickly can a person rob you of your joy and peace than when that individual succeeds at making you feel like you're less than worthy of God as compared to his/her own self. The old adage "You're on your way to hell, and I'm on my way to heaven" spoken or implied to another, is the most predominantly effective way to make someone feel better about himself; and he doesn't even have to prove he's better in this life on earth because now he can just say "Wait 'til I'm looking down at you while you're in hell!" But don't be robbed of your joy and peace, individuals or groups of people like that don't know where God is; He is a whisper-distance away from you, is all.”

— C. JoyBell C.

“Every time is a time for comedy in a world of tension that would languish without it. But I cannot confine myself to lightness in a period of human life that demands light ... We all know that, as the old adage has it, "It is later than you think." ... , but I also say occasionally: "It is lighter than you think." In this light let's not look back in anger, or forward in fear, but around in awareness.”

— James Thurber

“It is an old adage, "All is fair in love as in war," but I thought not of general laws, and only felt a private grievance.”

— Jane Swisshelm

“In my art and life, I really strive to reverse the old adage that what you see is what you get. If I can be Coyote and practice my sneak-up, I can engage the viewers from a distance with one image and lure them in for exposure to another layer, which changes the initial view into quite a different reality. After all, that is what ethnic culture is all about - or even an ongoing relationship. What you see on the surface is never the same again one you begin to plumb the depths.”

— Jaune Quick–to–See Smith

“He was as yet not sufficiently experienced in ruffianism to know that one villain always sacrifices another to advance his own project; he was credulous enough to believe in the old adage of honor amongst thieves.”

— Emile Gaboriau

“It's the old adage, 'Nothing ventured, nothing gained, ... While this is unique, we consider ourselves unique.”

— Gavin Newsom

“There's an old adage that says that money is the root of all evil. Bullshit. Lack of money is the root of all evil.”

— Gene Simmons

“I consider myself to be a true friend of the Israeli people. But I define friendship as someone who takes care of a friend, who just doesn't use or exploit a friend. And, you know, there's that old adage: 'Friends don't let friends drive drunk'.”

— Scott Ritter

“I'm very wary of fawning too much over heroes. There's an old adage that heroes are best kept at arm's length, and in a few instances in my life, that's been true.”

— W. Earl Brown

“Gold is where you find it, according to an old adage, but judging from the record of our experience, oil must be sought first of all in our minds.”

— Wallace Pratt

“That old adage, that "music is a universal language", is really true. Even if all of the lyrics are understood, they seem to connect with it really well and in some ways, more so.”

— William Fitzsimmons

“Long ago I added to the true old adage of "What is everybody's business is nobody's business," another clause which, I think, morethan any other principle has served to influence my actions in life. That is, What is nobody's business is my business.”

— Clara Barton

“After watching the State of the Union address the other night [1994], I'm reminded of the old adage that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Only in this case, it's not flattery, but grand larceny: the intellectual theft of ideas that you and I recognize as our own. Speech delivery counts for little on the world stage unless you have convictions, and, yes, the vision to see beyond the front row seats.”

— Ronald Reagan

“Criticism is an alluring substitute for creation, because tearing
things down, unlike building them up, really is as easy as falling off a stump. It's blissfully simple to strike a savvy, sophisticated pose by attacking someone else's creations, but the old adage is right: Any fool can burn down a barn. Building one is something else again.”

— Martha Beck

“There is an old adage: love thy neighbor, but don't get caught.”

— Jerry Lawler

“One of the first things successful people realize is the old adage, "If it is to be, it is up to me." That is, for you, the fact that your success and your course is up to you. This doesn't mean that you do it all alone. It simply means that you take responsibility for your life and your career.”

— Jim Rohn

“Be careful not to give too much credence to the old adage that time heals. Mark my word. It's God that heals. Time only tells.”

— Beth Moore

“There is a homely old adage which runs: "Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far." If the American nation will speak softly, and yet build and keep at a pitch of the highest training a thoroughly efficient navy, the Monroe Doctrine will go far.”

— Theodore Roosevelt

“If you must be in a hurry, then let it be according to the old adage, and hasten slowly.”

— Vincent De Paul

“It is an old adage that honesty is the best policy-this applies to public as well as private life-to States as well as individuals.”

— George Washington

“It is a secret from nobody that the famous random event is most likely to arise from those parts of the world where the old adage"There is no alternative to victory" retains a high degree of plausibility.”

— Hannah Arendt

“Unless the old adage must be verified, That beggars mounted, run their horse to death.”

— William Shakespeare