1868-1952, British Author
A man can believe a considerable deal of rubbish, and yet go about his daily work in a rational and cheerful manner.
Norman Douglas – [Attitude]
He talks about the Scylla of Atheism and the Charybdis of Christianity — a state of mind which, by the way, is not conducive to bold navigation.
Norman Douglas – [Skepticism]
How hard it is, sometimes, to trust the evidence of one's senses! How reluctantly the mind consents to reality.
Norman Douglas – [Reality]
It takes a wise man to handle a lie, a fool had better remain honest.
Norman Douglas – [Lies and Lying]
Many a man who thinks to found a home discovers that he has merely opened a tavern for his friends.
Norman Douglas – [Home]
Never take a solemn oath. People think you mean it.
Norman Douglas – [Promises]
Nobody can misunderstand a boy like his own mother. Mothers at present can bring children into the world, but this performance is apt to mark the end of their capacities. They can't even attend to the elementary animal requirements of their offspring. It is quite surprising how many children survive in spite of their mothers.
Norman Douglas – [Mothers]
One can always trust to time. Insert a wedge of time and nearly everything straightens itself out.
Norman Douglas – [Time and Time Management]
People who have reformed themselves has contributed their full share towards the reformation of their neighbor.
Norman Douglas – [Reform]
Shall I give you my recipe for happiness? I find everything useful and nothing indispensable. I find everything wonderful and nothing miraculous. I reverence the body. I avoid first causes like the plague.
Norman Douglas – [Happiness]
There is in us a lyric germ or nucleus which deserves respect; it bids a man to ponder or create; and in this dim corner of himself he can take refuge and find consolations which the society of his fellow creatures does not provide.
Norman Douglas – [Creativity]
They who are all things to their neighbors cease to be anything to themselves.
Norman Douglas – [Neighbors]
To find a friend one must close one eye — to keep him, two.
Norman Douglas – [Friends and Friendship]
What is all wisdom save a collection of platitudes? Take fifty of our current proverbial sayings — they are so trite, so threadbare, that we can hardly bring our lips to utter them. None the less they embody the concentrated experience of the race and the man who orders his life according to their teaching cannot go far wrong.
Norman Douglas – [Proverbs]
You can construct the character of a man and his age not only from what he does and says, but from what he fails to say and do.
Norman Douglas – [Character]
You can tell the ideals of a nation by its advertisements.
Norman Douglas – [Advertising]