If a farmer fills his barn with grain, he gets mice. If he leaves it empty, he gets actors.
—Burton Hillis (William E. Vaughan)
Topics: Actors, Acting
A citizen of America will cross the ocean to fight for democracy, but won’t cross the street to vote in a national election.
—Burton Hillis (William E. Vaughan)
Topics: Funny quotes, Voting, Americans
Money won’t buy happiness, but it will pay the salaries of a huge research staff to study the problem.
—Burton Hillis (William E. Vaughan)
Topics: Money
The groundhog is like most prophets; it delivers its prediction then disappears.
—Burton Hillis (William E. Vaughan)
Experience is something I always think I have until I get more of it.
—Burton Hillis (William E. Vaughan)
Topics: Experience
If there is anything the nonconformist hates worse than a conformist, it’s another nonconformist who doesn’t conform to the prevailing standard of nonconformity.
—Burton Hillis (William E. Vaughan)
Topics: Originality
Size isn’t everything. The whale is endangered, while the ant continues to do just fine.
—Burton Hillis (William E. Vaughan)
My father asserted that there was no better place to bring up a family than in a rural environment…. There’s something about getting up at 5 a.m., feeding the stock and chickens, and milking a couple of cows before breakfast that gives you a lifelong respect for the price of butter and eggs.
—Burton Hillis (William E. Vaughan)
Topics: Country
A real patriot is the fellow who gets a parking ticket and rejoices that the system works.
—Burton Hillis (William E. Vaughan)
Topics: Patriotism, Perspective, Driving, Justice
It would be nice if the poor were to get even half of the money that is spent in studying them.
—Burton Hillis (William E. Vaughan)
Topics: Poverty
Youth is when you’re allowed to stay up late on New Year’s Eve. Middle age is when you’re forced to!
—Burton Hillis (William E. Vaughan)
Topics: Youth
Prayer changes things?. No! Prayer changes people, and people change things.
—Burton Hillis (William E. Vaughan)
Topics: Prayer
A three year old child is a being who gets almost as much fun out of a fifty-six dollar set of swings as it does out of finding a small green worm.
—Burton Hillis (William E. Vaughan)
Topics: Children
The tax collector must love poor people. He is creating so many of them.
—Burton Hillis (William E. Vaughan)
Topics: Taxes, Taxation
Happiness is not a destination. It is a method of life.
—Burton Hillis (William E. Vaughan)
Topics: Happiness
The best of all gifts around any Christmas tree: the presence of a family all wrapped up in each other.
—Burton Hillis (William E. Vaughan)
Topics: Family, Christmas
We hope that, when the insects take over the world, they will remember with gratitude how we took them along on all our picnics.
—Burton Hillis (William E. Vaughan)
Topics: Gratitude
Any American boy can be a basketball star if he grows up, up, up.
—Burton Hillis (William E. Vaughan)
Economists report that a college education adds many thousands of dollars to a man’s lifetime income—which he then spends sending his son to college.
—Burton Hillis (William E. Vaughan)
I’m not convinced that the world is in any worse shape than it ever was. It’s just that in this age of almost instantaneous communication, we bear the weight of problems our forefathers only read about after they were solved.
—Burton Hillis (William E. Vaughan)
Topics: Problem-solving, Reflection
Pipe-smokers spend so much time cleaning, filling and fooling with their pipes, they don’t have time to get into mischief.
—Burton Hillis (William E. Vaughan)
Topics: Smoking
In the game of life it’s a good idea to have a few early losses, which relieves you of the pressure of trying to maintain an undefeated season.
—Burton Hillis (William E. Vaughan)
Topics: Golf, Life and Living, Failures, Mistakes
It might be a good idea if the various countries of the world would occasionally swap history books, just to see what other people are doing with the same set of facts.
—Burton Hillis (William E. Vaughan)
Topics: Success & Failure
People learn something every day, and a lot of times it’s that what they learned the day before was wrong.
—Burton Hillis (William E. Vaughan)
Topics: Learning
Suburbia is where the developer bulldozes out the trees, then names the streets after them.
—Burton Hillis (William E. Vaughan)
Topics: Names
It’s never safe to be nostalgic about something until you’re absolutely certain there’s no chance of its coming back.
—Burton Hillis (William E. Vaughan)
An optimist stays up until midnight to see the New Year. A pessimist stays up to make sure the old year leaves.
—Burton Hillis (William E. Vaughan)
Topics: Optimism
Wondering Whom to Read Next?
- Marilyn vos Savant American Columnist
- John Mason Brown American Drama Critic
- William Safire American Columnist
- Franklin P. Adams American Columnist
- Maureen Dowd American Columnist
- Pauline Phillips (Abigail van Buren) American Columnist
- George Matthew Adams American Columnist
- Dorothy Dix American Journalist
- George Will American Columnist
- Connie Zweig American Minister
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