February 2, 2010

Quotes and quips about those “self-made men”


FAMOUS QUOTE:

“In Kentucky, almost every manufactory known to me, is in the hands of enterprising and self-made men, who have acquired whatever wealth they possess by patient and diligent labor.”
       Henry Clay (1777-1852) 
       U.S. Senator from Kentucky
       Speech on the floor of the Senate on February 2, 1832
       Often cited as the origin of the terms “self-made man”


HUMORIST’S COUNTERQUOTE:

“Self-made men are most always apt to be a little too proud of the job.”
       Josh Billings 
       Pen name of American humorist Henry Wheeler Shaw (1818-1885)
       Quoted by Evan Esar in 20,000 Quips & Quotes (1968)

POLITICIAN’S COUNTERQUOTE:

“He is a self-made man who worships his creator.”
       John Bright (1811-1889)
       British politician
       His attributed quote about rival politician Benjamin Disraeli


AUTOCRAT’S COUNTERQUOTE:

“Of course everybody likes and respects self-made men. It is a great deal better to be made in that way than not to be made at all.”
       Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809-1894)
       American physician and author
       In his Autocrat at the Breakfast-Table (1858)


NOVELIST’S COUNTERQUOTE:

“He was a self-made man who owed his lack of success to nobody.”
       Joseph Heller (1923-1999)
       American novelist
       In his novel Catch-22 (1961),
       Describing the character Colonel Cargill


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