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Oliver Herford Quotes

Oliver Herford was an English writer, artist, and illustrator.

He was born in Sheffield, England on 2 December 1860 to Rev. Brooke Herford and Hannah Hankinson Herford. Oliver's father, Brooke, was a Unitarian minister who moved the family to Chicago in 1876 and to Boston in 1882. Oliver attended Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio from 1877 to 1879. Later he studied art at the Slade School in London and the Académie Julien in Paris. Afterward, he moved to New York, where he lived until his death. He has been called "The American Oscar Wilde". As a frequent contributor to The Mentor, Life, and Ladies' Home Journal, he sometimes signed his artwork as "O Herford". In 1906 he wrote and illustrated the Little Book of Bores. He also wrote short poems like "The Chimpanzee" and "The Hen", as well as writing and illustrating "The Rubaiyat of a Persian Kitten" and "Excuse It Please" . His sister Beatrice Herford was also a humorist.

Ethel Mumford and Addison Mizner wrote a small book, The Cynic's Calendar of Revised Wisdom for 1903, as a Christmas present and added Herford's name as an author as a joke. The printer made up more copies to sell and to everyone's surprise it was an astounding success. When Herford found out about it he wanted 90% of the royalties. He was awarded an equal third.Herford's cartoons and humorous verse appeared in journals such as Life, Woman's Home Companion, Century Magazine, Harper's Weekly, The Masses and Punch. Over 30 books illustrated by Herford, and frequently written by him as well, were published from the 1890s to the 1930s. He also wrote plays and was known for his humorous and pithy bon mots. Herford was a longtime member of the Players Club in New York City. He married Margaret Regan in New York on May 26, 1904. Herford died on July 5, 1935 and his wife died the following December. Wikipedia  

✵ 1863 – 1935
Oliver Herford photo
Oliver Herford: 14   quotes 9   likes

Famous Oliver Herford Quotes

“My wife has a whim of iron.”

Oliver Herford

Saturday Review of Literature, Volume 26 (1943), p. 4.
Attributed

“Only the young die good.”

Oliver Herford

Speaker's Handbook of Epigrams and Witticisms (1955), p. 70.
Attributed

“Actresses will happen in the best-regulated families.”

Oliver Herford

The Penguin Dictionary of Modern Humorous Quotations (1986), p. 9.
Attributed

“Manuscript: something submitted in haste and returned at leisure.”

Oliver Herford

Speaker's Handbook of Epigrams and Witticisms (1955), p. 187.
Attributed

“Darling: the popular form of address used in speaking to a person of the opposite sex whose name you cannot at the moment recall.”

Oliver Herford

Speaker's Handbook of Epigrams and Witticisms (1955), p. 69.
Attributed

“Cat: A pygmy lion who loves mice, hates dogs and patronizes human beings.”

Oliver Herford

The Reader's Digest, Volume 121 (1982), p. 118.
Attributed

Oliver Herford Quotes

“There is no time like the pleasant.”

Oliver Herford

The Cynic's Calendar of Revised Wisdom (1905).

Time

“A man must love a thing very much if he not only practices it without any hope of fame and money, but even practices it without any hope of doing it well.”

Oliver Herford

Gilbert Keith Chesterton, as per Mackay's The Harvest of a Quiet Eye, A Selection of Scientific Quotations (1977), p. 34.
Misattributed

Love , Money , Hope

“Many are called but few get up.”

Oliver Herford

The Cynic's Calendar of Revised Wisdom (1905).

“Age, like distance, lends a double charm.”

Oliver Herford

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Urania: A Rhymed Lesson (1846), p. 11.
Misattributed

Age

“A woman's mind is cleaner than a man's—she changes it oftener.”

Oliver Herford

Saturday Review of Literature, Volume 26 (1943), p. 4.
Attributed

Change , Funny

“I don't recall your name, but your manners are familiar.”

Oliver Herford

Speaker's Handbook of Epigrams and Witticisms (1955), p. 187.
Attributed

“Diplomacy: Lying in state.”

Oliver Herford

The Altogether New Cynic's Calendar of Revised Wisdom for 1907 (1906).

Lying

“Modesty is the gentle art of enhancing your charm by pretending not to be aware of it.”

Oliver Herford

Ladies' Home Journal, Volume 72 (1955), p. 156.
Attributed

Art

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