“A plowman on his legs is higher than a gentleman on his knees. ”

— Benjamin Franklin

Last update June 3, 2021. History

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Benjamin Franklin 183

American author, printer, political theorist, politician, p… 1706–1790

Laura Hillenbrand book Seabiscuit: An American Legend

Source: Seabiscuit: An American Legend

“On his last legs.”

Thomas Middleton (1580–1627) English playwright and poet

The Old Law (1618-19), Act v. Sc. 1.

“Entrance and exit wounds are silvered clean,
The track aches only when the rain reminds.
The one-legged man forgets his leg of wood,
The one-armed man his jointed wooden arm.
The blinded man sees with his ears and hands
As much or more than once with both his eyes.”

Robert Graves (1895–1985) English poet and novelist

"Recalling War," lines 1–6, from Collected Poems 1938 (1938).
Poems

“The Curfew tolls the knell of parting day,
The lowing herd wind slowly o'er the lea,
The plowman homeward plods his weary way,
And leaves the world to darkness and to me.”

Thomas Gray (1716–1771) English poet, historian

St. 1
Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard http://www.thomasgray.org/cgi-bin/display.cgi?text=elcc (written 1750, publ. 1751)

“I saw the earth open like a huge mouth, then close again over the paved street. An old man was trapped by the foot. I ran to him, told him to be brave while I hacked the pavement with a fireman's axe. But I was too late. The vise tightened, bit his leg off at the knee. I carried him away. His knee is still there, a bloody souvenir sticking out of the earth.”

John Fante book Ask the Dust

Ask the Dust (1939)

“The Landlord is a gentleman … who does not earn his wealth.”

David Lloyd George (1863–1945) Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

Speech in Limehouse, East London (30 July 1909), quoted in Better Times: Speeches by the Right Hon. D. Lloyd George, M.P., Chancellor of the Exchequer (London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1910), pp. 150-151.
Chancellor of the Exchequer
Context: Who is the landlord? The Landlord is a gentleman … who does not earn his wealth. He does not even take the trouble to receive his wealth. He has a host of agents and clerks that receive it for him. He does not even take the trouble to spend his wealth. He has a host of people around him to do the actual spending for him. He never sees it until he comes to enjoy it. His sole function, his chief pride is stately consumption of wealth produced by others.

“His palms are sweaty, knees weak, arms are heavy
There's vomit on his sweater already—Mom's spaghetti”

Eminem (1972) American rapper and actor

"Lose Yourself" (from 8 Mile, 2002)
2000s

“A gentleman accepts the responsibility of his actions and bears the burden of their consequences.”

William Faulkner (1897–1962) American writer

“The dog is a gentleman; I hope to go to his heaven not man's.”

Mark Twain (1835–1910) American author and humorist

“His upper half was hidden from me, I knew best his legs.”

John Updike book The Centaur

The Centaur (1963)
Context: I miss only, and then only a little, in the late afternoon, the sudden white laughter that like heat lightning bursts in an atmosphere where souls are trying to serve the impossible. My father for all his mourning moved in the atmosphere of such laughter. He would have puzzled you. He puzzled me. His upper half was hidden from me, I knew best his legs.

“A plowman on his legs is higher than a gentleman on his knees. ”

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Benjamin Franklin 183

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