“Better make a weak man your enemy than your friend.”

— Josh Billings, Affurisms, from Josh Billings: His Sayings, 1865

About Josh Billings

1818 – 1885

Pen name of the American humorist Henry Wheeler Shaw.

“There is no revenge so complete as forgiveness.”

“I honestly beleave it iz better tew know nothing than two know what ain't so.”

“Tew bring up a child in the wa he should go—travel that wa yourself.”

“If you would keep your Secret from an enemy, tell it not to a friend.”

“Friendship is always a sweet responsibility, never an opportunity.”

“I never found the companion that was so companionable as solitude.”

“A true friend is one who is, as it were, a second self.”

“May we never want a friend in need, nor a bottle to give him!”

“Fortunate is he who does not carry envy as a companion.”