“As the ostrich observed, Where is everybody?”
Anthony Boucher, The Case of the Seven Sneezes (1942), quoted in “Top Ten Detective Fiction Wise Cracks” compiled by “Gramps", in Gilbert! magazine Vol. 2 #6 Issue 15 (April-May 1999)
“Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.”
Alexander Pope quoted in “Random Foolish Quotations” in Gilbert Magazine Vol. 7 # 7 (June 2004) [and yes, I know you know it, but in addition to being worthy of recall it’s interesting to know where it came from].
“‘There is no nation so atheistic that it does not attribute a sanctity to two gods, the dead man and the woman in travail.’”
G.K. Chesterton, quoted by Fr. James V. Schall. S.J. in Gilbert Magazine Vol. 8 #1 (Sept. 04) [apparently originally in “The Mystery of Patriotism” in The Commonwealth Jan. 19, 1902]
“’her reception o’ me this blessed day, whilk I excuse on account of perturbation of mind, was muckle on the north side o’ friendly…’”
Baillie Nicol Jarvie in Sir Walter Scott Rob Roy
“A cadet will not lie, cheat, steal, or tolerate those who do.”
The United States Military Academy Cadet Honor Code, quoted in William H. McRaven The Wisdom of the Bullfrog. McRaven adds that “Below the honor code is the mission of the United States Military Academy. The mission of West Point is not to produce Pattonesque geniuses, four-star generals, or presidents of the United States. The mission is to produce ‘leaders of character’. And the honor code provides the foundation of that character. The code beckons young men and women who aspire ‘to live above the common level of life.’”
“Modern men are less anxious to be men than to be moderns.”
G.K. Chesterton in G.K.’s Weekly December 26, 1935, quoted in Gilbert The Magazine of the Society of G.K. Chesterton Vol. 26 # 4 (March-April 2023)
“This life’s hard, but it’s harder if you’re stupid.”
This line has been widely attributed in various forms (including being emailed to me as from John Wayne as “Life is tough, but it’s tougher when you’re stupid.”) However the Quote Investigator says, credibly (https://quoteinvestigator.com/2018/01/16/hard-life/) that it originated with a character named Jackie Brown who gets guns for fellow criminals in the 1971 novel The Friends of Eddie Coyle by George V. Higgins.
“An explanation of some kind was an absolute necessity, just as some working explanation of the universe is necessary – however absurd – to the happiness of every individual who seeks to do his duty in the world and face the problems of life.”
Algernon Blackwood in “The Willows” in Best Ghost Stories of Algernon Blackwood