# Corny aphorisms that you’ve come to live by
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/corny-aphorisms-that-you-ve-come-to-live-by/956306
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [December 19, 2021, 6:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/corny-aphorisms-that-you-ve-come-to-live-by/956306 "2021-12-19T06:22:17Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 2
### Author:  [@Treppenwitz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Treppenwitz)
#### Post date: [December 19, 2021, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/corny-aphorisms-that-you-ve-come-to-live-by/956306/21 "2021-12-19T22:34:31Z")
If we’re allowed to offer things we coined ourselves, then (when confronted with, for example, the sort of inexplicable, self-destructive stupidity that you see a dozen times a day):
_What do we say at times like this?_
_Other people’s lives._
The reason this is a call and response is that many of the people I know now use this. After that tale of a third party’s inexplicable stupidity I’ll do the first part; and, with worldweary headshaking, they’ll do the response.
As I’ve suggested before, sayings by Bill Parcells and Mike Tyson, which originally had a specific meaning, actually apply very widely:
_You are what your record says you are_; and
_Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth._
j
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### Author:  [@FlikTheBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlikTheBlue)
#### Post date: [December 19, 2021, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/corny-aphorisms-that-you-ve-come-to-live-by/956306/22 "2021-12-19T22:54:21Z")
Eat right, exercise, still die.
The underlying mindset of the failed dieter, at least it if for this one 🙋♂️.
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### Author:  [@vbob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vbob)
#### Post date: [December 19, 2021, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/corny-aphorisms-that-you-ve-come-to-live-by/956306/23 "2021-12-19T22:56:58Z")
Mom was fond of saying “if you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them both”. There were several other things she was wrong about, too.
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### Author:  [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)
#### Post date: [December 19, 2021, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/corny-aphorisms-that-you-ve-come-to-live-by/956306/24 "2021-12-19T23:20:12Z")
If it’s worth doing, do it.
Don’t count your chickens before you really need to.
You can catch more flies with manure than with honey.
If you gradually heat up the frog’s pan of water, he’ll jump out when it gets hot. That old story’s a lie.
You can lead a horticulture, and then write movies about her.
If you give a mouse a cookie, make sure it says D-Con on it.
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### Author:  [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)
#### Post date: [December 19, 2021, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/corny-aphorisms-that-you-ve-come-to-live-by/956306/25 "2021-12-19T23:28:16Z")
_No Good Deed Goes Unpunished_
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### Author:  [@Toxylon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Toxylon)
#### Post date: [December 20, 2021, 12:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/corny-aphorisms-that-you-ve-come-to-live-by/956306/26 "2021-12-20T00:14:12Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#):
>
> One I made up myself, and I abide by it:
>
> If it’s worth doing, it’s worth over-doing.
Having seen that corny aphorism in innumerable places over the past several decades, I’m skeptical.
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### Author:  [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)
#### Post date: [December 20, 2021, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/corny-aphorisms-that-you-ve-come-to-live-by/956306/27 "2021-12-20T01:06:08Z")
Life is 10% what happens to you, and 90% how you react to it.
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### Author:  [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)
#### Post date: [December 20, 2021, 1:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/corny-aphorisms-that-you-ve-come-to-live-by/956306/28 "2021-12-20T01:06:30Z")
I’ve never heard it, except from me.
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### Author:  [@lobotomyboy63](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lobotomyboy63)
#### Post date: [December 20, 2021, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/corny-aphorisms-that-you-ve-come-to-live-by/956306/29 "2021-12-20T01:58:17Z")
Don’t be penny wise and dollar foolish.
People make promises according to hopes and keep promises according to fears.
I’m a big fan of the [demotivators](https://despair.com/collections/demotivators).
Personal favorite: [Ambition - Despair, Inc.](https://despair.com/collections/demotivators/products/ambition?variant=2457295747)
“A journey of a thousand miles sometimes ends very, very badly.”
Not a demotivator but it should be…
The early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.
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### Author:  [@Unintentionally\_Blank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unintentionally_Blank)
#### Post date: [December 20, 2021, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/corny-aphorisms-that-you-ve-come-to-live-by/956306/30 "2021-12-20T02:22:15Z")
If you don’t ask, the answer is always ‘no’.
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### Author:  [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)
#### Post date: [December 20, 2021, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/corny-aphorisms-that-you-ve-come-to-live-by/956306/31 "2021-12-20T02:27:59Z")
Huh. I’ve always gone with, _“Don’t ask, Do!”_
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### Author:  [@Skunkdog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skunkdog)
#### Post date: [December 20, 2021, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/corny-aphorisms-that-you-ve-come-to-live-by/956306/32 "2021-12-20T02:35:25Z")
The only stupid question is the one you don’t ask.
You can’t rock the boat if you’re too busy rowing.
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### Author:  [@lobotomyboy63](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lobotomyboy63)
#### Post date: [December 20, 2021, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/corny-aphorisms-that-you-ve-come-to-live-by/956306/33 "2021-12-20T02:42:52Z")
It’s better to beg forgiveness than ask permission.
People who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.
The devil doesn’t always walk up and introduce himself.
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### Author:  [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)
#### Post date: [December 20, 2021, 8:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/corny-aphorisms-that-you-ve-come-to-live-by/956306/34 "2021-12-20T08:44:47Z")
Dope will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no dope.
[ ](https://external-preview.redd.it/5ESwiEa9SKeyLtc60t0Vg8ahBJaYRypI4f6iD2iBQPI.jpg?auto=webp&s=b45356ca11de214887a2725433855bb348c662f7)
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### Author:  [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)
#### Post date: [December 20, 2021, 8:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/corny-aphorisms-that-you-ve-come-to-live-by/956306/35 "2021-12-20T08:46:17Z")
Eight billion years from now, when the sun has burned out and the earth is a frozen ice ball, _none of this will matter_ !
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### Author:  [@ThelmaLou](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ThelmaLou)
#### Post date: [December 20, 2021, 9:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/corny-aphorisms-that-you-ve-come-to-live-by/956306/36 "2021-12-20T09:13:03Z")
I see a few old favorites here, some more apt when I was working than now in my slothful retirement. Like this one: “If you don’t have the time to do it right, when will you have the time to do it over?”
One I made up: “Sometimes you do everything right and they still die.”
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### Author:  [@Toxylon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Toxylon)
#### Post date: [December 20, 2021, 9:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/corny-aphorisms-that-you-ve-come-to-live-by/956306/37 "2021-12-20T09:43:20Z")
I have to think you’re whooshing us.
A quick glance of the 8.3 million Google hits for “if it’s worth doing, it’s worth overdoing” suggest a date of late 1800’s for the corny proverb, but many sites attribute it to Ayn Rand. Celebrities from Adam Savage to Nile Rodgers seem fond of using it. Slight variations of this classic are also many.
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### Author:  [@snowthx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snowthx)
#### Post date: [December 20, 2021, 12:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/corny-aphorisms-that-you-ve-come-to-live-by/956306/38 "2021-12-20T12:15:47Z")
Good, quick, and cheap: you can only pick two.
There are many ways of standing still, but only one way of moving forward. Not my original, but I like it.
I have never encountered a plan that survived it’s first contact with reality.
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### Author:  [@pullin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pullin)
#### Post date: [December 20, 2021, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/corny-aphorisms-that-you-ve-come-to-live-by/956306/39 "2021-12-20T13:11:43Z")
Forgot about one of my originals that I’ve told the kids a few times:
_“Lady luck only sees moving targets.”_
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### Author:  [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)
#### Post date: [December 20, 2021, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/corny-aphorisms-that-you-ve-come-to-live-by/956306/40 "2021-12-20T14:46:56Z")
> [@Toxylon](#):
>
> I have to think you’re whooshing us.
>
> A quick glance of the 8.3 million Google hits for “if it’s worth doing, it’s worth overdoing” suggest a date of late 1800’s for the corny proverb, but many sites attribute it to Ayn Rand. Celebrities from Adam Savage to Nile Rodgers seem fond of using it. Slight variations of this classic are also many.
No, no whoosh. I literally have never heard anyone else use the phrase, or read it. Never got around to reading Ayn Rand (I have Atlas Shrugged around here somewhere), did not religiously watch Mythbusters, and I don’t know who Nile Rodgers is.
That other people have made up the phrase doesn’t mean I didn’t make it up too.
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