Donald R P Marquis

Donald R P Marquis (1878 - 1937), full name Donald Robert Perry Marquis, was a US humorist, journalist, and author. He wrote newspaper columns, novels, and composed poems. He was also playwright. He is remembered best for creating the characters Archy and Mehitabel, and also "the Old Soak," who was the subject of two books, a hit Broadway play (1922–23), a silent film (1926) and a talkie (1937).

Wisdom & Quotes

• What men call civilization

always results in deserts.
- Archy and Mehitabel

• Dance Mehitabel dance

Caper and shake leg
What little blood is left will fizz like wine in a keg.
- Archy and Mehitabel

• Each generation wastes a little more

Of the future with greed and lust for riches.
- Archy and Mehitabel

• Toujours gai, Archy, toujours gai.

- Archy's Life of Mehitabel

• Now and then

There is a person born
Who is so unlucky
That he runs into accidents
Which started out to happen to somebody else.
- Archy says

• Pity the Meek, for they shall inherit the earth.

- quoted by Frederick B Wilcox, A Little Book of Aphorisms

• A hypocrite is a person who ... but who isn't?

- quoted by Frederick B Wilcox, A Little Book of Aphorisms

• (Middle age is) the time when a man is always thinking that in a week or two he'll feel just as good as ever.

- quoted in Frederick B Wilcox, A Little Book of Aphorisms

• An idea isn't responsible for the people who believe in it.

- The Sun Dial

• Publishing a volume of poetry is like dropping a rose petal down the Grand Canyon and waiting for the echo.

- The Sun Dial

• Some persons are likeable in spite of their unswerving integrity.

- quoted by Edward Anthony, O Rare Don Marquis

• When a man tells you that he got rich through hard work, ask him: 'Whose?'

- quoted in Edward Anthony, O Rare Don Marquis

John Masefield