Benjamin Franklin King Jr.



Benjamin Franklin King, Jr. (March 17, 1857 – 1894) was an American humorist and poet whose work published under the names Ben King or the pseudonym Bow Hackley achieved notability in his lifetime and afterwards.

Quotes

 * If I should die to-night And you should come in deepest grief and woe— And say:—"Here's that ten dollars that I owe," I might arise in my large white cravat And say, "What's that?"
 * If I should die, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919). Compare: "If I should die to-night, / My friends would look upon my quiet face / Before they laid it in its resting-place, / And deem that death had left it almost fair", Belle E. Smith.


 * Nothing to do but work, Nothing to eat but food, Nothing to wear but clothes To keep one from going nude.
 * The Pessimist, reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).


 * Nothing to breathe but air   Quick as a flash 'tis gone; Nowhere to fall but off,    Nowhere to stand but on.
 * "The Pessimist," first published as "The Sum of Life" in the Chicago Mail, c. January 1893.