[Between 2009 and 2011, I maintained a TypePad blog, “More Fiends,” intended to update my book Baseball Fiends and Flying Machines. Those posts can still be found in the archive.org Wayback Machine, but I stopped updating that site in 2011. Because this WordPress site promotes and updates all my books, I’d like to republish some of those earlier posts.]
Posted 12/23/2009:
In the early 1900s, the national weekly newspaper, Sporting Life, had a column called “Wise Sayings of Great Men” that offered witty quotes from sports figures. Alfred Lawson was quoted several times; George once. Many of Al’s quotes seem like advice he wished he had given himself:
“The world is full of people who make the dive without first measuring the depth of the water.” — A. W. Lawson
“Breezy conversation is often merely hot air.” — A. W. Lawson
“Bury the hatchet often means war to the knife.” — A. W. Lawson
“It is one thing to catch on, but quite another thing to know when to let go.” — A. W. Lawson
“Don’t be afraid to take a chance for fear that it may belong to some one else.” — A. W. Lawson
“An author is apt to feel blue when his books are not read.” — A. W. Lawson [I hear you on that count! J.K.]
These last two quotes pretty much sum up the Lawson credo:
“In these prosaic days, inspiration generally comes from a knowledge that we need the money.” — A. W. Lawson
“Genius consists of getting other people to put up the money for carrying out our ideas.” — G. H. Lawson