Weekend Words: Penny
"A penny saved is a penny to squander."
This week, an article in The New York Times asked, “Why Doesn’t the United States (Finally) Get Rid of the Penny?”: “Average American workers earned nearly a penny a second in 2015. It’s literally not worth their time to bend down and pluck one from the sidewalk.”
A penny saved is a penny to squander.
—Ambrose Bierce
A man who sees another man on the street corner with only a stump for an arm will be so shocked the first time he’ll give him sixpence. But the second time it’ll only be a three penny bit. And if he sees him a third time, he’ll have him cold-bloodedly handed over to the police.
—Bertolt Brecht, The Threepenny Opera
Whispered, ‘I am too young,’
And then, ‘I am old enough’;
Wherefore I threw a penny
To find out if I might love.
‘Go and love, go and love, young man,
If the lady be young and fair.’
Ah, penny, brown penny, brown penny,
I am looped in the loops of her hair.
—William Butler Yeats, “Brown Penny”
King George, passing slowly in a closed car, looking like a big, rather worn penny in the window.
—Geoffrey Madan, Notebooks
Never was heard such a terrible curse!
But what gave rise
To no little surprise,
Nobody seemed one penny the worse!
—R. H. Barham, “The Jackdaw of Rheims”
I’ve got a penny-ante talent, out of which I try to drum up a living for myself. And what nobody seems to realize is that it’s just as difficult to get a bad idea as a good one.
—Kathleen Winsor
A penny is a lot of money if you haven’t got a penny
—Yiddish proverb
Every time it rains, it rains
Pennies from heaven.
Don’t you know each cloud contains
Pennies from heaven.
—Johnny Burke, “Pennies from Heaven”
Well then, if ever I thank any man, I’ll thank you;
but that they call compliment is like the encounter
of two dog-apes, and when a man thanks me heartily,
methinks I have given him a penny and he renders me
the beggarly thanks.
—William Shakespeare, As You Like It
Money, I don’t have any
I’m down to my last penny
But, darling, don’t cry over me
—Bob Gaudio, “Big Man in Town”
When someone asks you, A penny for your thoughts, and you put your two cents in, what happens to the other penny?
—George Carlin
There was a young woman named Jenny,
Whose limericks weren’t worth a penny.
Her rhythm and rhyme
Were perfectly fine
But whenever she tried to write any,
She always had one line too many.
—Anonymous
