His Work
Kaufman is the author of several books, including:
- The Stolen Throne (c. 1907; co-authored with May Isabel Fisk and illustrated by Howard Chandler Christy and Herman Rountree)
- The Winning Fight (c. 1910) being perhaps his most popular work
- Do Something! Be Something! (c. 1912)
- The Efficient Age (c. 1913)
- The Song of Guns (1914, reissued in 1915 as "The Hell-Gate of Soissons And Other Poems")
- The Clock that Had No Hands (c. 1912; a compilation of essays on the value of advertising)
- Neighbors (c. 1914)
Kaufman is known for his essays on success, war poetry, and "Kaufmanisms." A "Kaufmanism" is the persuasive rhetorical juxtaposition of words that reverses the subject and object of a phrase often meant to change its context and meaning, typically used to add additional emphasis to both nouns.
Select Kaufmanisms:
- A coward can't conquer anything, because he can't conquer himself.
- The man who won't go through to the finish has finished at the start.
- They who fight in the dark do not shine in the light.
- Mind your own business and in time you'll have a business of your own to mind.
Read more about this topic: Herbert Kaufman
Famous quotes containing the word work:
“Ours is the old, old story of every uprising race or class or order. The work of elevation must be wrought by ourselves or not at all.”
—Frances Power Cobbe (1822–1904)
“Work is an essential part of being alive. Your work is your identity. It tells you who you are. It’s gotten so abstract. People don’t work for the sake of working. They’re working for a car, a new house, or a vacation. It’s not the work itself that’s important to them. There’s such a joy in doing work well.”
—Kay Stepkin, U.S. baker. As quoted in Working, book 8, by Studs Terkel (1973)