A plaque remaining from the Big Apple Night Club at West 135th Street and Seventh Avenue in Harlem.

Above, a 1934 plaque from the Big Apple Night Club at West 135th Street and Seventh Avenue in Harlem. Discarded as trash in 2006. Now a Popeyes fast food restaurant on Google Maps.

Recent entries:
“Don’t be a chaser, be the one who gets chased. You are the tequila, not the lime” (3/28)
“Shoutout to ATM fees for making me buy my own money” (3/27)
“Thank you, ATM fees, for allowing me to buy my own money” (3/27)
“Anyone else boil the kettle twice? Just in case the boiling water has gone cold…” (3/27)
“Shout out to ATM fees for making me buy my own money” (3/27)
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Entry from September 27, 2012
“The person who aims at nothing is sure to hit it” (success/failure proverb)

“The person who aims at nothing is sure to hit it” is similar to other sayings, such as “if you don’t know where you’re going, any road will take you there.” The saying means that one must have a specific target or direction.
 
“That man who aims at nothing, will certainly accomplish nothing” was cited in print in 1834. “They are men who aim at nothing, and hit it” was credited in 1845 to Irish political leader Daniel O’Connell (1775-1847). The saying has often be attributed to O’Connell, but the exact quote hasn’t been found. The humorist “Josh Billings” (Henry Wheeler Shaw) wrote in 1876, “He who aims at perfekshun will probably miss the mark, but he who aims at nothing, iz sure to hit it every time.”
 
The saying remains popular in business and in personal development literature.
   
 
Wikipedia: Daniel O’Connell
Daniel O’Connell (6 August 1775 – 15 May 1847); often referred to as The Liberator, or The Emancipator, was an Irish political leader in the first half of the 19th century. He campaigned for Catholic Emancipation—the right for Catholics to sit in the Westminster Parliament, denied for over 100 years—and repeal of the Act of Union which combined Great Britain and Ireland.
   
Google Books
9 August 1834, The Genesee Farmer and Gardener’s Journal, pg. 252, col. 1:
That man who aims at nothing, will certainly accomplish nothing; he that is content with a cabin will never possess a palace; but he that figures to himself the conveniences and elegancies of life, will make exertion to obtain them, and will enjoy at least as much in a well directed pursuit, as in the full possession.
 
Google Books
Letters from New York (Second Series)
By Lydia Maria Child
New York, NY: C. S. Francis & Co.
1845
Pg. 128:
The class of superficial and artificial writers are best described by Daniel O’Connell’s witty remark concerning certain public speakers: “They are men who aim at nothing, and hit it.”
 
12 November 1875, Jamestown (NY) Journal, “Youth, its Incentives and Temptations: A Sermon Preached on Sunday Eve, at the Opera House by Rev. S. L. Rorepaugh, pg. 4, col. 3:
A man who aims at nothing will be sure to reach it.
 
Google Books
Josh Billings’ Farmer’s Allminax for the Year of our Lord 1876:
This being sentennial year, the congregashun will pleaze to sing Old hundred: The lakulashuns in this allminax are made for the latitude, and longitude, and sanktitude of Independence Hall, Philadelphia

By Josh Billings
New York, NY: G.W. Carleton & Co.
1876
Josh Billings’ Old Farmer’s Allminax, 1870-1879, with Comic iIlustrations
By Josh Billings
New York, NY: G.W. Dillingham Co.
1902
August 1876:
He who aims at perfekshun will probably miss the mark, but he who aims at nothing, iz sure to hit it every time.
   
Google Books
The History of Co-operation
By George Jacob Holyoake
London: T. Fisher Unwin
1908 (Originally published in 1879—ed.)
Pg. 526:
They cannot be said to fail, because men who aim at nothing commonly hit it, and this is the general sort of success they do achieve.
 
29 October 1887, Wandsworth and Battersea District Times (The Journal of the County of Surrey), pg. 3, col. 3:
The first was “The man who aims at nothing generally succeeds in hitting the mark.”
 
25 February 1899, Colored Citizen (Topeka, KS),  “Thoughts and Thinklets,” pg. 4, col. 5:
The man who aims at nothing in life usually hits it.
 
Google Books
Getting into Parliament and after
By George William Ross
Toronto, ON: William Briggs
1913
Pg. 272:
Daniel O’Connell said: “A speaker should always know what he is aiming at, for if he aims at nothing he is sure to hit it.”
   
Google Books
Everyday Uses of English
By Maurice Harley Weseen
New York, NY: Thomas Y. Crowell Company
1922
Pg. 9:
The old saying “He who aims at nothing is pretty sure to hit it” is nowhere applicable with more truth than in the writing of the business letter.
 
Google Books
Speaking for the Master:
A Study of Public Speaking for Christian Men

By Batsell Barrett Baxter
Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House
1972, ©1954
Pg. 55:
The famous Irish political orator Daniel O’Connell once said, “The man who aims at nothing is sure to hit it.”
 
Google Books
The Complete Book of Practical Proverbs & Wacky Wit
By Vernon McLellan
Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House Publishers
1996
Pg. 11:
Tend to your goals. He who aims at nothing is sure to hit it.
   
Google Books
The Little Book of Big Quotations to Help Fuel Your Success
By Tami S Easter
Wilmington, NC: Training Wills
2008
Pg. 26:
A person who aims at nothing is sure to hit it.
—Anonymous
 
Google Books
Every Day Quotes
By Nathalie Montreuil
Lulu.com
2010
Pg. 26:
A person who aims at nothing is sure to hit it.
By Anonymous

Posted by Barry Popik
New York CityWork/Businesses • Thursday, September 27, 2012 • Permalink


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