This online version of the exhibit is comprised of four sections: Discussion material related to the display in the exhibit case. (This page.) A collection of 200 excerpted selections which accompanied the exhibit. The exhibit guide, as a PDF [364K], including most of the material given in the first two items of this list. Online only content: Sidebars A more complete collection of quotations given in full with full citations. [Forthcoming, late October 2002.] "The Toothless Genius" Dental Do's and Don'ts How to Enjoy the Tooth-Ache Prophylactic Items (Tuller)

Two Hundred Selected Aphorisms, Maxims, One-liners, Proverbs, Quotations, & Taglines

1. A coming shower your shooting corns presage, Old aches throb, your hollow tooth will rage. (Swift, d.1745)
2. A dentist! A dentist at Monteriano. A dentist in fairyland! False teeth and laughing gas and the tilting chair at a place which knew the Etruscan League, and ... all fighting and holiness, and the Renaissance, all fighting and beauty! He ... feared that Romance might die. (Forester, 1905)
3. A dentist and manicurist fought tooth and nail.
4. A fool's mouth is his destruction, and his lips are the snare of his soul. (Bible, Proverbs)
5. A good aphorism is too hard for the teeth of time, and is not eaten up by all the centuries ... (Nietzsche, 1879)
6. A knife is the tooth of the old, the tooth is the oldest knife. (Finnish proverb)
7. A man has six items in his bathroom--a toothbrush, shaving cream, razor, a bar of Dial soap, and a towel from the Holiday Inn.
8. A man without money is like a wolf without teeth. (French proverb)
9. A smile is like a toothbrush. You have to use it regularly to keep your teeth shiny clean. (Japanese proverb)
10. A smile is the cheapest way to improve your looks, even if your teeth are crooked.
11. A toothless old woman laughs at a small child who has just gotten his first tooth, because she will never have a toothache again. (Chinese proverb)
12. Adage, n. Boned wisdom for weak teeth. (Bierce, 1906)
13. Adam and Eve had many advantages, but the principal one was that they escaped teething. (Twain, 1894)
14. Adam ate the apple, and our teeth still ache. (Hungarian proverb)
15. After the brush, what? Floss silk, of course, to be used. (Tuller, 1902)
16. An aching tooth is better out than in, To loose a rotting member is a gain. (Baxter, d.1691)
17. And the dentist laughed, "Oh isn't this fun?" As he pulled the teeth out, one by one. (Silverstein, 1984)
18. And what can we expect if we haven't any dinner, But to lose our teeth and eyelashes and keep on growing thinner? (Lear, d.1888)
19. Barbie and Ken, sharing a toothbrush, sharing a toilet, a tub, sharing the same old song that freezes on their lips ... (Levine, 1968)
20. Be sure you're right, then be sure you're sure. (American Dental Journal, 1905)
21. Because I ... seized a chance of beating time to "The March of the Women" from the window of my cell in Holloway Prison with a tooth-brush; ... in a certain sense I am well known. (Dame Smyth, 1936).
22. Begin at the beginning. The beginning is with children. The younger the better -- if they have any teeth. (Tuller, 1902)
23. Being troubled with a raging tooth, I could not sleep. (Shakespeare)
24. Benedick: I have the toothache. Don Pedro: Draw it. (Shakespeare)
25. Better boil them. [On dental instruments.] (Henderson, 1905)
26. Both of us are conforming to the old saying that a scientist would rather use someone else's toothbrush than another scientist's nomenclature. (Holland / Gell-Mann, 1995)
27. Brush [your teeth] and floss them and take them to the dentist. Care for them and they will stay with you. Ignore them, and they'll go away. (ADA, 1985)
28. But ... to be deprived of tooth paste, to brush the teeth without it, was a dreadful thing, a daily discomfort. (MacDougall, 1928)
29. By eye I mean the busy, lurked, discrete Mandible world sharp as a broken tooth. (Tate, d.1979)
30. "By Heaven,' cried he; 'I can get other teeth at a Dentist's; -- a composition of paste, which would amaze you! I can, by Heaven!' (Barrett, 1813)
31. Careful planning is the first step in careful acting. (Dental Craftsman., 1929)
32. Celery, raw, Develops the jaw. (Ogden Nash, d.1971)
33. Chateaubriand stood every morning at his window at No. 27 Rue Saint-Dominique, clad in footed trousers, and slippers, with a madras kerchief knotted over his gray hair, with his eyes fixed on a mirror, a complete set of dentist's instruments spread out before him, cleaning his teeth, which were charming, while he dictated The Monarchy according to the Charter to M. Pilorge, his secretary. (Hugo, 1862)
34. Comrades, this man has a nice smile, but he's got iron teeth. (Gromyko, 1985)
35. Confidence of favorite son like courage of small boy at dentist ­ most evident after tooth extracted. (Charlie Chan, "Murder Over New York")
36. Cultivate delicacy of manipulation, a light touch, and avoid pounding in the mouth. (Archives of Dentistry., 1884)
37. Dangerous Job #1: Dentures For Sharks.
38. Dangerous Job #2: Klingon Dentist.
39. Dentist of Borg: Assimilation will only hurt for a moment.
40. Dentist, n. A prestidigitator who, putting metal into your mouth, pulls coins out of your pocket. (Bierce, 1906)
41. Dentist: A vampire's worst enemy.
42. Dentist: Someone who always looks down in the mouth.
43. Dentist: Someone who lives from hand to mouth.
44. Dentist -- A man who makes a mountain out of a molar. (Dental Survey, 1928)
45. Dentistry means drilling, filling and billing.
46. Dentists are incapable of asking questions that need a simple yes or no answer.
47. Dentists do it orally.
48. Dentists do it painlessly.
49. Dentists do it prophylactically.
50. Dentists do it in chairs.
51. Dentists do it with drills.
52. Dentists do it with drills and in chairs.
53. Dentist's famous last words: "You won't feel a thingŠ."
54. Dentists have the same old grind day after day.
55. Dentists put their hands in your mouth when they do it.
56. Dentures. I lost my pearlies in the war. ("Ed Wood," 1992)
57. Diseases enter by the mouth. (Japanese proverb)
58. Do Hindu dentists help you transcend dental medication?
59. Do not look a gift horse in the mouth. (English, Dutch, Estonian, Frisian, German, Icelandic, Danish, Swedish, Finnish, and Veps proverb)
60. Don't become wedded to a few stereotyped appliances to meet all cases that come under your notice, thus dwarfing your inventive faculties. (Eaton, 1905)
61. Don't correct irregularities for fun -- unless you are a professional comedian. (Pearson, 1905)
62. Don't get it into your head that a porcelain inlay is a good substitute in the majority of cases for a gold filling -- it is not. (McLaughlin, 1905)
63. Don't leave a retainer on too long -- till death is long enough. (Pearson, 1905)
64. Don't look a gift horse in the teeth. Noli equi dentes inspicere donati. (Estonian, Livonian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Vote, Belorussian, Polish, Slovak, Czech, Hungarian, Ukrainian, Russian, Zyryan, Rumanian, Macedo-Romanian, Serb, Slovenian, Albanian, Armenian, and Georgian proverb)
65. Don't use cement for filling without the rubber dam. (Amey, 1905)
66. Don't bare your teeth until you can bite. (Irish Gaelic proverb)
67. Don't you hate to hear your Dentist say "Oops?"
68. Early morning hath gold in its mouth. (Franklin, 1700s)
69. Even in England a dentist is a troublesome creature, whom careful people find difficult to class. He hovers between the professions and the trades; he may be only a little lower than the doctors, or he may be down among the chemists, or even beneath diem. (Forester, 1905)
70. Every little cub has its mother's teeth to guard it. (Elvish proverb, Magic Cards)
71. Every Tooth in a Man's Head is more valuable that a Diamond. (Cervantes, d.1616)
72. [E]verything like order and neatness is banished from our presence as a nuisance -- old letters and old boots and shoes, duds clean and duds dirty, books and newspapers, tooth-brushes, shoe-brushes, and clothes-brushes, all heaped together on chairs, settees, etc., in dusty and "most admired confusion." (R.B. Hayes, 1846)
73. Examine all the teeth. (Webster, 1905)
74. Eye for eye, tooth for tooth. (Deuteronomy 2; Exodus 21)
75. For every humbling blow he dealt my vanity, for every tooth in my metaphorical jaw he knocked loose with stunning aim, I'm grateful beyond any facility of expression. (Yogananda, 1946)
76. For the Toothach I have found the following medicine very available, Brimstone and Gunpower compounded with butter, rub the mandible with it, the outside being first warm'd. (Josselyn, d.1675)
77. For there was never yet philosopher That could endure the toothache patiently. (Shakespeare)
78. Gentle in the manner, vigorous in the deed. (Postcard, late 1800s [of an extraction])
79. God gives teeth, God gives bread. (Prussian proverb, 1583)
80. God has set a double fence before the tongue, the teeth and the lips, to teach us to be wary that we offend not with our tongue. (T. Watson, d.1584)
81. God sendeth and giveth both mouth and the meat. (Tusser, d. ~1580)
82. Hair is the first thing. And teeth the second. Hair and teeth. A man got those two things he's got it all. (James Brown, b.1928)
83. Have you ever felt the pinch of poverty? In many cases it is like the dentist's chair, more dreadful in the contemplation than in the actual suffering. (Thackeray, 1862)
84. Having Bill Clinton as President is like ... an always broke brother-in-law, or a collection agent come to "repo" your dentures just as you're sitting down to dinner. (Norman Liebmann, 2001)
85. "He don't operate on me! Mr. Foil, indeed! No. My mouth is not open to every body! Tell Mr. Enamel, when he returns, to bring his instruments to my house, and perform the operation there. If he fails, I shall look for a more grateful dentist." (Jones, 1855)
86. He is like tooth which has been pulled. Tooth is missing, but gap remains. From gap, we may deduce why tooth is gone. (Charlie Chan, "Dark Alibi")
87. He looks like a tooth-drawer, i.e., very thin and meagre. (English Proverb)
88. He saw the red, ripe lips, slightly parted, and throwing their roseate shadows upon two gleaming rows of Hygeia's white coated guards -- those best indices of a sound consitution and a good digestion -- that no dentist's hand would have dared, in their perfectness, to imitate. (Mayo, 1873)
89. He that sleeps feels not the toothache. (Shakespeare)
90. Heaven gives almonds To those who have no teeth. (Longfellow, d.1882)
91. Hot things, sharp things, sweet things, cold things -- All rot the teeth, and make them look like old things. (Franklin, 1734)
92. How often conscience had to bite in times gone by! What good teeth it must have had! And today, what is amiss?' -a dentist's question. (Nietzsche, d.1900)
93. [H]ow we go down into the pit of death and feel the waters of annihilation close above out heads and wake thinking to find our selves in the presence of the angels and the harpers when we have a tooth out and come to the surface in the dentist's arm-chair and confuse his "Rinse the mouth -- rinse the mouth" with the greeting of the Deity Stooping from the floor of Heaven to welcome usŠ. (Woolf, 1930)
94. I am escaped with the skin of my teeth. (Job 19:20)
95. I am rich -- they have given me another toothbrush. The guard saying: "You'll find people share here." (Rukeyser, 1973)
96. I am troubled With a toothache, or with love, I know not whether; There is a worm in both. (Massinger, d.1640)
97. I embrace this opportunity of remarking that he washed his clients off, as if he were a surgeon or a dentist. (Dickens, 1861)
98. I find that most men would rather have their bellies opened for five hundred dollars than have a tooth pulled for five. (Fischer, d.1962)
99. I hope you take great care of your mouth and teeth, and that you clean them well every morning with a sponge and tepid water, with a few drops of arquebusade water dropped into it; besides washing your mouth carefully after every meal. (Lord Chesterfield, 1754)
100. "I shall certainly do so," said I, rising to take my leave, with much the same eagerness with which one rises from a dentist's chair, after having his nerves picked at." (Stowe, 1871)
101. I'd rather he become a doctor or a dentist. Our people will get sick and call the doctor and if their teeth hurt they'll go to a dentist. But most of 'em don't know what a lawyer's for. (Pawley, 1969)
102. I'm English. Our dentistry is not world famous. But I made sure I got moldings of my old teeth beforehand because I miss them. (Christian Bale [on getting braces])
103. I've got tooth marks on my heart. (M. Melville, 1986)
104. I've got used to my arthritis, To my dentures I'm resigned. I can manage my bifocals, But, oh my! I miss my mind. (Nielsen, Eva)
105. If a man wants to leave a toothbrush at my house, he can damn well marry me. (M. Marvin, 1979)
106. If only one tooth aches, rejoice that not all of them ache ... (Chekhov, d.1904)
107. If the plural of tooth is teeth, why isn't the plural of booth beeth?
108. If you have no teeth, do not break the clay cooking pot. (Chewa [Malawi] and Nyanja [Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Zambia] proverb)
109. In came Mrs. Fezziwig, one vast substantial smile. (Dickens, 1867)
110. In childhood who my first array Of teeth pluck'd tenderly away, For teeth like dogs have each their day? My Dentist. (Egerton­Warburton, d.1891)
111. In febrile diseases attended with a sense of lassitude, deposits form about the joints, and especially those of the jaws. (Hippocrates)
112. Iron are our lives Molten right through our youth. A burnt space through ripe fields A fair mouth's broken tooth. (Rosenberg, 1914)
113. It is curious to notice that when they speak of evil, philosophers so often use the toothache as their example. (Maugham, d. 1938)
114. It is necessary to clean the teeth frequently, more especially after meals, but not on any account with a pin, or the point of a penknife, and it must never be done at table. (de la Salle, d.1719)
115. It is not good (for a pregnant lady) to put a comb in the folds of her skirt because her child's teeth will end up crooked. (Mayan proverb)
116. "It may be so, lad", muttered the scout, when he had ended; "for desperate fevers are not to be treated like a toothache." (Cooper, 1826)
117. It's so sweet, I feel like my teeth are rotting when I listen to the radio. (Bono [of U2] [on the state of pop music])
118. Let every man, therefore, be sure to begin at the right end of his work, to wash his own mouth clean, before he prescribe Gargarisms to others. (Allestree, d.1681.)
119. Let thy pity for thy friend be hid under a hard shell; thou shalt bite out a tooth upon it. (Nietszche, 1930)
120. Like vinegar to the teeth, and smoke to the eyes, so is the sluggard to those who send him. (Proverbs 26)
121. Love is like the lion's tooth. (Yeats, d.1939)
122. Marriage has teeth, and him bite very hot. (Jamaican proverb)
123. Mouth, n. - A cavity containing teeth containing cavities.
124. Mouth, n. In man, the gateway to the soul; in woman, the outlet of the heart. (Bierce, 1906)
125. Music helps not the toothache.
126. My curse upon your venom'd stang, That shoots my tortur'd gooms alang. An' thro' my lug gies monie a twang Wi' gnawing vengeance, Tearing my nerves wi' bitter pang, Lide racking engines! (Burns, d.1796)
127. No child is born with teeth. (Ghana, Adinkra proverb)
128. Of all our pains, since man was curst, I mean of body, not the mental, To name the worst, among the worst, The dental sure is transcendental; Some bit of masticating bone, That ought to help to clear a shelf; But lets its proper work along, And only seems to gnaw itself. (Hood, d.1845)
129. Of all the cankers of human happiness, none corrodes it with so silent, yet so baneful a tooth, as indolence. (Jefferson, 1787)
130. Old age brings along with its uglinesses the comfort that you will soon be out of it....To be out of the war, out of debt, out of the drouth, out of the blues, out of the dentist's hands, out of the second thoughts, mortifications, and remorses that inflict such twinges and shooting pains, -- out of the next winter, and the high prices, and company below your ambition, -- surely these are soothing hints. (Emerson, 1864)
131. One must suffer to be beautiful. (French proverb) (BDJ, 1942)
132. One tooth he had with many fangs, That shot at once as many pangs ... One touch of that ecstatic stump Could jerk his limbs, and make him jump. (Hood, d.1845)
133. Original sin came first out of the mouth by speaking, before it entered by eating. (Allestree, d.1681)
134. Parents are the bones on which children cut their teeth. (Ustinov, 1977)
135. Probably in time physiologists will be able to make nerves connecting the bodies of different people; this will have the advantage that we shall be able to feel another man's tooth aching. (Russell, 1948)
136. Removing the teeth will cure something, including the foolish belief that removing the teeth will cure everything.
137. Riddle: Q. A small confined room, with hardly anything in it but pegs. A. The mouth, with the teeth.
138. She made the dentist believe that he had no right to withhold them, that he had promised to save them for her. (Norris, 1899)
139. Some people wear teeth artificial, Which cost them exorbitant sums, But I am not the sort such impostures to sport, I am awfully proud of my gums. As bare as the trees in December My mouth shall forever remain, That the people I meet may exclaim in the street, 'Ah, there goes a man with a brain!' (BDJ, 1905)
140. Some people who can skirt precipices without a tremor have a strong dread of the dentist's chair, whereas I was born without any prejudices against the dentist's chair; when I am in it I am interested, and not in a hurry, and do not greatly mind the pain. (Mark Twain, 1923)
141. Sweet things are bad for the teeth. (Swift, d.1745)
142. Take your little bag With a toothbrush and a comb And leave home. (Langston Hughes, 1960)
143. Teeth are all friends among each other. (Galla proverb)
144. Teeth extracted by the latest Methodists. (Ad from Hong Kong dentist)
145. Teeth outside my mouth, mouth in the middle of my belly. Silent if they don't touch me, and always a faithful friend. (Argentina folksong)
146. Teeth placed before the tongue give good advice. (Italian proverb)
147. Thais has black, Laecania white teeth; what is the reason? Thais has her own, Laecania bought ones (Martial [fl. 1st Cent.])
148. That which is crooked cannot be made straight. (BDJ, 1942)
149. The advertising quack who wearies With tales of countless cures, His teeth, I've enacted, Shall all be extracted By terrified amateurs. (Gilbert & Sullivan)
150. The anatomical juxtaposition of two orbicularis oris muscles in a state of contraction. [Definition of a kiss] (Gibbons, d.1884)
151. The best of friends fall out, and so His teeth had done some years ago. (Hood, d.1845)
152. The best tooth brush is the one often used. (Croatian proverb)
153. The consequence was a sensation as if a dentist were killing the nerves of twenty-five teeth at once with hot irons, or cold ones, which would hurt rather worse. (Holmes, 1861)
154. The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge. (Ezekiel 18:2)
155. The gums best understand the teeth's affirms. (African proverb).
156. The hardest thing about prize fighting is picking up your teeth with a boxing glove on. (Kin Hubbard, d.1930)
157. The lower teeth are the guides to the upper. (Webster, 1905)
158. The man with toothache thinks everyone happy whose teeth are sound. (Shaw, 1903)
159. The mouth does not forget what it tasted only one time. (Bahaya, Tanzanian proverb).
160. The mouth makes debts, but the arms pay. (Ewe proverb)
161. The mouth of an elderly man is without teeth, but never without words of wisdom. (African proverb)
162. The Parthenon without the marbles is like a smile with a tooth missing. (Kinnock, 1984)
163. The rhapsody was over instantly, leaving an emotional vacuum like a silence at the dentist's. (Tarkington, 1912)
164. The slowest barker is the surest biter.
165. The teeth, in their natural state, are the most polished and most solid of all the bones of the human body; but are at the same time the most subject to diseases causing grief & pain, and these must at all times be considered most dangerous: through these we experience the greatest sorrow we will see in all our days. (Fauchard, 1728)
166. The teeth of a man serve as a fence. (Wolof, Senegalese proverb)
167. The tongue is ever turning to the aching tooth.
168. The wolf loses his teeth, but not his inclinations. (Spanish proverb)
169. The worst and best are both inclined To snap like vixens at the truth. But, O, beware the middle mind That purrs and never shows a tooth! (Wylie, d.1928)
170. "There are pigs' teeth stuck into the trunk, about four feet from the ground. The country people put them in long ago, and they think that if they chew a piece of the bark, it will cure the toothache. The teeth are almost grown over now, and no one comes to the tree." "I should. I love folklore and all festering superstitions." (Forester, 1910)
171. There are smiles that make you happy. There are smiles that soothe your mind. But the sweetest smile of any is -- The toothbrush kind. (Dental Facts, 1919)
172. There was an old man of Blackheath, Who sat on his set of false teeth; Said he, with a start, 'O Lord, bless my heart! I've bitten myself underneath!'
173. There was an old man from Tarentum Who gnashed his false teeth till he bent 'em. When they asked him the cost Of what he had lost He replied, "I can't say; I just rent 'em."
174. There was an Old Woman of Leith, Who had a sad pain in her Teeth, But the Blacksmith uncouth, Scar'd the pain from her tooth; Which rejoic'd the Old Woman of Leith (Lear, d.1888)
175. There were three saint women; The first was Anna, The second Susanna, The third was Sibyl, Toothache, keep still. (Brandenburg charm)
176. This one man should have been forgiven; he had a toothache, and non-fatal illnesses may make monsters of the meekest of us; but fortunately, the illness being temporary, so is the monster. (Kirkland, 1918)
177. Thy tooth is not so keen Because thou art not seen, Although thy breath be rude. (Shakespeare)
178. Time, whose tooth gnaws away everything else, is powerless against truth. (Huxley, 1907)
179. Toothache tends to start on Saturday night.
180. Toothache: The pain that drives you to extraction.
181. Toothpaste never hurts the taste of good scotch.
182. Trust in the Prophets, my child, not the Tooth Fairy.
183. Truth that has merely been learned is like an artificial limb, a false tooth, a waxen nose; it adheres to us only because it is put on. (Schopenhauer, d.1860)
184. Trying to define yourself is like trying to bite your own teeth. (Alan Watts, 1961)
185. 'Twas full two years ere I could get a tooth. (Shakespeare)
186. "Very well, sir," she said, in the tone of a determined person, who is informed that the dentist is come to extract that large double tooth of his, from which he has suffered such a purgatory this month past. (Bronte, 1849)
187. We all have to be like you? There are 400 people in this room that are nothing like you. Some of them are fat, some of them are skinny, some of them are tall, some of them are short, some of them have braces, some of them have birthmarks, or scars, or frizzies, or ears that stick out. ("Angus," 1995)
188. We rest our legs, but never our mouths. (Bahaya, Tanzanian proverb).
189. What diseases, And putrefactions in the gummies are bred, By those [toothpicks] are made of adultrate, and false wood? (Jonson, d.1637)
190. When a horse is only borrowed, ignore its ugly teeth. (Ilocano proverb)
191. When a rat puts its teeth on iron, it does not mean he has the intention to chew it. (Sierra Leone proverb)
192. When God gives hard bread He gives sharp teeth. (German proverb)
193. When will we decide to shatter the idea, all too current, that it's as easy to be an artist as a dentist? (Debussy, 1912)
194. White sugar, black teeth. (Croatian proverb)
195. Who hath aching teeth hath ill tenants. (English proverb)
196. why don't you put your toothbrush back in the rack? (Bukowski, 1984)
197. You and I are interwoven in a marriage. If we stick to that we ought to be able to arrange this sex thing, as we arrange going to the dentist; since fate has given us a checkmate physically there. (Lawrence, 1928)
198. You might as well say you would like to go into the flogging-room, and take a turn under the rods: you would like to be thrashed over again by your bully at school: you would like to go to the dentist's, where your dear parents were in the habit of taking you: you would like to be taking hot Epsom salts, with a piece of dry bread to take away the taste: you would like to be jilted by your first love: you would like to be going in to your father to tell him you had contracted debts to the amount of x + y + z , whilst you were at the university. (Thackeray, 1862)
199. You suit yourself, but I ain't marryin' no ordinary workin' man. I want me a dentist! A school teacher at the very least... an' I ain't too hip on them `cause they ain't makin' no money. (Evans, 1982)
200. "You told us about your dentists," she said, at length, "those quaintly specialized persons who spend their lives filling little holes in other persons' teeth -- even in children's teeth sometimes." "Yes?" I said, not getting her drift. "Does mother-love urge mothers -- with you -- to fill their own children's teeth? Or to wish to?" "Why no -- of course not," I protested. "But that is a highly specialized craft." (Gilman, 1979)