John Randolph Paxton

John Randolph Paxton (1843–1923) was an American clergyman. Attributed A man can't be hid. He may be a peddler in the mountains, but the world will find him out to make him a king of finance. He may be carrying cabbages from Long Island, when the world will demand that he run the railways of a continent. He may be a groceryman on a canal, when the country shall come to him and put him in his career of usefulness. So that there comes a time finally when all the green barrels of petroleum in the land suggest but two names and one great company. Sermon, "He Could Not Be Hid" (August 25, 1889). As reported in The New York Sun (August 26, 1889). Cited in Burton Stevenson, ed., The Home Book of Quotations (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1934), p. 631. See: The Literary Digest, vol. 50, no. 20 (May 15, 1915), "The Lexicographer's Easy Chair: A 'Mouse-trap' Quotation", p. 1196. Also: "Quote Origin: Build a Better Mousetrap", Quote Investigator (March 24, 2015) External links Q133583954 Category:1843 births Category:1923 deaths Category:Non-fiction authors from the United States Category:Clergy from the United States