1921–1994 · American motivational writer & epigrammatist
William Arthur Ward (1921–1994) was an American motivational writer who produced more than 4,000 epigrams — short, balanced, aphoristic lines built for greeting cards, church bulletins, and desk plaques. His sayings ran in Reader’s Digest and in his “Pertinent Proverbs” column for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, and were collected into some thirteen books. Ward spent his working life in Texas as a public-relations man and educator, serving for decades as assistant to the president of Texas Wesleyan College. His fate is a peculiar one: he is quoted constantly and credited rarely — which is precisely how a famous name ends up on his work.