Five weeks ago, I invited readers to submit quotations for which they wanted me to try to trace the origins, using The Yale Book of Quotations and more recent research by me. Dozens responded via comments or e-mails. I am responding as best I can, a couple per week.
Authors Uncovered
Here are more quote authors Shapiro’s tracked down recently.
Ryan asks:
Sorry if this is vague, but there’s this quote that goes something like “You get the democracy you deserve” or “In a democracy you get the government you deserve.” I’ve heard that quite a few times and I realized recently I didn’t actually know where it came from.
The Yale Book of Quotations has the following quote under Joseph de Maistre (1753-1821) from Lettres et Opuscules Inédits, vol. 1, no. 53 (1851) (Letter of 15 August, 1811):
Toute nation a le gouvernement qu’elle mérite. (Every country has the government it deserves.)
Ari asks who said the following:
In the long run, we’re all dead.
The YBQ has this under John Maynard Keynes, from “A Tract on Monetary Reform,” Chapter 3 (1923):
But this long run is a misleading guide to current affairs. In the long run we are all dead.
Do any readers have any other quotations whose origins they would like me to attempt to trace?
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I had a friend who was absolutely conviced he came up with the phrase “If you play with fire, you’re gonna get burned.” He claims he had never heard it before, and just thought it up one day. No amount of evidence could sway him otherwise.
There’s also this one which conveys pretty much the same sentiment
‘A society of sheep must in time beget a government of wolves’
Henry de Jouvenel
Hi,
A quote I would like to know the origin of is the Latin “nec spe nec metu” which I believe dates from the Renaissance but not sure…
Thanks!
PG
When it comes to Mencken on democracy, this is my favorite: “Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.”
Origin of “The murder of a beautiful theory by a gang of brutal facts”– I have heard it attributed to Herbert Spenser, but also that it was not Spenser.
My roommate always uses the phrase, “Good artists borrow, great artists steal.” He cannot figure out who said it, except that it was said by somebody important. Do you have any ideas?
“from hell” as in “she was the nanny from hell”
Was it a mathematician who said about his teaching, “Rather than cover many topics, I prefer to uncover a few”, and if so, who was it?