Quotes Uncovered
Here are more quote authors and origins Shapiro’s tracked down recently.
A while back, 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. Hundreds of people have responded via comments or e-mails. I am responding as best I can, a few per week.
Douglas Lax asked:
Who originally said “A government big enough to give you everything you want is strong enough to take everything you have” or “A government big enough to give you everything you want is big enough to take everything you have”? My search has attributed this quote to Thomas Jefferson, Barry Goldwater, and Gerald Ford. The truth?
This is usually attributed to Gerald Ford, but researcher Barry Popik has found it earlier, in Paul Harvey‘s 1952 book Remember These Things.
DanM asked:
I would say “That’s funny,” and my mother would respond “Funny ‘ha ha’ or funny peculiar?” I heard it once in the movie The Scarlet Pimpernel. (I think the movie was made in the 1930′s.) My mother never recalled where she heard it first, other than when she was a girl in Ireland (in the 1930′s).
The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations and even the Oxford English Dictionary trace this only as far back as 1938. The Yale Book of Quotations, however, quotes Mariel Brady, Genevieve Gertrude (1928) for the “funny ha-ha”/ “funny peculiar” distinction.
GB asked:
“Those who can, do. Those who can’t, teach.” This one is ancient and over-worn, but who said it first?
I wouldn’t call it ancient, but it has been around since 1903, when George Bernard Shaw wrote in Man and Superman: “He who can, does. He who cannot, teaches.”
Do any readers have any other quotations whose origins they would like me to attempt to trace?
Do any readers have any other quotations whose origins they would like me to attempt to trace?
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On an episode of The Odd Couple, Felix attributed the quote, “So awful to write; so wonderful to have written” to Edna St Vincent Millay. Over the years I have tried unsuccessfully to verfiy the source. Your help will be appreciated.
Related to GB’s, I’ve heard, “Those who can, do. Those who can’t, manage.”
I think GBShaw’s one has a deeper meaning than the sarcastic take one could have.
…and those who can’t teach gym, become administrators.
Fred I was wondering who said “‘ I rather die on my feet, than live on my knees”‘
And
“Sarcasm is the lowest form of wit but the highest form of intelligence”
many thanks
Those who can, do; those that can’t, administrate; those that can’t administrate, consult; those that can consult, become school board members and screw everything up.
The “can’t have everything” line is Stephen Wright from his HBO special years ago. He also said,” It’s a small world, but I wouldn’t want to paint it.”
Here’s a quote that’s quite popular among the conspiracy-minded:
“In politics, nothing happens by accident. If it happens, you can bet it was planned that way.”
Near-universal attribution to FDR, but never any source, citation, or date. My own research only took me back as far as the 1971 book “None Dare Call it Conspiracy,” which also claimed FDR said it: http://www.lorencollins.net/blog/?p=39
Any known uses prior to 1971?
And those who can’t teach, teach gym.