Each week, I’ve been inviting readers to submit quotations for which they want me to try to trace the origin, using The Yale Book of Quotations and my own research. Here is the latest round:
Science Frustrated asked:
“So who said, ‘once you don’t first succeed, try try again?’”
The Yale Book of Quotations, which attempts to trace all famous quotations to their earliest findable occurrence, traces “If at first you don’t succeed, try, try, try again” to a poem titled “Perseverance; or, Try Again,” printed in Common School Assistant, Aug. 1838. No author is identified.
Mary Kathleen Kisiel asked:
“One of the history textbooks from my childhood attributed this to P.T. Barnum: ‘You can fool all of the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you can’t fool all of the people all of the time.’ I think it has a plausible completeness, don’t you?”
This is usually attributed to Abraham Lincoln. The YBQ traces the Lincoln attribution as far back as the New York Times, Aug. 27, 1887, and notes: “According to The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln, ed. Roy P. Balser, ‘Tradition has come to attribute to the Clinton [Illinois] speeches [September 2, 1858] this ‘most famous’ of Lincoln’s utterances. Basler indicates, however, that there is no evidence of this saying in Lincoln documents. P. T. Barnum has also been a putative source for the quotation.”
Ann asked:
“Where does the admonition ‘Don’t kill the messenger!’ originate? Some say it has something to do with the story of Marathon.”
The earliest version traced by the Yale Book of Quotations is “Nobody likes the man who brings bad news,” from Sophocles‘ 5th century B.C. play, Antigone.
Ceolaf asked:
“Here’s a recent one, I think. ‘I for one welcome our new [something] overlords.’ Language log says that Kent Brockman first uttered this when he said, ‘And I for one welcome our new insect overlords,’ on February 24, 1994. Is he really the source?”
Yes.
Do any readers have any other quotations whose origins they would like me to attempt to trace?
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It’s well known that all quotes can be attributed to Mark Twain, except in leap years, when they can be traced to Will Rogers. There’s no need to do any further research on the matter.
“Half of the people can be part right all of the time,
And some of the people can be all right part of the time,
But all of the people can’t be all right all of the time.
I think Abraham Lincoln said that.”
- Bob Dylan, Talkin’ World War III Blues
Who was the first to coin the term, “soul mate.” And can we shoot them for filling romantics with ridiculous expectations?
Was it Everett Dirksen who first said, “A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you’re talking about real money.”?
Is Dirksen also the source for Dirksen’s Third Rule of Politics, “Don’t get mad, get even.”?
Were the first two rules, “Get elected. Get reelected.”?
Governments with less-than-infinite budgets must choose between “guns and butter”. This has been attributed to Herman Goering, speaking before World War II. Is this attribution correct?
Washington DC
“Nobody eve got rich by over-estimating the intelligence of the public.”
Was it Louis B Meyer? Intelligence or taste? Public or audience?
I say that I don’t want to “neb”—meaning, I don’t want to be nosy.
I could swear I heard that when I was little and picked it up for my lifetime, but now I can ask you: Did I just make up this word???
“Prediction is difficult, especially of the future.”
This is usually attributed to Niels Bohrs, the most humorous of modern physicists, but I have never been able to find it in his writings or biographies about him
Where did ” I will beat you like a red headed step-child!” Come from?
Which i am one so no offense to others.