Photo: iStockphoto
I’m back to inviting readers to submit quotations whose origins they want me to try to trace, using my book, The Yale Book of Quotations, and my more recent researches.
Michael asked:
“The best swordsman does not fear the second best, he fears the worst since there’s no telling what that idiot is going to do.”
The Yale Book of Quotations traces this to an authentic Mark Twain quote:
Don’t you know, there are some things that can beat smartness and foresight? Awkwardness and stupidity can. The best swordsman in the world doesn’t need to fear the second best swordsman in the world; no, the person for him to be afraid of is some ignorant antagonist who has never had a sword in his hand before; he doesn’t do the thing he ought to.
-Mark Twain, A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court (1889)
Do any readers have any other quotations whose origins they would like me to attempt to trace?
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When and where did the term “doggie bag” ( as in bringing home leftovers from a restaurant) originate?
This might be another one of those quotes that has no true author but it might also have been written in an article. However, a few decades ago it was considered very unfashionable to bring home left over food. The leftovers, were then only good enough for the dog.
Humor is tragedy plus time. – allegedly Mark Twain, but I am looking for confirmation
Comedy is tragedy plus time. – allegedly Carol Burnett, but I am looking for confirmation
I’ve always wondered where “close but no cigar” came from.
Pretty sure this came from carnival barkers where the prize for winning the games of “skill” were often cigars.
Rationality at the macrolevel depends upon irrationality at the microlevel.
Is the substance of the quote accurate? Not being a sword fighter, I have no idea. However, it seems strange to think that the inept is more dangerous than the truly competent.
Can you trace the following quotations:
1. If a man is not a liberal when he is 20, he has not heart; if he is not a conservative when he is 40, he has no head.
2. Reading history does not demonstrate that history repeats itself; it merely demonstrates that historians repeat each other.
How about the origins & meaning of “23 skidoo”