Monthly Archives: May 2010

Go for a Business that Any Idiot Can Run

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Warren Buffet? Peter Lynch?

Dear Quote Investigator: In 2008 I read an interview with the super-investor Warren Buffet in which he said you should put your money into a company that can be run by an idiot because eventually it will be run by an idiot. But that advice sounded familiar to me. Did someone offer this recommendation before Buffet?

Quote Investigator: You are correct that similar advice antedates the 2008 comment from Buffet; however, Buffet was not asserting originality. He credited the idea to a generic speaker identified as: “they”.

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Golf is a Good Walk Spoiled

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Mark Twain? William Gladstone? The Allens? Harry Leon Wilson?

Dear Quote Investigator: I love to play golf, but sometimes when I am playing poorly I am tempted to simply walk the course and get some exercise. When I mentioned this to a friend he told me that Mark Twain said: “Golf is a good walk spoiled.” This sounds like Twain to me, but did he really say it?

Quote Investigator: No, Mark Twain is probably not responsible for this barb. The earliest known attribution of this famous remark to Twain appears in a 1948 issue of the Reader’s Digest as noted in the The Quote Verifier and the Yale Book of Quotations [QVG][YQG]. The Reader’s Digest refers to the Saturday Evening Post, so a slightly earlier cite may exist. But Twain died in 1910, so this is a suspiciously late citation.

The earliest appearance of the quip that QI has discovered is in a 1903 book about lawn tennis.

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Not Everything That Counts Can be Counted

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Albert Einstein? William Bruce Cameron? Hilliard Jason? Stephen Ross? Lord Platt? George Pickering?

Dear Quote Investigator: Recently I saw a comic strip titled “Baby Einstein” that contained a few quotations that are often attributed to Albert Einstein. I think the following saying is very insightful:

Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts.

If I use this quotation should I credit it to Einstein?

Quote Investigator: QI suggests crediting William Bruce Cameron instead of Albert Einstein. Cameron’s 1963 text “Informal Sociology: A Casual Introduction to Sociological Thinking” contained the following passage [WCIS]:

It would be nice if all of the data which sociologists require could be enumerated because then we could run them through IBM machines and draw charts as the economists do. However, not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.

There are several books that attribute the quote to Cameron and cite this 1963 book. QI was unable to find earlier instances of the saying. Researcher John Baker identified this citation, and it appears in the internet compendium WikiQuote.

This maxim consists of two parallel and contrasting phrases:

Not everything that can be counted counts.

Not everything that counts can be counted.

The position of the two key terms “counted” and “counts” is reversed in the two different phrases. This rhetorical technique is referred to as chiasmus. QI hypothesizes that the two phrases were crafted separately and then at a later time combined by Cameron to yield the witty and memorable maxim.

When was the connection with Albert Einstein established? The earliest relevant cite that QI could find was dated 1986, however, this is more than thirty years after the death of Einstein in 1955. Thus, the evidence is weak, and the link to Einstein is not solidly supported. The details for this citation are given further below.

Here are additional selected citations in chronological order.

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Want a Friend in Washington, Get a Dog

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Harry Truman? Samuel Gallu? Gordon Gekko?

Dear Quote Investigator: I love dogs and live near Washington D.C. One of my favorite quotes is by former President Harry Truman who experienced some bruising political battles and said, “If you want a friend in Washington, get a dog.” Could you please investigate this quote?

Quote Investigator: That is an enjoyable quote that appeals to the multitude of dog fanciers. But, it is very unlikely that it was said by Harry Truman. Further below the origin of the saying is discussed, but first a comment about the fate of a dog named Feller is instructive. The dog was given to Truman while he was in the White House and a contemporary newspaper account in 1948 describes what happened [TRD1]:

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A Single Death is a Tragedy; a Million Deaths is a Statistic

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Joseph Stalin? Leonard Lyons?

Dear Quote Investigator: When studying the history of the Soviet Union in school I came across one quote that I remember vividly. The words were supposedly said by the dictator Joseph Stalin, and provide a haunting insight into the mind of a tyrant:

A single death is a tragedy; a million deaths is a statistic.

But now I wonder if this quote is too conveniently revealing. Maybe it was invented. Did Stalin really say it?

Quote Investigator: This is a controversial and fascinating quotation. Until recently the earliest citation for the quote was in a 1958 book review in the New York Times where it was labeled “Stalin’s epigram”.  The Quote Verifier and the Yale Book of Quotations list the 1958 cite [FRN][QVS][YBS][FRS].

Now, two earlier citations have emerged in 1948 and 1947.

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Part Went for Liquor, Part for Women, Rest Spent Foolishly

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Channing Pollock? George Raft? Tug McGraw? Stan Bowles? George Best?

Dear Quote Investigator: George Raft was my favorite film star from the Golden Age of Hollywood. He often played gangsters and was memorable in “Some Like it Hot”. Raft was known for his high income in Tinseltown and for his wild profligacy. The quotation that interests me appeared in his obituary in 1980 [RFT80]:

Raft … made, and squandered, about $10 million in his movie career, and later joked: “Part of the loot went for gambling, part for horses and part for women. The rest I spent foolishly.”

Did Raft really say this or is it part of his legend?

Quote Investigator: Yes, QI thinks Raft did say it, but he probably was not the first person to do so.

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Better to Remain Silent and Be Thought a Fool than to Speak and Remove All Doubt

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Abraham Lincoln? Biblical Proverb? Maurice Switzer? Samuel Johnson?

Dear Quote Investigator: I always thought that the following quote was from Abraham Lincoln, but a friend claims it is in the Bible. It does not sound very Biblical to me. Can you resolve this dispute?

Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and to remove all doubt.

Quote Investigator: Yes, QI can help resolve this disagreement. There is a biblical proverb that expresses a similar idea, namely Proverbs 17:28. Here is the New International Version followed by the King James Version of this verse [PROV]:

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Time is Money. Benjamin Franklin?

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Dear Quote Investigator: As an entrepreneur I marvel at the wisdom and concision of the following maxim:

Time is money.

This is usually credited to Benjamin Franklin, but I have become skeptical about attributions after reading this blog. So, I performed my own  exploration for this saying and determined that it was indeed Franklin who said it. He reinforced the meaning of the maxim with a common sense example that states: if you skip half-a-days work then you throw away half-a-days wage [AYT]:

Remember that time is money. He that can earn ten shillings a day by his labour, and goes abroad, or sits idle one half of that day, though he spends but sixpence during his diversion or idleness, it ought not to be reckoned the only expence; he hath really spent or thrown away five shillings besides.

He said it in 1748 in an essay titled Advice to a Young Tradesman. Is this an example of a saying that is properly acknowledged?

Quote Investigator: Great work! You have given excellent evidence that Franklin employed the maxim in 1748. The remaining question is: Did someone say it before Franklin?

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Samuel Goldwyn’s Impossible Quote

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Dear Quotation Investigator: Samuel Goldwyn, the Hollywood studio chief, was famous for his creatively humorous speech errors. A famous actor once asked if he could be in one of Goldwyn’s new productions. But Goldwyn did not like the actor, and he supposedly said:

I can answer you in two words, “im possible.”

Well, that is the story. Is it true?

QI: Many funny lines of this type are attributed to the movie mogul, and collectively they are known as Goldwynisms. The quip above has been linked to Goldwyn for many years; however, he probably never said it. Charlie Chaplin claimed that he deliberately pinned this saying on to Samuel Goldwyn according to the biographer Alva Johnston [GLD].

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Did Groucho Change His Principles?

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Dear Quotation Investigator: My favorite quote by Groucho Marx is perfect for describing politicians in my opinion:

These are my principles. If you don’t like them I have others.

Was Groucho impersonating a politician when he said this?

QI: It is not clear if Groucho ever did say this quotation.  But your belief that it is associated with politicians does have strong evidentiary support. In fact, the joke has a long history, and a version was being told before Groucho was born. The connection with politicians goes back more then one hundred years.

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