Groucho Marx? American Legislator? Anonymous?
Question for Quote Investigator: My favorite quip attributed to Groucho Marx is perfect for describing some politicians:
These are my principles. If you don’t like them I have others.
Was Groucho impersonating a politician when he said this?
Reply from Quote Investigator: It is not clear whether Groucho did employ this joke. 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.
The marvelous compendium, “The Yale Book of Quotations”, has examined the quote and found an attribution to Groucho in 1983 in “Legal Times”.1 This is a very late date since Groucho died in 1977; hence, the support for the attribution is weak.
QI found an instance of the quip in a New Zealand newspaper in 1873. Boldface added to excerpts by QI:2
He brought in the Provincial Loan Bill, declaring that, if the House did not accept it, he was prepared to adhere to his original proposal. It was something like the American legislator — “Them’s my principles; but if you don’t like them — I kin change them!”
In 1878 the joke appeared in “The Grey River Argus” of New Zealand:3
The American candidate had a very good estimate of the best way to command popular support when, after having described such manufactured principles as he had got ready, said – “Them feller citizens are my principles, but if they don’t suit yer exactly, they ken be altered.”
In 1891 an instance appeared in “Liverpool Daily Post” of England:4
It was the old story of the American representative, who said, “These are my principles, but if you do not like them I can change them.” (laughter).
In 1910 an instance appeared in “The Birkenhead News” in England:5
This reminded him of an American candidate, who said, “Gents, these are my principles, and if you do not like them I can easily change them” (loud laughter).
In 1975 a Canadian politician named Darcy McKeough was criticized for employing the joke as a humorous excuse for possible future changes in policy. The wording used was similar to that in the version attributed to Groucho:6
“You’ve all heard,” he (Darcy McKeough) told the locked-up press, “of the politician who wound up his speech saying: ‘ladies and gentlemen, those are my principles, and if you don’t like them I have some others.’ If events I can’t foresee alter the basis of this budget and undermine its effectiveness, I’ll have no hesitation about coming back to it later in the fiscal year.”
In conclusion, the earliest match in 1873 credited an anonymous U.S. legislator with the quip. It is possible that Groucho or one of his writers employed this joke, but it was circulating many years earlier.
Update History: On October 26, 2024 the format of the bibliographical notes was updated. Also, the article was partially rewritten. In addition, the links for the 1873 and 1878 citations were updated. Further, the 1891 and 1910 citations were added.
- 2006, The Yale Book of Quotations by Fred R. Shapiro, Section Julius Henry ‘Groucho’ Marx, Quote Page 498, Yale University Press, New Haven. (Verified with hardcopy) ↩︎
- 1873 October 18, New Zealand Tablet, Weekly Epitome, Page 7, Column 2, Volume I, Issue 25, New Zealand. (National Library of NZ, Papers Past) link ↩︎
- 1878 August 18, The Grey River Argus, Published Daily, Page 2, Column 2, Volume 21, Issue 3123, New Zealand. (Quotation appears near the end) (National Library of NZ, Papers Past) link ↩︎
- 1891 January 21, Liverpool Daily Post, Sir Michael Hicks Beach at Bristol, Quote Page 6, Column 2, Liverpool, Merseyside, England. (Newspapers_com) ↩︎
- 1910 January 15, The Birkenhead News, “Ask This Question”: Mr. Vivian’s Appeal To Electors, Quote Page 5, Column 6, Birkenhead, Merseyside, England. (Newspapers_com) ↩︎
- 1975 April 14, The (Ottawa) Citizen, Temporary Budget by Harold Greer, Page 6, Ottawa, Canada. (Google News Archive) link ↩︎