Israel Zangwill? G. K. Chesterton? George Bernard Shaw? William Thomas Stead? H. G. Wells? Apocryphal?
Question for Quote Investigator: Intellectuals often think very highly of themselves. One wit satirized this self-absorption with the following quip:
The way he believes in himself is very refreshing in these atheistic days when so many believe in no God at all.
This comical remark has been credited to British author Israel Zangwill. The target of this barb was either Irish playwright George Bernard Shaw or English editor William Thomas Stead. Yet, I have not seen any solid citations. Would you please explore this topic?
Reply from Quote Investigator: William Thomas Stead was an influential newspaper and magazine editor who campaigned against child prostitution. Stead had broad interests, and over time his fascination with ghosts, spiritualism, and psychical research grew.
In 1891 Stead published “Real Ghost Stories”, and in 1893 he founded the magazine “Borderland” about supernatural phenomena. Tragically, Stead received no warning from the spirit world when he boarded the ill-fated RMS Titanic, and he perished when it sank in 1912.
In 1893 “The Pall Mall Magazine” published a piece by Israel Zangwill which skeptically discussed Stead’s enthusiasm for investigating ghosts. Boldface added to excerpts by QI:1
And you cannot kill Ghosts. Perhaps because they do not exist. No other dead thing is so tenacious of life as your ghost. If ridicule were really fatal, we should have given up the ghost long since. Consider the fires of burlesque through which he has passed unscathed. What indignity has been spared him? Now at last he is to encounter the supreme test—he is to be taken seriously.
Mr. Stead has the matter in hand—or should one say, the spirit? Once a quarter there will be a pilgrimage to Borderland (terms, 10s. 6d. per annum). Mr. Stead, who believes in himself in a way that is refreshing in these atheistic times, will either rehabilitate the ghost or lay him for ever.
The phrase “10s. 6d.” corresponded to ten shillings and sixpence, the cost of an annual subscription to the Stead’s magazine “Borderland”.
Based on the above citation QI believes that Israel Zangwill authored this zinger, and the target was William Thomas Stead and not George Bernard Shaw. During subsequent years the joke was repeated and altered. The phrasing evolved, and the target shifted.
Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.
In 1896 Zangwill published the collection “Without Prejudice” which reprinted his piece from “The Pall Mall Magazine”. Thus, the joke achieved further circulation.2
In 1898 “The Dawn: A Journal for Australian Women” repeated the quip while crediting Zangwill:3
. . . Israel Zangwill says:—“Mr. Stead believes in himself in a way that is refreshing in these atheistic times.”
In 1916 “The Methodist Review” of New York printed a longer instance of the quip with the phrase “believe in no god at all”. This longer statement was closer to the popular modern version:4
Arnold’s self-reverence exceeded his self-knowledge, and reminds us of Zangwill’s humorous saying that, “the way Mr. Stead believes in himself is quite refreshing in these atheistic times when some men believe in no god at all.”
In December 1921 “The New York Times” published a letter to the editor from Wolf Viking of Brooklyn which contained an instance. This joke was earliest one discovered by QI which was aimed at George Bernard Shaw. This variant used the phrase “atheistic days” instead of “atheistic times”:5
. . . the witty saying of Israel Zangwill about Shaw: “The way he believes in himself is very refreshing in these atheistic days, when so many men believe in no God at all.”
QI has found no direct evidence that Zangwill ever modified his joke to target Shaw. QI conjectures that Wolf Viking’s memory was faulty, or he was relaying a modified instance of the quip.
In April 1922 an article in “The Journal of the Missouri State Medical Association” contained a variant joke:6
We have no quarrel with the so-called anti-vivisectionist because he holds tenaciously to his opinions. So to do is his right and privilege. Indeed it is stimulating and refreshing to us to note the fervor of an anti-vivisectionist’s belief in himself, in these atheistic days, when so many men believe in no God at all.
Also, in April 1922 the joke appeared in the New York humor magazine “Life” which cited “The New York Times”:7
. . . recalls to the writer of a letter in the New York Times the saying of Israel Zangwill about Shaw: “The way he believes in himself is very refreshing in these atheistic days, when so many men believe in no God at all.”
—Christian Register
In June 1922 “Theosophy” magazine implausibly attributed the joke to the well-known English author G. K. Chesterton instead of Zangwill:8
G. K. Chesterton once remarked of Shaw: “It is wonderful how he believes in himself in these atheistic days when so many men believe in no God at all.” The words apply with greater fidelity to Mr. H. G. Wells, who hopes in his omniscience that his latest adopted son, birth control, will save the world from future wars.
In 1934 an instance appeared in the mass-circulation periodical “The Reader’s Digest”:9
Israel Zangwill, talking about George Bernard Shaw, remarked: “The way Shaw believes in himself is very refreshing in these atheistic days when so many believe in no God at all.” — W. Orton Tewson, An Attic Salt-Shaker
In 1941 an instance appeared in “Insults: A Practical Anthology of Scathing Remarks and Acid Portraits” edited by Max Herzberg:10
Contemplating Shaw’s naïve and innocent egoism, that other wit, Israel Zangwill, wrote, “The way Shaw believes in himself is very refreshing in these atheistic days when so many believe in no God at all.”
In 1971 “Bartlett’s Unfamiliar Quotations” contained the following entry:11
The way Bernard Shaw believes in himself is very refreshing in these atheistic days when so many believe in no God at all.
Israel Zangwill
In 2012 Robert Byrne published a compilation titled “The 2,548 Wittiest Things Anybody Ever Said” which included the following item:12
The way Shaw believes in himself is quite refreshing in these atheistic days when so many people believe in no God at all.
—Israel Zangwill (1864-1926)
In conclusion, QI believes that Israel Zangwill deserves credit for authoring this quip which was originally aimed at William Thomas Stead in 1893. Over time the phrasing evolved and the target switched to George Bernard Shaw who was more prominent than Stead during subsequent decades. Zangwill was not responsible for these changes.
Image Notes: Illustration of Supernatural Rays of Sunlight from Davide Cantelli at Unsplash. The image has been cropped, resized, and retouched.
Acknowledgement: Thanks to the anonymous person whose inquiry led QI to formulate this question and perform this exploration.
- 1893 September, The Pall Mall Magazine, Volume 1, Number 5, Without Prejudice by I. Zangwill (Israel Zangwill), Start Page 746, Quote Page 750, Column 2, George Routledge & Sons, London. (Internet Archive at archive.org) link ↩︎
- 1896, Without Prejudice by I. Zangwill (Israel Zangwill), Chapter 5: The Indestructibles, Quote Page 62, The Century Company, New York. (Google Books Full View) link ↩︎
- 1898 January 1, The Dawn: A Journal for Australian Women, Books — New and Old by Iartha, Quote Page 25, Column 1, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. (Newspapers_com) ↩︎
- 1916 January, The Methodist Review, Series 5, Volume 32, Matthew Arnold’s Apostolate, Start Page 91, Quote Page 108, The Methodist Book Concern, New York. (Internet Archive at archive.org) link ↩︎
- 1921 December 11, The New York Times, Section 2: Editorial, Letter to the Editor, Letter Title: Shaw’s Faith, Letter Date: December 5, 1921, Letter From: Wolf Viking, Quote Page 8, Column 6, New York, New York. (Newspapers_com) ↩︎
- 1922 April, The Journal of the Missouri State Medical Association, Volume 19, Number 4, Section: Miscellany, Article: Animal Experimentation by M. G. Seelig M.D., Start Page 188, Quote Page 188, The Official Organ of the Missouri State Medical Association, Published at the Office in St. Louis, Missouri. (Internet Archive in archive.org) link ↩︎
- 1922 April 20, Life, Volume 79, Number 2059, The Shavian Faith, Quote Page 32, Column 1, Life Publishing, New York. (Internet Archive; archive.org) link ↩︎
- 1922 June, Theosophy, Volume 10, Number 8, “Birth Control?”, Quote Page 256, Published by The United Lodge of Theosophists, Los Angeles, California. (Google Books Full View) link ↩︎
- 1934 November, The Reader’s Digest, Volume 25, Number 151, Pert and Pertinent, Quote Page 52, The Reader’s Digest Association, Pleasantville, New York. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
- 1941 Copyright, Insults: A Practical Anthology of Scathing Remarks and Acid Portraits, Edited by Max Herzberg, Chapter 7: Quarrels of the Victorians and Edwardians, Quote Page 117 and 118, The Greystone Press, Inc., New York. (HathiTrust Full View) ↩︎
- 1971, Bartlett’s Unfamiliar Quotations by Leonard Louis Levinson, Topic: Portraits, Personal, Quote Page 228, Cowles Book Company: Henry Regnery Company, Chicago, Illinois. (Verified with scans) ↩︎
- 2012, The 2,548 Wittiest Things Anybody Ever Said, Compiled by Robert Byrne, Quote Number 2314, Touchstone: A Division of Simon & Schuster, New York. (Verified with hardcopy) ↩︎