I Would Rather Be Governed By the First 2,000 People in the Telephone Directory than by the Harvard University Faculty

William F. Buckley Jr.? Apocryphal?

Dear Quote Investigator: I am trying to verify a quotation from the conservative commentator and novelist William F. Buckley Jr. It goes something like this:

I would rather be governed by the first 1,000 people listed in the phone book than by the faculty members from an Ivy League University.

I do not recall if the phone book was for a particular city, and I do not know whether a specific university was named. Could you please help me to find a citation?

Quote investigator: William F. Buckley attended Yale University as an undergraduate, and he wrote critically about the institution in his book “God and Man at Yale”; however, a different school of higher learning appeared in his saying about governance. The earliest instance located by QI appeared in a profile and interview of Buckley in “Esquire” magazine in January 1961:[1] 1961 January, Esquire magazine, William F. Buckley, Jr.: Portrait of a Complainer by Dan Wakefield, Quote Page 50, Esquire, Inc., New York. (Verified with microfilm)

“I would rather be governed by the first 2,000 people in the telephone directory,” he said, “than by the Harvard University faculty.”

Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.

Continue reading “I Would Rather Be Governed By the First 2,000 People in the Telephone Directory than by the Harvard University Faculty”

References

References
↑1 1961 January, Esquire magazine, William F. Buckley, Jr.: Portrait of a Complainer by Dan Wakefield, Quote Page 50, Esquire, Inc., New York. (Verified with microfilm)

I Can Hire Half the Working Class To Fight the Other Half

Jay Gould? John Livingston? Delmore Schwartz? Apocryphal?

Dear Quote Investigator: In the 19th-century a class of powerful industrialists were accused of unethical business practices, and the critical epithet “robber baron” appeared in journals and newspapers. The following incendiary remark has been attributed to the wealthy railroad magnate Jay Gould:

I can hire one half of the working class to kill the other half.

Would you please explore the provenance of this expression?

Quote Investigator: The earliest pertinent citation located by QI appeared in a letter from an agrarian organizer that was published in October 1891 in a Topeka, Kansas newspaper. Emphasis added to excerpts by QI:[1] 1891 October 28, The Advocate, Letter from John Livingston, Quote Page 1, Column 3, Topeka, Kansas. (Newspapers_com)

The truth of Jay Gould’s assertion that he “could buy the vote of a farmer member of the legislature for the price of a bull calf, about seven dollars and a half,” was clearly disproved at Topeka last January, where not a single People’s party member of the Kansas House could be bought at any price.

It is my prayer to God that all farmers and other toilers will now unite in one solid phalanx, so that the other characteristic remark of the same gentleman, that he “could hire one-half the farmers to shoot the other half to death,” shall also show him to have overestimated the power of his money, supplemented though it may be by Satanic cunning,

John Livingston,
President New York State Farmers’ Alliance.
Campville, Tioga Co., N.Y., Oct 21, 1891.

Gould died shortly afterward in 1892. This early instance of the quotation referred to “farmers” instead of the “working class”. The modern version evolved over time.

Livingston employed the phrase “characteristic remark” which signaled he had not heard the remark directly. Also, Livingston was clearly a forceful political adversary of Gould.

Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.

Continue reading “I Can Hire Half the Working Class To Fight the Other Half”

References

References
↑1 1891 October 28, The Advocate, Letter from John Livingston, Quote Page 1, Column 3, Topeka, Kansas. (Newspapers_com)

In the Marriage Union the Independence of the Husband and Wife Will Be Equal, Their Dependence Mutual, and Their Obligations Reciprocal

Lucretia Mott? Louis K. Anspacher? Anonymous?

Dear Quote Investigator: Historically, the marriage contract has been unequal. A different vision was presented by reformers in the nineteenth century:

In the true marriage relation the independence of the husband and the wife is equal, their independence mutual, and their obligations reciprocal.

Would you please explore the provenance of this expression?

Quote Investigator: In 1841 the prominent women’s rights activist Lucretia Mott delivered a speech in Boston, Massachusetts during which she spoke about the changes she wished to see in the relations between men and women. Emphasis added to excerpts by QI:[1] 1841 October 15, The Liberator, Speech by Lucretia Mott at the Marlboro’ Chapel, Boston on September 23, 1841, Quote Page 4 (also 168), Column 3, Boston, Massachusetts. (Newspapers_com)

I believe the tendency of truth, on this subject, is to equalize the sexes; and that, when truth directs us, there will be no longer assumed authority on one side, or admitted inferiority on the other; but that as we advance in the cultivation of all our powers, physical as well as intellectual and moral, we shall see that our independence is equal, our dependence mutual, and our obligations reciprocal.

Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.

Continue reading “In the Marriage Union the Independence of the Husband and Wife Will Be Equal, Their Dependence Mutual, and Their Obligations Reciprocal”

References

References
↑1 1841 October 15, The Liberator, Speech by Lucretia Mott at the Marlboro’ Chapel, Boston on September 23, 1841, Quote Page 4 (also 168), Column 3, Boston, Massachusetts. (Newspapers_com)

A Specialist Knows More and More About Less and Less

William J. Mayo? Nicholas Murray Butler? William Warde Fowler? Patrick Geddes? Mabel M. Barker? Y. Srinivasa Rao? Arthur Bugs Baer? Robert E. Swain? Distinguished Scottish person?

Question for Quote Investigator: The modern explosion of knowledge has led to an age of specialization with this concomitant quip:

A specialist knows more and more about less and less.

A more elaborate version includes a funny addendum:

An expert knows more and more about less and less until he or she knows everything about nothing.

A related joke cleverly twists this saying:

A generalist knows less and less about more and more until he or she knows nothing about everything.

Would you please explore the history of these statements?

Reply from Quote Investigator: These complex expressions evolved over time from simpler fragments. In 1911 the “Review of Theology & Philosophy” based in Edinburgh, Scotland published an article by William Warde Fowler who was a scholar at the University of Oxford. Fowler used a phrase from the first expression while reviewing a book that was focused on an overly narrow topic:[1]1911 June, Review of Theology & Philosophy, Volume 6, Number 12, (Book Review by W. Warde Fowler (Oxford) of “De Nuditate Sacra Sacrisque Vinculis” by Josephus Heckenbach) Start Page … Continue reading

“We are getting to know more and more about less and less.” This dictum, reported to me as that of a distinguished Scotchman, aptly expresses the character of this little work. A young German scholar has been able to fill more than a hundred pages with matter relating to what seems to be the survival, in the religious systems of Greece and Italy, of a single practice belonging to a primitive magico-religious age.

In 1915 a periodical from the University of Liverpool called “The Town Planning Review” printed an article by Professor Patrick Abercrombie who credited Patrick Geddes with a precursor. Geddes was a prominent sociologist and influential town planner:[2]1915 October, The Town Planning Review, Volume 6, Number 2, Town Planning Literature by Patrick Abercrombie, Start Page 77, Quote Page 97, The Journal of the Department of Civic Design at the School … Continue reading

Professor Geddes has somewhere said that the modern aim is to learn more and more about less and less. . .

In 1916 an article in “The Museums Journal: The Organ of the Museums Association” by Mabel M. Barker also ascribed a precursor to Geddes:[3]1916 November, The Museums Journal: The Organ of the Museums Association, Volume 16, Number 5, Editor W. R. Butterfield (Brassey Institute, Hastings), The Outlook Tower, Edinburgh by Mabel M. Barker, … Continue reading

. . . the deadly peril of over-specialism against which Professor Geddes warns us, the peril of “knowing more and more about less and less”. . .

In 1922 an article by Y. Srinivasa Rao in “The Herald of the Star” based in London included a strong match for the first statement above with an ascription to an unnamed professor:[4]1922 August 1, The Herald of the Star, Volume 11, Number 8, Practical Idealism: Louis Kuhne and his New Science of Healing — II. by Y. Srinivasa Rao, Star Page 310, Quote Page 312, Column 1, … Continue reading

Thus there is specialisation not only in the study and practice of medicine, but also in the sale of drugs. A professor once defined specialisation as knowing more and more about less and less.

Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.

Continue reading “A Specialist Knows More and More About Less and Less”

References

References
↑1 1911 June, Review of Theology & Philosophy, Volume 6, Number 12, (Book Review by W. Warde Fowler (Oxford) of “De Nuditate Sacra Sacrisque Vinculis” by Josephus Heckenbach) Start Page 730, Quote Page 730, Otto Schulze & Company, Edinburgh, Scotland. (HathiTrust Full View) link
↑2 1915 October, The Town Planning Review, Volume 6, Number 2, Town Planning Literature by Patrick Abercrombie, Start Page 77, Quote Page 97, The Journal of the Department of Civic Design at the School of Architecture of the University of Liverpool, Liverpool University Press, Liverpool, England. (Reprinted in 1965 by Kraus Reprint Ltd., Vaduz) (HathiTrust Full View) link
↑3 1916 November, The Museums Journal: The Organ of the Museums Association, Volume 16, Number 5, Editor W. R. Butterfield (Brassey Institute, Hastings), The Outlook Tower, Edinburgh by Mabel M. Barker, Start Page 103, Quote Page 106, Dulau and Company, London. (HathiTrust Full View) link
↑4 1922 August 1, The Herald of the Star, Volume 11, Number 8, Practical Idealism: Louis Kuhne and his New Science of Healing — II. by Y. Srinivasa Rao, Star Page 310, Quote Page 312, Column 1, Available through Officers of the Order of the Star in the East, Publishing Office: Tavistock Square, London. (HathiTrust Full View) link

Be the Change You Wish To See in the World

Mohandas Gandhi? Arleen Lorrance? Ernest Troutner? Diane Kennedy Pike? Anonymous?

Dear Quote Investigator: Often you cannot convince someone via speech alone to constructively alter a behavior, but you can provide a model for emulation by changing your own behavior. Here are three versions of this notion:

  • Be the change you wish to see in the world.
  • Be the change you want to see happen.
  • We must be the change we wish to see in the world.

This saying has been attributed to the famous Indian leader Mahatma Gandhi. Yet, I have been unable to find a solid citation. Would you please help?

Quote Investigator: Gandhi died in 1948, and the earliest close match known to QI appeared many years later in 1974 within a book chapter written by educator Arleen Lorrance. She described her unhappiness while employed at a high school in Brooklyn, New York:[1]1974 Copyright, Developing Priorities and a Style: Selected Readings in Education for Teachers and Parents, Editor: Richard Dean Kellough (California State University, Sacramento) Second Edition, … Continue reading

For seven years I served my sentence and marked off institutional time; I complained, cried, accepted hopelessness, put down the rest of the faculty for all the things they didn’t do, and devoted all my energies to trying to change others and the system.

Lorrance’s approach changed radically when she achieved a crucial insight about the most effective way to achieve change:

It came in on me loud and clear that I was the only one who could imprison (or release) me, that I was the only one I could do anything about changing. So I let go of my anger and negativism and made a decision to simply be totally loving, open and vulnerable all the time.

Her book chapter was titled “The Love Project”, and Lorrance was the initiator and facilitator of the project. The saying under examination was a core principle. Emphasis added to excerpts by QI:

One way to start a preventative program is to be the change you want to see happen. That is the essence and substance of the simple and successful endeavor known as THE LOVE PROJECT.

Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.

Continue reading “Be the Change You Wish To See in the World”

References

References
↑1 1974 Copyright, Developing Priorities and a Style: Selected Readings in Education for Teachers and Parents, Editor: Richard Dean Kellough (California State University, Sacramento) Second Edition, Chapter: The Love Project by Arleen Lorrance, Start Page 85, Quote Page 85, Publisher: MSS Information Corporation, New York. (Google Books Preview)

A Lottery Is a Taxation Upon All the Fools in Creation

William Petty? Henry Fielding? Adam Smith? Camillo Benso? James Wolcott? Marshall McLuhan? Roger Jones? Anonymous?

Dear Quote Investigator: The winners of a recent lottery jackpot split more than one billion dollars. Yet the probability of a lucky lottery strike is smaller than an unlucky lightning strike. Economists, mathematicians, and wits have made sardonic remarks like the following:

  • A lottery is tax on stupidity.
  • The lottery is a tax on fools.
  • Lotteries are a tax on the mathematically challenged.

Who you please explore this topic?

Quote Investigator: Finding the earliest instances of this sentiment is difficult because expressions are variable. QI has located an example in the 1662 document “A Treatise of Taxes and Contributions” by the prominent English economist Sir William Petty. Emphasis added to excerpts by QI:[1]1662, Title: A treatise of taxes and contributions shewing the nature and measures of [brace] crown-lands, assessments, customs, poll-moneys, lotteries, benevolence, penalties, monopolies, offices, … Continue reading

Now in the way of Lottery men do also tax themselves in the general, though out of hopes of Advantage in particular: A Lottery therefore is properly a Tax upon unfortunate self-conceited fools; men that have good opinion of their own luckiness, or that have believed some Fortune-teller or Astrologer, who had promised them great success about the time and place of the Lottery, lying Southwest perhaps from the place where the destiny was read.

Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.

Continue reading “A Lottery Is a Taxation Upon All the Fools in Creation”

References

References
↑1 1662, Title: A treatise of taxes and contributions shewing the nature and measures of [brace] crown-lands, assessments, customs, poll-moneys, lotteries, benevolence, penalties, monopolies, offices, tythes, raising of coins, harth-money, excize, &c., Author: Sir William Petty (1623-1687), Chapter VIII: Of Lotteries, Quote Page 46, Publisher: Printed for N. Brooke, London. (Early English Books Online)

Why Make the Rubble Bounce?

Winston Churchill? James Reston? Edward M. Kennedy? Clark M. Clifford? Apocryphal?

Dear Quote Investigator: The massive arsenals of the nuclear nations have been poised like the Sword of Damocles to fall upon the head of mankind for decades. Statesman Winston Churchill reportedly was critical of excessive weaponry and said:

If you go on with this nuclear arms race, all you are going to do is make the rubble bounce.

I haven’t been able to find a citation. Is this quotation accurate?

Quote Investigator: The earliest pertinent citation located by QI appeared in Winston Churchill’s volume about the Second World War titled “Their Finest Hour” published in 1949. London suffered from extensive bombardment, and Churchill suggested that eventually the war planners behind the devastation would recognize the ineffectiveness of further attacks upon the city. Emphasis added to excerpts by QI:[1] 1949, The Second World War: Their Finest Hour by Winston Churchill, Quote Page 372, Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, Massachusetts. (Verified on paper)

Indeed, at this time we saw no end but the demolition of the whole metropolis. Still, as I pointed out to the House of Commons at the time, the law of diminishing returns operates in the case of the demolition of large cities. Soon many of the bombs would only fall upon houses already ruined and only make the rubble jump. Over large areas there would be nothing more to burn or destroy, and yet human beings might make their homes here and there, and carry on their work with infinite resource and fortitude.

Churchill was discussing conventional weaponry used against London and not nuclear bombs. Also, he used the phase “only make the rubble jump” without the word “bounce”.

Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.

Continue reading “Why Make the Rubble Bounce?”

References

References
↑1 1949, The Second World War: Their Finest Hour by Winston Churchill, Quote Page 372, Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, Massachusetts. (Verified on paper)

Advice Is Like Snow – The Softer It Falls, the Longer It Dwells Upon, and the Deeper It Sinks Into the Mind

Samuel Taylor Coleridge? Jeremiah Seed? Anonymous?

Dear Quote Investigator: Advice that is shouted as a command is often ignored. A different approach is more successful:

Advice is like snow – the softer it falls, the longer it dwells upon, and the deeper it sinks into the mind.

The prominent English poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge has received credit for this thoughtful statement, but I have been unable to find a solid citation. Would you please help trace this meta-advice?

Quote Investigator: Samuel Taylor Coleridge died in 1834 and this expression was assigned to him two years prior in 1832; however, QI believes that the words were based on a sermon delivered before the literary master was born.

Jeremiah Seed was a clergyman and Fellow of Queen’s College, Oxford who died in 1747. A collection of his sermons which included a discourse “On Evil-Speaking” appeared shortly after his death. Seed presented three elaborate similes about giving advice gracefully:[1]1747, Discourses on Several Important Subjects: To Which Are Added Eight Sermons Preached at the Lady Moyer’s Lecture in the Cathedral Church of St. Paul, London by Jeremiah Seed (Rector of … Continue reading

We must consult the gentlest Manner and softest Seasons of Address: Our Advice must not fall, like a violent Storm, bearing down and making that to droop, which it was meant to cherish and refresh: It must descend, as the Dew upon the tender Herb; or like melting Flakes of Snow; the softer it falls, the longer it dwells upon, and the deeper it sinks into the Mind.

The popular modern version of the quotation was extracted from the above passage, simplified, and streamlined. Coleridge did not craft the simile and QI has located no direct evidence that he ever employed it. The ascription to him is unsupported.

Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.

Continue reading “Advice Is Like Snow – The Softer It Falls, the Longer It Dwells Upon, and the Deeper It Sinks Into the Mind”

References

References
↑1 1747, Discourses on Several Important Subjects: To Which Are Added Eight Sermons Preached at the Lady Moyer’s Lecture in the Cathedral Church of St. Paul, London by Jeremiah Seed (Rector of Emham in Hampshire, and late Fellow of Queen’s College, Oxford), Volume 1 of 2, Third Edition, Sermon XIV: On Evil-Speaking, Start Page 349, Quote Page 351, Printed for R. Manby and H. S. Cox, London. (HathiTrust Full View) link

An Army Marches On Its Stomach

Napoleon Bonaparte? Frederick the Great? Thomas Carlyle? Anonymous?

Dear Quote Investigator: Proper logistics are crucial to any successful military campaign. The importance of food supply is highlighted in a well-known aphorism. Here are four versions:

  • An army marches on its stomach.
  • An army marches on its belly.
  • An army travels on its stomach.
  • An army goes upon its belly.

This saying has been ascribed to the famous leaders Napoleon Bonaparte and Frederick the Great. Would you please explore this topic?

Quote Investigator: The earliest strong match known to QI appeared in the 1858 work “History of Friedrich the Second, Called Frederick the Great” by the prominent philosopher, essayist, and historian Thomas Carlyle. The saying occurred in the description of an unsuccessful military endeavor. Emphasis added to excerpts by QI:[1]1858, History of Friedrich the Second, Called Frederick the Great by Thomas Carlyle, Volume 1, Book 2, Chapter 6: The Teutsch Ritters or Teutonic Order, Quote Page 83, Harper & Brothers, New … Continue reading

They were stronger than Turk and Saracen, but not than Hunger and Disease. Leaders did not know then, as our little Friend at Berlin came to know, that “an Army, like a serpent, goes upon its belly.”

The referent “little Friend at Berlin” was ambiguous, but a later volume of this work by Carlyle clearly ascribed the adage to Frederick II, i.e., Frederick the Great.

Frederick II died in 1786 and Napoleon Bonaparte died in 1821. An instance of the aphorism was attributed to Frederick II by 1858 and to Bonaparte by 1862. In each case the long delay reduced the credibility of the linkage.

Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.

Continue reading “An Army Marches On Its Stomach”

References

References
↑1 1858, History of Friedrich the Second, Called Frederick the Great by Thomas Carlyle, Volume 1, Book 2, Chapter 6: The Teutsch Ritters or Teutonic Order, Quote Page 83, Harper & Brothers, New York. (Google Books Full View) link

The Trouble With This Country is Too Many People Saying “The Trouble With This Country is …”

Sinclair Lewis? Anonymous?

Dear Quote Investigator: Whenever I hear someone attempting to diagnose the problems of the world I am reminded of the following amusingly recursive remark:

The trouble with this country is that there are too many people saying, “The trouble with this country is…”

Although I roughly remember the quotation I do not recall who said it. Can you tell me who is responsible for this quip?

Quote Investigator: The American writer and noble laureate Sinclair Lewis included a matching remark in his 1929 satirical novel “Dodsworth”. The words were spoken by a character named General Herndon. Emphasis added to excerpts by QI:[1] 1929, Dodsworth by Sinclair Lewis, Chapter 10, Quote Page 74, Harcourt, Brace and Company, New York. (Verified with hardcopy)

“The trouble with this country is,” observed Herndon, “that there’re too many people going about saying: ‘The trouble with this country is—–‘ And too many of us, who should be ruling the country, are crabbed by being called ‘General’ or ‘Colonel’ or ‘Doctor’ or that sort of thing. If you have a handle to your name, you have to be so jolly and democratic that you can’t control the mob.”

Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.

Continue reading “The Trouble With This Country is Too Many People Saying “The Trouble With This Country is …””

References

References
↑1 1929, Dodsworth by Sinclair Lewis, Chapter 10, Quote Page 74, Harcourt, Brace and Company, New York. (Verified with hardcopy)