Quote Investigator® – Page 131

Quote Origin: Procrastination Is the Assassin of Opportunity

Victor Kiam? Home Savings Bank? Painless Withers Dental Company? Anonymous?

Question for Quote Investigator: Each opportunity in life has an expiration date. One must act quickly. The successful entrepreneur and investor Victor Kiam apparently employed the following vivid metaphor:

Procrastination is opportunity’s natural assassin.

Would you please help find a citation?

Reply from Quote Investigator: Victor Kiam became famous when he starred in a series of memorable commercials for an electric razor by the Remington Company. He described his response after using the product:¹

I was delighted and impressed; so impressed I bought the company.

Kiam conducted the leveraged buyout in 1979, and he wrote a book about his experiences in life and business in 1986 titled “Going for It! How to Succeed as an Entrepreneur”. The Remington Company had lost millions of dollars during the 1970s, but Kiam was interested in purchasing the organization because he suspected that he could turn it around. Emphasis added to excerpts by QI:²

In Chapter 1, I mentioned that an entrepreneur must be decisive and must also be prepared to grasp opportunity. Procrastination is opportunity’s natural assassin. I wasted no time in finding out the particulars of Remington’s situation.

Kiam was not the first to use this sharp figurative language. Many years earlier, in 1916 a newspaper in Durham, North Carolina printed an advertisement for Home Savings Bank encouraging readers to open an account:³

Procrastination is the assassin of opportunity and the destroyer of youthful ideals.

Don’t put it off—start that sayings account today. Add to it at regular intervals and you will soon be on the road to comfort and happiness.

QI believes that the expression was probably already in circulation in 1916. Yet, it was conceivable that the copywriter crafted the saying. The phrasing differed from the version Kiam later popularized.

Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.

Quote Origin: I Try To Leave Out the Parts that People Skip

Elmore Leonard? Marty Asher? Leonore Fleischer? Apocryphal?

Question for Quote Investigator: The funniest and most cogent writing advice I have ever heard was delivered by the best-selling author Elmore Leonard. According to folklore, an aspiring novelist implored Leonard to reveal the secret of his success, and he replied with something like this:

I leave out the parts that readers tend to skip.

Would you please help me to find a citation?

Reply from Quote Investigator: The earliest evidence known to QI appeared in 1985 within the trade magazine “Publishers Weekly”. Columnist Leonore Fleischer relayed an anecdote from Marty Asher, editor-in-chief of the Quality Paperback Book Club. Emphasis added to excerpts by QI:¹

Marty said, “Do you want to hear the best quote about publishing that I’ve heard in 20 years?” We whipped out our Ticonderoga #2. “It was uttered by Elmore Leonard (author of Glitz) at the Book-of-the-Month Club luncheon. We were all raving to him about his books, how quickly they move and how good the dialogue is, and Leonard said quietly, out of the comer of his mouth, ‘Yeah, I try to leave out the parts that people skip.'” We’re gonna paste that on the wall over our Selectric.

Many years later in 2001 Leonard penned an essay of writing advice for “The New York Times”, and he included a similar remark. See the citation further below.

Here are additional selected citations in chronological order.

Quote Origin: Never Doubt That a Small Group of Thoughtful, Committed Citizens Can Change the World; Indeed, It’s the Only Thing That Ever Has

Margaret Mead? Donald Keys? Norman Vincent Peale? Patrick E. Haggerty? R. H. Edwin Espy? Apocryphal?

Question for Quote Investigator: A popular energizing statement about small groups changing the world is usually attributed to the influential cultural anthropologist Margaret Mead. Yet, I have been unable to find a solid citation. Would you please help?

Reply from Quote Investigator: Researchers have been unsuccessful in finding the quotation in Margaret Mead’s corpus. The earliest strong match known to QI appeared in the 1982 book “Earth at Omega: Passage to Planetization”. The epigraph of chapter 6 was the following. Emphasis added to excerpts by QI:¹

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world: indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.
— Margaret Mead

The author, Donald Keys, did not provide any details about the source of the statement. Margaret Mead had died a few years earlier in 1978.

Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.

Quote Origin: If You Invent a Breakthrough in Artificial Intelligence So Machines Can Learn, That Is Worth 10 Microsofts

Bill Gates? Apocryphal?

Question for Quote Investigator: I saw an advertisement on the “USA Today” website that claimed Bill Gates once spoke about a technology that was ripe for invention and would be worth 10 Microsofts. The ad did not identify the technology. Did Bill Gates really make a remark of this type?

Reply from Quote Investigator: In the early 2000s many companies with business models intertwined with the internet saw their stock prices collapse. Wary students observed this dot-com crash, and the number of computer science majors declined. In 2004 Bill Gates visited a series of universities to encourage students to pursue a career in computing which he believed still held marvelous opportunities. “The New York Times” reported a shrewd forward-looking comment made by Gates. Emphasis added to excerpts by QI:¹

Mr. Gates scoffed at the notion, advanced by some, that the computer industry was a mature business of waning opportunity. In one question-and-answer session, a student asked if there could ever be another technology company as successful as Microsoft.

“If you invent a breakthrough in artificial intelligence, so machines can learn,” Mr. Gates responded, “that is worth 10 Microsofts.”

Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.

Quote Origin: It Is Not Real Work Unless You Would Rather Be Doing Something Else

James Matthew Barrie? Chub De Wolfe? Apocryphal?

Question for Quote Investigator: When I am absorbed in performing a difficult and fascinating task I do not feel like I am working. James Matthew Barrie, the well-known creator of “Peter Pan”, addressed this phenomenon:

Nothing is really work unless you would rather be doing something else.

I have been unable to find a solid citation. Would you please help?

Reply from Quote Investigator: This saying is difficult to trace because the original phrasing employed by J. M. Barrie was different. On May 3, 1922 Barrie delivered the Rectorial Address at St. Andrews University. He spoke about his time as a freelance journalist, and noted that his excitement and motivation were large enough that the experience did not seem like work. In the following passage he also referred to Robert Louis Stevenson’s success as a writer. Emphasis added to excerpts by QI:¹

But now, on reflection, a dreadful sinking assails me, that this was not really work. The artistic callings—you remember how Stevenson thumped them—are merely doing what you are clamorous to be at; it is not real work unless you would rather be doing something else.

Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.

Quote Origin: You Better Not Compromise Yourself. It’s All You Got

Janis Joplin? Apocryphal?

Question for Quote Investigator: Janis Joplin was an American rock star of the late 1960s and early 1970s who tragically died when she was only 27. Her vocalizations and emotional delivery were distinctive. Apparently she said:

Don’t compromise yourself. You’re all you’ve got.

Would you please help me to find a citation?

Reply from Quote Investigator: The earliest evidence located by QI appeared in the Sunday newspaper supplement “Parade” magazine which published a short profile of Janis Joplin in April 1969:¹

Last year, Janis earned over $50,000. Her album, Cheap Thrills, was a big hit. Now, with a new band, a comfortable apartment in San Francisco and a multicolored Porsche, Janis is big-time and rising.

Her message: “You better not compromise yourself. It’s all you got.”

The quotation above differed slightly from the popular modern version. The text was not part of an interview; hence, it was possible that the journalist Derek Norcross lifted the quotation from some earlier article that QI has not yet seen.

Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.

Quote Origin: I Don’t Get Ulcers. I Give Them

Harry Cohn? Samuel Goldwyn? David O. Selznick? Jimmie Fidler? Lyndon B. Johnson? Anonymous?

Question for Quote Investigator: According to a Hollywood legend a movie mogul expressed his unhappiness by angrily upbraiding underlings. Eventually, an assistant cautioned him that delivering repeated harangues can cause stomach ulcers. The magnate snarled:

I don’t get ulcers. I give them.

This remark has been attributed to several people including:

Harry Cohn who was president of Columbia Pictures Corporation which made films such as “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” and “All the King’s Men”.
Samuel Goldwyn who worked at Paramount and Samuel Goldwyn Productions while making films such as “Wuthering Heights” and “The Best Years of Our Lives”.
David O. Selznick who worked at Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Paramount, and RKO while producing films such as “King Kong” and “Gone With the Wind”.

Would you please explore this topic?

Reply from Quote Investigator: The earliest match located by QI appeared in the syndicated gossip column of Jimmie Fidler in March 1947. The line was delivered by a Hollywood producer who was not named but was described as famous and egotistical. Emphasis added to excerpts by QI:¹

Seems one of his employes, after listening to the big shot administer a fifteen-minute tongue-lashing to an assistant, ventured one solicitous remark. “You shouldn’t let yourself become so excited,” he warned. “You’re liable to get stomach ulcers.” “I don’t get ulcers,” roared the mighty one, “I give them!”

Fidler retold the tale in June 1949, and he belatedly identified the producer as David O. Selznick.

Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.

Quote Origin: Recipe To Create a Publisher: Take an Idiot Man from a Lunatic Asylum . . .

Mark Twain? Frank Nelson Doubleday? Apocryphal?

Question for Quote Investigator: Mark Twain apparently held a very low opinion of book publishers. He suggested that publishers could be created via a multigenerational combination of individuals from lunatic asylums. Could you please help me find a citation for this sentiment?

Reply from Quote Investigator: In 1897 Frank Nelson Doubleday and Samuel McClure cofounded the publishing company Doubleday & McClure. The new firm required a stable of successful authors; hence, Doubleday traveled to Europe to attempt to recruit luminaries such as Rudyard Kipling and Mark Twain. He visited Twain in a hotel in Vienna, Austria, and Twain delivered the following comical barb. Emphasis added to excerpts by QI:¹

He told me, among other things, that he had a perfect recipe for making a modern American publisher. “Take an idiot man from a lunatic asylum and marry him to an idiot woman, and the fourth generation of this connection should be a good publisher from the American point of view. I had a perfect publisher myself, as you know,” he said. “His name was Frank Bliss, and thank God, he is dead and gone to hell.”

In 1928 Frank Doubleday privately printed “A Few Indiscreet Recollections” and the text above was included. The slim volume was limited to fifty-seven copies, and the recipients were described with the phrase “Indulgent Relatives”.

Doubleday died in 1934. Many years later, in 1972 the privately printed material was released under the title “The Memoirs of a Publisher”. The 1972 edition included a footnote slyly pointing out that Twain’s lacerating description would ultimately apply to himself:²

* Clemens himself later became a publisher.

Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.

Quote Origin: 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?

Question for 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?

Reply from 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

“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.

Quote Origin: I Can Hire Half the Working Class To Fight the Other Half

Jay Gould? John Livingston? Delmore Schwartz? Apocryphal?

Question for 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.

I am skeptical because I have not seen a solid citation. Would you please explore the provenance of this expression?

Reply from 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

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.