Quote Investigator® – Page 179

I’m as Pure as the Driven Slush

Tallulah Bankhead? Joan Collins? Apocryphal?

Dear Quote Investigator: Two vibrant actresses have been connected to a satirical statement about purity: Tallulah Bankhead and Joan Collins. I think that the statement was made as a humorous self-description. But it may have been made as a criticism. Here are two versions:

I’m as pure as the driven slush.
She is as pure as the driven slush.

Could you explore this saying?

Quote Investigator: The earliest evidence located by QI appeared in the widely-distributed syndicated column of Walter Winchell in 1941:[ref] 1941 September 3, Tucson Daily Citizen, Walter Winchell On Broadway, Quote Page 4, Column 2, Tucson, Arizona. (NewspaperArchive)[/ref][ref] 1941 September 3, Omaha World Herald, Walter Winchell On Broadway, Quote Page 6, Column 5, Omaha, Nebraska. (GenealogyBank)[/ref]

Tallulah, however, is still indifferent to what others think and say of her. As indifferent as she was a dozen seasons ago when a prudish interviewer asked: “Would you call yourself a pure woman?” “Yes,” said Bankhead, “I’m as pure as the driven slush.”

In 1947 The Saturday Evening Post published a seven page profile of Tallulah Bankhead with the title “Alabama Tornado” by Maurice Zolotow. The quotation was repeated in the article, but it was not spoken during the interview:[ref] 1947 April 12, Saturday Evening Post, Volume 219, Issue 41, Alabama Tornado by Maurice Zolotow, Start Page 15, Quote Page 17, Column 1, Saturday Evening Post Society, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana. (Academic Search Premier EBSCO)[/ref][ref] Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, Edited by Elizabeth Knowles, Entry: Tallulah Bankhead, Oxford University Press. (Accessed Oxford Reference Online on September 10, 2011)[/ref][ref] 2006, The Yale Book of Quotations by Fred R. Shapiro, Section: Tallulah Bankhead, Page 43, Yale University Press, New Haven. (Verified on paper) [/ref]

Secretly, she is pleased with her largely unfounded reputation as one of the wickedest women of the age. She once cracked, “I’m as pure as the driven slush.”

Here are additional selected citations in chronological order.

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The Intuitive Mind Is a Sacred Gift and the Rational Mind Is a Faithful Servant

Albert Einstein? Bob Samples? Apocryphal?

Dear Quote Investigator: A well-known scholar delivered a lively and appealing lecture online which included the following quotation. The words were attributed to Einstein, but I am skeptical:

The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.

Does this quotation interest you enough to investigate?

Quote Investigator: Albert Einstein died in 1955. The earliest evidence known to QI linking Einstein to this expression appeared in the 1976 book “The Metaphoric Mind: A Celebration of Creative Consciousness” by Bob Samples. The author did not claim he was quoting Einstein; instead, Samples was presenting his personal interpretation of Einstein’s perspective. Boldface has been added to the following excerpts:[ref] 1976, The Metaphoric Mind: A Celebration of Creative Consciousness by Bob Samples, Quote Page 26, Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, Reading, Massachusetts. (Verified on paper)[/ref]

The metaphoric mind is a maverick. It is as wild and unruly as a child. It follows us doggedly and plagues us with its presence as we wander the contrived corridors of rationality. It is a metaphoric link with the unknown called religion that causes us to build cathedrals — and the very cathedrals are built with rational, logical plans. When some personal crisis or the bewildering chaos of everyday life closes in on us, we often rush to worship the rationally-planned cathedral and ignore the religion. Albert Einstein called the intuitive or metaphoric mind a sacred gift. He added that the rational mind was a faithful servant. It is paradoxical that in the context of modern life we have begun to worship the servant and defile the divine.

QI hypothesizes that the words of Samples have been altered over time to match the modern quotation given by the questioner. Also, the resultant expression has improperly been assigned directly to Albert Einstein. In addition, the reader should note that the final sentence is presented as the opinion of Samples and not Einstein.

Several researchers have been unable to locate a statement by Einstein matching the expression above though Einstein did speak highly of intuition. Samples articulated his opinion about Einstein’s beliefs more than once. For example, on a later page in the same book he wrote the following:[ref] 1976, The Metaphoric Mind: A Celebration of Creative Consciousness by Bob Samples, Quote Page 62, Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, Reading, Massachusetts. (Verified on paper)[/ref]

This quality — invention — is what led Einstein and others to view the intuitive qualities of the metaphoric mind as a “sacred gift.” It is enriched by an infinity of knowings, and it ceaselessly repatterns these to a compound infinity of possibilities as it wanders across the face of the world.

In 1977 “The Phi Delta Kappan” magazine published an article by Bob Samples titled “Mind Cycles and Learning” which included this passage:[ref] 1977 May, The Phi Delta Kappan, Issue title: Turmoil in Teacher Education, Volume 58, Number 9, Mind Cycles and Learning by Bob Samples, Start Page 688, Quote Page 689, Published by Phi Delta Kappa International. (JSTOR) link [/ref]

Albert Einstein once spoke of intuition as a sacred gift and likened rationality to a faithful servant. Our basic purpose was to shift the tendency to worship the servant and ignore the sacred.

Note that the second sentence reflected the goal of Samples.

Here are additional selected citations in chronological order.

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“To Be Is To Do” “To Do Is To Be” “Do Be Do Be Do”

Kurt Vonnegut? Frank Sinatra? Jean-Paul Sartre? Dale Carnegie? Bud Crew? Socrates? Anonymous?

Dear Quote Investigator: The 1982 novel “Deadeye Dick” by the popular author Kurt Vonnegut mentioned the following piece of graffiti:

“To be is to do”—Socrates.
“To do is to be”—Jean-Paul Sartre.
“Do be do be do”—Frank Sinatra.

I think this tripartite list first appeared in bathroom stalls in the 1960s or 1970s, but sometimes different authors were specified. Could you explore the history of this humorous scrawled message?

Quote Investigator: The earliest published description located by QI of a graffito that conformed to this template appeared in the “Dallas Morning News” of Dallas, Texas in January 1968. According to the columnist Paul Crume the graffito was created in an incremental process by three different people. The initiator was a local businessman in Richardson, Texas:[ref] 1968 January 29, Dallas Morning News, Paul Crume’s Big D, Quote Page A1, Column 6, Dallas, Texas. (The spelling “Leo-Tzu” is used in the original text instead of the more common “Lao-Tzu”) (GenealogyBank)[/ref]

Bud Crew says that a month ago he wrote this on the warehouse wall at Bud’s Tool Cribs in Richardson: “‘The way to do is to be.’—Leo-tzu, Chinese philosopher.”

A few days later, a salesman wrote under that: “‘The way to be is to do.’—Dale Carnegie,”

Recently, says Crew, an anonymous sage has added still another axiom: “‘Do be, do be, do.’ — Frank Sinatra.”

The phrase ascribed to the famous vocalist Sinatra was derived from his version of the song “Strangers in the Night” which was a number-one hit in 1966. Near the end of the track Sinatra sang a sequence of nonsense syllables that could be transcribed as “do de do be do” or “do be do be do”. This distinctive and memorable stylization has sometimes been parodied.[ref] YouTube video, Title: Strangers in The Night – Frank Sinatra, Artist: Frank Sinatra, Uploaded on July 6, 2007, Uploaded by: kumpulanvideo, (Quotation starts at 2 minute 23 seconds of 5 minutes 10 seconds) (Accessed on youtube.com on October 18, 2013) link [/ref]

In July 1968 this graffito tale was included in a syndicated series called “Weekend Chuckles” from General Features Corporation; hence, it achieved wide dissemination. Some details were omitted, e.g., Bud Crew’s name was not given, but the graffito was nearly identical. The spelling of “Leo-tzu” was changed to “Lao-tse”:[ref] 1968 July 28, Times-Picayune, Section 2, Weekend Chuckles, (Syndicated by General Features Corp.), Quote Page 3, Column 1, New Orleans, Louisiana, (GenealogyBank)[/ref]

One fellow was inspired to write on a warehouse wall: “The way to do is to be.—Lao-tse, Chinese philosopher.”

A few days later, a salesman wrote under that: “The way to be is to do.—Dale Carnegie.”

Recently an anonymous sage has added still another message: “Do be, do be, do.—Frank Sinatra.”

In January 1969 a real-estate agent named Joe Griffith ran an advertisement in a South Carolina newspaper that included the tripartite message. The first two statements in this instance were shortened and simplified. In addition, one of the attributions was switched to Socrates:[ref] 1969 January 31, The News and Courier (Charleston News and Courier), (Advertisement for Joe Griffith Inc., Realtor), Quote Page 15B, Column 2, Charleston, South Carolina. (GenealogyBank)[/ref]

Joe Griffith Sez:
“TO BE IS TO DO” Dale Carnegie
“TO DO IS TO BE” Socrates
“DO BE DO BE DO” Frank Sinatra

The message continued to evolve over the decades and many philosophers and authors have been substituted into the template including: Dale Carnegie, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Jean-Paul Sartre, Albert Camus, John Stuart Mill, William James, William Shakespeare, and Bertrand Russell. The punchline ascribed to Frank Sinatra, in some form, is usually preserved though a variety of other lines have been added to the joke as shown in the 1990 citation further below.

Here are additional selected citations in chronological order.

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Able Was I Ere I Saw Elba

Napoleon Bonaparte? J.T.R. of Baltimore? Apocryphal?

Dear Quote Investigator: A famous palindrome is attributed to the renowned French leader Napoleon Bonaparte who was once exiled to the island of Elba:

Able was I ere I saw Elba.

Supposedly Napoleon said this reversible phrase to Barry Edward O’Meara who was his physician during his captivity on the island of Saint Helena. Is there any truth to this entertaining piece of folklore?

Quote Investigator: Napoleon Bonaparte died in 1821, and the earliest appearance of this palindrome located by QI was published in a U.S. periodical called “Gazette of the Union” in 1848. The article credited someone with the initials J.T.R residing in Baltimore, Maryland with the creation of the palindrome. Here is an extended excerpt discussing three palindromes. Boldface has been added to excerpts:[ref] 1848 July 8, “The Gazette of the Union, Golden Rule, and Odd-Fellows’ Family Companion”, Doings in Baltimore: Ingenious Arrangement of Words, Quote Page 30, Published for the Proprietors by J. R. Crampton, New York. (Google Books full view) link [/ref]

Among other things worthy of note, our friend J.T.R. called our attention to the following ingenious though somewhat antique, arrangement of words by the “water poet,” Taylor:

“Lewd did I live & evil I did dwell.”

He remarked that this sentence had attracted considerable attention, and that challenges had been frequently given in the papers for the production of a combination of words, that would so perfectly “read backward and forward the same,” as this line does.

During some moments of leisure, he had produced the following line. In our opinion it is much more perfect than Taylor’s because there are no letters used or dispensed with, which are not legitimate, as in his, in the first and last letters—”lewd” and “dwell:”

“Snug & raw was I ere I saw war & guns.”

With the exception of the sign &, which is twice substituted for the properly spelt conjunction, which it represents, the sentence is perfect. By the way, there is couched in the sentence a fact, which many a soldier who has just returned from the battle fields of Mexico will fully appreciate.

But our friend was not satisfied with this near approach to perfection, but determined to produce a line which would require the aid of no sign to justify it as a correct sentence, and the following was the result of his endeavor:

“Able was I ere I saw Elba.”

Those who are acquainted with the career of Napoleon, will readily recognize the historical force of the sentence in its application to that distinguished warrior. Although our friend has cut more than one figure in the world, in all of which he brought credit to himself, we know he did not desire to figure in our paper to the extent we have caused him to do; he merely submitted the above sentences for our personal amusement, and we take the liberty of giving them to our readers; challenging any of them to produce lines of equal ingenuity of arrangement with the same amount of sense.

According to the text above, Napoleon did not construct the palindrome; however, the person who did craft the phrase employed the historical episode of exile as an inspiration for his wordplay.

Within a decade the palindrome had been reassigned directly to Napoleon Bonaparte. An illustrative citation in a Virginia newspaper in 1858 is given further below.

Here are additional selected citations in chronological order.

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He’s a Writer for the Ages—For the Ages of Four to Eight

Dorothy Parker? George Jean Nathan? Anonymous?

Dear Quote Investigator: The trenchant prose of Dorothy Parker has always impressed me. Reportedly she once lacerated a writer who was receiving a superfluity of undeserved accolades with the following:

He is a writer for the ages — the ages of four to eight.

Is this Parker’s joke? When was this written?

Quote Investigator: The earliest evidence located by QI of a remark matching this template appeared in the ‘Patter’ section of “The Reader’s Digest” in 1938. The age limits were different, and the barb was aimed at a playwright, but the core joke was the same. In addition, the words were not attributed to Dorothy Parker; instead, another wit named George Jean Nathan was credited. Here are two examples from the ‘Patter’ section:[ref] 1938 January, Reader’s Digest, Volume 32, Patter, Quote Page 19, The Reader’s Digest Association. (Verified on paper)[/ref]

When the Critics Crack the Quip

Tallulah Bankhead barged down the Nile last night as Cleopatra — and sank. —John Mason Brown in N.Y. Post

Mr. ———— writes his plays for the ages — the ages between five and twelve —George Jean Nathan

A decade later, in 1948 the anecdote and quotation collector Bennett Cerf published the volume “Shake Well Before Using”, and he included an instance of the saying ascribed to Parker:[ref] 1950, Shake Well Before Using by Bennett Cerf, Quote Page 219, Garden City Books, Garden City, New York. (Reprint of 1948 Simon and Schuster edition; Verified on paper in 1950 Garden City Books edition) [/ref]

Miss Parker was asked another time to express an opinion of an overpraised novelist. She remarked, “He’s a writer for the ages—for the ages of four to eight.”

Here are additional selected citations in chronological order.

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If Men Could Get Pregnant, Abortion Would Be a Sacrament

Florynce Kennedy? Gloria Steinem? Elderly Irish Taxicab Driver? Germaine Greer? Anonymous?

Dear Quote Investigator: An incendiary quotation on the topic of abortion has an uncertain authorship. The following words have been attributed to both Florynce Kennedy and Gloria Steinem:

If men could get pregnant, abortion would be a sacrament.

Could you determine who said it first?

Quote Investigator: The earliest published evidence located by QI appeared in an issue of the periodical “Off Our Backs” dated June 24, 1971 in which a speech given by the prominent activist Florynce Kennedy at a rally held on May 15, 1971 in Washington D.C. was described:[ref] 1971 June 24, Off Our Backs: A Women’s News Journal, Volume 1, Number 23, “bringing it home: if men could get pregnant, abortion would be a sacrament” by Chris Hobbs, Quote Page 20, Column 1, Published by Off Our Backs, Inc. (JSTOR) link link [/ref]

Florynce Kennedy, author of Abortion Rap defined the situation with her usual clarity: “If men could get pregnant, abortion would be a sacrament.” She also read parts of the Metropolitan Abortion Alliance’s statement on the media and urged a national boycott of the media sponsors.

The leading feminist Gloria Steinem also used the expression in speeches delivered in 1971, but intriguingly Steinem pointed to another person as creator of this saying. In her 1983 memoir “Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions” Steinem indicated that the statement was spoken to her and Florynce Kennedy by the “elderly Irish woman driver” of a taxi in Boston. Details are given further below.

So, the quotation was popularized by Kennedy and Steinem, but the origin can be traced back to an anonymous taxicab driver. Top researcher Ralph Keyes noted this fact in his important reference “The Quote Verifier”.[ref] 2006, The Quote Verifier by Ralph Keyes, Quote Page 62, St Martin’s Griffin, New York. (Verified on paper)[/ref]

Here are additional selected citations in chronological order.

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Behind Every Great Fortune There Is a Crime

Honoré de Balzac? Mario Puzo? Pierre Mille? Frank P. Walsh? Samuel Merwin? James Henry Yoxall? C. Wright Mills? Jane Bryant Quinn? Apocryphal?

Dear Quote Investigator: The popular 1969 novel “The Godfather” by Mario Puzo recounted the violent tale of a Mafia family, and the epigraph selected by the author was fascinating:

Behind every great fortune there is a crime.
—Balzac

While searching I found a few different versions of this saying. Yet, I have been unable to locate this maxim in a work written by Honoré de Balzac:

Behind every great fortune lies a great crime
Every great fortune begins with a crime
At the root of every great fortune there was a crime.

Should Balzac really be credited with this saying?

Quote Investigator: QI believes that this adage was inspired by a sentence that was written by Honoré de Balzac, but the expression has been simplified in an evolutionary process. Here is the original in French from a serialization of “Le Père Goriot” published in “Revue de Paris” in 1834:[ref] 1834, Revue de Paris, Volume 12, Le Père Goriot by Honoré de Balzac, Seconde Partie: L’entrée dans le monde, Start Page 237, Quote Page 258, Au Bureau De La Revue De Paris, Paris, France. (Google Books full view) link [/ref]

Le secret des grandes fortunes sans cause apparente est un crime oublié, parce qu’il a été proprement fait.

Balzac published a series of interlinked novels called “La Comédie Humaine” or “The Human Comedy”, and “Le Père Goriot” was part of this series. Eventually all were translated into English, and here is a rendering of the statement above published in 1896:[ref] 1896, Comédie Humaine by Honoré de Balzac, Edited by George Saintsbury, Old Goriot (Le Père Goriot), Translated by Ellen Marriage, Quote Page 124, J. M. Dent and Co., London and New York. (Google Books full view) link [/ref]

The secret of a great success for which you are at a loss to account is a crime that has never been found out, because it was properly executed.

Here is another translation into English that was published in 1900:[ref] 1900, The Standard Wormeley Edition: La Comédie Humaine of Honoré de Balzac, Translated by Katharine Prescott Wormeley, Père Goriot, Quote Page 142, Hardy, Prat & Co., Boston, Massachusetts. (Google Books full view) link [/ref]

The secret of a great fortune made without apparent cause is soon forgotten, if the crime is committed in a respectable way.

Note that Honoré de Balzac did not pronounce a general rule that larceny was at the root of all large fortunes. However, the simplified statement that is popular in modern times is arguably more provocative and consequently more memorable.

The simplification process is illustrated by an instance of the saying printed in a periodical in 1912. The following words were credited to an unidentified “French writer”. QI hypothesizes that they were inspired by a schematic memory of Balzac’s words:[ref] 1912 May 18, Charleston News and Courier, Conan Doyle’s Yarn, (Paris Correspondence New York Sun), Quote Page 8, Column 5, Charleston, South Carolina. (GenealogyBank)[/ref]

At the base of every great fortune there is a great crime.

Here are additional selected citations in chronological order.

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Golf: Like Chasing a Quinine Pill Around a Cow Pasture

Winston Churchill? Apocryphal? Anonymous?

Dear Quote Investigator: Winston Churchill played golf for a period of time, but he switched his avocation to painting. The following description of golf is sometimes attributed to him:

Like chasing a quinine pill around a cow pasture.

Did Churchill use this expression and did he coin it?

Quote investigator: There is good evidence that Churchill did employ this simile. It is listed in the important reference “Irrepressible Churchill: A Treasury of Winston Churchill’s Wit” by Kay Halle with a date of 1915.[ref] 1966, Irrepressible Churchill: A Treasury of Winston Churchill’s Wit by Kay Halle, Year: 1915, Quote Page 77, World Publishing Company, Cleveland and New York. (Verified on paper)[/ref] The author labeled the quotation “Ear-witness” which meant that a friend shared by Halle and Churchill ascribed the witticism to Churchill. However, sayings of this type have a long history, and a close match for the above statement was in circulation by 1895. Hence, QI thinks it is unlikely that Churchill crafted the expression.

A jocular portrayal of a golf outing was presented in “The Harvard Lampoon” of Harvard University in 1892. The drinking of beer was accentuated in this account. Future comical accounts often mentioned multi-acre lots:[ref] 1892, The Harvard Lampoon. Laughs for the Lampoon, (The Best Things that have appeared in the Harvard Lampoon during the College Year from October 1891 to June 1892), Quote Page 13, Column 2, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts. (Google Books full view) link [/ref]

THE WAY TO PLAY GOLF.

Get a foot-ball, two croquet mallets or old umbrella handles, and six cases of beer; carry the same to a ten-acre lot, then get out in the sun and swat the leather till you get a thirst. Every thirst counts ten, and the man with the biggest score to his credit when the beer gives out wins.

In December 1894 a profile of a Chicago golfer named Charles B. MacDonald was printed in multiple U.S. newspapers. The story included a saying that equated a golf ball and a quinine pill, and the attribution was anonymous. Boldface has been added to excerpts below:[ref] 1894 December 16, Idaho Statesman,”King of the Links: McDonald, the Chicago Golfer, Learned the Royal Sport at St. Andrews”, Quote Page 7, Column 3, Boise, Idaho. (GenealogyBank)[/ref][ref] 1894 December 21, Little Falls Weekly Transcript, King of the Links, Page 3, Column 6, Little Falls, Minnesota. (Chronicling America)[/ref]

Four or five alleged matches for the championship of the United States and of America were held at different times this year, and the sport of knocking a quinine pill around a 40 acre lot, as some humorist describes the game, is now the rage from Maine to Texas.

In May 1895 “Scribner’s Magazine” printed an article about golf that included a humorous depiction of the game placed between quotation marks without an attribution. This statement was similar to the one ascribed to Churchill:[ref] 1895 May, Scribner’s Magazine, Volume 17, Number 5, Golf by Henry E. Howland, Start Page 531, Quote Page 536, Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York. (Google Books full view) link [/ref]

The scoffer who speaks with a contempt not born of familiarity, or views it with assumed indifference, may assert that the game, with its system of strokes and score, will restore the unhealthy atmosphere of the croquet ground; that it will try the souls of the clergy and become the undoing of parishioners. “It is simply driving a quinine pill over a cow pasture.”

Here are additional selected citations in chronological order.

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“I Wish I Had Said That” “You Will, Oscar, You Will”

Oscar Wilde? James McNeill Whistler? Apocryphal?

Detail from depiction of Wilde and Whistler by Phil May in 1895

Question for Quote Investigator: I would like to learn more about a famous anecdote involving James McNeill Whistler, the painter who is known for his iconic portrait of his mother. Apparently, Whistler was able to trump Oscar Wilde, one of the greatest wits of the nineteenth century who was occasionally accused of appropriating the clever expressions spoken by others.

During a party Whistler made a humorous remark and the following statements were exchanged:

Oscar Wilde: I wish I had said that.
James McNeill Whistler: You will, Oscar, you will.

The accounts of this story I have read were written after the death of Oscar Wilde in 1900. Do earlier reports exist? Also, what was the quip that inspired Wilde’s compliment?

Reply from Quote Investigator: The earliest evidence known to QI was published in January 1886 in “The Sunday Herald” of Boston, Massachusetts. James McNeill Whistler was planning to visit the United States and conduct a lecture tour. William M. Chase, a friend of Whistler’s, was asked about the content of the forthcoming lectures and responded with caustic words about Oscar Wilde. The article included a version of the anecdote. Boldface has been added to excerpts:¹

“Was his talk on art similar in any respect to Mr. Wilde’s?”

“Well, as Oscar Wilde cribbed from Whistler almost everything he said in his lecture here about art that was worth saying, there may be some remote resemblance between the two lectures as to their matter, but that is certainly all.”

Whistler pricked this bubble of Wilde very neatly and epigrammatically at a Paris salon last season presided over by a well known and popular lady. Whistler had been notably witty during the evening and finally made a bon mot more than usually pointed and happy that convulsed his listeners.

Wilde, who was present, approved Mr. Whistler’s brightness, and wondered why he had not thought of the witticism himself. ‘You will,’ promptly replied Whistler, ‘you will.’ This lightning comment on Mr. Wilde’s wonderful ability to think of other people’s bright things and to repeat them as his own had, you may imagine, an immediate and most discomforting effect on Mr. Wilde.

Thanks to top researcher Stephen Goranson who located the above citation.

In May 1886 a version of the Wilde and Whistler anecdote was printed in a Wichita, Kansas newspaper. This instance was very similar to one given in “The Sunday Herald” above. The text was extracted from the longer article and slightly condensed.²

The next earliest evidence known to QI was printed in the “Jamestown Weekly Alert” of the Dakota Territory in February 1887.³ The same story was reprinted in “Frank Leslie’s Popular Monthly” in May 1887:⁴

A Boston artist tells this story of Whistler and Oscar Wilde, who has the reputation of borrowing Whistler’s bright speeches. Having heard the artist say an unusually good thing Oscar exclaimed, deploringly: “I wish I could have said that.” “Oh,” replied Whistler derisively, “but you know you will say it.”

This short description did not specify the comment initially made by Whistler, and most early descriptions were similarly incomplete. The precise phrasing of Whistler’s rejoinder was variable. Intriguing versions of the tale were published years later; in 1913 Douglas Sladen published an instance and claimed that he was present when the words were spoken. Sladen stated that the witticism that inspired Wilde’s initial compliment was spoken by a “pretty woman”. In 1946 a biographer named Hesketh Pearson presented another interesting example of the anecdote. The details of these cites are given further below.

Here are selected citations in chronological order.

Quote Origin: Success Is Never Final and Failure Never Fatal. It’s Courage That Counts

Winston Churchill? Copywriter for Budweiser Beer? George F. Tilton? Sam Rayburn? Joe Paterno? John Wooden? Mike Ditka? Anonymous?

Question for Quote Investigator: Here are two versions of stirring words that are often attributed to the well-known statesman Winston Churchill:

Success is never final and failure never fatal. It’s courage that counts.

Success is not final; failure is not fatal. It is the courage to continue that counts.

I have never seen a source for this saying, and I suspect Churchill never said it. What do you think?

Reply from Quote Investigator: There is no substantive evidence that Churchill made this remark. The saying is listed in the comprehensive quotation collection “Churchill by Himself” in a special appendix called “Red Herrings: False Attributions”.¹

Richard Langworth, the editor of “Churchill by Himself”, has a website with a webpage indicating that the saying above has been misattributed. Commenting more generally about expressions that are being improperly ascribed to Churchill he stated:²

These quotations are all over the Internet, none of them attributed, and just seem to multiply and get passed on, like the common cold.

QI hypothesizes that the saying above evolved from simpler partial statements during a multi-year process. A version closely matching the full expression appeared in the 1930s in an advertising campaign for Budweiser beer, a product of the Anheuser-Busch company. Based on current evidence, a copywriter for Budweiser probably synthesized the saying. Details are given further below.

Here are selected citations in chronological order.