Quote Investigator® – Page 2 – Tracing Quotations

Quote Origin: It Is Better To Be Vaguely Right Than Exactly Wrong

John Maynard Keynes? Francis Bacon? Ian Dishart Suttie? Carveth Read? Curt John Ducasse? Gerald F. Shove? H. Wildon Carr?

**Graph of an upward sweeping curve from Pixabay**

Question for Quote Investigator: Two seemingly contradictory adages have become popular:

(1) It is better to be vaguely right than exactly wrong
(2) It is better to be definitely wrong than vaguely right

The justification for the first adage is: A vaguely right answer is valuable because it provides a starting point that can be refined and improved over time to obtain a more accurate answer. However, an exactly wrong answer provides no insight and is misleading.

The justification for the second adage is: A definitely wrong answer is valuable because it can be detected. This recognition of failure forces creative thought to formulate new ideas and construct new answers enabling progress. However, a vaguely right answer encourages the lazy acceptance and the persistence of faulty incoherent ideas.

The first adage has been attributed to English economist John Maynard Keynes, but I have never seen a solid citation. The second adage has been credited to Scottish psychiatrist Ian Dishart Suttie, but I am skeptical. Would you please explore the provenance of these two adages?

Reply from Quote Investigator: Tracing these dual notions is difficult because they can be expressed in numerous ways. Below is an overview depicting the evolution of these sayings with attributions and dates. The statement from Francis Bacon is a precursor for the second adage:

1620: Citius emergit Veritas ex errore quam ex confusion (Francis Bacon)

1620: Truth emerges more readily from error than confusion (Francis Bacon rendered into English)

1898: It is better to be vaguely right than exactly wrong (Carveth Read)

1903: To be only vaguely right is worse than being definitely wrong (Unknown person with initials A. J. O.)

1929: Greater service to the cause of philosophical truth is ever done by being definitely wrong than by being vaguely right (Curt John Ducasse)

1933: It is better to be definitely wrong than vaguely right (Ian D. Suttie)

1936: Mandeville, Malthus, Gesell and Hobson … preferred to see the truth obscurely and imperfectly rather than to maintain error, reached … on hypotheses inappropriate to the facts (John Maynard Keynes)

1942: It is better to be vaguely right than precisely wrong (Attributed to Wildon Carr by Gerald Shove)

1955: It was better to be roughly right than precisely wrong (K. Smith)

1960: I would prefer to be vaguely right than precisely wrong (Sydney J. Harris)

1966: It is better to be vaguely right than precisely wrong (Attributed to John Maynard Keynes in “The Accountants Digest”)

1969: It is better to be vaguely right than precisely wrong (Attributed to John Maynard Keynes by Howard Ross)

1978: It is far better to be clearly and definitely wrong than to be vaguely and indefinitely right (J. Lorne McDougall)

1979: It is better to be precisely wrong than roughly accurate (Edmond A. Murphy)

2009: It was better to be vaguely right than precisely wrong (Attributed to John Maynard Keynes by Anthony Hilton)

Here are details for selected citations in chronological order.

Quote Origin: Money Cannot Buy Health, But I’d Settle for a Diamond-Studded Wheelchair

Dorothy Parker? Evan Esar? Barry Day? Apocryphal?

**Picture of six diamonds from Unsplash**

Question for Quote Investigator: The notable wit Dorothy Parker suffered from ill-health in her later years. She has been credited with the following remark:

Money cannot buy health. but I’d settle for a diamond-studded wheelchair.

I have not been able to find any solid citations, and I have become skeptical. What do you think?

Reply from Quote Investigator: The earliest match found by QI appeared in “The Liverpool Echo” of Merseyside, England in January 1959 within a column titled “Echoes and Gossip of the Day” which contained miscellaneous short items. A title appeared above the quotation. Boldface added to excerpts by QI:¹

Settling Up
Money can’t buy health. but I’d settle for a diamond-studded wheelchair. —Dorothy Parker.

Parker died in 1967; hence, this attribution occurred while she was still alive, but no source was specified.

Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.

Dialogue Origin: “Young People, Nowadays, Imagine That Money Is Everything” “Yes, and When They Grow Older They Know It”

Oscar Wilde? Henry Wotton? Sibyl Vane? Louis T. Stanley? Apocryphal?

Question for Quote Investigator: The famous wit Oscar Wilde has received credit for the following cynical dialogue, but I am not sure where it appeared:

“Young people, nowadays, imagine that money is everything.”
“Yes, and when they grow older they know it.”

Oscar Wilde has also received credit for the following quotation which has a very similar meaning:

When I was young I used to think that money was the most important thing in life. Now that I am old, I know it is.

I have become skeptical of these attributions. Are either of these quotations authentic? Did Oscar Wilde repeat the same joke? Would you please explore this topic?

Reply from Quote Investigator: Oscar Wilde published the novel “The Picture of Dorian Gray” in 1891. During a scene in chapter three the jaded and hedonistic character Lord Wotton (Henry Wotton) met with his uncle Lord Fermor (George Fermor) and discussed money. Boldface added to excerpts by QI:¹

“Money, I suppose,” said Lord Fermor, making a wry face. “Well, sit down and tell me all about it. Young people, nowadays, imagine that money is everything.”

“Yes,” murmured Lord Henry, settling his buttonhole in his coat; “and when they grow older they know it. But I don’t want money. It is only people who pay their bills who want that, Uncle George, and I never pay mine.”

Thus, Oscar Wilde should be credited with this dialogue; however, the acerbic rejoinder was spoken by a fictional character and not by Wilde himself.

QI conjectures that the second quotation in the inquiry was not written or spoken by Oscar Wilde; instead, it was derived from the first quotation via a faulty memory. Wilde died in 1900, and the earliest close match for the second quotation found by QI appeared in 1945.

Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.

Quote Origin: Language Is the Mother, Not the Handmaiden of Thought

W. H. Auden? Karl Kraus? Anonymous?

Question for Quote Investigator: Philosophers and scientists are still trying to elucidate the interconnectedness of thought and language. The advent of large language models in artificial intelligence has highlighted this conundrum. One literary figure emphasized the primacy of language with the following adage:

Language is the mother, not the handmaiden of thought.

This statement has been attributed to British-American poet W. H. Auden and Austrian writer Karl Kraus. Yet, I have not seen any solid citations. Would you please explore this topic?

Reply from Quote Investigator: The earliest match known to QI appeared in 1909 within the Vienna periodical “Die Fackel” (“The Torch”) which published a set of aphorisms crafted by Karl Kraus. The following item was included. Boldface added to excerpts by QI:¹

Die Sprache ist die Mutter, nicht die Magd des Gedankens.

Hear is one possible translation into English:

Language Is the Mother, Not the Handmaiden of Thought.

QI believes this saying should be credited to Karl Kraus. Decades later W. H. Auden also used the expression, but Auden credited Kraus.

Below is an overview tracing the evolution of the saying with variants, attributions, and dates:

1870: Language is the handmaiden of thought
Article in Harper’s New Monthly Magazine; author not specified

1907: For speech is the handmaiden of thought, And thought makes the universe to tremble
Written by Francis du Bosque

1909: Die Sprache ist die Mutter, nicht die Magd des Gedankens
(Language is the mother, not the handmaiden of thought)
Aphorism authored by Karl Kraus

1912: Language is … the mother of thought, not its handmaiden
Credited to Karl Kraus in “The Times Literary Supplement”

1965: Die Sprache ist die Mutter, nicht die Magd, des Gedankens
Epigraph of a poem by W. H. Auden who credited Karl Kraus

1966: Speech is the mistress, not the handmaiden, of thought
Spoken by W. H. Auden during an interview

1970 Jan: Language is the mother, not the handmaiden, of thought; words will tell you things you never thought or felt before
Spoken by W. H. Auden during an interview

1970 Sep: Speech is the mother of thought, not the hand-maiden
Spoken by W. H. Auden during an interview

1988: Language is not the handmaiden but the mother of ideas
Attributed to Karl Kraus

Below are details for selected citations in chronological order.

Quote Origin: The Sweetness of Low Price Never Equals the Bitterness of Poor Quality

Benjamin Franklin? John Ruskin? Thomas B. Lehon? Anonymous?

**A collection of SALE tags from Unsplash**

Question for Quote Investigator: A family of sayings warns about the dangers of selecting products based on price alone. Here are three instances:

(1) The sweetness of low price never equals the bitterness of poor quality

(2) The bitterness of poor quality remains long after the sweetness of low price is forgotten

(3) The bitter taste of poor service remains long after the sweet taste of low price is forgotten.

This saying has been attributed to U.S. statesman Benjamin Franklin and English art critic John Ruskin. However, I have never seen a solid citation, and I have become skeptical. Would you please explore this topic?

Reply from Quote Investigator: Benjamin Franklin died in 1790. John Ruskin died in 1900. QI has found no substantive evidence that Franklin or Ruskin employed this saying.

The earliest match found by QI appeared in a “Catalogue of Copyright Entries” for the United States which contained the following entry from Thomas B. Lehon dated September 4, 1906. Boldface added to excepts by QI:¹

The sweetness of low price never equals the bitterness of poor quality.
card, 3 1/2 by 8 1/2 inches.
T. B. Lehon, Chicago, Ill. A 154632,
Sept. 4, 1906; 2 c, Oct. in 1906.

Thomas B. Lehon is the leading candidate for creator of this saying. Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.

Quote Origin: The Fear of Infinity Is a Form of Myopia. The Infinite in Its Highest Form Created Us

Georg Cantor? Galileo Galilei? Rudy Rucker? David Foster Wallace? Apocryphal?

**Symbol of the transfinite cardinal number aleph zero**

Question for Quote Investigator: The careless use of infinity in mathematical and scientific reasoning produces confusion and contradictions. Hence, mathematicians in the 1800s often placed tight restrictions on the use of infinity within mathematical proofs.

The theory of transfinite numbers was pioneered by mathematician Georg Cantor who envisioned an extraordinary hierarchy of infinite sets. Influential colleagues reacted with disbelief and scorn to Cantor’s mind-stretching ideas. Apparently, Cantor responded by saying something like the following:

The fear of infinity is a form of myopia that destroys the possibility of seeing the actual infinite, even though it in its highest form has created and sustains us.

Oddly, this statement has also been attributed to the famous Italian Renaissance astronomer Galileo Galilei. Would you please help me to find an accurate version of the quotation together with a citation identifying the originator?

Reply from Quote Investigator: QI has found no substantive support for the attribution to Galileo Galilei who died in 1642. A contributor to the Goodreads website implausibly linked the quotation to Galileo in 2017.¹

The earliest close match in English known to QI appeared in 1982 within the book “Infinity and the Mind: The Science and Philosophy of the Infinite” by mathematician and science fiction author Rudy Rucker. Boldface added to excerpts by QI:²

In mathematics no other subject has led to more polemics than the issue of the existence or nonexistence of mathematical infinities. We will return to some of these polemics in the last chapter. For now, let us reprint Cantor’s opening salvo in the modern phase of this age-old debate:

The fear of infinity is a form of myopia that destroys the possibility of seeing the actual infinite, even though it in its highest form has created and sustains us, and in its secondary transfinite forms occurs all around us and even inhabits our minds.

The accompanying footnote pointed to a letter by Georg Cantor published within a collection of his essays.

Below are details and additional selected citations in chronological order.

Quote Origin: All True Poems Are About Love, Death, or the Changing of the Seasons

Robert Graves? Samuel R. Delany? Marilyn Hacker? Apocryphal?

**Leaf colors depicting seasonal changes from Unsplash**

Question for Quote Investigator: The following witty remark is popular in poetry circles although its accuracy is debated:

All true poetry is about love, death, or the changing of the seasons.

This statement has been attributed to the English poet and historical novelist Robert Graves; however, I have never seen a solid citation; hence, I am skeptical. Would you please explore the provenance of this remark?

Reply from Quote Investigator: QI has been unable to find this precise statement in the writings of Robert Graves. QI hypothesizes that the saying was derived from a thematically similar remark in “The White Goddess: A Historical Grammar of Poetic Myth” which Graves published in 1948 and enlarged in 1952. The key sentence occurred at the end of the following passage. Boldface added to excerpts:¹

Originally, the poet was the leader of a totem-society of religious dancers. His verses—versus is a Latin word corresponding to the Greek strophe and means ‘a turning’—were danced around an altar or in a sacred enclosure and each verse started a new turn or movement in the dance.

The word ‘ballad’ has the same origin: it is a dance poem, from the Latin ballare, to dance. All the totem-societies in ancient Europe were under the dominion of the Great Goddess, the Lady of the Wild Things; dances were seasonal and fitted into an annual pattern from which gradually emerges the single grand theme of poetry: the life, death and resurrection of the Spirit of the Year, the Goddess’s son and lover.

The quotation in the form specified by the inquiry was popularized by the science fiction author Samuel R. Delany starting in 1975. Delany believed that the quotation appeared in “The White Goddess”. The best partial match found by QI within “The White Goddess” is the sentence above. Detailed citations for Delany are given further below.

Here are additional selected citations in chronological order.

Quote Origin: All Profoundly Original Art Looks Ugly at First

Clement Greenberg? Robert M. Coates? Jane Holtz Kay? Pablo Picasso? Gertrude Stein? Tom Wolfe?

**Public domain blue-green painting using the drip style**

Question for Quote Investigator: Modern art evokes divergent reactions. One unhappy critic described three paintings by Jackson Pollock as “mere unorganized explosions of random energy, and therefore meaningless”. However, an influential critic who championed Pollock stated:

All profoundly original art looks ugly at first.

Would you please help me identify these critics and find citations for these remarks?

Reply from Quote Investigator: In 1945 art critic Clement Greenberg published an essay in “The Nation” which praised contemporary artist Jackson Pollock as “the strongest painter of his generation”. Greenberg celebrated courageous artists. Boldface added to excerpts by QI:¹

There has been a certain amount of self-deception in School of Paris art since the exit of cubism. In Pollock there is absolutely none, and he is not afraid to look ugly—all profoundly original art looks ugly at first. Those who find his oils overpowering are advised to approach him through his gouaches, which in trying less to wring every possible ounce of intensity from every square inch of surface achieve greater clarity and are less suffocatingly packed than the oils.

In 1948 “The New Yorker” magazine published a piece by art critic Robert M. Coates who described the paintings of Pollock as large blobs of color laced with fine lines. Coates contended that the pictures contained no recognizable symbols:²

Such a style has its dangers, for the threads of communication between artist and spectator are so very tenuous that the utmost attention is required to get the message through. There are times when communications break down entirely, and, with the best will in the world, I can say of such pieces as “Lucifer,” “Reflection of the Big Dipper,” and “Cathedral” only that they seem mere unorganized explosions of random energy, and therefore meaningless.

Coates’s judgement of Pollock was not uniformly negative. He also stated:

. . . both “Magic Lantern” and the larger “Enchanted Forest” have a good deal of poetic suggestion about them.

Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.

Quote Origin: When You Make a Thing, It Is So Complicated Making It That It Is Bound To Be Ugly

Pablo Picasso? Gertrude Stein? Alice B. Toklas? Clement Greenberg? Victor Papanek? Edmund Wilson?

**Portrait of Gertrude Stein by Pablo Picasso circa 1906**

Question for Quote Investigator: Creating innovative artworks is difficult, and pioneering artists face strong opposition. New music is deemed discordant and grating. New architecture is labeled misshapen and impractical. New paintings are considered ugly and maladroit. Apparently, a prominent painter once said:

When you make a thing, it is so complicated making it that it is bound to be ugly.

This remark has been attributed to Spanish painter and sculptor Pablo Picasso. Would you please help me to find a citation?

Reply from Quote Investigator: Prominent writer and art collector Gertrude Stein credited Pablo Picasso with this quotation in her 1933 book titled “The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas”. Stein’s book adopted the viewpoint and voice of her friend and life partner Toklas, but Stein was the ultimate author.

The punctuation and phrasing in the book were unconventional because of its stream-of-consciousness style. In the following excerpt, Stein asked Toklas about a recent vernissage which is a private preview of an art exhibition. Toklas criticized two paintings by Picasso. Boldface added by QI:¹

What did you think of what you saw, asked Miss Stein. Well I did see something. Sure you did, she said, but did you see what it had to do with those two pictures you sat in front of so long at the vernissage. Only that Picassos were rather awful and the others were not. Sure, she said, as Pablo once remarked, when you make a thing, it is so complicated making it that it is bound to be ugly, but those that do it after you they don’t have to worry about making it and they can make it pretty, and so everybody can like it when the others make it.

Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.

Quote Origin: It’s None of Their Business That You Have To Learn To Write. Let Them Think You Were Born That Way

Ernest Hemingway? Arnold Samuelson? Apocryphal?

**Illustration of a hand writing with a pen**

Question for Quote Investigator: The life of a famous writer is exhaustively scrutinized by academics who attempt to delineate the young scribe’s growth and maturation. Yet, the typical writer does not wish to be placed under a microscope. Apparently, a prominent author once said:

It’s none of their business that you have to learn to write. Let them think you were born that way.

These words have been attributed to Ernest Hemingway. Would you please help me to find a citation?

Reply from Quote Investigator: Ernest Hemingway died in 1961, and the first published evidence of this remark known to QI appeared in the 1984 posthumous memoir “With Hemingway: A Year in Key West and Cuba” by Arnold Samuelson. In 1934 the nineteen-year-old Samuelson journeyed to Key West, Florida to meet with Hemingway whose works had made a deep impression on the youth. Hemingway needed a deckhand for his fishing boat, The Pilar, and Samuelson accepted the job because he saw an opportunity to have an incomparable literary tutor. He worked with Hemingway for ten months.

Samuelson created a manuscript that recorded his experiences, but it was not published during his lifetime. When he died in 1981 his daughter inherited the document and edited it for publication which occurred in 1984. In the following excerpt Samuelson referred to the acclaimed author as E.H.:¹

When E. H. was in the mood to talk about writing was the happiest time I had, and now he was at the wheel steering over the reef toward Sand Key lighthouse and I stood beside him in the open doorway to the cabins.

Hemingway told Samuelson that his early submissions to magazines were largely rejected. He also described a pivotal event in his genesis. When Hemingway left Paris he placed crucial manuscripts in a suitcase, but the suitcase was misplaced during transit by his wife. Boldface has been added to excerpts:²

I had lost two year’s work, and once I write a thing and get it the way I want it I forget about it and can’t remember it afterward. I didn’t realize it then, but that was the most fortunate thing that could have happened to me, because now the critics don’t know what I wrote first and they can’t trace my development. It’s none of their business that you have to learn to write. Let them think you were born that way.

The above tale was written while the conversation was still fresh in the mind of Samuelson. The accuracy of this anecdote is dependent on the probity of Samuelson and his daughter.

Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.