Quote Investigator® – Page 76

Quote Origin: Life Is Nothing But a Competition To Be the Criminal Rather Than the Victim

Bertrand Russell? Apocryphal?

Question for Quote Investigator: The prominent intellectual Bertrand Russell apparently expressed in a private letter a deeply cynical viewpoint about humanity. He suggested that the oppressed simply wished to become the oppressors, and the populace competed to become criminals instead of victims. Would you please help me to find a citation?

Reply from Quote Investigator: On December 17, 1920 Bertrand Russell sent a letter to his lover Ottoline Morrell. He was dispirited because the recent independence of Poland achieved via the Versailles Treaty had been followed by warfare between Polish and Ukrainian forces. In addition, his opinion of Bolsheviks and other groups had soured. Boldface added to excerpts by QI:¹

But I think all mankind utterly vile. The Bolsheviks, till I knew them, seemed better; now they don’t.

Russell’s dejection facilitated a belief that the moral distinctions between groups were transitory and illusory:

People seem good while they are oppressed, but they only wish to become oppressors in their turn: life is nothing but a competition to be the criminal rather than the victim. The world is rushing down into barbarism, and there seems nothing to do but keep alive civilization in one’s corner, as the Irish did in the 7th and 8th centuries.

Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.

Quote Origin: The Lunatics Have Taken Charge of the Asylum

Edgar Allan Poe? Richard Rowland? Terry Ramsaye? Laurence Stallings? H. L. Mencken? William Gibbs McAdoo? Jack Oakie? Anonymous?

Question for Quote Investigator: The leaders of a group often face a variety of criticisms. Harsh detractors employ a vivid metaphor from the domain of mental health. Here are two examples:

The lunatics have taken over the asylum.
The inmates are in charge of the asylum.

This barb has often been aimed at Hollywood. Would you please explore the provenance of this expression?

Reply from Quote Investigator: The earliest match for this metaphor known to QI appeared in the 1926 book “A Million and One Nights: A History of the Motion Picture Through 1925” by Terry Ramsaye. The statement was applied to the upstart movie studio United Artists and its four founders: prominent film director D. W. Griffith, popular comic actor Charlie Chaplin, well-known star Mary Pickford, and matinee idol Douglas Fairbanks. Boldface added to excerpts by QI:¹

The classic comment of the occasion came from Richard Rowland, then head of Metro Pictures Corporation. He received the interesting tidings from Arthur James, press and intelligence agent of Metro. Rowland meditated on the significance of the new move for almost a full second.

“So,” he remarked, “the lunatics have taken charge of the asylum.”

It should be added, lest there be an assumption that the comment sprang from snobbery, that Rowland has been philosopher enough to classify himself as “one of the accidentally successful.”

Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.

Quote Origin: Put It Before Them Briefly So That They Will Read It, Clearly So That They Will Understand It

Joseph Pulitzer? Alleyne Ireland? Lloyd Cory? Apocryphal?

Question for Quote Investigator: The famous newspaper publisher Joseph Pulitzer once described the writing style he required from his journalists. He demanded brief, clear, forceful, picturesque, and accurate prose. Would you please help me to find citation?

Reply from Quote Investigator: Joseph Pulitzer was the publisher of “The New York World” and the “St. Louis Post-Dispatch”. He died in 1911. The quotation appeared in a 1914 book titled “Joseph Pulitzer: Reminiscences of a Secretary” by Alleyne Ireland.

In 1910 Ireland saw an advertisement for a companion-secretary to an unnamed gentleman. During the multi-part interview process, Ireland learned that the advertisement had been placed on behalf of Pulitzer who required considerable help because of his health problems and blindness.

Ireland’s success during preliminary interviews led to a meeting with Pulitzer himself during which they discussed journalism. Pulitzer contrasted the audiences of “The Times” of London and “The New York World”. Boldface added to excepts by QI:¹

The World isn’t like your Times, with its forty or fifty thousand educated readers. It’s read by, well, say a million people a day; and it’s my duty to see that they get the truth; but that’s not enough, I’ve got to put it before them briefly so that they will read it, clearly so that they will understand it, forcibly so that they will appreciate it, picturesquely so that they will remember it, and, above all, accurately so that they may be wisely guided by its light.

Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.

Quote Origin: Blessed Are Those Who Plant Trees Under Whose Shade They Will Never Sit

Greek Proverb? Indian Proverb? Marcus Tullius Cicero? Joycelyn Elders? Warren Buffett? Hyacinthe Loyson? M. Trottier?

Question for Quote Investigator: A popular adage praises people whose selfless actions are designed to benefit future generations. Here are two versions:

Blessed are old people who plant trees knowing that they shall never sit in the shade of their foliage.
Those who plant trees, knowing that only others will enjoy the shade, are public benefactors.

Would you please explore the provenance of this saying?

Reply from Quote Investigator: The earliest match known to QI appeared in a sermon by French theologian Hyacinthe Loyson delivered in Paris in 1866. Boldface added to excerpts by QI:¹

Ces arbres qu’il plante et à l’ombre desquels il ne s’assoira pas, il les aime pour eux-mêmes et pour ses enfants, et pour les enfants de ses enfants, sur qui s’étendront leurs rameaux.

The sermon was translated into English and published in 1870. Hyacinthe Loyson approvingly described the actions of the proto-farmer:²

These trees which he plants, and under whose shade he shall never sit, he loves them for themselves, and for the sake of his children and his children’s children, who are to sit beneath the shadow of their spreading boughs.

The above prolix passage did not directly state that the planter was blessed. A closer match to the adage under scrutiny appeared in “The Pall Mall Gazette” of London in 1868 within an article titled “Australian Trees and Algerian Deserts”. The article presented a compact saying described as an Indian proverb; hence, the attribution was anonymous. Interestingly, the source text was a French article published in 1868 by M. Trotter:³

The Eucalyptus globulus at fifteen years of age is as valuable as an oak tree of one hundred years. One seed planted near Algiers four years ago is now a tree three feet in circumference at the base. The man who plants the hills of Africa with these trees, though he is no less blessed, does not require the faith spoken of in the Indian proverb, “Blessed is he who plants trees under whose shade he will never sit.”

QI believes that The adage evolved over a long period. Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.

Dialogue Origin: “I Am My Own Worst Enemy” “Not While I’m Alive”

Groucho Marx? Ernest Bevin? George S. Kaufman? Cotton Ed Smith? Franklin P. Adams? Alan Hale? Walter F. George? Oscar Levant?

Question for Quote Investigator: A comment which acknowledges criticism has been coupled with a harshly comical riposte. Here are three examples:

“I’m my own worst enemy. ” “Not while I’m in the room.”
“She is her own worst enemy.” “Not while I am around.”
“He is his own greatest enemy” “Not while I’m alive, he ain’t.”

Would you please explore the provenance of this type of exchange?

Reply from Quote Investigator: The earliest instance of this schema located by QI appeared in a 1933 article by Franklin P. Adams in the “New York Herald Tribune”. Adams was reviewing a book filled with abbreviations, informal language, and flexible spelling; hence, he decided to retain that style in his analysis. Boldface added to excerpts by QI:¹

. . . only the other night when I said I am my own worst enemy 4 fellows rushed in to say loyaly not while they was alive.

Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.

Quote Origin: The Surest Way to Make a Monkey of a Man Is to Quote Him

Robert Benchley? Apocryphal?

Question for Quote Investigator: When you hear your own words from the past recited to you as a quotation the result is sometimes profound embarrassment. The humorist Robert Benchley apparently said that you could make a monkey out of a person by simply employing their own quotations. Would you please help me to find a citation?

Reply from Quote Investigator: In 1934 Robert Benchley’s syndicated newspaper column discussed this notion. Boldface added to excerpts by QI:¹

The surest way to make a monkey of a man is to quote him. That remark in itself wouldn’t make any sense if quoted as it stands.

The average man ought to be allowed a quotation of no less than three sentences, one to make his statement and two to explain what he meant.

Benchley listed the following short remark to illustrate his thesis of simian transformation:

“Life does not come all in one piece like cheese; it more resembles linked sausages, a series of events on a string.”—Harold Bell Wright.

Benchley also gave this as an example of an eccentric isolated statement:

“When you come right down to it, perhaps there are other things in life besides sex.”—Professor R. P. Sears.

Below are additional selected citations in chronological order.

Quote Origin: May the Sun in His Course Visit No Land More Free, More Happy, More Lovely, Than This Our Own Country

Daniel Webster? Herbert Hoover? Apocryphal?

Question for Quote Investigator: Extraordinary care should be taken whenever one plans to etch a quotation into a granite monument. That is why I am asking you about the accuracy of the following patriotic statement attributed to U.S. statesman and orator Daniel Webster:

May the sun in his course visit no land more free, more happy, more lovely, than this our own country.

The proposed monument will be shaped like a sundial and will honor veterans. Would you please help check the veracity of Webster’s words?

Reply from Quote Investigator: On February 22, 1832, a celebration dinner was held for the centennial anniversary of the birth of U.S. Founding Father George Washington. Festivities were held in the city named after the famous first president, and Daniel Webster delivered the main oration. He hoped that the U.S. experiment in democratic self-governance would continue to thrive, and at the end of the speech he audaciously speculated about another commemoration by “disciples of Washington” that might occur one hundred years into the distant future. The optimistic address finished with a toast. Boldface added to excerpts by QI:¹

. . . so surely may they see, as we now see, the flag of the Union floating on the top of the Capitol; and then, as now, may the sun in his course visit no land more free, more happy, more lovely, than this our own Country.
Gentlemen, I propose—
“THE MEMORY OF GEORGE WASHINGTON.”

The text above was from a contemporaneous newspaper account published in the “Newbern Spectator” of New Bern, North Carolina on March 18, 1932. The same text also appeared in an 1832 book that recorded “Speeches and Other Proceedings at The Public Dinner in Honor of The Centennial Anniversary of Washington”.²

Here are additional selected citations in chronological order.

Quote Origin: Everything I’ve Ever Said Will Be Credited To Dorothy Parker

George S. Kaufman? Scott Meredith? Apocryphal?

Question for Quote Investigator: Bright remarks are often misattributed to famously witty individuals such as Dorothy Parker. An exasperated fellow humorist once said:

Everything I’ve ever said will be credited to Dorothy Parker.

Would you please help me to locate a citation and tell me who said this?

Reply from Quote Investigator: The earliest close match known to QI occurred in a 1974 biography titled “George S. Kaufman and His Friends” by Scott Meredith. The author stated that Kaufman and Dorothy Parker moved in the same social circles, and they wrote a screenplay together for a short film called “Business Is Business”. Yet, they were not really good friends. Boldface added to excerpts by QI:¹

There was a certain amount of rivalry between them: Kaufman once said gloomily, “Everything I’ve ever said will be credited to Dorothy Parker.”

The above citation appeared more than a decade after Kaufman’s death in 1961. So the evidence it provides is not strong.

Here are additional selected citations in chronological order.

Quote Origin: Rhyme Does Not Pay

Dorothy Parker? Oscar Wilde? Mike Porter? Arch Ward? Anonymous?

Question for Quote Investigator: Composing poetry is rarely a lucrative occupation. A traditional moralistic adage has been transformed into a comical warning for versifiers:

Crime does not pay.
Rhyme does not pay.

This word play has been credited to the prominent wit Dorothy Parker who published multiple collections of poetry. Would you please explore this topic?

Reply from Quote Investigator: The earliest close match located by QI appeared in 1934 within a column by Martin A. Gosch in the “Evening Courier” of Camden, New Jersey. Boldface added to excerpts by QI:¹

… a prize gag from colleague Mike Porter: Edith Murray, the CBS songbird, started out in life as a poet, but found that Rhyme does not pay!!

Dorothy Parker received credit for the quip by June 1938 as shown further below, but it was already in circulation.

Here are additional selected citations in chronological order.

Quote Origin: A Writer Is One To Whom Writing Comes Harder Than To Anybody Else

Thomas Mann? H. T. Lowe-Porter? Franz Leppmann? Apocryphal?

Question for Quote Investigator: Writing is an agonizing process requiring multiple drafts for some of its most skilled practitioners. Here are three versions of a pertinent quip:

(1) The writer is a person who has a hard time writing.

(2) A writer is a one who finds writing more difficult than other people.

(3) A writer is somebody for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people.

This saying has been ascribed to the Nobel-Prize-winning German literary figure Thomas Mann. Would you please help me to find a citation?

Reply from Quote Investigator: In 1903 Thomas Mann published a novella titled “Tristan” which included a character named Detlev Spinell who was an eccentric self-important writer. The omniscient narrator employed the quip while commenting on Spinell’s meager output. Boldface added to excerpts by QI:¹

Die Worte schienen ihm durchaus nicht zuzuströmen, für einen, dessen bürgerlicher Beruf das Schreiben ist, kam er jämmerlich langsam von der Stelle, und wer ihn sah, mußte zu der Anschauung gelangen, daß ein Schriftsteller ein Mann ist, dem das Schreiben schwerer fällt, als allen anderen Leuten.

The passage above has been translated into English by H. T. Lowe-Porter as follows:²

For his words did not come in a rush; they came with such pathetic slowness, considering the man was a writer by trade, you would have drawn the conclusion, watching him, that a writer is one to whom writing comes harder than to anybody else.

Thus, the story context reveals that Mann’s remark was not initially intended to apply to all writers. Instead, he aimed the comical barb at one fictional character. However, the citations in 1939 and 1946 given further below suggest that during interviews Mann did apply the statement to writers more generally.

Here are additional selected citations in chronological order.