Search for quote: "A man dies, is remembered for ten years..."

Garson O'Toole adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM
Fri Mar 12 19:37:03 UTC 2010


A few months ago I did attempt to locate the desired quote, but I was
unable to find it. The best quotes I found were only weakly connected:
two quotes on the theme of the transience of personal legacies in
which short-term memories are replaced by long-term amnesia.

Citation: 1755 September, The Monthly Review, Art. XVIII. Conclusion
of the Account of Dr. Hutcheson's System of Moral Philosophy, Page
178, Printed for R. Griffiths.

If we are remembered for a few years, it is but in a little corner of
the world; to the rest of it we are as nothing: and, in a few more,
both we and those who remembered us shall be forgotten for ever. Grant
we were always remembered; what is that to us who know it not?

http://books.google.com/books?id=6QjhAAAAMAAJ&q=%22remembered+for%22#v=snippet&


Citation: 1897, The Colloquy: Conversations about the Order of Things
and Final Good, held in the Chapel of the Blessed St. John by Josiah
Augustus Seitz, Conversation VII. Page 49, G. P. Putnam's Sons, New
York.

What record made that time will not efface?
  What noble name or deed, that now appears
In the collected annals of the race,
  Will be remembered hence ten thousand years?

http://books.google.com/books?id=6TxGAAAAYAAJ&q=efface#v=snippet&q=efface&f=false

Garson

On Fri, Mar 12, 2010 at 12:59 PM, Cohen, Gerald Leonard <gcohen at mst.edu> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Cohen, Gerald Leonard" <gcohen at MST.EDU>
> Subject:      Search for quote: "A man dies, is remembered for ten years..."
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> This is just a double-check.  A colleague of mine is writing a book on Mark Twain and sent me the following message:
>
>  'This is something like the quote I have been unable to find:   "A man dies, is remembered for ten years and forgotten for a hundred thousand."  I have seen it ascribed to Twain, but can't verify it.'
>
> A few months ago I asked the ads-l list if anyone had any idea about the origin of this quote. Now might I ask, has anyone has ever seen this quote (or something similar) anywhere, either in Twain or elsewhere?  Is it locatable anywhere?
>
> Thus far the search has turned up nothing.  But if any group can shed light on this, it's ads-l.
>
> Gerald Cohen
>
> P.S. to Ben (re: "On Language"): Congratulations!
>
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