Quote: "Horace Greeley is 'a self-made man who worships his Creator'" (1868)

[Robin Hamilton]

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From: ADSGarson O'Toole

There is a family of jokes that follow two basic templates:

He is a self-made man, and he worships his creator.
He is a self-made man, and he adores his maker
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Reminds me of Coriolanus, "[I] will stand / As if a man were author of
himself / And knew no other kin". (V.iii).

Possibly echoing Pico della Mirandola, _Oration_, where man is somewhat
heretically suggested to be "the maker and moulder of himself".

So the trope maybe can be carried back as far as the Renaissance Phoenix of
his time.

Robin Hamilton

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