ask forgiveness get permission

[Charles C Doyle]

The _Dictionary of Modern Proverbs_ (85) gives the form "It's easier to get forgiveness than permission" from 1966.

--Charlie
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The Yale Book of Quotations notes that "It is easier to get forgiveness tha=
n permission" appears in Arthur Bloch, Murphy's Law Book Two (1980). =0A=
=0A=
Grace Hopper was notorious, or should be notorious, for taking credit for e=
xpressions that were around long before her.  Like "bug."=0A=
=0A=

Fred Shapiro



The wikiquote entry for Grace Hopper credits here with"It's easier to ask f=
orgiveness than it is to get permission." (quoted in the U.S. Navy's Chips =
Ahoy magazine, July 1986)=0A=
I don't see it covered in the archives.=0A=
_Duncanville [TX] Suburban_ 9/24/1981 p 2 col 1"Stewart's Law of Retroactio=
n: It's easier to get forgiveness than permission."

Bill Mullins
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