[Ads-l] Family of sayings: The lay-offs / firings / floggings/ beatings will continue until morale improves

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

Way back in December 2009 I posted a message to this mailing list
about the topic specified in the subject line.

http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/ads-l/2009-December/094631.html

Jonathan Lighter helpfully responded to my message with a pointer to a
thematically germane remark written by Voltaire in his novella
"Candide". Barry Popik tackled this topic in 2012. After a brief
decade delay, I've posted an article to the Quote Investigator
website.

https://quoteinvestigator.com/2020/07/15/morale/

[Begin acknowledgement]
QI performed a preliminary exploration of this topic back in December
2009. At that time, QI shared the 1966 citation with a mailing list.
Professor Jonathan Lighter told QI about the germane Voltaire
citation. Other mailing list discussants provided helpful feedback
including: Wilson Gray, Seán Fitzpatrick, and Bill Palmer. In 2012
fellow researcher Barry Popik published a beneficial webpage on the
topic. Thanks to the volunteer editors of Wikiquote who created a
pertinent webpage that was later deleted. Additional thanks to the
participants at the websites Metafilter, Quora, English.Stackexchange,
Wikiquote, and Reddit. Great thanks to Paul Rauber whose 2020 inquiry
led QI to continue this exploration and share the results on the QI
website.
[End acknowledgement]

Feedback welcome
Garson O'Toole

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