[Ads-l] Adage: You can never be too rich or too thin

ADSGarson O'Toole adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM
Wed Apr 7 21:56:40 UTC 2021


The saying in the subject has been explored by several researchers.
Ralph Keyes wrote about it in "Nice Guys Finish Seventh" (1992) and
"The Quote Verifier" (2006).

Fred Shapiro posted a request for help to this mailing list back in
February 2006.  (Before my time.)
http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/ads-l/2006-February/057512.html

Barry Popik created an entry back in 2009.
https://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/new_york_city/entry/you_cant_be_too_rich_or_too_thin

Previously the earliest citation appeared in 1967. ( I think.)
Now there is a new Quote Investigator article on the topic:

You Can Never Be Too Rich or Too Thin
https://quoteinvestigator.com/2021/04/07/thin-rich/

The first citation I located is dated July 1963.

[ref] 1963 July, Harper’s Bazaar, Volume 96, Issue 3020, High Living
on Low Calories, Start Page 48, Quote Page 48, Column 2, Hearst
Corporation, New York. (ProQuest) [/ref]

[Begin excerpt from magazine]
Ponder, now, our week’s worth of diet menus, based on the latter part
of that wise old adage, “You can never be too rich or too thin.” High
living on low calories, indeed!
[End excerpt]

[Begin acknowledgement in QI article]
Great thanks to previous researchers on this topic including Ralph
Keyes, Fred R. Shapiro, and Barry Popik. Their efforts inspired QI to
formulate this question and perform this exploration.
[End acknowledgement]

Earlier citations and feedback is welcome.
Garson O'Toole

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