source for one-liner

[Jan Ivarsson TransEdit]

Stevenson's Book of Quotations has:

"What is valuable is not new, and what is new is not valuable."
   Lord Brougham, Essay: The Work of Thomas Young. (Edinburgh Review)
   Brougham, Henry Peter, Baron Brougham and Vaux, English Lord Chancellor and historical writer (1778-1868)

Pelle Holm, Bevingade ord, has an older citation:
"Dein redseliges Buch lehrt mancherlei Neues und Wahres,
Waere das Wahre nur neu, waere das Neue nur wahr!
   J.H. Voss, Musenalmanach 1792, p.71, "Auf mehrere Buecher".

Jan Ivarsson

----- Original Message -----
From: "Laurence Horn" <laurence.horn at YALE.EDU>
To: <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
Sent: Sunday, February 16, 2003 2:24 AM
Subject: [ADS-L] source for one-liner


> Over on the forensic linguistics list in a thread on plagiarism,
> someone brought up a quote attributed to Samuel Johnson:  commenting
> on a book of a mediocre author that "the work was good and original.
> Unfortunately, he noted, what is good is not original and what is
> original is not good."  I wondered if this conceit was original with
> Dr. Johnson, since I've long been familiar with the similar French
> mot juste, "Ce qui est bon n'est pas neuf; ce qui est neuf n'est pas
> bon"  (or possibly "Tout ce qui est bon...").  But when asked, I
> couldn't provide an attribution, and neither google nor Bartlett's
> was any help.  Anyone know where this came from (first)?  Fred, do
> you have this one in either the Dr. J or the French version?
>
> larry
>