"Would Have Taken Better Care of Myself"

[Sam Clements]

From: "Fred Shapiro" <fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU>
Subject: "Would Have Taken Better Care of Myself"


> Can Barry or Sam or Doug or anyone else provide any pre-1966 usages of the
> expression "If I'd known I was going to live this long, I would have
> taken better care of myself," or variants thereof?
  10 April, 1943.  _Lethbridge(Alberta) Herald_   2/4

a column titled 'Reflections at 44' (Robert Maynard Hutchins, President,
Univ. of Chicago)

<<On Dec. 31 I completed 20 years in university administration.  This
reflection causes me some pangs.
   Lord Northington said in 1765, when the gout caught up with him, "If I
had known that these legs of mine were to carry a lord chancellor, I would
have taken better care of them when I was a lad".  If I had known that this
head of mine was to be used by a university president, I would have tried to
get some education when I was at Yale.>>

Sam Clements