2 Nancy Astor Quotes

[Benjamin Zimmer]

On Fri, 4 Feb 2005 16:09:36 -0500, Fred Shapiro <fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU>
wrote:
>
>The penalty of success is to be bored by people who snub you.

I don't see anything on Proquest for this one, but on Newspaperarchive
there are unattributed cites at least as far back as 1941 with this
wording: "The penalty of success is to be bored by the attentions of
people who formerly snubbed you" (e.g., _Charleroi Mail_ Pa., Jan. 30,
1941, p. 1). Various attributions turn up in the '50s and '60s -- Mary
Wilson Little is sometimes credited (e.g., in a Dec. 5, 1961 AP wire story
by Hal Boyle). Earl Wilson gave the quote at least a few times in his
syndicated column (with the wording: "...bored by the people who used to
snub you"), but he wasn't consistent with the attribution-- in a June 1,
1953 column he says it's from Charley Jones, while in a May 4, 1964 column
he says it's from Lady Astor (that's the earliest Lady Astor attribution I
came across).

--Ben Zimmer