Yale Book of . . .

[Jesse Sheidlower]

On Thu, Oct 26, 2006 at 01:22:21PM -0500, Mullins, Bill AMRDEC wrote:
> I'm trying to find the origin of:
>
> "Never attempt to teach a pig to sing;  it wastes your time and annoys
> the pig."
>
> I think it originates with Robert Heinlein in _Time Enough for Love_
> 1973. (Oddly enough, it appears in the text of the novel, rather than in
> the two groups of sayings collected as "intermissions" in the book, and
> later published as _The Notebooks of Lazarus Long_.)
>
> But I've seen it attributed to Mark Twain as well as Paul Dickson.  I
> can't find it in any of the Project Gutenberg Twain, or in any other
> Twain source.  And I can't find it in any of authoritative lists of
> Twain quotes.  But likewise, I can't find it in any of the lists of
> quotes that are misattributed to Twain.  Heinlein grew up in Twain
> country (Missouri), was a fan of Twain's (put him in at least one of his
> books as a character), and it's entirely possible that he borrowed the
> expression, or made up a variant of it.
>
> Can anyone send me Paul Dickson's email address to ask him outright?

newdefiner at aol.com

Best,

Jesse Sheidlower
OED

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