spurious Lincoln quotes

Mon Feb 15 17:03:50 UTC 2010

1914 E. A. Ross _Publications of the American Sociological Society_ IX 131:
But how about the greater public that is not clever enough to tell gold from
dross ? How is it going to be served in the future ? Someone has amended
Lincoln's optimistic aphorism, "You can't fool all the people all of the
time," with the saying: "But you can fool enough of the people enough of the
time."

Prof. Ross, of the University of Wisconsin, had used the phrase earlier, but
this is the first instance I see in which it is explicitly said to be a
revision of Lincoln's words,

I first encountered Ross's version (unattributed of course) in the early
1980s.

JL

On Mon, Feb 15, 2010 at 11:18 AM, victor steinbok <aardvark66 at gmail.com>wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       victor steinbok <aardvark66 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: spurious Lincoln quotes
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Quick correction--Apr. 4, 1888, is Chicago Tribune. LATimes quote is
> from May 8, 1888. Both are in PQ.
>
> On 2/15/10, victor steinbok <aardvark66 at gmail.com> wrote:
> > GNArchive's earliest citation is to LATimes, Apr. 4, 1888, and it does
> > mention Lincoln. The next one is an ad in Bridgeport Morning News on
> > Nov 21, 1888. The quote appears in an ad by Jones, Keane & Co. without
> > attribution:
> >
> >  People cannot be deceived. It is proverbially true that you can "fool
> > all the people some time, some of the people all the time, but you
> > can't fool all the people all the time."
> >
> > Note the slight variation in language--general lack of "of".
> >
> > In all, there are 54 citations in GNA, but the earliest (1887) is
> > bogus. Another one--from Dec/ 19, 1889, Irish Canadian--also appears
> > without attribution in a furniture ad (C.F. Adams Home Furnishing
> > House). This is odd because just below in the same ad you find,
> >
> >  We believe in Barnum's theory that "American people like to be
> humbugged."
> >
> > Now I have to search for that one! (j/k)
> >
> > Just from the first 20 citations, most are obviously attributing the
> > line to Lincoln (all the remaining ones from the 1890s). I am still
> > looking for more non-Lincoln attributions.
> >
> > VS-)
> >
> > On 2/15/10, Garson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com> wrote:
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> >> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> >> Poster:       Garson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM>
> >> Subject:      Re: spurious Lincoln quotes
> >>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >>
> >> Here is an antedating by a single day of the famous quote attributed
> >> to Lincoln. The speaker is identified as "Mr. Wheeler" and he is
> >> probably the Chairman of the Prohibitionist Party Convention, Fred F.
> >> Wheeler.
> >>
> >> Citation: 1887 August 26, New York Times, Conscience in Politics, The
> >> Prohibition Party State Convention, Page 5, Column 2 (about 6
> >> paragraphs down).
> >>
> >> As I sat in the gallery noting the care and eagerness and anxiety of
> >> the leaders to secure its passage I could not help but think of that
> >> trite remark of Abraham Lincoln: 'You can fool all of the people, some
> >> of the time. You can fool some of the people all of the time; but you
> >> can't fool all of the people all of the time.' [Applause.]
> >>
> >>
> http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9C02E6DE1530E633A25755C2A96E9C94669FD7CF
> >>
> >> On Mon, Feb 15, 2010 at 9:52 AM, Garson O'Toole
> >> <adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com> wrote:
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> >>> -----------------------
> >>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> >>> Poster:       Garson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM>
> >>> Subject:      Re: spurious Lincoln quotes
> >>>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >>>
> >>> James A. Landau wrote
> >>>> Subject:      spurious Lincoln quotes
> >>>> from Netscape News
> >>>>
> http://channels.isp.netscape.com/whatsnew/package.jsp?name=fte/lincoln/lincoln&floc=NI-slot1a
> >>>> Exposed! Lincoln Never Said THIS
> >>> ...
> >>>>
> >>>> So where did these quotes come from, if not from President Lincoln?
> >>>>
> >>>> "You can fool all of the people some of the time and some of the
> people
> >>>> all of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all of the
> >>>> time."
> >>>>
> >>>> This was thought to be part of a speech Lincoln gave in September 1858
> >>>> in
> >>>> Clinton, Illinois, but the line is not included in the text that was
> >>>> printed in the local newspaper. It was attributed to Lincoln in 1910
> >>>> when
> >>>> two people remembered hearing him say it in 1856--54 years later.
> >>>>
> >>>
> >>> The Yale Book of Quotations has an earlier, 1887, attribution to
> >>> Lincoln for this quote. The context can be examined via the freely
> >>> accessible portion of the New York Times archive. YBQ also has a great
> >>> citation to Denis Diderot in 1754.
> >>>
> >>> Citation: 1887 August 27, New York Times, The Prohibition Convention.
> >>>
> >>> The vital fact which this convention establishes is that the
> >>> Prohibitionists cannot be fooled. Chairman WHEELER explicitly set
> >>> forth that fact in his speech on Thursday, when he quoted most aptly
> >>> LINCOLN'S remark that "you can fool all of the people "you can fool
> >>> all of the people some of the time; and you can fool  some of the
> >>> people all of the time, but you can't fool all the people all of the
> >>> time."
> >>>
> >>>
> http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9F04E4DE1530E633A25754C2A96E9C94669FD7CF
> >>>
> >>> Garson
> >>>
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