Aeschylus, G.B. Shaw at it again

[victor steinbok]

Barry P got a head start. It's also a popular quotation to try to
track down, with sources listing Lincoln, Winchell, Shaw, Cyrus Ching,
and a couple of others not worth mentioning.

http://goo.gl/hjrXb

But Winchell cannot be "the source" as he cites another anonymous
source in 1948--and Ching shows up earlier.

The flip version has been around since 19th century:

> "Never try to teach a pig to sing, it only wastes your time and annoys the pig".


VS-)

On Tue, Apr 12, 2011 at 9:32 PM, Jonathan Lighter
<wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com> wrote:
...
> The same work improbably attributes the following to George Bernard Shaw (as
> do thousands of websites): "I learned long ago, never wrestle with a pig;
> you get dirty, and besides, the pig likes it."
>
> The latter ought to be in YBQ, attributed perhaps to "Anonymous," but it
> isn't.

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org