paranoid

Garson O'Toole adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM
Mon May 9 03:18:49 UTC 2011


The Yale Book of Quotations has the following three items listed in
one entry. YBQ credits the second and third items below to Cassell’s
Humorous Quotations

Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they aren’t after you.
    Catch-22 (motion picture) (1970).

Because a person has monomania she need not be wrong about her facts
   Dorothy L. Sayers, Murder  Must Advertise ch. 16 [1933]

Has it ever struck you that when people get persecution mania, they
usually have a good deal to feel persecuted about?’’
   C.P.Snow, The Affair ch. 11 [1960]


Here is a potentially interesting unverified match for the
paranoid/paranoiacs variant in Google Books:

Esquire: Volume 69
William S. Burroughs, William S. Burroughs: The Shoaf Collection
(University of Virginia Library) - 1968 - Snippet view
Granted that, as Delmore Schwartz remarked when someone accused him,
justly, of paranoia, "Even paranoiacs have some real enemies." Still I
can't believe it since 1) there is no evidence, 2) it runs against my
whole notion of the ...

Volume 69 is dated (1968:Jan-1968:June)

Garson

On Sun, May 8, 2011 at 10:48 PM, victor steinbok <aardvark66 at gmail.com> wrote:
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> Sender: Â  Â  Â  American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster: Â  Â  Â  victor steinbok <aardvark66 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject: Â  Â  Â Re: paranoid
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> I do want to make it clear that the second half of the quote varies--e.g.,
> the ACLU attribution uses "they aren't watching you".
>
> VS-)
>
> On Sun, May 8, 2011 at 10:47 PM, victor steinbok <aardvark66 at gmail.com>wrote:
>
>> I am having a moment of doubt--the line is clearly in the movie version of
>> Catch-22 (1970):
>>
>> Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they aren't after you.
>>
>>
>> But is it in the book (1961, but written over about 8 years)? Because, if
>> it isn't...
>>
>> Well, just search around--it's credited to everyone from ACLU to Abbie
>> Hoffman. One credit I did not find: Joseph Heller.
>>
>> Oh, and BTW, Rahm Emanuel stole a similar line from Kissinger: Even a
>> paranoid (or "paranoids") can have enemies (or "has real enemies").
>>
>> VS-)
>>
>
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