bogus Horatian quote?

Garson O'Toole adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM
Thu Jan 19 01:33:57 UTC 2012


 Jonathan Lighter wrote:
> 86,000 websites claim that the Roman poet Horace once said, "A good
> scare is worth more than good advice."
>
> He may have said it, but I doubt he wrote it down. Origin?
>
> The earliest appearance I find is in the form of a humorous, anonymous
> squib on p. 1 of the Frederick, Md., _News_ (Oct. 6, 1953).

Thanks Jonathan for sharing this interesting quotation with a
suspicious attribution. And welcome back! Great to see your posts
again.

Quick preliminary search says credit goes to Edgar Watson Howe by 1911
(for a close variant):

"Country Town Sayings" by E. W. Howe
http://books.google.com/books?id=6KAfAQAAMAAJ&q=scare#v=snippet&

A good scare is worth more to a man than good advice.

Garson

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