bogus Horatian quote?

[Jonathan Lighter]

Great sleuthing, G-man!  But how did Horace get the credit?

It's good to be back. The mysteries of war in literature are starting
to take up most of my thinking time.

JL

On Wed, Jan 18, 2012 at 8:33 PM, 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: bogus Horatian quote?
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>  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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