Quote: Not to be a republican at twenty is proof of want of heart (Evidence in 1875)

victor steinbok aardvark66 at GMAIL.COM
Thu Jul 18 19:41:33 UTC 2013


OK, last bit. Here's some info posted on "Quotations Page" forum in
2007 (surely GOT already has this, but not posting it because it's
only partially referenced):

http://tinyurl.com/motoowl

The phrase originated with Francois Guisot (1787-1874): "Not to be a
republican at twenty is proof of want of heart; to be one at thirty is
proof of want of head." It was revived by French Premier Georges
Clemenceau (1841-1929): "Not to be a socialist at twenty is proof of
want of heart; to be one at thirty is proof of want of head."
Clemenceau supposedly said his version when he learned his son had
just joined the Communist party: My son is twenty-two years old. If he
had not become a Communist at twenty-two, I would have disowned him.
If he is still a Communist at thirty, I will do it then.

Variations of the saying have occuured throughout history:

Aristide Briand (1862-1932): The man who is not a Socialist at twenty
has no heart. If he is a Socialist at 30, he has no brain.

George Bernard Shaw in a lecture at the University of Hong Kong in
Feb., 1933: Steep yourself in revolutionary books. Go up to your neck
in Communism, because if you are not a red revolutionist at 20, you
will be at 50 a most impossible fossil. If you are a red revolutionist
at 20, you have some chance of being up-to-date at 40.

Benjamin Disraeli (attr.): A man who is not a Liberal at 16 has no
heart; a man who is not a Conservative at 60 has no head.

Will Durant (1885-1982): There is nothing in Socialism that a little
age or a little money will not cure.

Robert Frost, Precaution, (1936): I never dared be radical when
young/For fear it would make me conservative when old.

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



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