Fact-checking question from Freakonomics / Shaw quote

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

The Freakonomics researcher contacted me also, and I replied with PDFs
of the earliest cite I found when I briefly explored the quote in
March 2013.

Shaw died in 1950 so the expression was attributed to him while he was
still alive.

The statement was printed in a section called "Quotable Quotes"
together with a miscellaneous collection of other quotations in
Reader's Digest.

[ref] 1933 May, Reader's Digest, Volume 23, Quotable Quotes, Quote
Page 16, The Reader's Digest Association. (Verified on microfilm)
[/ref]

[Begin excerpt]
George Bernard Shaw once addressed a company as follows: "I suppose
that you seldom think. Few people think more than two or three times a
year. I have made an international reputation for myself by thinking
once or twice a week."
[End excerpt]

No date was specified for this statement, and the person who recorded
the remark was not named. So its credibility is reduced.

The saying was printed in other papers, but I suspect that RD was the
uncredited source. Here are two examples:

[ref] 1933 August 25, Christian Science Monitor, What They Say, Quote
Page 13, Column 2, Boston, Massachusetts. (ProQuest) [/ref]

[Begin excerpt]
Shaw Thinks

"Few people think more than two or three times a year. I have made an
international reputation for myself by thinking once or twice a
week."--G. Bernard Shaw.
[End excerpt]


[ref] 1933 October 1, Hartford Courant, (Short item without a title),
Quote Page D2, Column 6, Hartford, Connecticut. (ProQuest) [/ref]

[Begin excerpt]
George Bernard Shaw once addressed a company as follows: "I suppose
that you seldom think. Few people think more than two or three times a
year. I have made an international reputation for myself by thinking
once or twice a week."
[End excerpt]


Quotation collector Evan Esar placed the saying in his 1949 compilation:

[ref] 1949, The Dictionary of Humorous Quotations, Edited by Evan
Esar, Quote Page 179, Doubleday, Garden City, New York. (Verified on
paper in 1989 reprint edition from Dorset Press, New York) [/ref]

[Begin excerpt]
SHAW, George Bernard, born 1856, British dramatist, critic, novelist,
social reformer, and wit.

Few people think more than two or three times a year; I have made an
international reputation for myself by thinking once or twice a week.
[End excerpt]

Garson


On Wed, Feb 5, 2014 at 9:06 AM, Shapiro, Fred <fred.shapiro at yale.edu> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Shapiro, Fred" <fred.shapiro at YALE.EDU>
> Subject:      Fact-checking question from Freakonomics / Shaw quote
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> I have been asked by a fact-checker for the forthcoming Freakonomics book a=
> bout the following quote:
>
> "Few people think more than two or three times a year; I have made an inter=
> national reputation for myself by thinking once or twice a week."
>
> Can anyone help me trace this quote back to its earliest findable source, a=
> nd help me ascertain the plausibility of its being attributed to George Ber=
> nard Shaw?
>
> Fred Shapiro
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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