ask forgiveness get permission

[Shapiro, Fred]

I committed the cardinal sin of not consulting the wonderful Dictionary of Modern Proverbs.  Thanks largely to Charlie's brilliant work, the DMP is the best source for many 20th-century expressions.

Fred Shapiro



________________________________________
From: American Dialect Society [ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] on behalf of Charles C Doyle [cdoyle at UGA.EDU]
Sent: Monday, June 23, 2014 8:11 AM
To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Subject: Re: ask forgiveness get permission

The _Dictionary of Modern Proverbs_ (85) gives the form "It's easier to get forgiveness than permission" from 1966.

--Charlie
________________________________________



The Yale Book of Quotations notes that "It is easier to get forgiveness tha=
n permission" appears in Arthur Bloch, Murphy's Law Book Two (1980). =0A=
=0A=
Grace Hopper was notorious, or should be notorious, for taking credit for e=
xpressions that were around long before her.  Like "bug."=0A=
=0A=

Fred Shapiro



The wikiquote entry for Grace Hopper credits here with"It's easier to ask f=
orgiveness than it is to get permission." (quoted in the U.S. Navy's Chips =
Ahoy magazine, July 1986)=0A=
I don't see it covered in the archives.=0A=
_Duncanville [TX] Suburban_ 9/24/1981 p 2 col 1"Stewart's Law of Retroactio=
n: It's easier to get forgiveness than permission."

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

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