"War is God's way...."

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

Excellent memory Wilson. The Dictionary of Modern Proverbs has
relevant entries. Here are the first citations only.

Death is nature’s way of telling you to slow down.

1960 “Brainstorms: Sicker, Sicker, Sicker,” Newsweek 55, no. 17 (25
Apr.) 70: “Madison Avenue’s latest definition of death, bouncing
around New York last week, will hardly tempt the conservative editors
of Stedman’s [Medical] Dictionary: ‘It’s nature’s way of telling you
to slow down.’”

DMP notes the possible connection to “pain is nature’s way of telling
you to slow down.”


Pain (Fatigue) is nature’s way of telling you to slow down (you need a rest).

1920 M. V. O’Shea and J. H. Kellogg, Making the Most of Life (New
York: Macmillan) 159: “Fatigue is nature’s way of telling us that the
body requires rest. What the alcohol does is to make one unconscious
of fatigue. . . .”

Garson


On Sun, May 18, 2014 at 9:00 PM, Wilson Gray <hwgray at gmail.com> wrote:
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: "War is God's way...."
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> On Sun, May 18, 2014 at 2:46 PM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>wrote:
>
>> "Death is God's way of telling you to slow down."
>
>
> This was itself a pun on a once well-known advertising slogan that went
> something like,
>
> "Pain is nature's way of telling you to slow down."
>
> A casual Googling has failed to locate any such. Sadly, I continue to
> believe in the reality of the memory.
>
> The Saturday Review - Volume 50, Part 1 - Page 12
> books.google.com/books?id=vNoeAQAAMAAJ
> 1967
> ... Newley found the graffito which became the title Stop the World - I
> Want to Get Off. Mockridge's own favorites: Death is nature's way of
> telling you to slow down, and Will you really feel more SECURE WITH GEORGE
> HAMILTON IN UNIFORM?
>
> -----
> All say, "How hard it is that we have to die!"---a strange complaint to
> come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
> -Mark Twain
>
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