[Ads-l] Modern Proverb: If you always do what you've always done, you always get what you've always gotten

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

Thanks, Neal. I included two citations for a variant that was close to
the one you mentioned. The variant used the word pairs "think,
thought" and "get, got". This saying was in circulation by 1983.

[ref] 1983 August 7, Colorado Springs Gazette Telegraph, GT
Merchandise Mart, (Classified advertisement), Quote Page J2, Column 3,
Colorado Springs, Colorado. (NewspaperArchive)[/ref]

[Begin excerpt]
IF YOU continue to think like you've always thought, you'll continue
to get what you've always got. "Is it Enough?"
[End excerpt]

The above instance appeared in a classified advertisement, and the
product being sold was not indicated, but by 1984 the expression was
used in an advertisement for a “Secrets of Selling” 3-Hour Seminar. So
the selling domain was pertinent, but in the early cites no
attribution was presented.

Garson


On Tue, Apr 26, 2016 at 7:56 AM, Neal Whitman <nwhitman at ameritech.net> wrote:
> In a sales setting (which increases the likelihood of someone quoting Ziglar), someone in the early 1990s told it to me in rhyming form, at least for those with the cot/caught merger:
>
> If you keep on thinking what you thought,
> You'll keep on getting what you got.
>
> Neal
>
>
>> On Apr 26, 2016, at 12:48 AM, ADSGarson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
>>
>> I received two requests to examine the saying in the subject line. The
>> Dictionary of Modern Proverbs has an entry on the topic with a first
>> citation in 1985.
>>
>> The earliest instance I've located appeared in "The Milwaukee
>> Sentinel" of Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1981. The speaker was an educator
>> and counselor on family relationships and human sexuality named Jessie
>> Potter who worked for a non-profit organization she founded:
>>
>> [ref] 1981 October 24, The Milwaukee Sentinel, Search For Quality
>> Called Key To Life by Tom Ahern, Quote Page 5, Column 5, Milwaukee,
>> Wisconsin. (Google News Archive)[/ref]
>>
>> [Begin excerpt]
>> "If you always do what you've always done, you always get what you've
>> always gotten." That was the advice of Jessie Potter, the featured
>> speaker at Friday's opening of the seventh annual Woman to Woman
>> conference.
>> [End excerpt]
>>
>> Yesterday, I posted a Quote Investigator entry here:
>> http://quoteinvestigator.com/2016/04/25/get/
>>
>> The Quote Verifier does not have an entry for the saying, but I just
>> found out that Keyes does discuss it under the fake Einstein quotation
>> about insanity. Keyes says:
>>
>> [Begin excerpt]
>> Comedienne Jackie "Moms" Mabley (1897-1975) was famous for a variation
>> on this theme attributed to her: "If you always do what you always
>> did, you will always get what you always got." Some version of those
>> words has been attributed to others as well, including Yogi Berra,
>> Dale Carnegie, motivational speaker Zig Ziglar, and cookie maker Wally
>> Amos.
>> [End excerpt]
>>
>> There is a snippet match in Google Books with a GB date of 1981 that
>> probably falls in the range 1981 to 1983. Jessie Potter is credited
>> again. I omitted the cite because I haven't verified it with
>> paper/scans.
>>
>> Year: 1981 to 1983
>> Periodical: The Journal of Physical Education and Program
>> Volumes: 79 and 80
>> Publisher: Physical Education and Program Sections of the Association
>> of Professional Directors of YMCAs, Columbus, Ohio. (Data from
>> Worldcat)
>> Quote Page B-10
>> Database: Google Books (Snippet data may be inaccurate; snippets
>> suggest that the volume contains at least "Spring 1981" and "Winter
>> 1982"; HathiTrust suggests that volumes 79-80 span 1981-1983)
>>
>> [Begin excerpt]
>> Another useful directive came from Jessie Potter, director, DHS, who
>> noted: "If you always do what you've always done, you'll always get
>> what you've always gotten.
>> [End excerpt]
>>
>> Garson
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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