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

[Susan G Yerkes]

I have been looking for reliable attribution for the related quotation
"If nothing changes, nothing changes."
My Google searches have just turned up a myriad of speakers and slight variations of the wording. Any suggestions?

Sent from my iPhone

> On Apr 26, 2016, at 6:56 AM, Neal Whitman <nwhitman at AMERITECH.NET> wrote:
> 
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Neal Whitman <nwhitman at AMERITECH.NET>
> Subject:      Re: Modern Proverb: If you always do what you've always done, you
>              always get what you've always gotten
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> 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 th=
> ose 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:
>> =20
>> 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.
>> =20
>> 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:
>> =20
>> [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]
>> =20
>> [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]
>> =20
>> Yesterday, I posted a Quote Investigator entry here:
>> http://quoteinvestigator.com/2016/04/25/get/
>> =20
>> 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:
>> =20
>> [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]
>> =20
>> 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.
>> =20
>> 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)
>> =20
>> [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]
>> =20
>> Garson
>> =20
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> 
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