[Ads-l] Quote: I want to thank everyone for making this night necessary

ADSGarson O'Toole adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM
Sun Nov 13 15:33:59 UTC 2016


A version of the quotation in the subject line with an ascription to
Yogi Berra is included in "The Yale Book of Quotations", "The Quote
Verifier", and several other references. The YBQ has a 1967 citation
that uses "day" instead of "night":

[Begin quotation]
I want to thank everyone who made this day necessary.
[End quotation]

"The Quote Verifier" has a version with "night":

[Begin quotation]
I'd like to thank everyone who made this night necessary.
[End quotation]

The Quote Investigator website now has an entry on this topic.
http://quoteinvestigator.com/2016/11/12/berra-night/

The first citation uses "night" and is dated August 14, 1947, but I
have not yet found a contemporaneous news report with the quotation.
Maybe a St Louis newspaper from July 1947 has a good version.

The phrasing presented has been highly variable during the ensuing
decades. Even Yogi Berra provided multiple versions in memoirs and
autobiographies.

Garson

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