[Ads-l] FW: "Rearranging Their Prejudices" Quote

Wed Sep 21 21:51:44 UTC 2016

I have found a 1927 attribution to a "Professor Robinson at Columbia
University", who I guess to be James Harvey Robinson.

http://www.jstor.org/stable/41174907

Christian Education, April 1927, p444

DanG

On Wed, Sep 21, 2016 at 5:31 PM, Baker, John <JBAKER at stradley.com> wrote:

> (Originally sent, by accident, just to Joel.)
>
> I now have this back to 1906.  This is from Zion's Herald (Nov. 7, 1906)
> (ProQuest American Periodicals), a weekly publication that seems to have
> been affiliated in some manner with the Methodist Episcopal Church.  It
> appears in an account of the annual session of the General Executive
> Committee of the Women's Foreign Missionary Society:
>
> <<Bishop Oldham scored with his audience with a _bon mot_ to the effect
> that some people "think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging
> their prejudices.">>
>
> I presume that Bishop Oldham is William Fitzjames Oldham, who is the
> subject of a fairly detailed Wikipedia article.
>
>
> John Baker
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf
> Of Joel Berson
> Sent: Tuesday, September 20, 2016 11:05 PM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Re: "Rearranging Their Prejudices" Quote
>
> A little later than my question, Peter Reitan (I think) wrote:
> -----
> The Appeal (St. Paul, Minnesota), April 22, 1922, page 2 (Chronicling
> America).
>
>
> William Jennings Bryan's recent attack on the theory of evolution causes
> the Reverend George Craig Stewart to cry out: "Mr. Bryan is a conspicuous
> example of the man who thinks he is thinking, but who is only rearranging
> his prejudices.  Few men really think.-----
>
> Of course this is 11 years later than the anonymous "clever preacher"
> quote.
>
> Joel
>
>
>       From: "Baker, John" <JBAKER at STRADLEY.COM>
>  To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>  Sent: Tuesday, September 20, 2016 3:54 PM
>  Subject: Re: [ADS-L] "Rearranging Their Prejudices" Quote
>
> The identity of the "clever preacher" is not given, if indeed there was
> such; it may have been just a rhetorical device.  This seems to be a column
> of thoughts suitable for a prayer meeting discussion, on how people could
> improve themselves for the new year.  It also ran, a few days later, in the
> Charlotte News and the Wichita Daily Eagle.  Here's the full title and
> byline:
>
> THOSE NEW YEAR RESOLUTIONS.
> Terse Comments Upon the Uniform Prayer-Meeting Topic of the Young People's
> Societies--Christian Endeavor, etc.,--for December 31:  "Things I Want to
> Do Better Next Year."  Phil. 3: 12-14.
> BY WILLIAM T. ELLIS
>
> And here is the full paragraph in which it is found, for context:
>
> "You think you are thinking, when really you are only rearranging your
> prejudices," said one clever preacher to another.  Original mental
> operations are rare.  Some of us have about as much intellectual
> individuality as a phonograph record.  We seldom indulge in the luxury of
> solid, consecutive thought.  This will be a better year for all whose
> resolution is to do a little more thinking, and along wholesome lines.  The
> life is the product of the mind.
>
>
> John Baker
>
>
>
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf
> Of Joel Berson
> Sent: Tuesday, September 20, 2016 2:35 PM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Re: "Rearranging Their Prejudices" Quote
>
> Is "one clever preacher" Dr. [of Divinity] X?  Now can you come up with
> his name?
>
>
> Joel
>
>
>       From: "Baker, John" <JBAKER at STRADLEY.COM>
>  To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
>  Sent: Tuesday, September 20, 2016 12:31 PM
>  Subject: Re: [ADS-L] "Rearranging Their Prejudices" Quote
>
> And this takes it back to 1911.  From the Los Angeles Daily Times (Dec.
> 23, 1911) (Newspapers.com):  ""You think you are thinking, when really you
> are only rearranging your prejudices," said one clever preacher to another"
>
>
> John Baker
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: American Dialect Society [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf
> Of Tim Stewart
> Sent: Tuesday, September 20, 2016 12:09 PM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: Re: "Rearranging Their Prejudices" Quote
>
> Here's an antedating to September 1918.
>
> Title: Biblical World
> Issue: September 1918
> volume 52 (LII)
> number 2
> p. 140
>
> [begin excerpt]
> Thinking is facing the new world in a new temper. At a reception a
> gentleman remarked, as he looked over toward a Doctor of Divinity who
> seemed deep in solitary meditation apart from the crowd, "Dr. X seems to be
> thinking deeply!" "No, indeed," replied the friend, "Dr. X is not thinking;
> he is just rearranging his prejudices."
> [end excerpt]
>
> URL:
> https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.32044105219372;view=1up;seq=172
>
>
> - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
> - - - - - - - - - - -
> Read excerpts from the forthcoming *Dictionary of Christianese
> <http://www.dictionaryofchristianese.com/>*
>
>
> On Tue, Sep 20, 2016 at 10:58 AM, Shapiro, Fred <fred.shapiro at yale.edu>
> wrote:
>
> > In the Yale Book of Quotations, 1st edition, I list the following
> > quotation under Knute Rockne:
> >
> >
> > Most men, when they think they are thinking, are merely rearranging their
> > prejudices.
> >
> > Quoted in Reader's Digest, Oct. 1927
> >
> >
> > While working on the 2nd edition of the YBQ, I have realized that this
> > quote was undoubtedly around before Rockne.  I would welcome any
> citations
> > or leads pushing it back in time.  Probably "rearranging their
> prejudices",
> > "rearrange their prejudices", "rearranging his prejudices," etc. are the
> > key phrases to search for.
> >
> >
> > Fred Shapiro
> >
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> >
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