[Ads-l] Groucho--really?

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

The linkage to Groucho in 1972 was oddly phrased, and it was possible
that the columnist Rufus W. Gosnell was asserting that the quotation
represented Groucho's philosophy, but not his words. Perhaps Gosnell
was claiming credit for the words.

[ref] 1972 August 30, Aiken Standard, Here's Rufus by Rufus W.
Gosnell, Quote Page 1-B, Column 5, Aiken, South Carolina.
(Newspapers_com)[/ref]

[Begin excerpt]
Each morning when I open my eyes, I say to myself; "I, not events,
have the power to make me happy or unhappy today. I can choose which
it shall be. Yesterday is dead, tomorrow hasn't arrived yet. I have
just one day, today, and I'm going to be happy in it." That's a system
that has worked for Groucho Marx for a long time; try it.
[End excerpt]

Garson

On Fri, Mar 10, 2017 at 4:20 PM, ADSGarson O'Toole
<adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com> wrote:
> JL: Here is a 1712 match with "the future is yet unborn, and the past
> is dead" and "present time alone is ours".
>
> Year: 1765 Reprint
> Periodical: The Spectator In Eight Volumes (Carefully Revised and Corrected)
> Editors: Joseph Addison and Richard Steele
> Volume 4
> Number 316
> Printed for D. Williams and P. Dods in the Strand, London
> Monday, March 3, 1712 (Monday based on Julian Calendar)
> [By Mr. Budgel.]
> Start Page 295, Quote Page 297
>
> [Begin excerpt]
> To-morrow is still the fatal time when all is to be rectified;
> to-morrow comes, it goes, and still I please myself with the shadow,
> whilst I lose the reality; unmindful that the present time alone is
> ours, the future is yet unborn, and the past is dead, and can only
> live (as parents in their children) in the actions it has produced.
> [End excerpt]
>
> Garson
>
>
> On Fri, Mar 10, 2017 at 1:28 PM, Jonathan Lighter
> <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com> wrote:
>> 1869  _Putnam's Monthly Magazine_ (Jan.) 106: Now is the solitary point of
>> interest for us. The Past is dead; the Future is unborn; this Present is
>> all that lives!
>>
>> Perhaps Fred or Garson has something earlier....
>>
>> JL
>>
>>
>>
>> On Fri, Mar 10, 2017 at 1:14 PM, Laurence Horn <laurence.horn at yale.edu>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> > On Mar 10, 2017, at 12:39 PM, GEOFFREY NUNBERG <nunbergg at GMAIL.COM>
>>> wrote:
>>> >
>>> > The following quotation is widely ascribed to Groucho Marx:
>>> >
>>> >> I, not events, have the power to make me happy or unhappy today. I can
>>> choose which it shall be. Yesterday is dead, tomorrow hasn't arrived yet. I
>>> have just one day, today, and I'm going to be happy in it.
>>> >
>>> > I suppose it’s not impossible that Groucho said such a thing in his sad
>>> dotage, but the tenor is awfully un-Marxian.
>>>
>>>
>>> Yes, it certainly doesn’t seem to sit well with the other classic Marxist
>>> doctrines, e.g. “Why a duck”, “…Inside of a dog it’s too dark to read”, and
>>> of course the philosophers’ favorite, “I wouldn’t want to belong to any
>>> club that would have me as a member”
>>>
>>> LH
>>>
>>> > Can anybody help to trace the actual source of the quote—or what’s
>>> really more interesting (if I’m right), its first misattribution?
>>> >
>>> > Geoff
>>> >
>>> > ------------------------------------------------------------
>>> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>>
>>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org