[Ads-l] better to light the candle than to curse the darkness - 1907

[Robin Hamilton]

When I first encountered this saying, I assumed (quite wrongly) that it was by
one of the seventeenth century Cambridge Platonists, Ralph Cudworth or Henry
More perhaps.  I've known for some time that it wasn't, but nice to see the
origin done and dusted, Garson.

Robin.

(Overheard in a Cambridge pub sometiime in 1the 1650s:

     HENRY MORE:  I wish I'd said that, Ralph.

     RALPH CUDWORTH:   You will, Henry, you will.     )

> 
>     On 21 March 2017 at 01:59 ADSGarson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM>
> wrote:
> 
> 
>     Way back in October 2009 I initiated a thread about the saying in the
>     subject line. Now there is an entry on the Quote Investigator website:
> 
>     Better to Light a Candle Than to Curse the Darkness
>     http://quoteinvestigator.com/2017/03/19/candle/
> 
>     Garson
> 
>     On Tue, Oct 20, 2009 at 6:15 AM, Garson O'Toole
>     <adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com> wrote:
>     > "Yet is it far better to light the candle than to curse the darkness."
>     > Citation: "The Supreme Conquest: and Other Sermons Preached in
>     > America" by William Lonsdale Watkinson, Fleming H. Revell Company, New
>     > York, page 218, 1907.
>     >
>     > The book is downloadable from Google Books and the document appears to
>     > be correctly dated.
>     >
>     > Page 418 of YBQ gives a 1940 citation and suggests it "may indeed have
>     > been a Chinese saying". ADS-L archives have a post in 2004 with
>     > citations in the 1940s. Encarta Book of Quotations says it is a
>     > "Chinese Proverb".
> 
>     ------------------------------------------------------------
>     The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
> 

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