[Ads-l] bogus Churchill quote?

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

The Quote Investigator website now has an entry on this topic. JL and
Barry are acknowledged:

A Diplomat Is a Person Who Can Tell You To Go To Hell in Such a
Tactful Way That You’ll Look Forward with Pleasure To Making the Trip
https://quoteinvestigator.com/2018/04/03/diplomat/

[Begin acknowledgment]
Great thanks to Professor Jonathan Lighter who heard a commentator on
MSNBC attribute an instance to Winston Churchill. This led QI to
reactivate research on this topic and to create this entry. Special
thanks to Barry Popik who located citations beginning in 1953. His
helpful webpage is available here.
[End acknowledgment]

Feedback welcome
Garson

On Sun, Apr 1, 2018 at 1:13 PM, ADSGarson O'Toole
<adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com> wrote:
> Jonathan Lighter wrote:
>> MSNBC commentator:
>>
>> "It kind of reminded me of that famous quote from Churchill: 'Diplomacy is
>> the art of telling people to go to hell and having them ask you for
>> directions.'"
>>
>> Not famous. Try Googling.
>
> I suspect that the commentator was misremembering the following quip
> (or the joke is a variant). Barry Popik has a 1953 citation. Here it
> is in 1938. Additional research would be welcome:
>
> [ref] 1938 January 1, Altoona Tribune, (Untitled filler item), Quote
> Page 6, Column 2, Altoona, Pennsylvania. (Newspapers_com)[/ref]
>
> [Begin excerpt]
> A diplomat is a person who can tell you to go to hell in such a
> tactful way that you'll look forward with pleasure to making the trip.
> [End excerpt]
>
> Here is a slightly different phrasing from a few months later:
>
> [ref] 1938 May 27, The Deming Headlight, Ridin' Rudolph of the Bar
> Nothin' Ranch, Daffynitions, Quote Page 2, Column 2, Deming, New
> Mexico. (Newspapers_com)[/ref]
>
> [Begin excerpt]
> Diplomat: A person who can tell you to go to hell in such a tactful
> way that you'll look forward to making the trip.
> [End excerpt]
>
> I researched it back in 2015, but have not posted the results yet. Now
> I will give it priority. Here is Barry's webpage on the topic:
>
> https://www.barrypopik.com/index.php/new_york_city/entry/a_diplomat_is_a_person_who_can_tell_you_to_go_to_hell_so_that_you_look_forw/
>
> Garson

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