[Ads-l] Request help with "The Fortnightly" and quotation "If fifty million people say a foolish thing it is still a foolish thing"

[Dan Goncharoff]

Am I right this is a reposte to "50 million Frenchmen can't be wrong"?

On Sun, Dec 13, 2020, 11:54 AM ADSGarson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com>
wrote:

> The quotation in the subject line is usually attributed to Nobel
> Prize-Winning author Anatole France. I've written a QI article about
> this topic listing pertinent citations beginning with a semantic match
> in 1766. Feedback welcome:
>
> https://quoteinvestigator.com/2020/12/12/foolish/
>
> In this message I am requesting help with the verification of an
> important citation in  "The Fortnightly" journal of London in 1937.
> The data below was extracted from snippets displayed by Google Books;
> hence, this data may be inaccurate.
>
> Date: July 1937
> Periodical: The Fortnightly
> Volume 148
> Article: The Technique of Social Health
> Author: George Catlin
> Start Page 412, Quote Page 415,
> Publisher: Fortnightly Review Offices, London.
> Database: Google Books Snippet
> Note: Not yet verified; metadata and text extracted from snippets
>
> [Begin excerpt]
> As Anatole France sagely remarked, if fifty million people say a
> foolish thing it is still a foolish thing.
> [End excerpt]
>
> Anatole France died in 1924, so the evidence provided by this 1937
> citation is weak, but it is the earliest attribution to Anatole France
> that I have uncovered.
>
> You could help by retrieving the journal, verifying the presence of
> the quotation, and determining the correct metadata which may differ
> from the metadata listed above.
>
> Ideally, you will send to me scans or photos validating the accurate
> metadata and quotation. Scans showing: journal title, date of
> publication, publisher name, article name, article author, quotation
> together with page number.
>
> If you cannot relay scans that is ok. I will state that you have
> visually verified the accuracy of the citation you supply.
>
> You will receive an acknowledgement in the QI article.
>
> Thanks for your consideration
> Garson O'Toole
> QuoteInvestigator.com
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

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