[Ads-l] Quote: Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts

ADSGarson O'Toole adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM
Fri Mar 20 20:09:58 UTC 2020


Eons ago (November 16, 2010) I participated in a discussion thread
about the saying listed in the subject line.
http://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/ads-l/2010-November/104693.html

Mardy Grothe asked me about this saying very recently. So, I decided
to create an entry.

There are actually two closely related pertinent expressions as shown
in the QI article. Barry Popik already has an entry. I contributed the
earliest citation in his article back in 2010. Daniel Patrick Moynihan
usually receives credit, and the QI article has a January 1983
citation in which he uses the expression, but the saying was already
in circulation.

Here is a link to the QI article:
https://quoteinvestigator.com/2020/03/17/own-facts/

[Begin acknowledgement]
Great thanks to Stephen, Richard Dooling, Doug Leigh, and Mardy Grothe
whose inquiries led QI to formulate this question and perform this
exploration. Special thanks to previous researchers Barry Popik,
Victor Steinbok, Stephen Goranson, Suzy Platt, and the authors of “The
Dictionary of Modern Proverbs”, Charles Clay Doyle, Wolfgang Mieder,
and Fred R. Shapiro.
[End acknowledgement

Garson

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



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