[Ads-l] Quote: I have nothing to declare except my genius (1910) attributed to Oscar Wilde

[Jonathan Lighter]

OTOH, he might have said "except" for condescending emphasis after a
pregnant pause.

But that's too cocksure for my taste.

JL

On Mon, Jan 17, 2022 at 10:06 AM Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Nice work, Garson.
>
> But surely Wilde, who had an outstanding sense of meter, would have said
> "but" rather than the disyllabic "except"?
>
> JL
>
>
>
> On Mon, Jan 17, 2022 at 9:54 AM ADSGarson O'Toole <
> adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Congratulations to researcher John Cooper. He has uncovered the
>> earliest known evidence for the quotation in the subject line. He
>> announced the discovery on his website "Oscar Wilde in America".
>>
>> https://oscarwildeinamerica.blog/2022/01/16/something-to-declare/
>>
>> The quotation appeared in 1910 within "The Oscar Wilde Calendar"
>> compiled by Stuart Mason (pseudonym of  Christopher Sclater Millard
>> according to Cooper). The calendar is accessible via HathiTrust. Here
>> are the details for the citation.
>>
>> [ref] 1910, The Oscar Wilde Calendar: A Quotation from the Works of
>> Oscar Wilde for Every Day in the Year with Some Unrecorded Sayings
>> Selected by Stuart Mason, Quotation for January Four, Quote Page 7,
>> Frank Palmer, London. (HathiTrust Full View) link [/ref]
>>
>>
>> https://hdl.handle.net/2027/inu.32000001009895?urlappend=%3Bseq=13%3Bownerid=13510798897925460-17
>>
>> [Begin excerpt]
>> At the New York Custom House: “I have nothing to declare except my
>> genius.”
>> [End excerpt]
>>
>> Previously, the earliest known evidence occurred in 1912 within "Oscar
>> Wilde: A Critical Study" by Arthur Ransome.
>>
>> A Quote Investigator article about this quotation will be posted in
>> the coming days (or weeks).
>>
>> Garson O'Toole
>> QuoteInvestigator.com
>>
>> ------------------------------------------------------------
>> 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."
>


-- 
"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