[Ads-l] Quote: A picture is worth ten thousand words

[Laurence Horn]

Interesting! Seems to me like Caffyn's 1903 quote wins the prize, unless
there really is a Japanese or Chinese original.

LH

On Thu, Jul 21, 2022 at 9:53 PM ADSGarson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Way back on July 2011 I posted two messages about the saying in the
> subject line:
>
> https://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/ads-l/2011-July/110830.html
> https://listserv.liguistlist.org/pipermail/ads-l/2011-July/110846.html
>
> Now, after a short delay of eleven years I am preparing to post an
> article on the Quote Investigator website. But I am a bit confused.
> Back in 2011 I posted a citation dated July 26, 1915 in the “New
> Orleans Item” in which Arthur Brisbane used the expression:
>
> A picture is worth ten thousand words.
>
> But “The Dictionary of Modern Proverbs” and “The New Yale Book of
> Quotations” both point to the same newspaper and date, but they credit
> Arthur Brisbane with the slightly different expression:
>
> A picture is worth a thousand words.
>
> Maybe the newspaper contains both expressions? Could Fred or Charlie
> state where the quotation appears?
>
> The “ten thousand” expression appears on page 6 with an article titled
> “Debt Carries You for a While But---Groaning and Sweating, You Carry
> Debt in the End” by Arthur Brisbane. The PDF is in GenealogyBank.
>
> Here is an overview of the citations in the article that I am planning to
> post.
>
> 1750: One timely deed is worth ten thousand words. (James Thomson)
>
> 1828: One broad look is worth a thousand descriptions. (Anonymous)
>
> 1848: One fact, my dear madam, is worth ten thousand words. (Henry Tudor)
>
> 1876: One “look” is worth a thousand descriptions. (Robert Maguire)
>
> 1891: One good picture is worth many pages of written description.
> (William Sproston Caine)
>
> 1893: One look is worth all the guesses in creation. (Howard Crutcher)
>
> 1895: One look is worth a ton of letters. (B. M. Croker)
>
> 1895: The drawing shows me at a glance what would be spread over ten
> pages in a book. (English translation of Ivan Turgenev's 1862 novel)
>
> 1898: One look is worth three feels and four guesses. (Attributed to
> Robert T. Morris)
>
> 1903: One look is worth a thousand words (Kathleen Caffyn)
>
> 1907: A minute of examination is worth a thousand words of
> description. (Advertisement)
>
> 1910 Apr 30: One picture is worth several pages of an ordinary law
> brief for the illuminative ideas it suggests. (Anonymous)
>
> 1911 Mar 28: Use a picture. It's worth a thousand words. (Arthur Brisbane)
>
> 1912: One picture is worth many pages of description. (Helen Churchill
> Candee)
>
> 1912 May 04: One picture is worth a dozen chapters of mere words.
> (Advertisement)
>
> 1914 May 16: A look is worth a thousand words. (Described as Japanese
> saying)
>
> 1914 Oct 12: One look is worth a thousand words. (Described as Chinese
> saying)
>
> 1915 Jul 26: A picture is worth ten thousand words. (Arthur Brisbane)
>
> 1915 Jul 29: A strong picture is worth ten thousand words. (Attributed
> to Arthur Brisbane)
>
> 1915 Nov 05: A strong picture is worth a thousand words. (Attributed
> to Arthur Brisbane)
>
> 1915 Dec 04: A picture is worth a thousand words. (Advertisement)
>
> 1917: A picture is worth a thousand words. (Described as a Japanese
> proverb)
>
> 1917 Apr 05: A good photograph is worth a thousand words. (Anonymous)
>
> 1920 Jan 29: One picture is worth ten thousand words. (Attributed to
> unnamed famous journalist)
>
> 1921 Dec 08: One Look Is Worth a Thousand Words. (Attributed to
> unnamed famous Japanese philosopher)
>
> 1925 Jan 25: One picture is worth ten thousand words. (Described as
> old Chinese proverb)
>
> Garson
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>

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