[Ads-l] Adage: Always verify your quotations

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

The saying in the subject is near and dear to the heart of every
quotation sleuth. Now there is a Quote Investigator article on the
topic:
https://quoteinvestigator.com/2022/09/11/always-verify/

[Begin excerpt from QI article; slightly edited]
Dear Quote Investigator: According to a legend of academia, a young
student once asked an illustrious professor to impart his greatest
piece of wisdom, and the sage replied with one of these statements:

(1) Always verify your quotations.
(2) Always check your references.
(3) Always verify references.
(4) Always check your citations.

Ironically, few people are heeding this advice; hence, the details of
this tale are uncertain. Winston Churchill sometimes receives credit
for telling this story although I think it was circulating before he
was born. Would you please explore this topic?

Quote Investigator: Martin Routh was the President of Magdalen
College, Oxford for more than six decades. He was a renowned classical
scholar who died in 1854, and he has usually received credit for this
saying.

The student who asked Routh for advice was John Burgon who later
became a leader in the Anglican Church. Burgon presented a brief
description of the interaction at the beginning of his 1871 book
titled “The Last Twelve Verses of the Gospel According to S. Mark”:

[Begin excerpt from 1871 book]
“‘Advice to you,’ sir, ‘in studying Divinity?’ Did you say that you
‘wished I would give you a few words of advice,’ sir? … Then let me
recommend to you the practice of always verifying your references,
sir!”
Conversation of the late President Routh
[End excerpt from 1871 book]

Burgon stated in a later book that the dialog occurred on November 29,
1847. Thus, the 1871 description above appeared more than two decades
after the event occurred. This long delay reduced the reliability of
the report.

QI has uncovered earlier published evidence of this family of sayings.
The first instances referred to “quotations” instead of “references”
or “citations”. Below is an overview with dates:

1850: Where it is possible, always to verify quotations by reference
(Presented as a rule of scholarship by G. W. Peck)

1861: Verify quotations (Advice attributed to Martin Routh by Thomas H. Candy)

1867 Jan: Always to verify quotations, instead of taking them on the
quoter’s word (Advice attributed to Martin Routh by pseudonymous
Pelicanus)

1867 Aug: Never to rely upon secondary evidence when I could get
primary, and always to verify quotations (Rule taught to a columnist
of “The Illustrated London News”)

1868: Verify your quotations, sir (Advice attributed to unnamed great
writer by a newspaper columnist)

1871: Let me recommend to you the practice of always verifying your
references, sir! (Advice attributed to Martin Routh by John Burgon)

1871: Always verify citations (Advice given by Martin Routh to John
Burgon according to Julian Charles Young)

1871 Aug: Always verify quotations (Advice given by Martin Routh to
John Burgon according to “London Society” columnist)

1871 Sep: Always verify your quotations, and wind up your watch in the
morning (Advice given by the head of a college to an undergraduate
according to ‘A Country Rector’)

1873: Always verify quotations (Advice given by Martin Routh to Lord
Derby according to Samuel Minton)

1874: Always verify your references (Advice given by Martin Routh to a
scholar according to William Rudder)

1878: You will find it a very good practice always to verify your
references, sir! (Advice attributed to Martin Routh by John Burgon)

1884: Always verify your quotations (Advice given by Martin Routh on
his deathbed to his friends according to R. N. Worth)

1884: Verify your quotations (Advice given by a dying don to an Oxford
student in the novel “Princess Napraxine” by Maria Louise Ramé)

1886: Young man, verify your quotations (Advice given by Martin Routh
according to C. B. Mount)

1897: Always wind up your watch at night, and verify your quotations.
(Advice given by an aged sage according to the Earl of Rosebery)

1913: ‘First wind up your watch’ and also … verify your quotations
(Advice attributed to Earl of Rosebery by W. N. Willis)

1950: Verify your quotations (Advice given by a professor in his
declining hours to a pupil according to Winston Churchill)

1967: Always check your references (A well-tried scientific maxim
according to Hugh Nicol)

1978 Sep: Always check your references (Advice given by Martin Routh
according to E. R. Hardy)

1987: Always check your quotations against the originals—and then
recheck. (Lynn Quitman Troyka)
[End excerpt from QI article]

More details are available at the QI website.

[Begin acknowledgement]
Many thanks to previous researchers who authored helpful books which
mentioned this topic, e.g., “The Treasury of Modern Anecdote” (1881)
edited by W. Davenport Adams, “Cassell’s Book of Quotations” (1907)
edited W. Gurney Benham, “The Home Book of Quotations” (1949) edited
Burton Stevenson, “The Quote Sleuth” (1990) by Anthony W. Shipps,
“Brewer’s Famous Quotations” (2006) by Nigel Rees, and “The New Yale
Book of Quotations” (2021) edited by Fred R. Shapiro.
[End acknowledgement]

Feedback welcome
Garson O’Toole
Quote Investigator

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