[Ads-l] Adage: Always verify your quotations

[Pete Morris]

I would think that this advice is almost as old as academic writing.

Here's a few earlier cites.

=========================

January, 1811.  And presumably the quoted work is older, if it has
been quoted accurately.

https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/The_Wesleyan_Methodist_Magazine/SREEAAAAQAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=verify+quotes&pg=PA106&printsec=frontcover

Dr Magee in some parts of his publication calls for authorities
to verify their assertions and we now follow his example  and call
upon him to verify his quotation from the preface to Mr Wesley's
Hymns....

==========================

1847

https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Pamphlets_on_Missions/THFOAQAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=verify+quotes&pg=RA9-PA8&printsec=frontcover

... while in the matter of quotations, to verify what one quotes is
all that the severest criticism calls for.


===========================

1842

https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Lucilla_or_The_Reading_of_the_Bible_tran/qRRhAAAAcAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=verify+quotes&pg=PA191&printsec=frontcover

This will oblige you, Madam, to verify the quotations yourself.

========================

1845

https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/The_United_States_Catholic_Magazine_and/ikA9AAAAYAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=verify+quotes&pg=PA342&printsec=frontcover

... he must minutely examine and thoroughly sift the original 
authorities ;
  he must verify his references ; must see whether he has given the true
sense of the authors he quotes , whether he garbles passages , whether
he omits portions  ...

=======================






------ Original Message ------
>From "ADSGarson O'Toole" <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM>
To ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Date 12/09/2022 13:38:26
Subject Adage: Always verify your quotations

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

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