[Ads-l] Adage: Always verify your quotations

[Pete Morris]

Another one

1800

https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/The_Critical_Review_Or_Annals_of_Literat/2MUPAAAAQAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=verify+quotes&pg=PA366&printsec=frontcover

We may here observe , that it will be proper for future historians of 
Winchester to verify every quotation in Mr. Tilrer's work before they 
use it .



------ 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

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