[Ads-l] Quote: You have enemies? Good. That means you=?UTF-8?Q?=E2=80=99ve_?=stood up for something, sometime in your life

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

This message is intended to update the status of the investigation of
the quotation in the subject line. The quotation is often
misattributed to Winston Churchill. The Quote Investigator article now
includes a new citation which partially matches the target expression.

Quote Origin: You Have Enemies? Good. That Means You’ve Stood Up For
Something, Sometime In Your Life
https://quoteinvestigator.com/2022/03/24/enemies/

This partial match occurred in a Marshalltown, Iowa newspaper in 1915
which acknowledged another newspaper called the “Grundy Democrat”. No
attribution was given. The following excerpt uses the word "never"
which did not occur in the target expression. The formulation is
negative; nevertheless, the underlying idea is similar:

[ref] 1915 May 24, Evening Times-Republican, The Man Without Enemies,
Quote Page 6, Column 4, Marshalltown, Iowa. (Newspapers_com) [/ref]

[Begin excerpt]
You have no enemies? Then you never stood up for right against wrong;
you never protected the weak against the bully; you never even dared
defend your own right against persecution. Had you done these things
you would have made enemies.
[End excerpt]

I was told about the above citation by the person using the twitter
handle @joeljsuwu. That handle is acknowledged in the updated QI
article.

Determining the closeness of the above match depends on a subjective
judgment. I am calling it a partial match which means that the
earliest close match remains the 1993 citation which was presented in
the original QI article. Here is the 1993 match again:

[ref] 1993 Copyright, Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, Second Edition,
Forgotten Realms: The Code of the Harpers by Ed Greenwood, Chapter:
Foes of the Harper, (Chapter epigraph), Quote Page 118, Column 1, TSR
Inc., Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. (Verified with scans) [/ref]

[Begin excerpt]
Ye have enemies? Good, good — that means ye’ve stood up for something,
sometime in thy life….
— Elminster of Shadowdale, speaking to a young Harper, Year of the Wyvern
[End excerpt]

Feedback welcome
Garson O’Toole

On Thu, Mar 24, 2022 at 4:56 AM ADSGarson O'Toole
<adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> I've received a half-dozen requests to trace the saying in the subject
> line which is often attributed to Winston Churchill. Here is a link to
> the Quote Investigator article:
>
> https://quoteinvestigator.com/2022/03/24/enemies/
>
> I found no substantive evidence that Winston Churchill made this
> remark. He died in 1965, and he received credit many years later in
> 2002. See details in the QI article. If you can find a linkage to
> Churchill before Oct. 2, 2002 please let me know.
>
> Thematic matches did appear in the writings of Thomas Jefferson and
> Victor Hugo, but these quotations were not close matches. Details are
> given in the QI article.
>
> The earliest close match I've found appeared in a 1993 book by fantasy
> author Ed Greenwood. This work was part of the "Forgotten Realms"
> series of the role-playing game "Advanced Dungeons & Dragons".
> Greenwood’s volume titled "The Code of the Harpers" functioned as a
> game accessory which presented background descriptions and customized
> rules. Greenwood used the following invented quotation from a
> fictional character as a chapter epigraph:
>
> [ref] 1993 Copyright, Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, Second Edition,
> Forgotten Realms: The Code of the Harpers by Ed Greenwood, Chapter:
> Foes of the Harper, (Chapter epigraph), Quote Page 118, Column 1, TSR
> Inc., Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. (Verified with scans) [/ref]
>
> [Begin excerpt]
> Ye have enemies? Good, good — that means ye’ve stood up for something,
> sometime in thy life….
> — Elminster of Shadowdale, speaking to a young Harper, Year of the Wyvern
> [End excerpt]
>
> If you can find an earlier close match please let me know.
>
> Thanks,
> Garson O'Toole

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