[Ads-l] "Time is what keeps everything from happening at once."

[Jonathan Lighter]

I should have known you'd have covered it already! Great work!

JL

On Sat, Jun 28, 2025 at 8:41 PM ADSGarson O'Toole <
00001aa1be50b751-dmarc-request at listserv.uga.edu> wrote:

> That is a fun quotation, JL.
> Back in 2022 I contacted librarians at the University of Louisville
> Archives and Special Collections Repository who kindly provided me
> with scans of the March 15, 1919 issue of "All-Story Weekly"; hence, I
> was able to verify the presence of the quotation in the tale "The Girl
> in the Golden Atom" by Ray Cumming as indicated in this ADS-L message:
>
> https://listserv.linguistlist.org/pipermail/ads-l/2022-August/162042.html
>
> Here is a link to the QI article:
> Quote Origin: Time Is What Keeps Everything From Happening At Once
> Albert Einstein? Ray Cummings? Mark Twain? Arthur C. Clarke? John
> Archibald Wheeler? Arthur Power Dudden? Susan Sontag?
>
> https://quoteinvestigator.com/2019/07/06/time/
>
> Garson
>
> On Sat, Jun 28, 2025 at 7:16 PM Jonathan Lighter
> <00001aad181a2549-dmarc-request at listserv.uga.edu> wrote:
> >
> > A learned YouTube video about relativity attributes these words to (wait
> > for it!) Mark Twain, who seems to have said most of the things worth
> > thinking about.
> >
> > YBQ correctly credits the American sf pioneer Ray Cummings, citing "The
> > Time Professor" (1921).
> >
> > It appears, however, that Cummings had written the memorable line
> somewhat
> > earlier. It appears in Cummings's "The Girl in the Golden Atom," which
> > according to anthologist Sam Moskowitz appeared in _All-Story Weekly_
> > (March 15, 1919).   (Cited and reprinted in Moskowitz, _Under the Moons
> of
> > Mars_ [N.Y.: Holt, 1970], p. 175.)
> >
> > JL
> >
> > --
> > "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the
> truth."
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>


-- 
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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