[Ads-l] Quote Origin: It is better to be vaguely right than exactly wrong

[Laurence Horn]

Amazing.  Seems like a close competition.  I'd vote for 

"It is better to be exactly right than vaguely wrong".  

That one doesn’t seem to have caught on, though.

LH

> On May 23, 2025, at 12:27 PM, ADSGarson O'Toole <adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM> wrote:
> 
> I received a request to explore the provenance of the expression in
> the subject line which has been attributed to economist John Maynard
> Keynes and logician Carveth Read. While researching I encountered two
> seemingly contradictory popular adages:
> 
> (1) It is better to be vaguely right than exactly wrong
> (2) It is better to be definitely wrong than vaguely right
> 
> Tracing these dual notions is difficult because they can be expressed
> in numerous ways. Below is an overview depicting the evolution of
> these sayings with attributions and dates. The statement from Francis
> Bacon is a precursor for the second adage:
> 
> 1620: Citius emergit Veritas ex errore quam ex confusion (Francis Bacon)
> 
> 1620: Truth emerges more readily from error than confusion (Francis
> Bacon rendered into English)
> 
> 1898: It is better to be vaguely right than exactly wrong (Carveth Read)
> 
> 1903: To be only vaguely right is worse than being definitely wrong
> (Unknown person with initials A. J. O.)
> 
> 1929: Greater service to the cause of philosophical truth is ever done
> by being definitely wrong than by being vaguely right (Curt John
> Ducasse)
> 
> 1933: It is better to be definitely wrong than vaguely right (Ian D. Suttie)
> 
> 1936: Mandeville, Malthus, Gesell and Hobson … preferred to see the
> truth obscurely and imperfectly rather than to maintain error, reached
> … on hypotheses inappropriate to the facts (John Maynard Keynes)
> 
> 1942: It is better to be vaguely right than precisely wrong
> (Attributed to Wildon Carr by Gerald Shove)
> 
> 1955: It was better to be roughly right than precisely wrong (K. Smith)
> 
> 1960: I would prefer to be vaguely right than precisely wrong (Sydney J. Harris)
> 
> 1966: It is better to be vaguely right than precisely wrong
> (Attributed to John Maynard Keynes in "The Accountants Digest")
> 
> 1969: It is better to be vaguely right than precisely wrong
> (Attributed to John Maynard Keynes by Howard Ross)
> 
> 1978: It is far better to be clearly and definitely wrong than to be
> vaguely and indefinitely right (J. Lorne McDougall)
> 
> 1979: It is better to be precisely wrong than roughly accurate (Edmond
> A. Murphy)
> 
> 2009: It was better to be vaguely right than precisely wrong
> (Attributed to John Maynard Keynes by Anthony Hilton)
> 
> Here is a link to the Quote Investigator article:
> https://quoteinvestigator.com/2025/05/23/vague-exact/
> 
> Feedback welcome
> Garson
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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