[Ads-l] Slight Antedating of Lincoln-Attributed Quotation

[Jonathan Lighter]

Splendid work, Garson.

JL

On Tue, Feb 10, 2026 at 5:13 PM ADSGarson O'Toole <
00001aa1be50b751-dmarc-request at listserv.uga.edu> wrote:

> I agree with you, JL, that Lincoln probably did not employ the saying.
> Here is the conclusion of the QI article.
>
> [Begin QI conclusion]
> In conclusion, Jacques Abbadie should be credited with the interesting
> precursor statement in French. QI believes based on current evidence
> that Abraham Lincoln probably did not employ this well-known adage.
>
> QI speculates that someone in the prohibitionist movement was exposed
> directly or indirectly to the works of Jacques Abbadie or Denis
> Diderot. He or she began to use the expression on or before 1885. The
> words were reassigned to Lincoln who was revered by many as a moral
> paragon.
> [End QI conclusion]
>
> Garson
>
> On Tue, Feb 10, 2026 at 5:08 PM Jonathan Lighter
> <00001aad181a2549-dmarc-request at listserv.uga.edu> wrote:
> >
> > FWIW, both Newspapers.com and GenealogyBank agree that the quotation
> > suddenly became vastly popular in 1886, within months of Bascom's letter
> in
> > a New York City paper.
> >
> > This suggests to me that Bascom heard the quote from somebody else, and
> > that it had had a limited oral circulation before that. Once his letter
> was
> > published, it quickly caught on.
> >
> > Which suggests further that Licoln never said it. Surely if he had,
> > somebody in his circle would have reported it before 1885.  It's such a
> > great quote that, also surely, had it been circulating widely before
> 1885,
> > esp. with the Lincoln attribution, there would be any number of
> pre-Bascom
> > citations.
> >
> > JL
> >
> > On Tue, Feb 10, 2026 at 5:00 PM ADSGarson O'Toole <
> > 00001aa1be50b751-dmarc-request at listserv.uga.edu> wrote:
> >
> > > The Quote Investigator article on his topic has now been updated with
> > > the new citation. The QI article includes an acknowledgement. Thanks.
> > > The changes should be visible now.
> > >
> > > Quote Origin: You Cannot Fool All the People All the Time
> > > https://quoteinvestigator.com/2013/12/11/cannot-fool/
> > >
> > > Feedback welcome
> > > Garson O'Toole
> > >
> > > On Tue, Feb 10, 2026 at 2:35 PM ADSGarson O'Toole
> > > <adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com> wrote:
> > > >
> > > > Wow! Thanks for sharing a magnificent new 1885 citation, Fred. Now,
> > > > the earliest known citation attributes the saying to Abraham Lincoln.
> > > > Admittedly, the attribution evidence is still weak because Lincoln
> > > > died in 1865. But the new citation is a valuable advance in our
> > > > knowledge.
> > > >
> > > > Garson
> > > >
> > > > On Tue, Feb 10, 2026 at 8:08 AM Shapiro, Fred
> > > > <00001ac016895344-dmarc-request at listserv.uga.edu> wrote:
> > > > >
> > > > > The great quotationeer Garson O'Toole pushed back the earliest
> dating
> > > for the great Abraham-Lincoln-attributed quotation about fooling all
> the
> > > people.  Garson's dating was 9 September 1885 (in a Syracuse
> newspaper).  I
> > > used this dating in the New Yale Book of Quotations.
> > > > >
> > > > > I have now found a slightly earlier occurrence of the attribution
> to
> > > Lincoln:
> > > > >
> > > > > 1885 The Voice (New York) 3 Sept. 3 / 4 (Newspapers.com)  Was it
> not
> > > Mr. Lincoln who said: "You can fool the people some of the time, and
> you
> > > can fool some of the people all of the time, but you can't fool all of
> the
> > > people all the time."
> > > > >
> > > > > NOTE:  This citation is in a letter to the editor by H. Clay
> Bascom..
> > > The letter is dated 24 Aug. 1885.
> > > > >
> > > > > Fred Shapiro
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > > ------------------------------------------------------------
> > > > > 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."
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------------------
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>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> 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."

------------------------------------------------------------
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