[Ads-l] "If you don't know where you're going..."
ADSGarson O'Toole
00001aa1be50b751-dmarc-request at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
Thu Mar 12 04:40:10 UTC 2026
Peter Morris wrote:
> https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/The_Railroad_Telegrapher/gXmjAAAAMAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&bsq=%22If+you+don%27t+care+where+you+are+going%22&dq=%22If+you+don%27t+care+where+you+are+going%22&printsec=frontcover
>
> "If you don't CARE where you are going ...."
>
> Attributed to the caterpillar, rather than the cat.
>
> The Railroad Telegrapher
> probably 1910, or not long after.
Great citation, Peter.
As you probably know, there is a hookah-smoking caterpillar character
in Lewis Carroll's "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland". Thus, the
attribution to the caterpillar was probably due to confusion with the
Cheshire cat.
Peter is acknowledged in the new QI article:
Proverb Origin: If You Don't Know Where You Are Going, Any Road Will
Take You There
https://quoteinvestigator.com/2026/03/11/any-road/
Feedback welcome
Garson O'Toole
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