[Ads-l] "You can't live with 'em..."

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

Fun topic, JL. Here is an instance using "we" instead of "you".

[ref] 1900 April 5, Oakland Times, Banquet to the Visitors, Quote Page
1, Column 1, Oakland, California. (Newspapers_com) [/ref]
https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-oakland-times-women/196828226/

[Begin excerpt]
And we have their descendants about us, continued the speaker, and we
all agree with that cheerful cynic who said, "These women, God bless
them, we can't live with them and we can't live without them."
[End excerpt]

Here is an instance with "wives".

[ref] 1901 August 31, The Montana Catholic, What Men Have Said About
Wives, Quote Page 8, Column 6, Butte, Montana. (Newspapers_com) [/ref]
https://www.newspapers.com/article/montana-catholic-live/196826972/

[Begin excerpt]
We cannot live happily with our wives, yet we cannot live happily
without them. -- Metullus.
[End excerpt]

Here is a precursor referring to "the wicked" instead of women in 1888.

[ref] 1888, Meditations For Every Day in the Year from the Christian
Considerations of Father John Crasset, Translated by The Very Rev. T.
B. Snow, Quote Page 166 and 167, R. Washbourne, London. (Google Books
Full View) link [/ref]
https://www.google.com/books/edition/Meditations_for_every_day_in_the_year_fr/j6k4Pv66FzoC?

[Begin excerpt]
The wicked help to sanctify the good,
But the good cease to be good,
If they are pleased with their company.
You cannot live without them,
But you ought not to live with them,
Nor seek their society.
[End excerpt]

Garson

On Sat, May 2, 2026 at 3:38 PM Jonathan Lighter
<00001aad181a2549-dmarc-request at listserv.uga.edu> wrote:
>
> 1907  Maude A. Bpmberger _Colonial Recipes_ (N.Y.: Neale) 105: Here's to
> the women - God bless 'em,/ You can't live with 'em and you can't live
> without 'em."
>
> 1908 _Wichita Eagle_ (May 24) 12 [Newspapers.com]: Here's to the woman
> [sic] - God bless 'em. You can't live with 'em, and you can't live without
> 'em."
>
> 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

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