Saturday, March 08, 2008

what are words for

I change the "think on it" words of wisdom on my sidebar as the mood strikes me. When I remove the old to display the new, I don't always tuck it away in a place for safekeeping and/or future reference. For some reason today, I had an idea of a simple way to do that. Any time I make the change, I'll post the old saying as an entry. Today is maiden voyage of this practice.

Previous words of wisdom:

"You must do the things you think you cannot do."- Eleanor Roosevelt

Mrs. Roosevelt was a font of wisdom, whose words will undoubtedly show up here again. Today, however, we move on to wise words for which I cannot find a definitive source. Most people cite Edmund Burke, however, this note may suggest otherwise:
"Attributed to Edmund Burke, but never found in his works. It may be a paraphrase of Burke’s view that 'When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle' (Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents, April 23, 1770)."
Same concept. Popular version is more pithy.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

So, I hate to sound silly, but to whom would you attribute that quote? I've liked it for a long time but never used it on anything because I didn't know who said it.

kellycoxsemple said...

I don't have a good answer for you, Phledge. I took the easy way out and attributed it to "not Edmund Burke" and linked it to this explanation.