Reliable quotes in the age of the Internet?
顿颈诲苍鈥檛 Thomas Edison say something interesting once about opportunity wearing overalls?
Sometimes an apparently aimless thought like that leads to something substantial. So when this one struck the other day, I went a-Googling to see if I could confirm what I thought I remembered, and get the wording and attribution right.
The days of pulling Bartlett鈥檚 Familiar Quotations down from the shelf are behind us 鈥� but how reliable are today鈥檚 online options? What should careful writers do to check the pithy sayings, quips, and the like that they want to incorporate in their prose?
I quickly found the 鈥渙veralls鈥� quote 鈥� in two versions.
One read, 鈥淥pportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.鈥�
The other version went: 鈥淢ost people don鈥檛 recognize opportunity when it comes, because it鈥檚 usually dressed in overalls and looks a lot like work.鈥�
Hmm. So which is correct?
Each appeared on a popular 鈥済reat quotations鈥� website. Neither gave a date or a context. Did the great inventor make the observation in a letter, a speech, a press interview? There鈥檚 no indication.
What clues do the texts themselves give? The first puts 鈥渙pportunity鈥� at the beginning. The grammatical subject is identical with the substantive subject. That鈥檚 good. But then we lurch into passive voice: 鈥渋s missed by most people.鈥� That鈥檚 not so good. The 鈥渁ctors鈥� in the sentence, the ones doing the missing, are relegated to a prepositional phrase. Also not so good.
Moreover, the rhythm is a little off. 鈥淏ecause it is dressed鈥�? Wouldn鈥檛 most people say 鈥渂ecause it鈥檚 dressed鈥�? Well, yes, except perhaps in writing. So this version seemed just awkward enough to be more plausible as something someone actually said, or wrote.
The other version, by contrast, looks to have been through the rewrite desk. The opening, 鈥渕ost people,鈥� may be a little soft, but it鈥檚 appropriate for this sort of 补辫别谤莽耻. 鈥淥pportunity when it comes鈥� gives us a little context; it makes the first version seem abrupt. The rhythm of the second is better, and with its colloquial 鈥渓ooks a lot like,鈥� gives some alliteration. Then it ends with a punch on 鈥渨ork.鈥澛�
It鈥檚 a line we can imagine hearing in a movie, delivered in the folksy twang Daniel Day-Lewis worked up to play Lincoln a couple of years ago.
But further investigation suggests that the right version is 鈥� neither.聽
A website called Quote Investigator reports that the earliest attribution of the adage to Edison, in Forbes magazine, dates only to 1962, over 30 years after he died. Not a good sign.聽
The idea appeared in various forms in many places throughout the 20th century, including the columns of the Monitor. concludes: 鈥淸B]ased on current evidence, the safest attribution seems to be 鈥渁nonymous.鈥�
The Internet provides some bunk 鈥� but also debunking.
