Quotations Weblog

The following quotation is often attributed to Frank Outlaw:

I’ve also seen it attributed to Ralph Waldo Emerson, but I cannot find the quote in Bartletts or any other of my quotation books under either name. It was discussed on WikiAnswers here:

• WikiAnswers – Who is frank outlaw

This quote is widely attributed to “Frank Outlaw” on the Web, but no actual other corroborating confirmation actually confirms that this is the correct source.

Popular quotation books – including Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations (17th ed., 2002), Roget’s International Thesaurus of Quotations (1970) and The Harper Book of Quotations (3rd ed., 1993) – DO NOT include this quote or any reference to Frank Outlaw.

In July 2003, a woman named “Elizabeth C.,” claimed to have written it in 1998 and sending to members of an e-mail group of people living with lupus.

According to legend, her words were: “these few lines have since taken on a life of their own via the Internet. I was honored when someone asked if they could post it on their work bulletin board. From there it ended up as a desktop theme. It has traveled everywhere.”

Matt Mullenweg, of WordPress fame, talked about this quote and one of his readers commented:

• Ralph Waldo Emerson « Matt on Not-WordPress

Dawn // February 1, 2007 at 4:15 am

And yet sadly no one has attributed this to its true origin…

The thought manifests as the word;
The word manifests as the deed;
The deed develops into habit;
And habit hardens into character;
So watch the thought and its ways with care,
And let it spring from love
Born out of concern for all beings…

As the shadow follows the body,
As we think, so we become.

• From the Dhammapada
  Sayings of the Buddha

I have added the Budda quote, but until I’m able to find the other in print somewhere, it will continue to be attributed to Unknown. Who is Frank Outlaw? As far as I can tell, he is an imagined author of a quote that may or may not be his.

Here are a few thoughts to keep your mind about this:

And here is one that really IS from Emerson:

I was lucky enough to attend a lecture by Jane Goodall last week in Salt Lake City. She is an amazing speaker. Here’s a tidbit of what we enjoyed:

Download this video for your iPod

From this lecture, I was able to get one very enjoyable quote from her that is a little different than what she is usually quoted:

If you would like to read more about the lecture in Salt Lake City:

• Pick Me! » Jane Goodall: Peace with Nature Lecture

To learn more about Jane Goodall and the good work she is doing all over the world:

• The Jane Goodall Institute

• Roots & Shoots : Engaging and empowering youth with service learning projects.

• Jane Goodall Institute – Contributions – Regular Membership

Yesterday’s comic from Frazz was an interesting one. So, was it Stalin or Lenin?

I love quotation comics!

Update 09-14-07:

The witty followup:

The quote is “I pwn noobs.” It means “I own newbies.” Which means “I beat people who are inexperienced.” It usually means that you hunt down people who are inexperienced at video games and beat them, but it can also be used in a competitive sense when debating with new people in forums or even beating people down the uninitiated with other accomplishments.

Not much of a brag, really, but it’s everywhere in the leetspeak world. The question, however, is how do you pronounce “pwn”?

• Language Log: Own, pone, poon, pun, pwone, whatever

How do I pronounce it? I made the geek table laugh when I pronounced it “pawn.” I knew what the word meant and I knew that it was officially a typo of “own”, but it seemed so much more pronounceable as “pawn.” Geek table smackdown ensued.

In the end, it is insanely difficult to pronounce much of the leetspeak that is out there. We are quickly learning that written language can be just as fluid as spoken language. Making sense of both is a full time job for linguists the world over.

Language Log has an excellent entry about misquotation and how easy it is to happen:

• Language Log: Standardizing non-standard language vs. careless misquotation

The Post quoted Clinton Portis (Redskins football player) as saying:

“I don’t know how anybody feels. I don’t know how anybody’s thinking. I don’t know what anyone else is going through. The only thing I know is what’s going on in Clinton Portis’s life.”

Wise quoted him as saying:

“I don’t know how nobody feel, I don’t know what nobody think, I don’t know what nobody doing, the only thing I know is what’s going on in Clinton Portis’s life.”

The word for word transcription was:

“I don’t know how nobody feel, I don’t know what nobody thinking, I don’t know what nobody going through. Only thing I know is what’s going on in Clinton Portis life.”

Which one should go in the collection? Is this a class issue? Did the Post reporter clean up the quote to make Clinton Portis sound better? Is it a simple mistake?

I have written down a lot of quotes that are in our collection. They were things that were said at important events like SXSW or other conventions. Many times, I am able to get the audio recording of the event and check the quote to correct it.

EVERY time I have gotten something wrong. EVERY TIME.

Was I trying to make them sound better? Was it a class issue? Did I clean up the quote?

No, I just am imperfect. I can’t write or type nearly as fast as people can talk.

So, what’s the answer? Which quote should go into the collection? We try to be as accurate as possible. The only problem with that is there are a lot of quotations out there that are WRONG. Everyone remembers them as wrong. Samuel Goldwyn made a living being misquoted on purpose.

In the end, quotation is hard to get right.