tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5541500.post8526599619520072105..comments2024-03-29T11:29:58.276+09:00Comments on BigHominid's Hairy Chasms: taxing my Google-fu skilzKevin Kimhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01328790917314282058noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5541500.post-25040901116462808122012-08-31T18:32:54.206+09:002012-08-31T18:32:54.206+09:00Mr. Gilleland,
An honor and a pleasure to have yo...Mr. Gilleland,<br /><br />An honor and a pleasure to have you visit my blog! You must be one of my five remaining visitors. Thanks for your insights, which seem to confirm Charles's suspicions.Kevin Kimhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01328790917314282058noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5541500.post-42200382181131222952012-08-31T00:42:23.535+09:002012-08-31T00:42:23.535+09:00Robert Andrews, The Columbia Dictionary of Quotati...Robert Andrews, The Columbia Dictionary of Quotations (New York: Columbia University Press, 1993), p. 7, attributes it to Elie Wiesel and cites International Herald Tribune (September 15, 1992) as the source. In general, more reliable information can be found on Google Books than just on plain Google, at least in my experience.Michael Gillelandhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03019674071723720487noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5541500.post-26279991943938373702012-08-30T14:54:26.507+09:002012-08-30T14:54:26.507+09:00This is interesting--I've found a few sites th...This is interesting--I've found a few sites that attribute the above quote instead to Elie Wiesel, while attributing the following to Picasso: "Accidents, try to change them--it's impossible. The accidental reveals man."<br /><br />To be honest, the mention of history in the original quote makes it sound more like Wiesel than it does Picasso.<br /><br />Google Books is probably a better resource for this sort of thing than just plain old Google. A search for this quote there turns up 22 results, six of which actually contain the exact quote. Of those six, four attribute it to Wiesel and two attribute it to Picasso.<br /><br />I'm putting my money on Wiesel, then, mainly for the reason I mentioned above: it <i>sounds</i> more like something Wiesel would have written. It's possible that Picasso said that other "accidents" quote and people got the two quotes confused.<br /><br />What would I do in this situation? Well, aside from attributing the quote to Wiesel, I would not cite it. This quote has become an aphorism, and aphorisms live independently of whatever source might have given birth to them. Attempting to trace that source will likely prove futile, at least on the internet, which has the worst signal-to-noise ratio of any medium in the world. So what I would do is say something like "Wiesel (or Picasso, take your pick) is purported to have said..."<br /><br />Is that a satisfying answer? Probably not. But that is what I would do.Charleshttp://www.liminality.orgnoreply@blogger.com