Tuesday, May 17, 2005

Blogball Current Event

When listening to and reading about the recent news events involving Newsweek and the Koran desecration in Afghanistan, Rumsfeld was quoted saying “I think it was Mark Twain who said Something that's not true can speed around the world three or four times in a matter of seconds … while truth is still trying to put their boots on”.
I have had other people qualify a quote by starting off with: “I think it was Mark Twain who said… and then kind of had a feeling that Mark Twain didn’t say it but it is a good name to use so the quote they are about to say would have more validity. Anyway I couldn’t find that quote anywhere. I even went to this great website called twainquotes.com and did a search. “Nothing” I know this does not compare to sloppy reporting plus he did say “I think” so he would be off the hook if MT really didn’t say this. I just thought it was ironic that it was said while talking about inaccurate reporting.

If anyone can find that quote please let me know. Maybe he really did say it.
If MT didn’t say it I am surprised the political machine hasn’t picked up on it.

I think it was Mark Twain who said… “If you tell the truth you don't have to remember anything” Yes, he really did say that. I checked my sources.

4 comments:

unca said...

Well, I've already found three other people who are supposed to have said this--one who lived around the same time as MT and two after. I thought this might have been one of the quotes from Puddinhead Wilson but I checked the online version with no luck. I have a feeling this is an old quote that MT might have used but never claimed as his own. I'll keep looking.

Blogball said...

How the heck did you find that quote? I couldn’t find it on any of my trusty web sites.

OK who are the 3 people credited for this quote Mr. Search Engine pants?

unca said...

Try these:
http://www.worldofquotes.com/topic/Lies/1/
http://en.thinkexist.com/quotation/a_lie_can_be_halfway_round_the_world_before_the/212841.html
http://www.damianpenny.com/archived/001117.html
http://www.dimlights.com/2002/04/lie-travels-round-world-while-truth-is.html
http://www.quotemeonit.com/lies.html
http://homepage.eircom.net/~odyssey/Quotes/Life/Humanity.html
http://www.sunriseonline.ca/2005_02_01_archive.html

Blogball said...

Thanks for that research Unca.
It is kind of interesting that a quote like this can be attributed to so many different people. Maybe I will put my name next to this quote and then in 150 years or so people will think I said it.