Thanks to Adam Cuerden who sent in the following correction to a ‘quote’ attributed to Benjamin Franklin. Here’s the scoop:
- Um… that first isn’t Benjamin Franklin. That’s W.S. Gilbert, Utopia Limited, Act I Finale:
Princess Zara:
A complicated gentleman allow to present,
Of all the arts and faculties the terse embodiment,
He’s a great arithmetician who can demonstrate with ease
That two and two are three or five or anything you please;
An eminent Logician who can make it clear to you
That black is white–when looked at from the proper point of view;
A marvelous Philologist who’ll undertake to show
That “yes” is but another and a neater form of “no.”Sir Bailey:
Yes–yes–yes–
“Yes” is but another and a neater form of “no.”
All preconceived ideas on any subject I can scout,
And demonstrate beyond all possibility of doubt,
That whether you’re an honest man or whether you’re a thief
Depends on whose solicitor has given me my brief.
