Winston Churchill, Oscar Wilde, and many others, but the person who deserves credit for the original idea is Charles Brownson, a Republican congressman from Indiana (he served from 1951 till 1959). The first appearance of the saying in print was in the 1964 book My Indiana, in which author Irving Leibowitz wrote:Former Congressman Charles Brownson, Indianapolis Republican, used to say, “I never quarrel with a man who buys ink by the barrel.”
When phrased as an admonition, the saying often appears with the words “and newsprint by the ton” added at the end. In 1978, the Wall Street Journal presented another variant (“Never argue with a man who buys ink by the barrel”) and called it “Greener’s Law,” after William Greener, a deputy press secretary to President Gerald Ford. (Greener claimed authorship, but it’s now clear the saying preceded him.) When Tommy Lasorda was managing the Los Angeles Dodgers, he applied the concept to sportswriters when he said, “Never argue with people who buy ink by the gallon.”
Never cry over spilt milk.
This saying has long reminded people to waste no time shedding tears over past errors and mistakes. It has its origins in “No weeping for shed milk,” which first appeared in print in James Howell’s Proverbs (1659). The proverb evolved into “There’s no use crying over spilt milk,” and ultimately into the current saying. Some quotation anthologies cite Sophocles as the original author of the sentiment (“There is no sense in crying over spilt milk. Why bewail what is done and cannot be recalled?”), but there is no evidence he ever wrote such a thing. The saying has also inspired these parodies:
Never cry over spilt milk. It could have been whiskey.JAMES GARNER, quoting his dad in a Maverick episode
If you must cry over spilt milk, condense it.EVAN ESAR
Never cry over spilt milk, because it might have been poisoned.W. C. FIELDS
Never judge a book by its cover.
According to the Yale Book of Quotations, this saying first appeared in exactly this way in an 1894 issue of a Minnesota newspaper, the Freeborn Country Standard. Its origins, however, can be traced to an eighteenth-century German proverb: “We must not judge of a book by its title page.” That saying was so well established in Europe in the late 1700s that everybody clearly understood what the English barrister William Roberts meant when he wrote (under a pseudonym) in a 1792 issue of The Looker-On: “I would as soon pretend to judge of a book by its title-page, as pronounce upon my neighbor’s disposition or genius from the shape of his features.” The saying Never judge a book by its cover literally means what it says, but it has also figuratively evolved to mean never judge by external appearances. The saying has inspired a popular spin-off from the writer Fran Lebowitz: “Never judge a cover by its book.”
Never send a boy to do a man’s job.
This saying, which began to enjoy great popularity in America in the early 1900s, is derived from an earlier English proverb: “Never send a boy on a man’s errand.” The origins of the English saying are obscure, but it was well established by the mid-nineteenth century (an 1854 article in Hunt’s Yachting Magazine said, “ ’Tis an old saying though and a true one, ‘Never send a boy on a man’s errand’ ”). The American proverb has appeared countless times in books, movies, and everyday conversation. It has also been creatively altered in some memorable ways. In his 1960 presidential campaign, John F. Kennedy often endeared himself to women’s groups when he cited “an old saying” that went this way: “Never send a boy to do a man’s job, send a lady.” You will find some other fascinating alterations of the proverb in the stage & screen chapter.
Never kiss and tell.
Since the early 1700s, this has been the preferred phrase for advising people to keep the details of an intimate relationship secret. In modern times, the meaning of “kiss and tell” has been extended to incorporate those who reveal intimate secrets for revenge, publicity, or financial gain (as when people write a kiss-and-tell book). While the act of kissing and telling has been going on for millennia, it wasn’t until the late 1600s when a formal admonishment about it appeared in John Dryden’s lyric poem “Fair Iris and Her Swain” (turned into a song by composer Henry Purcell for a 1690 production of Dryden’s Amphitryon). Here’s the relevant passage, which includes the first appearance in print of the now-famous neverism:Fair Iris, kiss me kindly,In pity of my fate,and kindly still, and kindlyBefore it is too late.You fondly court your bliss,And no advances make,’Tis not for maids to give,But ’tis for men to take:So you may kiss me kindly,And I will not rebel;But do not kiss and tell,No never kiss and tell.
Never bite off more than you can chew.
This saying about running the risk of failure by overreaching or attempting too much seems ancient, but The Yale Book of Quotations says the warning first showed up in an 1895 New York Times article as “Don’t bite off more than you can chew.” In my research, though, I’ve discovered a number of earlier usages, and all have used the neveristic phrasing. An 1887 article in the Albany Law Journal criticized a former New York City judge’s behavior in several cases, including one involving “Boss” Tweed. Apparently, the judge had inserted himself into the proceedings in a variety of inappropriate ways, including the questioning of witnesses from the bench and expressing his own personal opinions about the evidence. After a higher court ruled that the judge’s behavior was improper, the unnamed author of the article (but almost certainly editor Irving Browne) suggested that the saying was already quite popular when he wrote:“Never bite off more than you can chew” is an excellent motto for a judge or an ex-judge, and this ex-judge would do well to pencil it on his cuff for handy reference.
Never make the same mistake twice.
Often presented as Don’t make the same mistake twice, this proverb has been popular since colonial times. It’s acceptable to make one mistake, according to this sentiment, but if you make the same mistake twice—or more often—then you have committed the error of not learning from your experience. The saying continues to show up in fascinating ways. In 2009, The Real Housewives of Atlanta star Nene Leakes titled her memoir: Never Make the Same Mistake Twice: Lessons on Love and Life Learned the Hard Way.
Never let the truth stand in the way of a good story.
This quotation has been attributed to Mark Twain, William Randolph Hearst, and many others, but the original author has never been conclusively identified. The underlying idea, of course, is that the truth is sometimes sacrificed in order to tell a good story or sell more newspapers. The saying has often been mockingly attributed to newspaper publishers and writers, with some cynics even calling it “the first rule of journalism.” Over the years, many people in the journalism profession have even adopted the saying—half-seriously, half in jest—as a personal motto. The line made a memorable appearance in 1994 as the tagline for The Paper, a film with an all-star cast that included Michael Keaton, Glenn Close, and Robert Duvall. In a popular variation of the saying, “the truth” is replaced by “the facts.”
Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.NAPOLEON BONAPARTE
Now regarded as a political axiom, this saying has been attributed to Bonaparte for more than a century (although it has never been found in his writings). A popular 1910 book of quotations provided a slightly different translation, ending it with “making a false movement” instead of “making a mistake.” A similar observation from Woodrow Wilson can be found in the politics & government chapter.
