At 08:35 05/04/01 +1200, ash&barb smith, wrote
>Someone was asking recently, about an ancient scholar complaining about
>the children of the day, the following may or may not be what they are
>referring to.......
>
>"Times are bad. Children no longer obey their parents, and everyone is
>writing a book!"
>Marcus Tullius CICERO
>Statesman, Orator & Writer
>106 - 43 BC
That I am afraid is a variant of the Socrates/Sumerian/Babylonian
quote. Here's some background edited and clipped from the Research
Librarians' List archives.
Date: 1994
>Subj: Corrupt youth
>
>Besides the "Socrates" quote already cited in one response, I recall a
>like probably-fraudulent quote that begins to the effect
>
> The world has become decadent and horrid in these later days,
>children no longer obey their parents ...blah blah blah, possibly
>including the "there's murder in the streets" complaint..blah blah
>blah, and ending with "and every man wants to write a book."
>
>I think I've seen this half a dozen times credited to half a dozen
>different ancient authors, including at least one claim to have been
>found on clay tablets at Sumer... don't have a cite to hand, however.
>
>
>Dennis Lien / U of Minnesota Libraries
>*******
>
> >On Wed, 16 Dec 1998, Geard, Jennifer wrote:
> >
> >> "Times are bad. Children no longer obey their parents and everyone is
> >> writing a book."
> >>
> >> Could anyone help us find a source for this quotation? It seems to be
> >> attributed to various ancient sources such as "Cicero" or "Assyrian
>Tablet",
> >> but we've had no luck pinning it down.
> >
> >This is a well-known apocryphal quotation, although the "writing a book"
> >twist is novel. Check the archives under "Socrates" or the Stumpers book
> >at page 83.
> >
> > Fred R. Shapiro Coeditor (with Jane Garry)
> > Associate Librarian for Public Services TRIAL AND ERROR: AN OXFORD
> > and Lecturer in Legal Research ANTHOLOGY OF LEGAL STORIES
> > Yale Law School Oxford University Press, 1998
> > e-mail: fred.shapiro@yale.edu ISBN 0-19-509547-2
>
>
>The "writing a book" twist is not really novel: I mentioned same in a
>posting back in 1994:
>Unfortunately I have no more to add now than I did then; while I've
>had my eye out for this version for the last few years I have not
>subsequently encountered it.
>
>I think I first saw it in the fifties or early sixties, probably in
>either a READER'S DIGEST or a RIPLEY'S BELIEVE IT OR NOT strip or
>collection.
>
>Dennis Lien / U of Minnesota Libraries
I've also done searches in Bartlett's and at Quoteland.com and got nowhere.
But the quotes are so apt that they will undoubtably be accepted as genuine
forever.
Rick Grant
1959 Series II "88"
VORIZO
Rick Grant Communications
Media and Crisis Management
Calgary Ottawa
www.rickgrant.com
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