Anyone know of a quotation that expresses the high likelihood of those who make absolute statements to ultimately have to eat their words? I'll check Bartlett's when I get home, but I thought this might make for good conversation besides...
These are probably not exactly what you want, but . . .
"It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt." Benjamin Franklin, I think
"Nothing is so firmly believed as that which we least know." Michel de Montaigne
"Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools, because they have to say something." - Plato
I'm using the last one as my senior quote for the yearbook.
"It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt."
I think that was Abraham Lincoln. Anyway, it's very funny. There is a saying among surgeons that expresses their esteem for self-assuredness even at the expense of being correct soemtimes: "Often mistaken but never in doubt."
I thought this might make for good conversation besides...
Thank you, Fiberbabe, thank you!
As one who rather more often than she likes has experienced this very thing, I ought to be able to come up with something profund, but all I can think of is: pride goeth before a fall.
More generally:
'Engage brain before opening mouth!'
What about "He/she has foot and mouth disease. Only opens his/her mouth to change feet!"
This one may only fly in New Zealand and Australia, as foot and mouth disease is something which only seems to happen in sheep.
...Only opens his/her mouth to change feet!CapK, you took the foot right out of my mouth!
We also have that expression here in the US; well, just the latter part. And her we call the disease hoof and mouth, I think...
...Only opens his/her mouth to change feet!CapK, you took the foot right out of my mouth!
We also have that expression here in the US; well, just the latter part. And here we call the disease hoof and mouth, I think...
Dear Fiberbabe: A very ancient one, source I can't remember," It is dangerous to assert a positive."
Just remembered another one I can't quite get accurately, "Being positive is being wrong at the top of your voice."
food and mouth disease
Just this weekend, saw on TV an interview with Anne Richards, former governor of Texas, who said of George W. Bush, "He was born with a silver foot in his mouth."
Only opens his/her mouth to change feet!
Familiar to me as a 'big enough mouth to get both feet in.'
Along the same lines:
"Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely" Lord Acton
I've always thought of the saying as a great leveller.
It's not a quotation, but dontopedalogy is defined as "the aptitude for putting one's foot in one's mouth (coined by Prince Philip unwittingly for Spiro Agnew)"
