Quotations and originality.

in quotes •  3 years ago 


image.png

If you see someone talking about the "original" version of a common quotation, odds are very good that the "original" version they're citing is considerably newer than the more commonly known quote.

I'm looking at you "blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb"(which seems to have been invented in 2005), though there are other common culprits.

Sometimes the new version is just objectively superior. Like "When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things" is a couple of millennia old, whereas the C.S. Lewis variant “When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness and the desire to be very grown up” is only a century old - but far superior, imho.

Still doesn't make it the original though. Stop trying to give ancient providence to your quotations believing it somehow makes them more valid.

Authors get paid when people like you upvote their post.
If you enjoyed what you read here, create your account today and start earning FREE STEEM!