While researching the provenance of quotes from the UUA’s “Wayside Pulpit” quote collection, I’ve uncovered a number of questionable quotes. Some of the quotes are clearly spurious or otherwise wrong. Others, however, may be real quotations, but my research didn’t happen to turn up a firm attribution. Since some of my readers enjoy working on this kind of puzzle, I’ll post some of the results of my research below.
Clearly fake
No mysteries here — so scroll past this section if you want puzzles to solve.
“All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good people do nothing.” — Edmund Burke. Debunked by Quote Investigator website, clearly not by Burke. However, Quote Investigator was unable to find the original source, if it exists.
“You need not think alike to love alike.” — Francis David. This was debunked in a UU World article. (How many other quotes by Unitarian, Universalist, and Unitarian Universalist ministers have been made up in this way?)
Original source has been found
“Because I have been athirst, I will dig a well that others may drink.” — Arabian proverb. Nope, it’s not Arabian. This appears in Ernest Thompson Seton’s book Two Little Savages as the (very short) preface: “Because I have known the torments of thirst I would dig a well where others may drink. E.T.S.” Seton is no longer considered politically correct, so you might want to think about whether you want to use this quote. At the very least, use Seton’s actual phrasing, and don’t call it Arabian.
“Forgiveness is the final form of love.” — Reinhold Niebuhr. The actual quote is “…we must be saved by the final form of love which is forgiveness,” in Niebuhr’s The Irony of American History (1952). I feel that the quote listed on the UUA list warps Niebuhr’s original wording, which carries a clear connotation of Christian notions of salvation.
“Religious ends are in need of our deeds.” — Abraham Heschel. This appears to be wrong, the actual quote is “…moral and religious ends evoke in us a sense of obligation” from Man Is Not Alone, p. 215. I feel the actual quote carries a significantly different meaning, so I wouldn’t use the wording given on the UUA website. As for the original, it doesn’t thrill me, so I wouldn’t use it either.
Questionable & needing more research
“If I cannot do great things, I can do small things in a great way.” — The UUA attributes this to Unitarian minister James Freeman Clarke, but it has also been widely attributed to Napoleon Hill and Martin Luther King. A quick search of those of Clarke’s works that have been digitized didn’t turn this up. The earliest citation I found was in the July 1910 issue of Ideal Power: A Monthly Magazine Devoted to Compressed Air and Electrical Appliances (Ideal Power Publishing Co., Chicago) as follows: “You may not be able to do great things, but you can at least try to do the small things in a great way,” with no attribution. I’m inclined to believe it is one of those late 19th or early 20th C. made-up inspirational quotes that are so common. But since I didn’t find an actual source for this quote, I’m calling it merely questionable.
“Trouble neglected becomes still more troublesome.” — Kongzi (Confucius). This is most likely not by Kongzi. (There’s also the problem of deciding which works traditionally attributed to Kongzi were actually written by him, so consider “Kongzi” to be a nmae that’s about as accurate as “Homer” in ancient Greece.) The quote comes from “Apothegms and Proverbs,” Notitia Linguae Sinicae, trans. into French by Premare; from there, trans. into English in Confucius and the Chinese Classics: Or Readings in Chinese Literature, ed. and compiled by Rev. A. W. Loomis, p. 353. Loomis gives no source is given for this quote, aside from Notitia Linguae Sinicae. If you wanted to use this quote, I suppose you could say it’s a Chinese proverb. However, since it’s a translation of a translation of an unknown source, this seems to me to be a very questionable quote.
“You are what you do, not what you say you’ll do.” — Carl Jung. I cannot find a firm attribution for this. I guess it might be Jung (depending on who translated it), but in the absence of a firm attribution, I consider it to be a questionable quote.
“When your work speaks for itself, don’t interrupt.” — Henry J. Kaiser (1882-1967). I cannot find a firm attribution for this. It may be real, but the earliest citation I could find is 1950, in The Journal of the Assoc. for Physical and Mental Rehabilitation, with no citation, and used as a filler quote. So perhaps it’s one of those late 19th or early 20th C. made-up inspirational quotes that are so common. So I’m calling this a questionable quote.
“Words are so easy; action is so difficult.” — Adlai E. Stevenson. I cannot find a firm attribution. It does not appear on his Wikiquote page. I consider it to be a questionable quote — too bad, because I kinda like it.
“The greatest gift you can give another is the purity of your attention.” — Richard Moss. Moss is an MD who had a mystical experience and turned that experience into a publishing empire. The quote is widely repeated without a firm attribution to one of Moss’s books. It may well be legit — a quote with similar wording from Moss’s website goes like this: “Your life begins anew in each moment, shaped by the purity of your attention.” But in the absence of a firm citation, I have to consider it a questionable quote.
“I defy the tyranny of precedent.” — Clara Barton. It looks to me as though these are the words of Barton’s biographer. In the 1922 Life of Clara Barton, biographer William Eleazar Barton wrote: “Having once decided upon a course that defied the tyranny of precedent, she held true…” (p. 359). This appears to be the source of the quote. In any case, I consider it to be a very questionable quote.
“Hope is passion for the possible.” — Soren Kierkegaard. It might be in one of Kierkegaard’s works, but I’d want to know which work, and who the translator was. (It also sounds a bit too much like one of those made-up quotes from the late 19th C. or early 20th C.) In the absence of a firm attribution, I consider it to be a questionable quote.
“The world knew you before you knew the world.” — Annie Dillard. It might be by her, but I cannot confirm it. It’s not on her Wikiquote page. I consider it to be a questionable quote.
“Truth, like surgery, may hurt, but it cures.” — Han Suyin. This quote may be by her, perhaps from her novel A Many-Splendored Thing (1952), but I can’t confirm that. Until I can read a copy of her novel, I’m calling this a questionable quote.
“The secret of contentment is knowing how to enjoy what you have.” — Lin Yutang (1895-1976). This quote appears several times in publications from 1939 and after, including e.g. a book titled Straight from the Shoulder: Wit, Wisdom, and Philosophies of ed. by Jules Ormont, which has: “The secret of contentment is knowing how to enjoy what you have, and to be able to lose all desire for things beyond your reach,” but with no attribution. Lin wrote an essay titled “The Secret of Contentment,” included in his book On the Wisdom of America (1950), but the quote does not appear in that essay. In Yutang’s book My Country and My People (1935), he does say: “A strong determination to get the best out of life, a keen desire to enjoy what one has, and no regrets if one fails: this is the secret of the Chinese genius for contentment” (p. 62). This could well be the source for the quote. But because of the murky provenance of this quote, I’m inclined consider it to be questionable.
“There’s more to life than increasing its speed.” — Mohandas Gandhi. Although this quote appears in many different places, I haven’t found a firm attribution to one of Gandhi’s works. However, in Gandhi’s Nonviolence in Peace and War (1942), he does write: “Speed is not the end of life” (p. 228), which means much the same thing. Thus I suspect the quote is a rewrite of Gandhi’s words from Nonviolence in Peace and War. So unless I can find a firm attribution, I’m calling this a questionable quote.
UU minister quotes
Quotes from Unitarian Universalist (UU) ministers can pose problems. First, we’re a tiny religious group, so it can be tough to find good information about us. Second, much of what we UU ministers write gets published in ephemera — pamphlets, sermons, newsletter columns, etc. — and/or never gets digitized. Both these things m make searching for sources for UU minister quotes difficult. Here are some of the questionable quotes I found attributed to UU ministers:
“There is no hell for any of us to fear outside of ourselves.”— Quillen Hamilton Shinn. Tom Owen Toole cites this as Shinn’s motto in his book The Gospel of Universalism: Hope, Courage, and the Love of God (1993). But Owen Toole does not explicitly say these words were said by Shinn, he just said it was Shinn’s motto. The quote does not appear in the collection of Shinn’s writings contained in Faith with Power: A Life Story of Quillen Hamilton Shinn, D.D. (1912) by William H. McGlaflin. In the absence of an actual citation, I’m calling a questionable quote.
“It is easier to pay homage to prophets than heed their vision.” — Clinton Lee Scott. I cannot confirm this quote. It sounds like him, but he was a relatively unknown Universalist minister, which means much of his work wasn’t published, and still less has been digitized and placed online. In the absence of a citation, it’s a questionable quote.
“Thoughtfulness makes no sound.” — John E. Wood. This may be legitimate. John E. Wood (1910-1980) was a Universalist minister, but almost none of his actual writing appears online, so it’s difficult for me to find an original source. This phrase appears in the UUA meditation manual Rejoice Together (2005), in a prayer by Lucinda Duncan, p. 53; but Lucinda could have picked up the phrase from Wood or somewhere else. I wish I could confirm it, because it’s a pretty good quote.
“There is a story of hope, and we are characters in the story.” — Robert R. Walsh. I knew Robbie Walsh, and this sounds does sound like him. But, as is true of many Unitarian Universalist ministers, most of Robbie’s writing is unpublished and not online. I wish I could confirm it, because it’s a pretty good quote, but sadly I have to consider it a questionable quote.