[lit-ideas] Re: "Honesty Is The Best Policy"

  • From: Andy Amago <aamago@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx, lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Wed, 13 Oct 2004 20:12:16 -0400 (GMT-04:00)

-----Original Message-----
From: Robert Paul <Robert.Paul@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Oct 13, 2004 4:21 PM
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: "Honesty Is The Best Policy"

Cervantes said 'Honesty's the best policy' [_Don Quixote_ (pt. II, ch. XXXIII)
Benjamin Franklin, who is often credited as having said it first, was either
borrowing from Cervantes, or hit upon it independently (it really isn't that
profound a saying). 


A.A.  The same idea coming up concurrently in separate places is not 
unprecedented.  Picasso and Braque both came up with cubism at about the same 
time independently.  Likewise I believe that Newton and another person both 
discovered calculus independently at about the same time.  Newton, of course, 
is credited.  I'm sure there are other examples.  An idea whose time has come 
is pretty powerful.  


Andy Amago





Richard Whately would seem to be playing off the ubiquity of this proverb.

Cervantes also said, 'The proof of the pudding is in the eating,' 'I have other
fish to fry,' etc.

Robert Paul
Reed College

Robert Paul
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