I always heard that the Roosevelt quote was "Walk softly and carry a big stick, and you will go far." Today I was challenged, and I find that the actual Roosevelt quote was "Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far" Roosevelt Quotes
Does anyone know where the popular misquote comes from?
Charlie Brown? I seem to recall some comics with Lucy or Linus quoting it. There is a Peanuts book titled "Speak Softly and Carry a Beagle", which
...is apparently the end of my post,
Glenn said:
I always heard that the Roosevelt quote was "Walk softly and carry a big stick, and you will go far." Today I was challenged, and I find that the actual Roosevelt quote was "Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far" Roosevelt Quotes
Does anyone know where the popular misquote comes from?
To answer your question, according to one commentator: "Apparently, this well-known proverb isn;t an American invention, but is African in origin. Bartlett's *Familiar Quotations* should note that Theodore Roosevelt's biographer, H.F. Pringle, in his *Theodore Roosevelt*, (1931), quotes Teddy as saying in the fiest recorfefe use of the expression: 'I have always been fond of the West African proverb "Speak softly and a carry a big stick; you will go far."' Pringle has [Roosevelt] saying this in 1900; in the 1901 speech Bartlett's quotes, Roosevelt prefaces the proverb with 'There is a homely adage that runs . . . .'" Robert L. Hendrickson, The Facts on File Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins 179-80 (2004). (Please someone let me know if this source is spurious or inadequate; I find it fun reading and more informative on phrases than other dictionaries, so I keep it in my "immediately accessible" shelf with Bryan Garner, Fowler, Strunk & White, and the Bluebook.)
Hmmmm . . . . Although I wrote about language, I failed to edit my own post. The exact quote should have read: "Apparently, this well-known proverb isn;t an American invention, but is African in origin. Bartlett's *Familiar Quotations* should note that Theodore Roosevelt's biographer, H.F. Pringle, in his *Theodore Roosevelt*, (1931), quotes Teddy as saying in the first[**] recorded[**] use of the expression: 'I have always been fond of the West African proverb "Speak softly and a carry a big stick; you will go far."' Pringle has [Roosevelt] saying this in 1900; in the 1901 speech Bartlett's quotes, Roosevelt prefaces the proverb with 'There is a homely adage that runs . . . .'" Robert L. Hendrickson, The Facts on File Encyclopedia of Word and Phrase Origins 179-80 (2004).
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