I would like to thank everyone who responded to my question about the "time" quote. Fred Shapiro's answer appears to be the most reliable:
Je n'ai fait celle-ci plus longue que parce que je n'ai pas eu le loisir
de la faire plus courte. (I have made this [letter] longer than usual,
only because I have not had the time to make it shorter.)
Blaise Pascal, Lettres Provinciales (1657) no. 16
Additionally, David McFadden noted the following:
I found a variation of the same theme in the Respectively Quoted book. (Entry #1288 on page 244) Woodrow Wilson told how long it took to prepare his speeches. "It depends. If I am to speak ten minutes, I need a week for preparation; if fifteen minutes, three days; if half an hour, two days; if an hour, I am ready now." President Woodrow Wilson. Josephus Daniels, The Wilson Era; Years of War and After; 1917-1923, p. 624 (1946).
Gene Preudhomme
----- Original Message -----
From: Gene Preudhomme
To: law-lib@ucdavis.edu
Cc: Gene Preudhomme
Sent: Monday, September 24, 2001 1:34 PM
Subject: "Time" Quote
Does anyone know of a reliable source for the author of the following quote:
"My apologies for this letter being so long. Had I more time, it would have been shorter."
I have seen it attributed to Cicero, Oscar Wilde and George Bernard Shaw. Additionally, please let me know whether I have quoted stated correctly.
Any help in this matter would be greatly appreciated.
Gene Preudhomme
New York Supreme Court Appellate Division
First Department Library
27 Madison Avenue
New York, NY 10010
(212) 340-0478
genep@ix.netcom.com
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