Show BORROWED THOUGHTS verify your quotations is the advice of someone but the advice is sometimes difficult to follow in the case of many famous sayings it is hard to find out who really said them first there are many instances of striking phrases which have been attributed to prominent persons who really borrowed them from others for example Lincol ns reference to a government by the people and for the people almost identical words were used by john wycliffe in the century and by thomas cooper joseph story daniel webster and theodore parker long before lincoln used them at gettysburg even the golden rule which appears in two forms in the new testament was expressed by confucius five centuries before christ and by other ancient teachers perhaps the most catchy phrase ever uttered by the late william jennings bryan contained his crown of thorns and choss of gold metaphor which is credited with securing his nomination for the presidency in 1896 it has been and still is generally believed that the phrase was original with bryan but the congressional record shows that it was spoken by congressman samuel W mccall several months before but no one whose words have been appropriated by another could have shown a better spirit toward an imitator than mccall showed toward his in this when questioned about it later mccall said yes bryan borrowed it from one of my congressional speeches and probably I 1 stole it from somebody else |