“Truth dont require the aid ov elegant and high stepping words, tew express its force, or buty, it iz like water, tastes better out ov a wooden bucket, than it duz out ov a golden goblet.”

— Josh Billings

Josh Billings: His Works, Complete (1873)

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Josh Billings 91

American humorist 1818–1885

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Josh Billings (1818–1885) American humorist

Josh Billings: His Works, Complete (1873)

“A man's reputashun iz something like hiz coat, thare iz certain kemikals that will take the stains and grease spots out ov it, but it alwus haz a second-handed kind ov a look, and generally smells strong ov the kemikals.”

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“I don't beleaf in bad luck being sot for a man, like a trap, but i hav known lots ov folks, who if thare waz enny fust rate bad luck lieing around loose, would be sure tew git one foot in it enny how.”

Josh Billings (1818–1885) American humorist

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Josh Billings (1818–1885) American humorist

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“Many mellow Cydonian suckets
Sweet apples, anthosmial, divine,
From the ruby-rimmed beryline buckets
Star-gemmed, lily-shaped, hyaline;
Like the sweet golden goblet found growing
On the wild emerald cucumber-tree,
Rich, brilliant, like chrysophrase glowing
Was my beautiful Rosalie Lee.”

Thomas Holley Chivers (1809–1858) 19th century American poet

Rosalie Lee.

“If you are out to describe the truth, leave elegance to the tailor.”

Ludwig Boltzmann (1844–1906) Austrian physicist

Misattributed

“If you are out to describe the truth, leave elegance to the tailor.”

Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity

Earliest attribution located is The Yogi and the Commissar by Arthur Koestler (1945), p. v http://books.google.com/books?id=tys4AAAAIAAJ&q=%22you+are+out+to+describe+the+truth%22#search_anchor. Koestler prefaces it with "My comfort is what Einstein said when somebody reproached him with the suggestion that his formula of gravitation was longer and more cumbersome than Newton's formula in its elegant simplicity". This is actually a variant of a quote Einstein attributed to Ludwig Boltzmann; in the Preface to his Relativity—The Special and General Theory (1916), Einstein wrote: "I adhered scrupulously to the precept of that brilliant theoretical physicist L. Boltzmann, according to whom matters of elegance ought to be left to the tailor and to the cobbler." (reprinted in the 2007 book A Stubbornly Persistent Illusion: The Essential Scientific Works of Albert Einstein edited by Stephen Hawking, p. 128 http://books.google.com/books?id=th3Cpu_QYVQC&lpg=PP1&pg=PA128#v=onepage&q&f=false)
Misattributed