“There are many times when you want it to ignore the rest of the string just like atof() does. Oddly enough, Perl calls atof(). How convenient.”
[1991Jun24.231628.14446@jpl-devvax.jpl.nasa.gov, 1991]
Usenet postings, 1991
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Larry Wall294
American computer programmer and author, creator of Perl 1954Related quotes
“When you would suffocate or ignore dissent, remember how many times you dissented.”
Fausto Cercignani (1941) Italian scholar, essayist and poet
Examples of self-translation (c. 2004), Quotes - Zitate - Citations - Citazioni
“Time spent arguing with the faithful is, oddly enough, almost never wasted.”
Christopher Hitchens Letters to a Young Contrarian
Source: 2000s, 2001, Letters to a Young Contrarian (2001)
Hugh Kingsmill (1889–1949) British writer and journalist
"Two Poems, After A. E. Housman", no. 1, line 5
“How many legs does a dog have, if you call a tail a leg?”
Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) 16th President of the United States
His collected works contain no riddle about dog legs, but George W. Julian recounts Lincoln using a similar story about a calf in Reminiscences of Abraham Lincoln by distinguished men of his time (1909), p. 241: "There are strong reasons for saying that he doubted his right to emancipate under the war power, and he doubtless meant what he said when he compared an Executive order to that effect to 'the Pope’s Bull against the comet.' In discussing the question, he used to liken the case to that of the boy who, when asked how many legs his calf would have if he called its tail a leg, replied, 'Five,' to which the prompt response was made that calling the tail a leg would not make it a leg."
A very similar riddle about cow legs was also circulated by Edward Josiah Stearns' Notes on Uncle Tom's Cabin (1853), p. 46: '"Father," said one of the rising generation to his paternal progenitor, "if I should call this cow's tail a leg, how many legs would she have?" "Why five, to be sure." "Why, no, father; would calling it a leg make it one?"'
Misattributed
Melina Marchetta (1965) Australian teen writer
Source: Quintana of Charyn
Lawrence Klein (1920–2013) American economist
"Keynsianism Again: Interview with Lawrence Klein", Challenge (May-June 2001)
“I want you to lie to me just as sweetly as you know how for the rest of my life.”
F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940) American novelist and screenwriter
Source: Gatsby Girls
“If a man wants to marry me now, it should be more convenient when he just wants to beat me.”
Yang Li (1992) Chinese stand-up comedian
Original: 杨笠和她的15个男人:想嫁给爱情,优秀就够了吗? <br class="br">Source: https://www.sohu.com/a/497125567_486995 (25 October 2021)