
“Every man was not born with a silver spoon in his mouth.”
Source: Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–1615), Part II (1615), Book IV, Ch. 73.
Misquoted by [2012-04-18, Allahpundit, Obama: Unlike some people, I wasn’t born with a silver spoon in my mouth, Hot Air, http://hotair.com/archives/2012/04/18/obama-unlike-some-people-i-wasnt-born-with-a-silver-spoon-in-my-mouth/, 2012-10-08], and publicized by Steve Doocy, Fox & Friends (), Fox News
President Obama actually said, in a campaign speech in Elyria, Ohio http://www.whitehouse.gov/photos-and-video/video/2012/04/18/president-obama-speaks-skills-american-workers on , "Somebody gave me an education. <span style="color:gray">I wasn't born with a silver spoon in my mouth.</span> Michelle wasn't. But somebody gave us a chance, just like these folks up here are looking for a chance."
2012-04-23
Steve Doocy's Silver Spoon Subtext Reporting
The Colbert Report
Comedy Central
http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/413071/april-23-2012/steve-doocy-s-subtext-reporting
Misattributed
“Every man was not born with a silver spoon in his mouth.”
Source: Don Quixote de la Mancha (1605–1615), Part II (1615), Book IV, Ch. 73.
“Darkness at the break of noon
Shadows even the silver spoon
The handmade blade, the child's balloon”
Song lyrics, Bringing It All Back Home (1965), It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)
Context: Darkness at the break of noon
Shadows even the silver spoon
The handmade blade, the child's balloon
Eclipses both the sun and moon
To understand you know too soon
There is no sense in trying
“I have measured out my life with coffee spoons;”
The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock (1915)
Source: The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock and Other Poems
Context: Do I dare
Disturb the universe?
In a minute there is time
For decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse.
For I have known them all already, known them all: —
Have known the evenings, mornings, afternoons,
I have measured out my life with coffee spoons;
I know the voices dying with a dying fall
Beneath the music from a farther room.
Cat's in the Cradle
Song lyrics, Verities & Balderdash (1974)
“Some people approach every problem with an open mouth.”
As quoted in The Wordsworth Dictionary of Quotations (1998) by Connie Robertson.
Similar statements by others:
Mr. Hogg observed facetiously that interpreters were rather like politicians: they are people who approach every problem with an open mouth.
Quintin Hogg, as quoted in Annual Review of United Nations Affairs (1949) by Clyde Eagleton, p. 136.
Modern diplomats approach every problem with an open mouth.
Arthur J. Goldberg, as quoted in Affronts, Insults and Indignities (1975) by Morris Mandel
My Heart Will Always Be The B-Side To My Tongue (2004), Honda Civic Tour (2007)