“A loud noise at one end and no sense of responsibility at the other.”
Definition of a baby, quoted by Colin Blakemore in his 1976 Reith Lectures, Mechanics of the Mind
The earliest print occurrence is credited to Elizabeth I. Adamson in the July 1937 issue of Reader's Digest, according to Quote Investigator https://quoteinvestigator.com/2017/01/10/baby/#note-15186-10.
Disputed
Help us to complete the source, original and additional information
Ronald Knox 12
English priest and theologian 1888–1957Related quotes

Joke during his 1965 campaign for Governor of California, as quoted by Leo E. Litwak in The New York Times Magazine (14 November 1965), p. 174 http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F50F13FC3B591B7A93C6A8178AD95F418685F9.
Government is like a baby. An alimentary canal with a big appetite at one end and no sense of responsibility at the other.
As quoted in The Reagan Wit (1981) by Bill Adler, p. 30
1960s
“Your sense of responsibility to others can never be excessive.”
Harry Talbot; Part II, chapter 29, p. 287 [Koontz, Dean, w:Dean Koontz, Midnight, 1st edition, 1989, G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York, ISBN 0-399-13390-9, 383 pages]
Midnight (1989)

On what she hopes The Girl Who Smiled Beads accomplishes in “A moment on ‘Oprah’ made her a human rights symbol. She wants to be more than that.” https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/a-moment-on-oprah-made-her-a-human-rights-symbol-she-wants-to-be-more-than-that/2018/04/18/f394dd0c-3d98-11e8-a7d1-e4efec6389f0_story.html in The Washington Post (2018 Apr 19)

“From voice to voice, from one to other ear,
The loud proclaim they through the town declare.”
Di voce in voce e d'una in altra orecchia
Il grido e 'l bando per la terra scorse.
Canto XXIII, stanza 48 (tr. W. S. Rose)
Orlando Furioso (1532)