Merrie England (1893) Chapter XXIII, Luxury, p. 182 ( 1894 printing https://archive.org/details/merrieengland00blatiala)
The Ethics of Belief (1877), The Weight Of Authority
On board H.M.S. Bellerophon (August 1815)
America's Favorite Pastime (The Ballad of Dock Ellis).
The Excitement Plan (2009)
“Yung man, don't grind yure scythe all on one side!”
Josh Billings: His Works, Complete (1873)
“We are not the ones who say, We will work, but we are used to God's power to say: We have worked.”
https://www.kff.com/king-faisal-bin-abdulaziz/
1840s, Past and Present (1843)
“You could do with a day's work, I'd say.”
To a man in Athlone who had lost his job in the recession after being self-employed for 29 years.
Enda Kenny To Protester: “You Could Do With A Day’s Work, I’d Say.” http://www.broadsheet.ie/2012/05/15/enda-kenny-to-protester-you-could-do-with-a-days-work-id-say/ Broadsheet, 2012-05-15.
Taoiseach's jibe at Athlone protester http://www.westmeathindependent.ie/news/roundup/articles/2012/05/14/4010403-taoiseachs-jibe-at-athlone-protester/ Westmeath Independent, 2012-05-14.
2010s
“I say, forget all that and ask yourself, "What's the simplest thing that could possibly work?"”
A Conversation with Ward Cunningham (2003), The Simplest Thing that Could Possibly Work
Context: You are always taught to do as much as you can. Always put checks in. Always look for exceptions. Always handle the most general case. Always give the user the best advice. Always print a meaningful error message. Always this. Always that. You have so many things in the background that you're supposed to do, there's no room left to think. I say, forget all that and ask yourself, "What's the simplest thing that could possibly work?"
I think the advice got turned into a command: "Do the simplest thing that could possibly work." That's a little more confusing, because there isn't this notion that as soon as you've done it, we'll evaluate it.
“Fear of this possibility in particular led Tiberius to ask the senate for any part in the administration that it might please them to assign him, saying that no one man could bear the whole burden without a colleague, or even several colleagues.”
Quem maxime casum timens, partes sibi quas senatui liberet, tuendas in re p[ublica]. depoposcit, quando universae sufficere solus nemo posset nisi cum altero vel etiam cum pluribus.
Variant translation (by Robert Graves): "Pray assign me any part in the government you please; but remember that no single man can bear the whole burden of Empire — I need a colleague, or perhaps several colleagues."
From Suetonius, The Twelve Caesars, ch. 25
