This expression is widely misattributed to Emerson in journalism, tweets, and memes on the internet. This quotation in an earlier phrasing of Jared Eliot's statement “It used to be the Saying of an old Man, That an Ounce of Experience is better than a Pound of Science.” (Essays upon Field Husbandry, 1748; quotation reprinted in "Jared Eliot, Minister, Physician, Farmer" by Rodney H. True. Agricultural History Vol. 2, No. 4 (Oct., 1928) https://www.jstor.org/stable/3739311, p199). The quote has also been misattributed to Friedrich Engels, a claim possibly originating from the 1975 book The Strange Case of Victor Grayson by Reg Groves ( link http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:Udk7LCxtvugJ:socialiststandardmyspace.blogspot.com/2010_05_02_archive.html+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us) <br class="br">Misattributed
“An ounce of algebra is worth a ton of verbal argument.”
J. B. S. Haldane (1892–1964) Geneticist and evolutionary biologist
As quoted in his obituary by Maynard Smith http://www.nature.com/nature/focus/maynardsmith/pdf/1965.pdf in Nature 206 (1965), p. 239
“A gram of experience is worth a ton of theory.”
Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury (1830–1903) British politician
Saturday Review (1859)
1850s
“A pound of pluck is worth a ton of luck.”
James A. Garfield (1831–1881) American politician, 20th President of the United States (in office in 1881)
"Elements of Success," Speech at Spencerian Business College, Washington, D.C. (29 July 1869); in President Garfield and Education : Hiram College Memorial (1881) by B. A. Hinsdale, p. 326 http://books.google.com/books?id=rA4XAAAAYAAJ <br class="br">1860s <br class="br">Variant: A pound of pluck is worth a ton of luck.
“A pound of pluck is worth a ton of luck. ”
James A. Garfield (1831–1881) American politician, 20th President of the United States (in office in 1881)
“6495. An Ounce of Wit that's bought,
Is worth a Pound that's taught.”
Thomas Fuller (writer) (1654–1734) British physician, preacher, and intellectual
Compare Poor Richard's Almanack (1745) : An ounce of wit that is bought, Is worth a pound that is taught.
Introductio ad prudentiam: Part II (1727), Gnomologia (1732)
“If put to the pinch, an ounce of loyalty is worth a pound of cleverness.
(, 1928)”
Elbert Hubbard (1856–1915) American writer, publisher, artist, and philosopher fue el escritor del jarron azul
Source: Works of Elbert Hubbard
“An old truth asserts that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.”
Leonid Kuchma (1938) Second president of Ukraine
Speech at the 49th session of the United Nations General Assembly (excerpts) (1994)
“Beware you be not swallowed up in books! An ounce of love is worth a pound of knowledge.”
John Wesley (1703–1791) Christian theologian
General sources
Source: Letter to Joseph Benson (7 November 1768); published in The Letters of John Wesley (1915) edited by George Eayrs
“Action without theory is reckless; theory without action is worthless.”
Paul Glover (1947) Community organizer in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; American politician
(speech at Center for Popular Economics, Summer Institute), 2006-07-27
