
Not Counting You.
Song lyrics, Garth Brooks (1989)
Not Counting You.
Song lyrics, Garth Brooks (1989)
“Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.”
From William Bruce Cameron's Informal Sociology: A Casual Introduction to Sociological Thinking (1963), p. 13. The comment is part of a longer paragraph and does not appear in quotations in Cameron's book, and other sources http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=%22not%20everything%20that%20can%20be%20counted%20counts%22%20cameron&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbo=u&tbs=bks:1&source=og&sa=N&tab=wp such as The Student's Companion to Sociology (p. 92) http://books.google.com/books?id=KMsB1GE8dBEC&lpg=PA92&dq=%22Not%20everything%20that%20can%20be%20counted%20counts%22&pg=PA92#v=onepage&q=%22Not%20everything%20that%20can%20be%20counted%20counts%22&f=false attribute the quote to Cameron. A number of recent books http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&tbo=p&tbs=bks:1&q=%22not+everything+that+can+be+counted%22+einstein+princeton&start=0&sa=N claim that Einstein had a sign with these words in his office in Princeton, but until a reliable historical source can be found to support this, skepticism is warranted. The earliest source on Google Books that mentions the quote in association with Einstein and Princeton is Charles A. Garfield's 1986 book Peak Performers: The New Heroes of American Business, in which he wrote on p. 156:
: Albert Einstein liked to underscore the micro/macro partnership with a remark from Sir George Pickering that he chalked on the blackboard in his office at the Institute for Advanced Studies at Princeton: "Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts."
Misattributed
Remarks Telling councillors that their motion to limit his powers as mayor is undemocratic http://www.torontosun.com/2013/11/18/council-vote-on-rob-ford-a-slap-in-face-to-democracy (18 November 2013)
2010s, 2013
“Many of the things you can count, don't count. Many of the things you can't count, really count.”
“Don’t count, feel! The only count I know, is Count Basie!”
when asked about her preference for six-count or eight-count in Lindy Hop http://www.it-must-schwing.de/wir-ueber-uns
“Don't count the days, make the days count.”
“We may no longer be able to count; but Fate will count.”
Light (1919), Ch. XVI - De Profundis Clamavi
Context: We may no longer be able to count; but Fate will count. Some day the men will be killed, and the women and children. And they also will disappear — they who stand erect upon the ignominious death of the soldiers, — they will disappear along with the huge and palpitating pedestal in which they were rooted. But they profit by the present, they believe it will last as long as they, and as they follow each other they say, "After us, the deluge." Some day all war will cease for want of fighters.
Statement from Cao Cao to his advisors before he face Yuan Shao in the Battle of Guandu Source: Romance of the Three Kingdoms. An adaptation of the Sanguo Zhi new 2010.
Attributed