Source: Men at Arms
“As well hope to start with a string of sausages and reconstruct the pig”
The four gospels: a study of origins, treating of the manuscript tradition, sources, authorship, & dates http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=v_M2AAAAMAAJ&dq=editions%3ACMVjM-tav4QC&focus=searchwithinvolume&q=%22start+with+a+string+of+sausages+and+reconstruct+the+pig%22, Macmillan and Co., 1924
Solution Unsatisfactory (p. 67)
Short fiction, Off the Main Sequence (2005)
“The meat in the sausage has got to be Conservative”
BBC News Interview http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/politics/election_2010/8668036.stm with Jeremy Paxman, BBC News, 7 May 2010
Johnson on the possibility of a coalition after the United Kingdom general election, May 2010.
Johnson: Whatever type of Wall's sausage is contrived by this great experiment, the dominant ingredient has got to be conservatism. The meat in the sausage has got to be Conservative, I would say. With plenty of bread and other bits and pieces.
Paxman: The question is whether it's a chipolata or a Cumberland sausage, I suppose, is it?
Johnson: This is fantastic to listen to. Enough of this gastronomic metaphor!
Paxman: You started it!
Johnson: Well, I've had enough of it!
Paxman: Haven't you got a city to run?
Johnson: I have got a city to run and that's exactly the point! The government of London will carry on irrespective of the temporary difficulties in providing a national government. Thank you.
Paxman: Bye bye, Boris!
2010s, 2010
“If you eat caviar every day it's difficult to return to sausages.”
Arsenal 1-1 Middlesbrough (29 November 1998) http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-60615442.html
Interviews
“A highbrow is the kind of person who looks at a sausage and thinks of Picasso.”
"Is 'Highbrow' Libellous?"
Uncommon Law (1935)
“Like the shock of fondling a raw sausage, blindfold, at a gay party …”
Sir Henry at Rawlinson End (1978)
“Laws, like sausages, cease to inspire respect in proportion as we know how they are made.”
As quoted in University Chronicle. University of Michigan (27 March 1869) books.google.de http://books.google.de/books?id=cEHiAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA164, Daily Cleveland Herald (29 March 1869), McKean Miner (22 April 1869), and "Quote... Misquote" http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/21/magazine/27wwwl-guestsafire-t.html by Fred R. Shapiro in The New York Times (21 July 2008); similar remarks have long been attributed to Otto von Bismarck, but this is the earliest known quote regarding laws and sausages, and according to Shapiro's research, such remarks only began to be attributed to Bismarck in the 1930s.
“Laws, like sausages, cease to inspire respect in proportion as we know how they are made”
Gesetze sind wie Würste, man sollte besser nicht dabei sein, wenn sie gemacht werden
Though similar remarks are often attributed to Bismarck, this is the earliest known quote regarding laws and sausages, and is attributed to John Godfrey Saxe University Chronicle. University of Michigan (27 March 1869) books.google http://books.google.de/books?id=cEHiAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA164 and "Quote... Misquote" http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/21/magazine/27wwwl-guestsafire-t.html by Fred R. Shapiro in The New York Times (21 July 2008); according to Shapiro's research, such remarks only began to be attributed to Bismarck in the 1930s.
Variants often attributed to Bismarck:
If you like laws and sausages, you should never watch either one being made.
Laws are like sausages — it is best not to see them being made.
Laws are like sausages. It is better not to see them being made.
Laws are like sausages. You should never see them made.
Laws are like sausages. You should never watch them being made.
Law and sausage are two things you do not want to see being made.
No one should see how laws or sausages are made.
To retain respect for sausages and laws, one must not watch them in the making.
The making of laws like the making of sausages, is not a pretty sight.
Je weniger die Leute darüber wissen, wie Würste und Gesetze gemacht werden, desto besser schlafen sie nachts.
The less the people know about how sausages and laws are made, the better they sleep in the night.
No citation exists for where this German phrase or this translation originated.
Misattributed
