Monday, October 01, 2018

The Internet is an Ocean of Unsourced Quotations

Today I was asked for the source of 

That which is so universal as Death, must be a blessing.

Several sites claimed Friedrich Schiller said it (replacing "blessing" with "benefit'), and maybe he did say something like that in German.  I did a lot of searches in various places just using "universal as death."  It turns out Jonathan Swift said something similar: "It is impossible that any thing so natural, so necessary, and so universal as death, should ever have been designed by Providence as an evil to mankind."

  • Thoughts on Religion (1765), published posthumously


In 1765 Schiller was only 6 years old. Even if he read Swift and came up with a shorter version, Swift had the idea first! See: https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Talk:Friedrich_Schiller


The Woodlawn Cemetary in Palm Beach, FL has 

"That which is so universal as Death, must be a blessing" inscribed on its gate, and as of 2006 the inscription was unsourced

http://historicpalmbeach.blog.palmbeachpost.com/2006/02/01/inscriptions-origin-still-a-mystery/