Unattributed quote? misquote?

[bansaisequoia]

Wondering

This seems to be a paraphrase of the actual lyrics to the song from "Man of La Mancha." I found two sites that that actually have the same wording as does Stephen's quote. One is someone's myspace personal page and the other is a quote site that does attribute it to Joe Darion, but makes no reference to the musical and no mention that it's from a song.

http://quotationsbook.com/quote/11539/

[smoochie222]

Umm

It says right on the picture, "lyrics by Joe Darion." Implying a song. Thanks for finding it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Darion

[maradnu]

Unattributed

When in charge ponder. When in trouble delegate. When in doubt mumble.

At least two sites attribute this to James H. Boren.

[monkybizzz]

Here's one that hits all the bases - it's a sentence fragment, "unattributed" although written by F Scott Fitzgerald, and it has several interesting letter patterns (millimeter isn't in the terrific word list cited by maradnu at http://fiziwig.com/crypto/pword.txt)

"Her body calculated to a millimeter to suggest a bud yet guarantee a flower. "
— Unattributed

It's from Tender Is the Night:

It took him a moment to respond to the unguarded sweetness of her smile, her body calculated to a millimeter to suggest a bud yet guarantee a flower.

I find the quotes to be thought-provoking sometimes, and it can be educational to know who wrote them. I was motivated to look up Eric Hoffer (who I had never heard of) after seeing a quote from him. It was a sentence or two from this (I don't remember exactly):

There is in us a tendency to locate the shaping forces of our existence outside ourselves. Success and failure are unavoidably related in our minds with the state of things around us. Hence it is that people with a sense of fulfillment think it a good world and would like to conserve it as it is, while the frustrated favor radical change. The tendency to look for all causes outside ourselves persists even when it is clear that our state of being is the product of personal qualities such as ability, character, appearance, health and so on.

[imported_Dynamite]

Oh, I just wing 'em!