# Fake proverb about "thousand words"?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fake-proverb-about-thousand-words/173767>\
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\
**Created:** [May 7, 2003, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fake-proverb-about-thousand-words/173767 "2003-05-07T21:34:30Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\
**Post date:** [May 7, 2003, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fake-proverb-about-thousand-words/173767/1 "2003-05-07T21:34:30Z")

</div>

About 20 years ago I read a reference book that said that the adage “One picture is worth a thousand words” was not a Chinese proverb, but was written by an American journalist who deliberately misrepresented it as a Chinese proverb, about 80 years ago. I don’t study Chinese literature or culture so I have no way to tell, one way or the other. 😕

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![MonkeyMensch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@MonkeyMensch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MonkeyMensch)\
**Post date:** [May 7, 2003, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fake-proverb-about-thousand-words/173767/2 "2003-05-07T22:27:40Z")

</div>

I used to have a job that required me to visit all of the departments on the UCSB campus. I would see a lot of posters hanging on hallways and prof’s office walls.

My favorite was always the English department poster that read:

_Why Have A Picture When You Can Have A Thousand Words?_

Loved it…

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Opus1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/858c86/32.png) [@Opus1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Opus1)\
**Post date:** [May 8, 2003, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fake-proverb-about-thousand-words/173767/3 "2003-05-08T02:06:08Z")

</div>

from: [http://www.ask-a-librarian.org.uk/phrases.html](http://www.ask-a-librarian.org.uk/phrases.html)

> [@](#):
>
> Picture worth a thousand words
> 
> A picture is worth a thousand words?
> 
> One look is worth a thousand words was coined by Fred R. Barnard in Printers’ Ink, 8th December 1921, p.96. He changed it to One picture is worth a thousand words in Printers’ Ink, 10th March 1927, p.114 and called it “a Chinese Proverb so that people would take it seriously”.
> 
> Source: The Home Book of Proverbs, Maxims and Familiar Phrases, 1948, edited by Burton Stevenson.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\
**Post date:** [May 8, 2003, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fake-proverb-about-thousand-words/173767/4 "2003-05-08T20:50:31Z")

</div>

For his effort, Barnard should have been paid in play money. He could have seen how _he_ would like it.  
It takes all kinds, I guess. :rolleyes: