# First A. Coulter and now, S. Palin. **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [April 15, 2010, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-a-coulter-and-now-s-palin/536264 "2010-04-15T21:53:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2010, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-a-coulter-and-now-s-palin/536264/61 "2010-04-16T18:49:14Z")
Hee hee - you said “gravy tas.” 😃 ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2010, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-a-coulter-and-now-s-palin/536264/62 "2010-04-16T18:53:33Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > You’re saying she actually read it? :dubious: She has people for that. ---
**Author:** ![detop](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bcef8e/32.png) [@detop](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/detop)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2010, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-a-coulter-and-now-s-palin/536264/63 "2010-04-16T18:55:30Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > You’re saying she actually read it? :dubious: Maybe someone gave her the colouring book ? ---
**Author:** ![dhkendall](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a9adbd/32.png) [@dhkendall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dhkendall)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2010, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-a-coulter-and-now-s-palin/536264/64 "2010-04-16T19:39:28Z")
> [@detop](#): > > Actually, Quayle gave the impression that he was **honestly** stupid, while Palin gives the impression that she is stupid **on purpose**. It depends on what you prefer. Actually, I got the impression it was the reverse. But, YMMV. > [@CalMeacham](#): > > But apparently the quote appears – as “Be _kind_ for everuyone you meet is fighting a great battle” – in her book **Going Rogue** , page 24. I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if the typo and the missing comma are from the original … > [@CalMeacham](#): > > It strikes me as an extremely vapid quote, pseudo-profound and taking different interpretations, as the mood strikes. But with “nice” in it, it sounds like it belongs on a poster with rainbows and unicorns. [Or unicorns pissing rainbows! With an alligator video!](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=558766) ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2010, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-a-coulter-and-now-s-palin/536264/65 "2010-04-16T20:08:23Z")
Aha! The source revealed! It’s **John Watson** – not Sherlock Holmes’ companion and biographer, but a real-life theologian who wrote this back in the early 20th century. he later quoted himself under a pseudonym, which is sneaky. > **[Ian Maclaren](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_Maclaren)** > > John Watson (3 November 1850 – 6 May 1907), was a minister of the Free Church of Scotland. He is remembered as an author of fiction, known by his pen name Ian Maclaren. > The son of John Watson, a civil servant, he was born in Manningtree, Essex, and educated at Stirling. His paternal uncle Rev Hiram Watson (1813-1891) was a minister of the Free Church of Scotland and John appears to have chosen to follow in his shoes. > He studied at Edinburgh University, then trained as a Free Church minister ... Only his version is “Be pitiful, for everyone is fighting a hard battle”: > [@](#): > > The quote “Be kind for everyone is fighting a hard battle” is attributed to Plato. Is it from one of his works?–65.31.214.178 23:50, 30 September 2005 (UTC) > > ``` > On Kindness by Lawrence J. Danks attributes the quote "Be kind - everyone is fighting a hard battle" to John Watson, while The Complete Idiot's Guide to Handwriting Analysis by Sheila R. Lowe attributes it to Felix Klein, though both could simply have heard it elsewhere. > > I found no mention of this quote in a recent review of Hoyt's New Cyclopedia of Practical Quotations (K. L. Roberts, 1940) and The International Thesaurus of Quotations (R. T. Tripp, 1987). I'll keep looking. ~ Jeff Q (talk) 16:16, 30 March 2006 (UTC) > > I've actually seen this quote attributed to Philo, a Greek philosopher (15 BC - 50 BC), but not in any reliable source other than quote sites. I don't know if that helps, but I'll also look to see if I can find it in anything more reliable. ~ UDScott 16:23, 30 March 2006 (UTC) > > Also not found in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations (1919), The Columbia World of Quotations (1996), Simpson's Contemporary Quotations (1988), or Respectfully Quoted: A Dictionary of Quotations (1989). Nothing remotely resembling this quote can be found in these either for Plato or Philo, and Felix Klein (assuming Lowe means the German mathematician) isn't quoted in any of these references. Does Danks say which "John Watson" said this, and/or when? ~ Jeff Q (talk) 23:58, 7 April 2006 (UTC) > > Here (under September 19 and September 15) is excellent evidence that the 'hard battle' adage isn't a quotation from Philo: a number of Philo scholars agree that they've never come across it in his works. So apparently it isn't by him, and I must say it doesn't sound at all like Plato to me. However one man on the blog linked above does identify the phrase 'Everyone is fighting a hard battle' as a commentary on the Biblical phrase 'brotherly kindness', made by Biblical scholar Ozora S Davis in 1920. Could that be the origin? Antiquary 20:52, 23 August 2006 (UTC) > > To answer my own question, no it couldn't. Four years earlier A Savage Club Souvenir (privately printed, 1916), p. 69, quoted it thus: '"Be pitiful, for everyone is fighting a hard battle," said Ian Maclaren'. And two years before that: 'Dr. Watson's Christmas message to the world, "Be pitiful, every man is fighting a hard battle" is more generally needed than we realize, because it is so universally true' (George MacAdam The Harps of God (1914) p. 73). These are not two different authors, both of them are Ian Maclaren, pseudonym of John Watson (1850-1907). An undateable extract from the Windsor Magazine found on Google Book gives a further clue: > > But just as a sailor is said to have a sweetheart in every port, so I must confess to a favourite quotation in any number of books. For working purposes, however, the following is hard to beat - 'Be pitiful, for every man is fighting a hard battle.' I wish I could say it was of my own coining, but it is from the British Weekly, where it appeared as my friend Ian Maclaren's Christmas Greeting. > > Just to muddy the waters a little more, when this 'pitiful' version turns up on the Web it's often attributed to T H Thompson. Who he? Antiquary 15:12, 9 September 2006 (UTC) > > ``` > **[Wikiquote:Reference desk/Archive/2 - Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Wikiquote:Reference_desk/Archive/2)** ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2010, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-a-coulter-and-now-s-palin/536264/66 "2010-04-16T20:26:30Z")
Corroboration: [http://www.literaturepage.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=10957](http://www.literaturepage.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=10957) ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2010, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-a-coulter-and-now-s-palin/536264/67 "2010-04-16T20:32:43Z")
Just a last note – It’s interesting how “Be pitiful, for every man is fighting a hard battle” morphed by stages into the perky-cute “Be nice to everyone” ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2010, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-a-coulter-and-now-s-palin/536264/68 "2010-04-16T20:35:39Z")
> [@Gyrate](#): > > I think she’s confusing Plato with Socrates. > > And by Socrates I mean the character from “Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure”. The only “Plato” this dumb bitch ever read was the Plate o’ Shrimp on the local shithole menu in Wasilla. ---
**Author:** ![zamboniracer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e9a140/32.png) [@zamboniracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zamboniracer)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2010, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-a-coulter-and-now-s-palin/536264/69 "2010-04-16T20:44:55Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > The only “Plato” this dumb bitch ever read was the Plate o’ Shrimp on the local shithole menu in Wasilla. Take that back! I’m sure she’s read Plato in the Beetle Bailey comic strip too. [link](http://www.tsscontent.ca/var/news_site/storage/images/media/images/print_content__1/comics/cartoonists/beetle_bailey_plato/3127-1-eng-US/beetle_bailey_plato.gif) ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2010, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-a-coulter-and-now-s-palin/536264/70 "2010-04-16T21:36:16Z")
> [@zamboniracer](#): > > Take that back! I’m sure she’s read Plato in the Beetle Bailey comic strip too. [link](http://www.tsscontent.ca/var/news_site/storage/images/media/images/print_content__1/comics/cartoonists/beetle_bailey_plato/3127-1-eng-US/beetle_bailey_plato.gif) Perhaps it was some obscure reference to Play Doh. ---
**Author:** ![Gangster\_Octopus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a8b319/32.png) [@Gangster\_Octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gangster_Octopus)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2010, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-a-coulter-and-now-s-palin/536264/71 "2010-04-16T21:53:44Z")
The real point is that no matter who said, it is about as empty and useless a thing as can be said. “Be nice to everyone”? Really? Deep thoughts attributed to a deep thinker. My guess is ti wass actually quote she learned from Barney…or off a Hallmark card. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2010, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-a-coulter-and-now-s-palin/536264/72 "2010-04-16T22:42:52Z")
> [@Gangster\_Octopus](#): > > The real point is that no matter who said, it is about as empty and useless a thing as can be said. “Be nice to everyone”? Really? Deep thoughts attributed to a deep thinker. My guess is ti wass actually quote she learned from Barney…or off a Hallmark card. As a beauty contestant, I’m sure she also wished for world peace. ---
**Author:** ![descamisado](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e480ec/32.png) [@descamisado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/descamisado)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2010, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-a-coulter-and-now-s-palin/536264/73 "2010-04-16T22:52:50Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > As a beauty contestant, I’m sure she also wished for world peace. That and, as Ms. South Carolina Teens wished, maps so people can learn about geography. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2010, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-a-coulter-and-now-s-palin/536264/74 "2010-04-16T23:09:03Z")
> [@gonzomax](#): > > Sarah is one of your own. When she got medical care from the Canadian system, she became one of you. You may take her back now. According to **Muffin** ’s link, she claims Canadian heritage: > [@](#): > > For much of her address, Ms. Palin attempted to build references to Canadiana into folksy tales of her life. > > One of her grandfathers was born in Manitoba, she said, and another in Saskatchewan. Both of them were bootleggers. 😕 What do they mean, “another” grandfather rather than “the other”? How many grandfathers does Ms. Palin have, anyway? And how on earth did I miss this little gem previously? > [@](#): > > And the rider for her appearance at California State University this month was found by students and made public, outlining her demands for a private jet and bendy straws. ---
**Author:** ![crowmanyclouds](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crowmanyclouds/32/19884_2.png) [@crowmanyclouds](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crowmanyclouds)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2010, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-a-coulter-and-now-s-palin/536264/75 "2010-04-17T00:17:49Z")
> [@Gyrate](#): > > I’m interested by this: > > > [@](#): > > > > Nine hundreds [sic] tickets were sold at $200 a pop for the politician’s address at Carmen’s Banquet Hall billed as “An Intimate Evening with Sarah Palin.” > > > > For a rumoured $200,000 speaker fee, Ms. Palin delivered few intimate details and more non-stop stream of consciousness in her hour-long speech. > > … I’m interested by this, $200 a pop for “An Intimate Evening with Sarah Palin" … I’dve thought it’d be more! CMC fnord! 900 in one night :eek:, jeez, who got stuck with the sloppy triple digits? ---
**Author:** ![AWB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bb73d2/32.png) [@AWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AWB)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2010, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-a-coulter-and-now-s-palin/536264/76 "2010-04-17T00:58:06Z")
> [@Lord\_Ashtar](#): > > That’s what you get for inflicting Bryan Adams and Celine Dion on us. Yes, well the Canadian government has apologized for Bryan Adams on several occasions! ---
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2010, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-a-coulter-and-now-s-palin/536264/77 "2010-04-17T02:24:03Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > You’re saying she actually read it? :dubious: She can read more than hand notes? Who’d a thunk it. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2010, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-a-coulter-and-now-s-palin/536264/78 "2010-04-17T02:38:02Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > Corroboration: > > [http://www.literaturepage.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=10957](http://www.literaturepage.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=10957) :eek: Sweet, merciful heavens; please tell me that corroboration wasn’t provided by the person who it appears to have been provided by! ---
**Author:** ![alice\_in\_wonderland](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alice_in_wonderland/32/176_2.png) [@alice\_in\_wonderland](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alice_in_wonderland)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2010, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-a-coulter-and-now-s-palin/536264/79 "2010-04-17T02:43:13Z")
You know, my (Canadian) FIL _LOVES_ Sarah Palin. Honestly, thinks she’s brilliant. Believes that the reason women don’t like her is because her ass is smaller than theirs. He’s going to be very sad she’s too far away to visit. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2010, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-a-coulter-and-now-s-palin/536264/80 "2010-04-17T02:48:03Z")
> [@alice\_in\_wonderland](#): > > You know, my (Canadian) FIL _LOVES_ Sarah Palin. Hmmm. You know, if he would be willing to keep her locked in a basement with no media access, I think maybe we could do a deal. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-a-coulter-and-now-s-palin/536264.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/first-a-coulter-and-now-s-palin/536264.md?page=5)