"People Who Like This Sort Of Thing Will Find This To Be The Sort Of Thing That..."

Factual Questions
1

“…they like.”

Who coined this phrase (which pops up most often in negative or lukewarm reviews of books/movies/etc.)?

I’ve seen it attributed (Google confirms) to Lincoln, Max Beerbohm, and Disraeli, but never resolved which guy it is (or, if it’s even older than any of them).

2

I found a citation for it that seems to bring it close to Lincoln here. The attribution is from 1898, 33 years after Lincoln died.

3

Yup, I’d always seen it cited to Lincoln, who was prevailed upon to write a blurb for a book he’d really rather not have.

4

I was trying to figure out whether this was an Abe Lincoln quote or a Max Beerbohm hoax or what. I eventually found a blog post that seems to explain with some authority that it was an Artemus Ward joke from 1863 that eventually became associated with Abe Lincoln and borrowed by Beerbohm:

Here’s another link to the book cited by the blog post:

5

I guess “I shall lose no time in reading it” was already taken.

6

I’ve seen it or something close to it attributed to Wilde. No idea.

7

Gene Siskel said something similar in his review of Pee Wee’s Big Adventure -

Regards,
Shodan

8

Also taken;

“Once I put it down I couldn’t pick it back up.” - Groucho Marx

“You don’t have to eat a whole egg to know its rotten.” - George Bernard Shaw