# Up to a certain point (quote)

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/up-to-a-certain-point-quote/18397>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [May 2, 2000, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/up-to-a-certain-point-quote/18397 "2000-05-02T22:18:21Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![sailor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)\
**Post date:** [May 2, 2000, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/up-to-a-certain-point-quote/18397/1 "2000-05-02T22:18:21Z")

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A few weeks ago I read an article (I think it was about foreign policy, maybe China) where there was a story quoted about a man who always went along and never contradicted. when the other person was right he’d say “yes sir” and when the other person was wrong he would always say “up to a certain point”.

-The capital of Japan is Yokohama isn’t it?  
-Up to a certain point

The story was quite funny and now that I try to find it I can’t. I have searched the internet in vain. Can anyone please help me find the source of this story?

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**Author:** ![Wonko\_The\_Sane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/258eb7/32.png) [@Wonko\_The\_Sane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wonko_The_Sane)\
**Post date:** [May 3, 2000, 3:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/up-to-a-certain-point-quote/18397/2 "2000-05-03T15:40:11Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> \*\*  
> Can anyone please help me find the source of this story?  
> \*\*

Up to a certain point…

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**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\
**Post date:** [May 6, 2000, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/up-to-a-certain-point-quote/18397/3 "2000-05-06T14:52:56Z")

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My WAG would be that it’s not on the Internet because it’s just a joke, and search engines tend not to turn up simple jokes unless somebody has it posted on his website.

It sounds like a pretty standard after-dinner speaker kind of joke to me. Like “5,000 Toasts and Jokes for All Occasions,” that sort of thing.

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**Author:** ![sailor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a587f6/32.png) [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)\
**Post date:** [November 14, 2002, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/up-to-a-certain-point-quote/18397/4 "2002-11-14T23:59:49Z")

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Well, it took me two and a half years but I am a persistent person and, finally, found the answer. The quote is from the 1938 novel **Scoop** by Evelyn Waugh, the author of Brideshead Revisited.

> [@](#):
>
> [http://www.sabrizain.demon.co.uk/lies2.htm](http://www.sabrizain.demon.co.uk/lies2.htm)  
> Salter - the servile, sycophantic Foreign News editor of the ‘Daily Beast’, the fictional British newspaper in Evelyn Waugh’s classic satire on journalism “Scoop”. There is a scene from the book where Salter is talking with Lord Copper, the all-powerful, despotic, senile and dim-witted owner and publisher of the newspaper. While Lord Copper was talking about how his newspaper must make a stand for ‘strong government’ and ‘self-assertion’, Mr Salter’s side of the conversation was limited to delighted expressions of assent and enthusiastic agreement. Every time Lord Copper was right, Salter would say, “Definitely, Lord Copper”. When he was wrong, Salter would say “Up to a point, Lord Copper.”
> 
> “Hong Kong belongs to us, doesn’t it, Salter?”
> 
> “Definitely, Lord Copper”
> 
> “Let me see, what’s the name of that place … the capital of Japan …Yokohama, isn’t it?”
> 
> “Up to a point, Lord Copper.”