In the Klingon Aphorisms thread currently going on in Cafe Society (link) someone quoted a person named Nick Gorski as having first said, “We will burn that bridge when we come to it.” When questioned about Gorski, a link was provided to allmyquotes.com which claims that Gorski was a Russian novelist who lived from 1868-1936. I’ve searched (including the author section of the Library of Congress) but I can find no further reference to this individual, other than his pithy quote about bridge burning. Does anyone have any more detailed info on Mr. Gorski, like whether he actually existed?
I suspect that they mean Russian novelist Maxim Gorky, especially since he had the same year of birth and death (1868-1936), which would be a pretty big coincidence otherwise. Though whether he said that quote, I haven’t the slightest.
I came up with that independently in high school. I still say it, though I now know others have said it already.
I somehow doubt identifying the elusive Nick Gorsky with Maksim Gorky as “We will burn that bridge when we come to it” is a mangling of English-language metaphor.
The quote is sometimes also attributed to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe - also improbable because the “crossing the bridge when we come to it” metaphor is not in use in German.
My assumption is that Nick Gorski is a nom de plume of Jack Aubrey 
That reminds me of a similar quote: WAG
"Don’t burn ye bridge before ye come to it lest ye pay toll twice!"
Greg Woodall, personal communication 2005.