Usually it's the opening quote in a paper or PowerPoint presentation. If you are a water wonk, you know the quote by heart. It almost could be part of a chorus to some folk song from the '60s. I can almost hear the guitar in the background.
"Whiskey is for drinking; water is for fighting over." - Mark Twain
This
article last week seemed to discount the whole quote. I love it. Several Twain scholars who have gone through his correspondence, papers, and articles have found no evidence of the quote. While most said it just sounded like something he would say, in the end they said there was no proof. It's like the
myth of the Cuyahoga fire. Lots of smoke, but no fire.
Halleluia! Reason enough to ban the quote.
Are there any other water quotes that need to be banned from overuse or questionable origins? I think this quote "When the well is dry, we know the worth of water." that purported to be in Benjamin Franklin's Poor Richard’s 1746 Almanac might be a close second. Is it really in Poor Richard's 1746 Almanac? A quick check this morning and I could not spot it
here. Hmm.
