Particularly dangerous are old men who retain the memory of past events, but do not remember how often they have repeated them. I have known some very amusing tales to become most tiresome when told by some gentlemen whose whole audience has been sated with them a hundred times.
[Sur tout les vieillards sont dangereux, à qui la souvenance des choses passees demeure, et ont perdu la souvenance de leurs redites. J’ay veu des recits bien plaisants, devenir tres-ennuyeux, en la bouche d’un Seigneur, chascun de l’assistance en ayant esté abbreuvé cent fois.]
Michel de Montaigne (1533–1592) French essayist
Essays, Book 1, ch. 9 (1.9), “Of Liars [Des Menteurs]” (1572) [tr. Cohen (1958)]
(Source)
This essay was included in the 1st (1580) edition, and expanded in 1588 and 1595. This particular passage was added for the 1595 edition. See also La Rochefoucauld (1671).
(Source (French)). Alternate translations:Above all, old men are dangerous, who have onelie the memorie of things past left them, and have lost the remembrance of their repetitions. I have heard some very pleasant reports become most irkesome and tedious in the mouth of a certaine Lord, forsomuch as all the by-standers had manie times beene cloyed with them.
[tr. Florio (1603)]But above all, old Men, who yet retain the Memory of things past, and forget how often they have told them, are most dangerous Company for this fault; and I have known Stories from the Mouth of a Man of very great Quality, otherwise very pleasant in themselves, become very troublesome, by being a hundred times repeated over and over again.
[tr. Cotton (1686)]But, above all, old men who retain the memory of things past, and forget how often they have told them, are dangerous company; and I have known stories from the mouth of a man of very great quality, otherwise very pleasant in themselves, become very wearisome by being repeated a hundred times over and over again to the same people.
[tr. Cotton/Hazlitt (1877)]Above all, old men are in danger, who retain remembrance of past things and have lost remembrance of their twice-told stories I have known some really amusing tales to become very tiresome in the mouth of a man of the world, every one present having heard them poured out a hundred times.
[tr. Ives (1925)]Old men especially are dangerous, whose memory of things past remains, but who have lost the memory of their repetitions. I have seen some very amusing stories become very boring in the mouth of one nobleman, everyone present having been sated with them a hundred times.
[tr. Frame (1943)]Old men are particularly vulnerable: they remember the past but forget that they have just told you! I have known several amusing tales become boring in one gentleman’s mouth: his own people have had their fill of it a hundred times already.
[tr. Screech (1987)]The most dangerous are the elderly who have kept their recollections of the past but have lost track of their sharing them. I know of pleasant tales told by a certain gentleman that turned quite boring after each member of his audience had been regaled with it a hundred times.
[tr. HyperEssays (2025)]
Quotations about:
anecdote
Note not all quotations have been tagged, so Search may find additional quotes on this topic.
Owl was telling Kanga an Interesting Anecdote full of long words like Encyclopædia and Rhododendron to which Kanga wasn’t listening.
A. A. Milne (1882–1956) English poet and playwright [Alan Alexander Milne]
Winnie-the-Pooh, ch. 8 “Christopher Robin Leads an Expotition” (1926)
(Source)
Your children tell you casually years later what it would have killed you with worry to know at the time.
Mignon McLaughlin (1913–1983) American journalist and author
The Second Neurotic’s Notebook, ch. 2 (1966)
(Source)
The plural of anecdote is data.
Raymond Wolfinger (1931–2015) American political scientist and professor
Comment (c. 1969)
(Source)
Notes:
- In a 2004 email to Fred R. Shapiro, editor of The Yale Book of Quotations, Wolfinger wrote: "I said 'The plural of anecdote is data' some time in the 1969-70 academic year while teaching a graduate seminar at Stanford. The occasion was a student's dismissal of a simple factual statement -- by another student or me -- as a mere anecdote. The quotation was my rejoinder. Since then I have missed few opportunities to quote myself."
- The first print appearance is in Roger C. Noll, "The Game of Health Care Regulation," in Richard S. Gordon, ed., Issues in Health Care Regulation (1980): "Most of the evidence is anecdotal. Nevertheless, in the words of a leading political scientist, Raymond Wolfinger, the plural of anecdote is data ...."
It would seem that in youth we sow our wild oats, in old age our tame anecdotes.
Clifton Fadiman (1904–1999) American critic, lecturer, editor
The Little, Brown Book of Anecdotes, Introduction (1985)
(Source)
Depend upon it if a man talks of his misfortunes there is something in them that is not disagreeable to him; for where there is nothing but pure misery there never is any recourse to the mention of it.
Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) English writer, lexicographer, critic
Comment (1780)
(Source)
In Boswell, The Life of Samuel Johnson, ch. 51 "1780" (1791)
Why is our memory good enough to recall to the last detail things that have happened to us, yet not good enough to recall how often we have told them to the same person?
[Pourquoi faut-il que nous ayons assez de mémoire pour retenir jusqu’aux moindres particularités de ce qui nous est arrivé, et que nous n’en ayons pas assez pour nous souvenir combien de fois nous les avons contées à une même personne?]
François VI, duc de La Rochefoucauld (1613–1680) French epigrammatist, memoirist, noble
Réflexions ou sentences et maximes morales [Reflections; or Sentences and Moral Maxims], ¶313 (1665-1678) [tr. Kronenberger (1959)]
(Source)
See Montaigne (1572).
This first appeared in the 3rd (1671) edition. In the manuscript it read:Pourquoi faut-il que nous ayons toujours assez de mémoire pour retenir tout ce qui nous est arrivé, et que nous n’en ayons jamais assez pour savoir combien de fois nous l’avons conté à une même personne?
(Source (French)). Other translations:What an odd thing it is, that our Memories should serve us to recollect all the little Circumstances that have happened to us; and yet that we should not remember, how often we have told them over and over again, to one and the same Person?
[tr. Stanhope (1694), ¶313]Why have we memory sufficient to retain the minutest circumstances that have happened to us; and yet not enough to remember how often we have related them to the same person?
[pub. Donaldson (1783), ¶301; ed. Lepoittevin-Lacroix (1797), ¶288; ed. Carvill (1835), ¶264]Why must we have memory enough to retain even the minutest details of what has happened to us, and not enough to remember how many times we have told them to the same person?
[ed. Gowens (1851), ¶323]How is it that our memory is good enough to retain the least triviality that happens to us, and yet not good enough to recollect how often we have told it to the same person?
[tr. Bund/Friswell (1871), ¶313]Why is it that our memory recalls even the minutest details of our experiences, but cannot recall how many times we have told the same story to the same person?
[tr. Heard (1917), ¶320]Why is it that our memory enables us to recall our own experiences down to the minutest detail, whereas we cannot remember how often we have recounted them to a particular person?
[tr. Stevens (1939), ¶313]Why is it that our memory, capable of retaining the minutest details of what has befallen us, yet fails to remind us how often we have already recounted them to the same person?
[tr. FitzGibbon (1957), ¶313]How comes it that our memories are good enough to retain even the minutest details of what has befallen us, but not to recollect how many times we have recounted them to the same person?
[tr. Tancock (1959), ¶313]How is it that our memory is good enough to retain the minutest details of our lives — but not good enough to remember how very many times we have recounted those details to the same person?
[tr. Whichello (2016) ¶313]Why is it that we have enough memory to recall the most trivial occurrences that have happened to us, but not enough memory to remind us how often we have told them to the same person?
[tr. Chandler ¶313]
