Q. — How menny yards ov 5 dollar silk duz it take to make a dress?
A. — I dont kno, but it allwuss takes 2 yards and a haff more than yu buy the fust time.
[Q. — How many yards of 5 dollar silk does it take to make a dress?
A. — I don’t know, but it always takes 2 yards and a half more than you buy the first time.]
Josh Billings (1818–1885) American humorist, aphorist [pseud. of Henry Wheeler Shaw]
Josh Billings’ Farmer’s Allminax, 1879-09 “Questions, And Answers” (1879 ed.)
(Source)
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estimate
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ARCHITECT, n. One who drafts a plan of your house, and plans a draft of your money; who estimates the whole cost, and himself costs the whole estimate.
It is better to be roughly right than to be precisely wrong.
John Maynard Keynes (1883–1946) English economist
(Misttributed)
Not attributed to Keynes until after his death. Actually from Carveth Read, Logic, deductive and inductive (1898): "It is better to be vaguely right than exactly wrong."
