OT: Re: MSN and XFree86

[Alma J Wetzker]

Alan Jackson wrote:
> On Fri, 05 Mar 2004 21:36:26 -0600
> Michael Hipp <michael at cullenandcompany.com> wrote:
> 
> 
>>Alan Jackson wrote:
>>
>>
>>>Never ascribe to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity
>>>- Robert Heinlein (Moon is a Harsh Mistress, I think)
>>
>>"Never ascribe to malice, that which can be explained by incompetence."
>>   --  Napoleon Bonaparte
>>
>>http://www.quotedb.com/quotes/2308
>>
>>Wonder if Heinlein accidentally quoted Bonaparte.
>>
> 
> 
> Could be. I googled for a while and found that opinion is divided
> between Napoleon and Heinlein. No one I found could point to a
> Napoleon cite, however. I did find :
> 
> "Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity"
>       - Logic of Empire
> 
> http://homepage.eircom.net/~odyssey/Quotes/Popular/SciFi/Heinlein.html
> 
> For Heinlein fans, I also found an amazing website,
> 
> http://home.netcom.com/~mecowan/hc/index.htm
> 
> A Heinlein Concordance
> 
> A paragraph on *every* character and place from all his novels and short 
> stories. And he wrote a lot!
> 
> Here is more on this elusive quote...
> 
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hanlon's_law
> A corollary of Finagle's law, Hanlon's Razor reads "Never attribute to malice
> that which can be adequately explained by stupidity." The derivation of the
> common title "Hanlon's Razor" is unknown; a similar epigram has been attributed
> to William James. One possible derivation is from the similarity to Occam's
> Razor. The website Status-Q attributes it to one Robert J. Hanlon who seemingly
> contributed it to a book about Murphy's law.
> 
> A similar quote appears in Robert Heinlein's 1941 short story Logic of Empire:
> "You have attributed conditions to villainy that simply result from stupidity."
> It is possible that the term 'Hanlon's Razor' is a bastardisation of
> 'Heinlein's Razor'.
> 
> This maxim is also widely attributed to Napoleon Bonaparte.
> 
> 
> Now Webster's online has :
> Napoleon Bonaparte
> 	Never ascribe to malice that which is adequately explained by incompetence.
> 
> but they don't tell the source, although it may be Bartlett's.
> However, the site http://www.bartleby.com/quotations/
> which references Bartlett's and 3 other large quote collections, doesn't
> have the quote at all! 
> 
> There are also many websites attributing the quote to author Nick Daimos,
> however, *I* never heard of him, and I cannot find a single reference to him
> detached from his supposed quote. I suspect he doesn't exist. Library of
> Congress has nothing by this "author". 
> 
> Other suggestions were Clausewitz as the source.
> 
> No resolution on where it came from - I'll have to find a copy of Logic
> of Empire and look it up.
> 
> I remember reading in "Straight Dope" that quotations are notoriously
> difficult to track down, and are very frequently mangled and mis-attributed,
> even by authorities like Bartlett's. I believe it!!

Thanks for the links and the research.  RAH had a broad enough academic 
background that he very well could/would have used the quote.  He is also 
astute enough to have created it.

I will rely on a .sig that Kurt provided:  What's the use of a good quotation 
if you can't change it.  -- Dr. Who

If I ever need it, I can either bend it to my specific purpose or provide an 
oblique reference and let others faulty memory of the source ascribe me with a 
broader background than I actually have.  Either way, it is fun.

     -- Alma