EVERYTHING IN COMMON EXCEPT
ORIGINALITY
The genealogy of false attribution
THE ORIGINAL
We have really everything in
common with America nowadays except, of course,
language.
OSCAR WILDE, The Canterville Ghost, 1887
The Court and Society Review
in two parts
Vol. IV, No. 138, February 23, 1887, pp. 183--186. Mason, 12.
Vol. IV, No. 139, March 2, 1887, pp. 207--211. Mason, 13.
England and America are two countries
separated by the same language.
George Bernard Shaw
Attributed to Shaw in Reader's Digest (November 1942).
Treasury of Humorous Quotations (Esar
& Bentley)
No source given.
It is a misfortune for Anglo-American
friendship that the two countries are supposed to have a common language.
Bertrand Russell
Saturday Evening Post, June 3, 1944
European writers and scholars
in America are..up against the barrier of a common language.
Dylan Thomas
The Listener, April 1954
Winston Churchill said our two
countries were divided by a common language..
The Times, January 26, 1987
The European, November 22, 1991