There's Something Terribly Wrong With My Son by Christopher Maxim

In 1934 the “Oakland Tribune” of Oakland, California printed an excerpt from a forthcoming book by Upton Sinclair that included the saying as mentioned previously in this article. All this is not a question of the Life Force at all it is a question of bread and butter. You can’t get a parson to admit the arguments of an agnostic, because his salary depends on his not letting the agnostic refute him and you can’t get an ordinary doctor to look kindly on psychoanalysis or autosuggestion because their success would make him superfluous. Doctors have a monopoly of medicine just as parsons have of God. Hear, hear! It’s all a question of trusts and monopolies. Joad, Chapter 3: The Life Force in Education, Quote and 132, T. Joad published a germane passage about two professions: 1922, Common-Sense Theology by C.

In 1922 English author and later BBC personality C. It is useless to argue with a man whose opinion is based upon a personal or pecuniary interest the only way to deal with him is to outvote him. In 1893 a newspaper in Lincoln, Nebraska printed a thematically related statement written by populist politician William Jennings Bryan: 1893 June 16, The Lincoln Weekly Call (Lincoln Evening Call), A Great Issue: Bimetallism Defined by an Able Democrat: Congressman Bryan of Nebraska on Finance, Quote, Column 1, Lincoln, … Continue reading I used to say to our audiences: “It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it!”īelow are additional selected citations in chronological order. Emphasis added to excerpts by QI: 1934 December 11, Oakland Tribune, I, Candidate for Governor and How I Got Licked by Upton Sinclair, Quote, Column 3, Oakland, California. Yet, in 1934 some California papers published installments from his forthcoming book about the ill-fated campaign titled “I, Candidate for Governor, and How I Got Licked”. Quote Investigator: Upton Sinclair ran for Governor of California in the 1930s, and the coverage he received from newspapers was unsympathetic.

I think either muckraker Upton Sinclair or curmudgeon H. It is rather pointless to argue with a man whose paycheck depends upon not knowing the right answer.It can be very hard to understand something, when misunderstanding it is essential to your paycheck.It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it.Never argue with a man whose job depends on not being convinced.Joad? Christopher Matthews? Paul Krugman? Anonymous?ĭear Quote Investigator: Financial incentives can compromise the critical faculties of an individual.

There's Something Terribly Wrong With My Son by Christopher Maxim