Unnecessary Attribution
(of brief, public-domain utterances)

by Jonathan Caws-Elwitt

In the word of the Immortal Bard, "No."

As the great Ralph Waldo Emerson remarked, a century and a half ago, "Yes."

"What the hell," as Ed Begley, Jr. says at the end of Back to the Future.

To paraphrase Mark Twain, "[That would] be [wonderful]!"

Prof. Oddfellow adds:

In the word of the great statesman and martyr, Abraham Lincoln, "Alas!"

As the legendary Mae West once exclaimed, "Funny!"

In the word of the great Persian poet-astronomer, Omar Khayyam, "Who?"

To quote the eminent Frenchman, Rousseau, "Indeed!"

In the word of the great American slavery abolitionist, Frederick Douglas, "Never."

As the celebrated Dr. Johnson once asked, "Why?"

In the word of the great Italian poet-philosopher Giacomo Leopardi, "Oh!"

Gary Barwin adds: