Quote/Counterquote: “A House Divided”

October 29, 2009

“A House Divided”

FAMOUS BIBILICAL QUOTE:

“Every city or house divided against itself shall not stand.”
       Jesus
       Quoted in the Bible, Matthew 12:25
       The inspiration for Abraham Lincoln’s famous quote

STUDENT COUNTERQUOTE:

“A horse divided against itself cannot stand.”
A “student blooper”
Quoted by Richard Lederer in The Bride of Anguished English

ANTHROPOLIGIST’S VERSION:

“A cultural system divided against itself cannot behave in a rational manner.”
       Leslie Alvin White (1900-1975)
       American anthropologist
       Comment in 1975, quoted by Jack P. Gibbs in Control: Sociology’s Central Notion

GEORGE DIVIDED VARIATION:

“You see, right now I have Relationship George. But there is also Independent George...If Relationship George walks through this door, he will kill Independent George. A George divided against itself cannot stand!”
George Costanza (actor Jason Alexander)
In the “Pool Guy” episode of Seinfeld (Season 7, Episode 8, 1995)

More from Richard Lederer and Leslie A. White…

Copyrights, Disclaimers & Privacy Policy

The Quote/Counterquote blog is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License. Any duplicative or remixed use of the original text written for this blog and any exact duplications the specific sets of quotations collected for the posts shown here must include an attribution to QuoteCounterquote.com and, if online, a link to http://www.quotecounterquote.com/

To the best of our knowledge, the non-original content posted here is used in a way that is allowed under the fair use doctrine. If you own the copyright to something we've posted and think we may have violated fair use standards, please let me know.

Subtropic Productions LLC and QuoteCounterquote.com are committed to protecting your privacy. We will not sell your email address, etc. For more details, read this blog's full Privacy Policy.