Can a leopard change his spots?

THE FAMOUS RHETORICAL QUESTION FROM THE BIBLE: “Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots?”        Jeremiah, 13:23        This question is posed by the gloomy prophet Jeremiah in the book of the Bible named for and allegedly written by him. It comes from one of his many long rants (which gave rise to the term jeremiad). In this particular rant, he was warning the people of Judah (Jerusalem) that God was going to destroy them for becoming idolaters and sinners and “scatter them as the stubble that passeth away by the wind of the wilderness.”                       Jeremiah’s question seems rhetorical on the surface. It’s the source of the proverbial sayings used to imply that people, animals or things cannot change or overcome their basic character or characteristics. One common idiomatic formula is a query based on, but shorter than, Jeremiah’s: “Can a leopard change his spots?” The other popular formulation is an affirmative statement, like “A leopard can’t change its spots.”           Jeremiah included an ambiguous twist to his famous question. The full quotation from Chapter 13, Verse 23 is: “Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil.”                       Some Christian commentators have interpreted this verse to mean that hard-core sinners cannot become good people and will not be saved by God; they are doomed to be punished. But others have suggested that, while it may be difficult for a long-standing sinner to change and be saved, Jeremiah was saying it’s not impossible; those who strive hard to embrace the teachings of the Bible and become good can be saved by the grace of God.        Of course, Jeremiah’s famous quote was recorded in a Biblical text written around 700 B.C. Modern events and science have provided some new information. For example, Michael Jackson proved that with the help of certain chemical treatments a black man can indeed change his skin color. And, as noted in the book Does a Bear Sh*t in the Woods?: Answers to Rhetorical Questions (2011), scientists who study evolution have determined that, in fact, the patterns of spots on some subspecies of leopards have changed over time.

THE ‘YOU COULD LOOK IT UP’ COUNTERQUOTE: “I find many people have deep-seated beliefs that people really cannot change all that much, if at all. Our culture even has clichés to support this lie like ‘A leopard can't change its spots’...If you do not believe that people can really change, I suggest you go to your local library and check out a few of the thousands of books you will find there about how people have changed their lives for good and become something quite different from what they once were.”        James C. Hunter        American author and inspirational speaker        From Chapter 7 of his book The World's Most Powerful Leadership Principle (2004)

AL GORE'S “STUPID QUOTE”: “A zebra does not change its spots.”        Attributed to Al Gore        American politician and environmental activist        This purported “quote” by Gore shows up in thousands of posts on the internet and various books, such as the popular book The Stupidest Things Ever Said by Politicians (1999), edited by Ross and Kathryn Petras (who provide no source). In many posts it is claimed to be something Gore said while attacking George W. Bush's environmental record in 1992. In a discussion thread on Snopes.com, one person claims it was in the Congressional Record and another cites a 1995 column by Jerry Gladman in the Toronto Sun. I searched various newspaper archives and the Congressional Record and could not find it, except as a quote that is simply attributed to Gore. I've concluded that he probably didn't actually say it. After someone claimed he did and it was included in the popular Stupidest Things book, it took on a life of its own, as faux quotes often do. Gore may have said some stupid things, but I’m skeptical that the zebra “quote” is one of them.

BEN CARSON’S STUPID QUOTE(S): “For someone to wake up and think that they belong to a different sex because they feel different that day is the same as if you woke up and said, ‘I’m Afghani today’...Can a leopard change its spots? No.”          Ben Carson          American neurosurgeon-turned-Republican politician            From comments he made to reporters in July 2016, explaining why he thinks being transgender doesn’t make sense and apparently doesn’t accept the reality of modern transgender surgery. Some observers think Carson’s notoriously harsh views on transgender and homosexual people and his comment about the leopard are stupid. And, Ben knows about being stupid. As he explained in 2015, “people are not as stupid as [the media] think they are. Many of them are stupid, OK. But I'm talking about overall.” On that much, most of us might agree with him, though opinions vary on about which people are among the “many.”

THE ‘GOD BLESS AMERICA’S BIGOTED INDIAN POLICY’ QUOTE: “You may change the leopard’s spots, but you will never change the different qualities of races which God has created…The Indian of one hundred and twenty-five years ago is the Indian of to-day—ameliorated, to a certain extent civilized, and yet the wisdom of our forefathers, when, in the Constitution, they set them apart as one people, separate and distinct from the great dominant race which had come to take this land and inhabit it, is indicated in what we are still doing and must forever do with them so long as they maintain their tribal relations and so long as they are Indians.”          John Daniel (1842-1910)         Virginia lawyer, author and politician          In a February 1899 address to Congress while serving as U.S. Senator for Virginia. Quoted in the book Shadowing the White Man's Burden: U.S. Imperialism and the Problem of the Color Line (2010) by Gretchen Murphy.

THE SHAKESPEAREAN REPARTEE QUOTE: King Richard: “Rage must be withstood...lions make leopards tame.” Thomas Mowbray: “Yea, but not change his spots.”        William Shakespeare (1564-1616)        English playwright and poet         Lines from Act 1, Scene 1 of his play Richard II

THE LMFAO PAR-TEE! LYRICS: “1-2-3 to the 4 I’m dancin’ with as many super freaks as possible You can’t change the spots on a leopard In the club, the homies call me redfoo hefner.”         LMFAO         American electropop music duo          Lyrics from the song “What Happens At The Party,” on their Party Rock album (2009)         Sorry, folks. I only have a dim understanding of WTF these LMFAO lyrics mean. You’ll have to figure them out for yourself.

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"Full of sound and fury, signifying nothing”– from Macbeth and Trump memes, to Slackers and Superman…

SHAKESPEARE’S FAMOUS QUOTATION: “Life’s but a walking shadow...a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing.”        William Shakespeare        Macbeth, Act 5, Scene 5        Even if you’re not a Shakespeare fan you’ve probably seen or heard things or people described as “full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.” These words are spoken by Macbeth near the end of The Bard’s play about him, first performed in 1606. They reflect Macbeth’s realization that all the scheming he’d done and the murders he’d committed to become the King of Scotland had ultimately led him to a joyless, grim and meaningless end. Macbeth says the lines after being told that his wife is dead. Soon after, so is he.        The phrase “full of sound and fury, signifying nothing” turned into a common way of saying that something, or some person, is loud or attention-getting but essentially inconsequential or irrelevant.         Author William Faulkner helped make “sound and fury” an an especially common phrase by titling what would become his most famous novel The Sound and the Fury (first published in 1929).        By the way, if you are a Shakespeare fan like me, I highly recommend two modern adaptations of Macbeth that you can stream on Amazon: the 2010 PBS “Great Performances” adaptation starring Patrick Stewart as Macbeth in a fascist-style realm, and the visually-stunning 2015 film starring Michael Fassbender in the title role.

TRUMP APPLICATION #1 – THAT WAS THEN... “AN IDIOT, FULL OF SOUND AND FURY, SIGNIFYING NOTHING”          One of the many snarky internet memes about candidate Donald Trump posted on Facebook prior to his victory in the November 8, 2016 presidential election, a result that was widely dismissed as unlikely or even impossible before it happened.

TRUMP APPLICATION #2 – THIS IS NOW... “Whatever reactions the protesters have, they need to face the facts that Clinton’s large margin in popular votes didn’t translate into an electoral victory. Their protests are mostly ‘full of sound and fury, signifying nothing’ more than profound disappointment.”        Mitch Edelman        American journalist        In his column about the post-election anti-Trump on the Carroll County News site, November 14, 2016

MOVIE QUOTE #1: “I’m what, a slacker?...I’m in that white space where consumer terror meets irony and pessimism, where Scooby Doo and Dr. Faustus hold equal sway over the mind, where the Butthole Surfers provide the background volume, where we choose what is not obvious over what is easy. It goes on...like TV channel-cruising, no plot, no tragic flaws, no resolution, just mastering the moment, pushing forward, full of sound and fury, full of life signifying everything on any given day.”        Richard Linklater        American filmmaker, screenwriter and actor         In his book Slacker (1992), about the making of his 1991 movie Slacker

MOVIE QUOTE #2: “Sitting there at that moment I thought of something else Shakespeare said. He said, ‘Hey, life is pretty stupid, with lots of hubbub to keep you busy but really not amounting to much.’ Of course I'm paraphrasing.”        Steve Martin as the character Harris K. Telemacher        In the movie L.A. Story (1991)

MOVIE BASHING QUOTE #1: “Once you get past all the sound and fury, what you’re left with is basically emptiness.”        Allison Shoemaker        Staff writer for the Consequence of Sound entertainment website        In her review of Tim Burton's 2016 film Miss Peregrine’s Home For Peculiar Children

MOVIE BASHING QUOTE #2: “‘Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice’ is a rancid brew of silence, sound and fury, signifying the absolute worst the comic book movie genre has to offer.”         Alex Biese        American entertainment journalist and reviewer        In his review of the film for the Asbury Park Press, March 28, 2016        NOTE: For some other uses and variations of “full of sound and fury…” see the previous QuoteCounterquote.com post at this link.

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“The evil that men do…”

FAMOUS FUNERAL ORATION QUOTE: “The evil that men do lives after them; The good is oft interred with their bones.”        William Shakespeare (1564-1616)         Lines said by Mark Antony in Act 3, Scene 2 of Shakespeare’s play Julius Caesar        This is one of several well-known quotes in the funeral oration Mark Antony gives for Julius Caesar after Caesar is assassinated. It follows the famous opening words: “Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears. I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him.” The oration in the play is loosely based on a real speech Antony gave at Caesar’s funeral, a few days after Caesar was stabbed to death by his political enemies on March 15, 44 B.C. (the “Ides of March”). An account of what Antony said was recorded by the Greek-born Roman historian Appian in his history of Rome’s civil wars. It does not include any of the famous lines in Shakespeare’s play. According to Appian, the Roman masses became so angry after hearing Antony’s subtly inflammatory speech that they burnt down the Senate building where Caesar was killed and went hunting for his murderers, who were forced to flee Rome.

THE GOD CONUNDRUM: “If, as the theologians say, ‘the very act of free choice is traced to God as to a cause’...if ‘everything happening from the exercise of free choice must be subject to divine providence,’ must not the evil that men do be attributed to God as cause?”        From a commentary on the philosophical debate over free will in The Great Ideas volume of Encyclopedia Britannica’s multi-volume series about the great books and ideas of the Western World, which was edited by Mortimer J. Adler and first published in 1952.

AN EARLY LABOR ACTIVIST’S VIEWPOINT: “It is sins of omission, not commission, that are most fruitful of harm; not the evil that men do, but the good they did not do, that lives after them.”        Editorial comment in an 1889 issue of The Railway Conductor’s Monthly        Included in The Conductor and Brakeman Vol. 6, compiled by The Order of Railway Conductors and Brakemen

A MODERN ACTIVIST’S VIEWPOINT: “It’s not the evil that men do that outlives them; it’s the mischief that computers and genetic research can get us into when they are spliced together that we need to worry about.”         From the book Taking Sides: Clashing Views in Business Ethics and Society (2006), written by Lisa Newton, Elaine Englehardt and Michael Pritchard         Paraphrasing of the views of technology critics like Jeremy Rifkin

THE SEXIST PARSON’S OPINION: “Parson Fawcett said: the evil that men do lives after them; but the evil that women do goes on for countless generations through their breeding.”        Catherine Cookson (1906-1998)        British novelist        In her period romance novel The Love Child (1990)

See more takeoffs and variations on “The evil that men do...”

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“A rose by any other name...”

SHAKESPEARE’S FAMOUS LINES: “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose By any other name would smell as sweet.”        William Shakespeare (1564-1616)         British playwright and poet        Famed lines spoken by Juliet in Romeo and Juliet (c. 1591), Act II, Scene II        In this great tragedy, Romeo and Juliet are “star-crossed lovers” (a term Shakespeare coined in the play). Romeo’s family, the Montagues, are feuding with the Capulets, Juliet’s family. But Romeo and Juliet can’t help their mutual attraction and fall in love with each other.        The rose metaphor comes in the play’s famous balcony scene, in which Romeo sees Juliet standing on the balcony of her bedroom and overhears her saying she loves him, even though he is a Montague.        She muses aloud:            “O Romeo, Romeo! wherefore art thou Romeo?            Deny thy father and refuse thy name;            Or, if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love,            And I’ll no longer be a Capulet...            ‘Tis but thy name that is my enemy;            Thou art thyself, though not a Montague.            What’s Montague? it is nor hand, nor foot,            Nor arm, nor face, nor any other part            Belonging to a man. O, be some other name!            What’s in a name? That which we call a rose            By any other name would smell as sweet;            So Romeo would, were he not Romeo call’d,            Retain that dear perfection which he owes            Without that title. Romeo, doff thy name,            And for that name which is no part of thee            Take all myself.”        According to legend, the lines about the smell of a rose were also an inside joke. The Rose Theatre in London was a rival of Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre. Supposedly, the Rose’s bathroom facilities were quite odiferous and Shakespeare's mention of a smelly rose slyly poked fun at that. The excellent Phrase Finder site says this story is probably just creative folk etymology, but London tour guides like to use it to amuse tourists.

A RECENT VARIATION FOR ANTI-GAY “CHRISTIANS”: “There’s been a brouhaha on the Internet about the decision by the Associated Press to recognize same-sex couples and in news stories refer to a gay man’s spouse as ‘husband’ and a lesbian’s spouse ‘wife.’ Christian fundamentalist Marvin Olasky wrote that this action by the world’s leading wire service was not being neutral but was ‘endorsing same-sex marriage.’...Christians don’t have a copyright on the word ‘husband.’ What’s in a name, anyway? A Christian by any other name could still be petty and mean-spirited.”        Henry Denton, of Charleston, Utah (a beautiful corner of the Heber Valley)         In a letter to the editor Henry wrote to The Salt Lake Tribune, published March 26, 2013

THE ORIGINAL ANTI-SPAM VARIATION: “What’s in a name? That which we call Spam By any other name would taste as lousy.”          Satiric poem in YANK magazine, January 14, 1944         Quoted in the book Minnesota Goes To War: The Home Front During World War II (2009)        This take-off on Shakespeare, which was illustrated with the cartoon at left, was in an article complaining about the Spam “luncheon meat” that was regularly included in K rations and B rations given to American GIs during World War II. The YANK article noted: “It’s not what they call it. It’s the frequency with which they throw it into your mess kit. Spam — sorry, we mean luncheon meat — might not be so bad if it was only served at luncheon. But when you get it at breakfast and supper, too, you can’t be blamed for getting mad at it.”

DA FUNK MASTER’S VERSION: "At certain times you have to change to words you use to describe something. Change the interpretation of something, even though the essence is still the same. Like the word funk — we can use the word as long as we need to use the word, then we could just change it. But the rhythms would always go on being the same. Because funk by any other name would still be funky."        George Clinton        American musician and music producer        In an interview with Chip Stern, published in Musician Magazine, April 1979

A LAUGH-IN GIRL’S FUNNY VERSION: “A chrysanthemum by any other name would be easier to pronounce.”        Goldie Hawn        American actress and founder of The Hawn Foundation         In a comic bit on the TV show Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In (1968-1973)

A POLITICAN’S UNFUNNY BUZZKILL VERSION: “In real life, unlike in Shakespeare, the sweetness of the rose depends upon the name it bears. Things are not only what they are. They are, in very important respects, what they seem to be.”        Hubert H. Humphrey (1911–1978)        Democratic politician and U.S. Vice President        In a speech on March 26, 1966 in Washington, D.C.

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A new quotation site I like – QUOTO.COM Recently, I ran across a new quotation site with a large collection of quotes that’s a cut above those that are just compilations recycled from other sites. It’s called Quoto.com and it includes a collection of over 150,000 quotes organized and easily searched by name and topic. Unlike many sites, Quoto.com actually provides some background information about most of the quotes in its collection, such as thumbnail bios and context info written by the site’s contributors. It also has a cool collection of photos with quotes that can be reposted on Facebook and elsewhere. And, the design of the Quoto.com site is top notch. I encourage other quote buffs to check it out.

 

Brevity is the soul of wit – and lingerie...

WILLY’S SUBTLY WITTY APHORISM ABOUT WIT: “Brevity is the soul of wit.”         William Shakespeare (1564-1616)        British playwright and poet        Famous phrase spoken by the character Polonius in Act 2, Scene 2 of Shakespeare’s play Hamlet (c. 1602)        Polonius, the chief counselor to Hamlet’s nemesis King Claudius, is a pompous windbag. So, although this aphorism is often used with serious intent, Shakespeare was originally making a joke of it by having the words spoken by Polonius.        In fact, they’re embedded in an example of Polonius’ bloviating manner of speaking, which is anything but brief and to the point.        After spying on Hamlet for King Claudius and Queen Gertrude (Hamlet’s mother), Polonius reports:            “This business is well ended.             My liege, and madam, to expostulate             What majesty should be, what duty is,             Why day is day, night night, and time is time,             Were nothing but to waste night, day and time.             Therefore, since brevity is the soul of wit,             And tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes,             I will be brief: your noble son is mad:             Mad call I it; for, to define true madness,             What is’t but to be nothing else but mad?             But let that go.”         Alas, poor Polonius pays a heavy price for spying on Hamlet. While hiding behind a tapestry, he is stabbed to death by the brooding Prince, who thinks he’s killing Claudius.        Prior to that, in Act 1, Scene 2, Polonius utters two other lines that have come to be repeated as proverbial words of wisdom: “Neither a borrower nor a lender be” and “To thine own self be true.” In Act 2, Scene 2, while talking to Hamlet, he speaks a famous aside to the audience about Hamlet's apparent crazy talk — “Though this be madness, yet there is method in ‘t” — the origin of the idiom “a method in one’s madness.”

DOROTHY PARKER’S WITTY VARIATION: “Brevity is the soul of lingerie.”        Dorothy Parker (1893-1967)        American writer and critic          One of her most frequently quoted wisecracks, made famous when mentioned by her fellow Algonquin Round Table member, Alexander Woollcott, in his book While Rome Burns (1934)        Parker created this quip around 1916, while working as a caption writer for Vogue magazine. It was part of a caption she wrote for a photo spread about women’s undergarments. As noted by several books about Parker, the full caption was: “From these foundations of the autumn wardrobe, one may learn that brevity is the soul of lingerie, as the Petticoat said to the Chemise.”

WHY DOROTHY’S VARIATION IS WITTY: “Impropriety is the soul of wit.”        W. Somerset Maugham (1874-1965)        British novelist        An oft-cited quote from his novel The Moon and Sixpence (1919)

WHEN BREVITY IS NOT THE BEST POLICY: “Brevity may be the soul of wit, but not when someone’s saying ‘I love you’. When someone’s saying ‘I love you,’ he always ought to give a lot of details: Like, Why does he love you? And, How much does he love you? And, When and where did he first begin to love you?”        Judith Viorst        American journalist, poet and book author        In her book Love and Guilt and the Meaning of Life, Etc. (1987)

RAY BRADBURY’S VARIATION: “Digression is the soul of wit. Take the philosophic asides away from Dante, Milton or Hamlet’s father’s ghost and what stays is dry bones.”        Ray Bradbury (1920-2012)        American novelist, short story writer and screenwriter        Comment made in a special Coda he wrote for the 1979 Del Rey edition of his dystopian novel about censorship and book burning, Fahrenheit 451 (originally published in 1953)         Bradbury’s Coda expresses his distaste any efforts to censor or otherwise change what an author wrote, including digest versions of books that cut out parts of the original text deemed “unnecessary.” Such condensations, says Bradbury, show “there is more than one way to burn a book.”

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