“Familiarity breeds contempt” – and various other things…

THE FAMILIAR SAYING ABOUT FAMILIARITY: “Familiarity breeds contempt.”        Aesop (c. 620-564 B.C.)        The moral of “The Fox and the Lion” story in Aesop’s Fables        In traditional English translations of Aesop’s Fables, there’s a phrase at the end of each brief tale that summarizes “the moral of the story.” The origin of the proverbial saying “Familiarity breeds contempt” is widely credited to the traditional translation of Aesop’s fable “The Fox and the Lion,” which reads:         When first the Fox saw the Lion he was terribly frightened, and ran away and hid himself in the wood. Next time however he came near the King of Beasts he stopped at a safe distance and watched him pass by. The third time they came near one another the Fox went straight up to the Lion and passed the time of day with him, asking him how his family were, and when he should have the pleasure of seeing him again; then turning his tail, he parted from the Lion without much ceremony.        “Familiarity Breeds Contempt”

AN UNFAMILIAR COUNTERQUOTE: “Just as unfamiliarity breeds fear, an intimate introduction to multiple cultures breeds trust.”        Daniel Katz         Professor of History and labor history expert, City University of New York (CUNY)        In his 2012 book Labor Rising: The Past and Future of Working People in America (co-edited with Richard A. Greenwald)

J.K. GALBRAITH’S SOCIOECONOMIC OBSERVATION: “Familiarity may breed contempt in some areas of human behavior, but in the field of social ideas it is the touchstone of acceptability. Because familiarity is such an important test of acceptability, the acceptable ideas have great stability.”        John Kenneth Galbraith (1908-2006)        American economist        In Chapter 2 of his pioneering book about social economics, The Affluent Society (1958)

ALDOUS HUXLEY’S PSYCHEDELICIZED OBSERVATION: “Familiarity breeds indifference. We have seen too much pure, bright color at Woolworth’s to find it intrinsically transporting. And here we may note that, by its amazing capacity to give us too much of the best things, modern technology has tended to devaluate the traditional vision-inducing materials.”        Aldous Huxley (1894-1963)        British author and social critic        In his book length essay Heaven and Hell (1956), often published together with his earlier essays extolling the benefits of hallucinogenic drugs, The Doors of Perception (1954)

A PRETTY LITTLE LIAR’S VARIATION: Melissa Hastings (actress Torrey DeVitto): “I was hoping you'd be happy for me.” Spencer Hastings (Troian Bellisario): “Well, you know what they say about hope: it breeds eternal misery.”        Some repartee from the pilot episode of the TV show Pretty Little Liars (2010)

A PRETTY WEIRD SEXUAL THEORY: “The undue familiarity usually existing between husband and wife is a feeder of psycho-sexual aberrations. Once the halo of sex mystery is dispelled, romance often fails completely... Familiarity breeds satiety. Satiety is the parent of sexual discontent. The satiated, discontented man often browses in queer pastures in search of new thrills for his exhausted psycho-sexual centers.”        George Frank Lydston (1858–1923)        An American urologist who had some unusual theories (and issues)        The quote above is from Lydston’s book Impotence and Sterility: with Aberrations of the Sexual Function and Sex-Gland Implantation (1917).        In addition to coming up with the odd theory that men who became too “familiar” with their wives would turn gay, Lydston experimented with the transplantation of testicular tissue from animals into humans, as a form of “androgen therapy” for older men. The donors included dogs, goats, monkeys and even guinea pigs. (Really. I’m not making this stuff up.)

MARK TWAIN'S BETTER KNOWN SEXUAL THEORY: “Familiarity breeds contempt — and children.”         Mark Twain (Samuel Langhorne Clemens; 1835-1910)         A quip Twain recorded in his journal in 1894; included in his posthumously published Notebooks (1935)

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Related and recommended reading…

“God helps them that help themselves.”

FRANKLIN’S FAMOUS VERSION OF AN ANCIENT SAYING: “God helps them that help themselves.”        Popularized by Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)        American statesman, scientist, author and publisher        Franklin included this in Poor Richard’s Almanack, which he published from 1732 to 1758. Its appearance in his widely-read almanac helped popularize the saying in America, but Franklin didn’t coin it. There are various other earlier versions. “God helps those who help themselves” was used in 1698 by British politician Algernon Syney. Other variations date back as far as Aesop’s Fables, written in the sixth century BC. The moral of Aesop’s fable “Hercules and the Waggoner” (sometimes spelled Wagoner or Wagoneer) is traditionally translated as “The gods help them that help themselves.” It is widely, but wrongly, believed that “God helps them that help themselves” comes from the Bible. In fact, it doesn’t.

THE ANTI-THIEVERY COUNTERQUOTE: “God never helps those who are caught helping themselves.”        A humorous American proverb of unknown origin        Cited in A Dictionary of American Proverbs

THE THIEF’S COUNTER-COUNTERQUOTE: “God may not help those who help themselves, but you’ll notice he don’t stand in front of you with no flaming sword and say, ‘What you got there?’”        Stephen Longstreet (pen name of Henri Weiner; 1907-2002)        American author, artist and scriptwriter         Comment by a character in his novel All or Nothing (1983)

THE RICH MAN’S GOSPEL: “In bestowing charity, the main consideration should be to help those who will help themselves...Neither the individual nor the race is improved by alms giving. Those worthy of assistance, except in rare cases, seldom require assistance.”        Andrew Carnegie (1835-1919)        American businessman and philanthropist who was the richest man in the world in his day        This quotes comes from Carnegie’s essay “Wealth,” fist published in the North American Review in June 1889, then included in his book The Gospel of Wealth (1891).

THE EURODANCE RAP VARIATION: “What we need to do is take ourselves from the shelf ‘Cause God won’t help those who won't help themselves While you sit on your asses with rose colored glasses, hey – Brutes build troops and masses, believe me.”        Snap!        A revolving group of Eurodance musicians and rappers based in Germany         Lyrics from their song “Angel (Rays of Love)” (2004)

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Related reading and listening:

“Familiarity breeds contempt” — The Animal Quotes Edition

FAMILIAR PROVERBIAL QUOTE: “Familiarity breeds contempt.”        From “The Fox and the Lion” story        Aesop's Fables

PIGLET VARIATION: “There is a sense in presidential politics that familiarity breeds contempt. There is a time and a place to pet the pigs and kiss the babies, but that comes a little bit later.”         Conservative political strategist Ralph Reed        Quoted in The National Journal’s “Hotline,” July 27, 1999

GOAT QUOTE: “Goats soon learn all there is to know about the other goats in their mutual captivity, becoming progressively bored and more curious about the possibility of other, substantially more interesting goats beyond the fence, or corral — a case of familiarity breeds curiosity.”        Colorado Rancher J.C. Mattingly        In The Fence Post blog

SWINE FLU QUOTE: “The country seems to have its knickers in a knot about swine flu, while more serious illnesses and health risks seem to go unnoticed...Familiarity breeds contempt — we have become so accustomed to hearing about deaths in traffic accidents, we give the subject little thought unless we are personally affected.”        Editorial, Desert Valley Times, Oct. 20, 2009

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