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Home  »  Respectfully Quoted  »  Tablet, Babylon

Respectfully Quoted: A Dictionary of Quotations. 1989.

 
NUMBER: 456
AUTHOR: Tablet, Babylon
QUOTATION: The world must be coming to an end. Children no longer obey their parents and every man wants to write a book.
ATTRIBUTION: Attributed to the writing on a tablet, unearthed not far from Babylon and dated back to 2800 B.C.—Leewin B. Williams, Encyclopedia of Wit, Humor and Wisdom, p. 299 (1949).

An expanded version of this appears as, “Our earth is degenerate in these latter days; there are signs that the world is speedily coming to an end; bribery and corruption are common; children no longer obey their parents; every man wants to write a book and the end of the world is evidently approaching,” attributed to an Assyrian stone tablet of about 2800 B.C.—William L. Patty and Louise S. Johnson, Personality and Adjustment, p. 277 (1953).

Both of the above quotations would seem to be spurious. Perhaps “every man wants to write a book” may be related to “of making many books there is no end,” Ecclesiastes 12:12.
SUBJECTS: Doomsday