In the last few weeks I've run into these two quotes, and found that the web attributes them to Twain and Churchill. But the sites differ in the exact phrasing, and I can't any site thaT says where these are to be found in Twain's and Churchill's works. Accordingly, I'm suspicious.

Does anyone know for sure whether the attributions are legitimate?

A banker is a fellow who lends you his umbrella when the sun is shining, but wants it back the minute it begins to rain.
- Mark Twain?

Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing ever happened.
- Winston Churchill?

Can't help with attributions I'm afraid (I've checked my books of quotations and neither is listed) but I have noticed that every quotation worth remembering eventually gets attributed to Mark Twain, Winston Churchill or Oscar Wilde.

quote:

A banker is a fellow who lends you his umbrella when the sun is shining, but wants it back the minute it begins to rain.

This Mark Twain site says that it shouldn't be considered authentic.

quote:

Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing ever happened.

This site says that the Churchill quote is "unsourced."

One of the disputed quotes mentioned in that Wikipedia article you linked to was, “This is the sort of bloody nonsense up with which I will not put.” Apparently this quote appeared in an article in The Strand magazine, and the author is unknown.

Tinman

This all goes to show why it's so important to go back to original sources. When writing an article, it's always tempting to assume the authors who cited research from another article interpreted it correctly. Inevitably, when you read the cited article, you will find mistakes. In fact, because some authors don't take the time to verify sources, sometimes these mistakes are passed on from article to article, similar to these quotes.

I was just looking for this quote . . .

quote:

We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.

and I've found it attributed to Booker T. Washington twice,here and here,and never to anyone else . . . but I am wondering what you guys can find.

Lots of people on other boards and blogs seem to attribute it to James D. Nicoll.

I've also heard it (surprise, surprise)attributed to Churchill. I'm pretty sure that this one isn't his though.

James D Nicoll seems the commonest attribution, though that proves nothing.

With regard to the "up with which I will not put" there is a good item here on language log.

For what it's worth, here's what Wikipedia says:

quote:

The following epigram first written by James D. Nicoll is from 1990 and has been attributed to everyone from Booker T. Washington to a nineteenth-century painter also named James Nicoll:

The problem with defending the purity of the English language is that English is about as pure as a cribhouse whore. We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them unconscious and riffle [sic] their pockets for new vocabulary.

Tinman

This is beginning to sound familiar.

(Check the whole thread, not just the one post I linked to.)

I found the original quote. James D. Nicoll (or at least, someone named James whose initials are JDN)said it on an internet forum, here.

Ahh - very well, then. I thought it unlikely that BT Washington had said it.

"There are three types of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics" is often attributed to Twain, although in all fairness he did quote that phrase.

Edit: attempt to fix poor comma usage