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I wonder where that comes from (is it apocryphal?) as prior to Hansard - which itself is not always verbatim and is the body that records the daily goings-on in
by HansardExpert 3y ago
I wonder where that comes from (is it apocryphal?) as prior to Hansard - which itself is not always verbatim and is the body that records the daily goings-on in the Houses of Parliament - there was very little documented on what was actually said in Parliament - let alone who said it.
It's a nice anecdote if nothing else.
- dang 3y agoAh good point. As someone with a hair trigger for misattributed quotes I should have been more suspicious.
- svat 3y agoI dug deeper in another comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37517597 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37517597 — it's mentioned in many books, but Newton's very thorough biographer Richard Westfall authoritatively says “According to a story that rests solely on anecdotal authority, he spoke only once”. So in fact we can be fairly confident it's only an anecdote and nothing more.