We have a houseguest! And if you’re thinking, “Then, I bet they went to Oxford,” you are correct! First Square Books, then Off Square Books. What a find I found! A ninth edition of Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations (1891).

The 1st edition, 1855, John Bartlett self-published. The ninth edition, I learned, was the last that Bartlett would edit. The 10th would not appear until 1914.

What little I can find that’s not just world wide web babble or from that infallible source is interesting history. I’ll not bore you with it right now, though.

Instead, let’s take a look at a very quotable American and ask how the inclusion of his utterances differs between 1891 and 2002. (I do not have the latest edition which is 18th (2012). I’m using the 17th.)

There are 24 Benjamin Franklin quotes in the 9th edition; 59 in the 17th. By my count, of those 59, 17 appeared in the 9th (28%). Five appearing in the 9th did not make it though to 2002.

Plough deep while sluggards sleep.
Never leave for tomorrow which you can do today.
He that goes a borrowing goes a sorrowing.
A man may, if he knows not how to save as he gets, keep his nose to the grindstone.
Vessels large may venture more, but little boats should keep near shore.

Quotes come and go in Bartlett’s, which, I suppose, is as it should be. But with an emphasis on including that which is familiar, how are the second and third quotations above not familiar? They are to my ear.