| Author |
Message |
Harvey Van Sickle
Guest
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| Posted: Fri Jan 28, 2005 1:09 am
Post subject: Re: To err is human... |
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On 27 Jan 2005, Skitt wrote
| Quote: | Matti Lamprhey wrote:
"Arcadian Rises" wrote...
paul...@coldmail.com wrote:
I would have said:
"To err is human; to be mauled by Spyware is criminal".
That is, a semi-colon in place of the first comma and no second
comma.
I prefer comma to the semi-colon in order to keep the flavor of
the original: "Errare humanum est, perseverare diabolicum".
I believe many other takeoffs keep the original punctuation,
e.g. "To err is human, to forgive is devine".
But the original is more commonly written:
"To err is human: to forgive, divine."
Well, it is by me any way.
That does not make any punctuation sense to me at all.
|
Nor to me. I vote for the semi-colonised version.
--
Cheers, Harvey
Ottawa/Toronto/Edmonton for 30 years;
Southern England for the past 22 years.
(for e-mail, change harvey.news to harvey.van) |
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Skitt
Guest
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| Posted: Fri Jan 28, 2005 1:12 am
Post subject: Re: To err is human... |
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dcw wrote:
| Quote: | paulo_v@coldmail.com> wrote:
"Matti Lamprhey" wrote:
"To err is human: to forgive, divine."
And the comma after "forgive"?
To show an oral pause?
In place of "is"?
There seems to be no satisfactory way to punctuate this in English --
a comma seems too much; nothing, too little. I've read that Russian
uses a dash.
|
Yeah, I could go for that. I think that my use of dashes stems from the
Russian influence on my early education in northeastern Europe. It might
also explain my aversion to some uses of the colon.
Different strokes, and all that stuff.
--
Skitt (in Hayward, California)
www.geocities.com/opus731/ |
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Jarek Hirny
Guest
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| Posted: Fri Jan 28, 2005 1:31 am
Post subject: Re: To err is human... |
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In <190@myrtle.ukc.ac.uk>, dcw wrote:
| Quote: | There seems to be no satisfactory way to punctuate this in English --
a comma seems too much; nothing, too little. I've read that Russian
uses a dash.
|
I'd write it like ,,to err is human, to distribute spyware is something
something''.
But it's just me and my Polish punctuation.
(What a nice group! I'll stay here for a while, if you don't mind. I bet you
don't).
(You don't, do you?)
--
_-(_)- _-(_)- _-(_)- _-(_)- _-(_)- _-(")- _-(_)- _-(_)- _-(_)-
`(___) `(___) `(___) `(___) `%%%%% `(___) `(___) `(___) `(___)
// \\ // \\ // \\ // \\ // \\ // \\ // \\ // \\ // \\
http://hell.pl/agnus ,,Who's the black sheep in the family?'' --jgs |
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Mike Lyle
Guest
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| Posted: Fri Jan 28, 2005 2:06 am
Post subject: Re: To err is human... |
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Harvey Van Sickle wrote:
| Quote: | On 27 Jan 2005, Skitt wrote
Matti Lamprhey wrote:
"Arcadian Rises" wrote...
paul...@coldmail.com wrote:
I would have said:
"To err is human; to be mauled by Spyware is criminal".
That is, a semi-colon in place of the first comma and no second
comma.
I prefer comma to the semi-colon in order to keep the flavor of
the original: "Errare humanum est, perseverare diabolicum".
I believe many other takeoffs keep the original punctuation,
e.g. "To err is human, to forgive is devine".
But the original is more commonly written:
"To err is human: to forgive, divine."
Well, it is by me any way.
That does not make any punctuation sense to me at all.
Nor to me. I vote for the semi-colonised version.
|
I don't get all this problematizing of the comma. It's the _standard_
way of punctuating that kind of ellipsis. "My favourite colour is
blue; my wife's, red." Quintin Hogg, though, got misunderstood by
some clot at the BBC when he wrote that the simplest-minded
Conservatives devoted their minds to "foxhunting; the wisest,
religion." (Sorry I can't quote the whole thing verbatim, but the bit
in quotation marks is accurate, I'm sure.)
Mike. |
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Steve Hayes
Guest
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| Posted: Fri Jan 28, 2005 2:31 am
Post subject: Re: To err is human... |
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On Thu, 27 Jan 2005 04:56:35 -0800, John Ings <nodamned@spam.org> wrote:
| Quote: |
To err is human; to purr, feline.
|
To err is human; to moo, bovine.
--
Steve Hayes from Tshwane, South Africa
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/7734/stevesig.htm
E-mail - see web page, or parse: shayes at dunelm full stop org full stop uk |
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Harvey Van Sickle
Guest
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| Posted: Fri Jan 28, 2005 2:57 am
Post subject: Re: To err is human... |
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On 27 Jan 2005, Mike Lyle wrote
| Quote: | Harvey Van Sickle wrote:
On 27 Jan 2005, Skitt wrote
Matti Lamprhey wrote:
"Arcadian Rises" wrote...
paul...@coldmail.com wrote:
I would have said:
"To err is human; to be mauled by Spyware is criminal".
That is, a semi-colon in place of the first comma and no second
comma.
I prefer comma to the semi-colon in order to keep the flavor of
the original: "Errare humanum est, perseverare diabolicum".
I believe many other takeoffs keep the original punctuation,
e.g. "To err is human, to forgive is devine".
But the original is more commonly written:
"To err is human: to forgive, divine."
Well, it is by me any way.
That does not make any punctuation sense to me at all.
Nor to me. I vote for the semi-colonised version.
I don't get all this problematizing of the comma. It's the _standard_
way of punctuating that kind of ellipsis.
|
I've got no problem at all with the comma -- I meant the colon/semi-
colon in the middle.
The comma's fine.
--
Cheers, Harvey
Ottawa/Toronto/Edmonton for 30 years;
Southern England for the past 22 years.
(for e-mail, change harvey.news to harvey.van) |
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Mike Lyle
Guest
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| Posted: Fri Jan 28, 2005 3:36 am
Post subject: Re: To err is human... |
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Harvey Van Sickle wrote:
| Quote: | On 27 Jan 2005, Mike Lyle wrote
Harvey Van Sickle wrote:
On 27 Jan 2005, Skitt wrote
Matti Lamprhey wrote:
"Arcadian Rises" wrote...
paul...@coldmail.com wrote:
I would have said:
"To err is human; to be mauled by Spyware is criminal".
That is, a semi-colon in place of the first comma and no
second
comma.
I prefer comma to the semi-colon in order to keep the flavor
of
the original: "Errare humanum est, perseverare diabolicum".
I believe many other takeoffs keep the original punctuation,
e.g. "To err is human, to forgive is devine".
But the original is more commonly written:
"To err is human: to forgive, divine."
Well, it is by me any way.
That does not make any punctuation sense to me at all.
Nor to me. I vote for the semi-colonised version.
I don't get all this problematizing of the comma. It's the
_standard_
way of punctuating that kind of ellipsis.
I've got no problem at all with the comma -- I meant the
colon/semi-
colon in the middle.
The comma's fine.
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Ah, sorry: poor reading.
Mike. |
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Donna Richoux
Guest
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| Posted: Fri Jan 28, 2005 5:18 am
Post subject: Re: To err is human... |
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dcw <D.C.Wood@ukc.ac.uk> wrote:
| Quote: | In article <1106833297.1bc6da3447c958783399727d921c83d4@teranews>,
paulo_v@coldmail.com> wrote:
On Thu, 27 Jan 2005 09:50:22 -0000, "Matti Lamprhey"
matti@official-totally-reversed.com> wrote:
"To err is human: to forgive, divine."
And the comma after "forgive"?
To show an oral pause?
In place of "is"?
There seems to be no satisfactory way to punctuate this in English --
a comma seems too much; nothing, too little. I've read that Russian
uses a dash.
|
There's a facsimile copy of Pope "Essay on Man" on line, but not "Essay
on Criticism," not that I find. Bartleby.com has:
The Columbia World of Quotations. 1996.
NUMBER: 44909
QUOTATION: Good nature and good sense must ever join;
To err is human, to forgive divine.
ATTRIBUTION: Alexander Pope (1688-1744), British poet. Essay
on Criticism (Fr. II). . . Poetical Works [Alexander Pope]. Herbert
Davis, ed. (1978; repr. 1990) Oxford University Press.
and
John Bartlett. Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. 1919.
NUMBER: 3498
AUTHOR: Alexander Pope (1688-1744)
QUOTATION: To err is human, to forgive divine. 1
ATTRIBUTION: Essay on Criticism. Part ii. Line 325.
I think we can conclude that that is how Pope punctuated it. If we care.
(Join = jine? It is in the old song "Drive Dull Care Away.")
--
Best - Donna Richoux |
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Evan Kirshenbaum
Guest
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| Posted: Fri Jan 28, 2005 5:38 am
Post subject: Re: To err is human... |
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Bob Cunningham <exw6sxq@earthlink.net> writes:
| Quote: | Then there is the programmer's saw of yesteryear,
To err is human, but to really screw things up you need a
computer
|
Only if you wanted to render it printable, in my experience.
--
Evan Kirshenbaum +------------------------------------
HP Laboratories |Yesterday I washed a single sock.
1501 Page Mill Road, 1U, MS 1141 |When I opened the door, the machine
Palo Alto, CA 94304 |was empty.
| Peter Moylan
kirshenbaum@hpl.hp.com
(650)857-7572
http://www.kirshenbaum.net/ |
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Bob Cunningham
Guest
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| Posted: Fri Jan 28, 2005 7:54 am
Post subject: Re: To err is human... |
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On Thu, 27 Jan 2005 14:38:17 -0800, Evan Kirshenbaum
<kirshenbaum@hpl.hp.com> said:
| Quote: | Evan Kirshenbaum +------------------------------------
HP Laboratories |Yesterday I washed a single sock.
1501 Page Mill Road, 1U, MS 1141 |When I opened the door, the machine
Palo Alto, CA 94304 |was empty.
| Peter Moylan |
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Bob Cunningham
Guest
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| Posted: Fri Jan 28, 2005 7:56 am
Post subject: Re: To err is human... |
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On Thu, 27 Jan 2005 14:38:17 -0800, Evan Kirshenbaum
<kirshenbaum@hpl.hp.com> said:
[...]
| Quote: | +------------------------------------
|Yesterday I washed a single sock.
|When I opened the door, the machine
|was empty.
| Peter Moylan
|
I bought a box of batteries:
They weren't included.
-- Author unknown |
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Charles Riggs
Guest
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| Posted: Fri Jan 28, 2005 11:25 pm
Post subject: Re: To err is human... |
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On Thu, 27 Jan 2005 23:18:44 +0100, trio@euronet.nl (Donna Richoux)
wrote:
| Quote: | dcw <D.C.Wood@ukc.ac.uk> wrote:
In article <1106833297.1bc6da3447c958783399727d921c83d4@teranews>,
paulo_v@coldmail.com> wrote:
On Thu, 27 Jan 2005 09:50:22 -0000, "Matti Lamprhey"
matti@official-totally-reversed.com> wrote:
"To err is human: to forgive, divine."
And the comma after "forgive"?
To show an oral pause?
In place of "is"?
There seems to be no satisfactory way to punctuate this in English --
a comma seems too much; nothing, too little. I've read that Russian
uses a dash.
There's a facsimile copy of Pope "Essay on Man" on line, but not "Essay
on Criticism," not that I find. Bartleby.com has:
The Columbia World of Quotations. 1996.
NUMBER: 44909
QUOTATION: Good nature and good sense must ever join;
To err is human, to forgive divine.
ATTRIBUTION: Alexander Pope (1688-1744), British poet. Essay
on Criticism (Fr. II). . . Poetical Works [Alexander Pope]. Herbert
Davis, ed. (1978; repr. 1990) Oxford University Press.
and
John Bartlett. Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. 1919.
NUMBER: 3498
AUTHOR: Alexander Pope (1688-1744)
QUOTATION: To err is human, to forgive divine. 1
ATTRIBUTION: Essay on Criticism. Part ii. Line 325.
I think we can conclude that that is how Pope punctuated it. If we care.
|
Since it is the only way to punctuate it that doesn't turn a pleasant
sentence into an ugly-looking one, I, at least, do.
--
Charles Riggs |
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Charles Riggs
Guest
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| Posted: Fri Jan 28, 2005 11:25 pm
Post subject: Re: To err is human... |
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On Thu, 27 Jan 2005 19:06:33 -0000, "Mike Lyle"
<mike_lyle_uk@REMOVETHISyahoo.co.uk> wrote:
| Quote: | Harvey Van Sickle wrote:
On 27 Jan 2005, Skitt wrote
Matti Lamprhey wrote:
"Arcadian Rises" wrote...
paul...@coldmail.com wrote:
I would have said:
"To err is human; to be mauled by Spyware is criminal".
That is, a semi-colon in place of the first comma and no second
comma.
I prefer comma to the semi-colon in order to keep the flavor of
the original: "Errare humanum est, perseverare diabolicum".
I believe many other takeoffs keep the original punctuation,
e.g. "To err is human, to forgive is devine".
But the original is more commonly written:
"To err is human: to forgive, divine."
Well, it is by me any way.
That does not make any punctuation sense to me at all.
Nor to me. I vote for the semi-colonised version.
I don't get all this problematizing of the comma. It's the _standard_
way of punctuating that kind of ellipsis. "My favourite colour is
blue; my wife's, red."
|
What virtue is there, Mike, in following a standard when 'To err is
human, to forgive is devine' is fine as it is, whereas 'To err is
human; to forgive is devine' jars the eyeballs?
Your example is different for the reason it requires the comma and for
the reason it isn't, no offence, poetic.
--
Charles Riggs |
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Charles Riggs
Guest
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| Posted: Fri Jan 28, 2005 11:25 pm
Post subject: Re: To err is human... |
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|
On Thu, 27 Jan 2005 13:06:14 GMT, "Adrian Bailey" <dadge@hotmail.com>
wrote:
| Quote: | "Steffen Buehler" <steffen.buehler@mailinator.com> wrote in message
news:cta502$j4h$1@euler.space.net...
Adrian Bailey wrote:
To err is, human.
This sentence contains two erors.
rec.puzzles is over that way, mate. 
|
Puzzles are interesting. It puzzles me why they appear to offend you.
Lots of off-topic subjects are less enjoyable, pick on those: baby
shit and street signs are two, if you need help.
| Quote: | btw, what you've quoted isn't a sentence, it's a sig.
|
It is most definitely a sentence, plus you need a B. <= There one is.
| Quote: | Cheers,
Adrian
You expected your post would cheer someone? Guess again. |
--
Charles Riggs |
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Mike Lyle
Guest
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| Posted: Sat Jan 29, 2005 2:36 am
Post subject: Re: To err is human... |
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Charles Riggs wrote:
| Quote: | On Thu, 27 Jan 2005 19:06:33 -0000, "Mike Lyle"
mike_lyle_uk@REMOVETHISyahoo.co.uk> wrote:
Harvey Van Sickle wrote:
On 27 Jan 2005, Skitt wrote
Matti Lamprhey wrote:
"Arcadian Rises" wrote...
[...]
I believe many other takeoffs keep the original punctuation,
e.g. "To err is human, to forgive is devine".
But the original is more commonly written:
"To err is human: to forgive, divine."
Well, it is by me any way.
That does not make any punctuation sense to me at all.
Nor to me. I vote for the semi-colonised version.
I don't get all this problematizing of the comma. It's the
_standard_
way of punctuating that kind of ellipsis. "My favourite colour is
blue; my wife's, red."
What virtue is there, Mike, in following a standard when 'To err is
human, to forgive is devine' is fine as it is, whereas 'To err is
human; to forgive is devine' jars the eyeballs?
Your example is different for the reason it requires the comma and
for
the reason it isn't, no offence, poetic.
|
But it _was_ poetic. My point is that Pope actually wrote
"To err is human, to forgive, divine", as Matti almost said above.
(I, too, was in error, since I misremembered that he'd used a
semi-colon for the first break.)
With no second "is", the comma is indispensable. With a second "is",
it would no longer be a regular line of a heroic couplet.
Mike. |
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