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Quotes Uncovered: Heaven on Earth and Third-World

Quotes Uncovered

75 ThumbnailHere are more quote authors and origins Shapiro’s tracked down recently.

A while back, I invited readers to submit quotations for which they wanted me to try to trace the origins, using The Yale Book of Quotations and more recent research by me. Hundreds of people have responded via comments or e-mails. I am responding as best I can, a few per week.
Ruth asked:

From the advice column Annie‘s Mailbox:
“Dear Annie: Do you know the rest of the poem with the line ‘Dance like no one’s watching’? I can’t find it. — Virginia Beach, Va.
Dear Virginia Beach: William Watson Purkey is credited with writing, ‘Dance like nobody’s watching; love like you’ve never been hurt. Sing like nobody’s listening; live like it’s heaven on earth.’ Later, the phrase ‘Work like you don’t need the money’ was added, often credited to baseball great Satchel Paige. This poem obviously speaks to a lot of people, because over the years, many others have created their own additions. We think the sentiments are life-affirming.”
This sounds like a different source; is the song lyric really the origin?

In the realm of word and quotation origins, there is so much misinformation and misremembering that authorities such as the Oxford English Dictionary and the Yale Book of Quotations generally do not accept undocumented claims of priority. I have corresponded with Mr. Purkey about this and he was unable to supply reliable documentation.
Robert Corcoran Neves asked:

The origin of the phrase “third world”? And while we’re at it, where is the second world?

The “second world” meant the Communist bloc. “Third World” is usually said to derive from the French “tiers monde,” coined by the French economist and demographer Alfred Sauvy in L’Observateur, August 14, 1952.
Do any readers have any other quotations whose origins they would like me to attempt to trace?


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