Early Appearances in Writing
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the first known written usage of this phrase is in The rustick's alarm to the Rabbies, written by Samuel Fisher in 1660:
- "If in this Case there be no other (as the Proverb is) then Hobson's choice...which is, chuse whether you will have this or none."
It also appears in Joseph Addison's paper The Spectator (14 October 1712); and in Thomas Ward's 1688 poem "England's Reformation", not published until after Ward's death. Ward wrote:
- "Where to elect there is but one, / 'Tis Hobson's choice—take that, or none."
Read more about this topic: Hobson's Choice
Famous quotes containing the words early, appearances and/or writing:
“And early in the morning he came walking toward them on the sea.”
—Bible: New Testament, Matthew 14:25.
“What I often forget about students, especially undergraduates, is that surface appearances are misleading. Most of them are at base as conventional as Presbyterian deacons.”
—Muriel Beadle (b. 1915)
“The naive notion that a mother naturally acquires the complex skills of childrearing simply because she has given birth now seems as absurd to me as enrolling in a nine-month class in composition and imagining that at the end of the course you are now prepared to begin writing War and Peace.”
—Mary Kay Blakely (20th century)