Respectfully Quoted: A Dictionary of Quotations. 1989.
NUMBER:
1285
AUTHOR:
Adlai Ewing Stevenson (1900–65)
QUOTATION:
Middle-aged clubwoman, with a flutter in her voice: “Oh, Mr. Stevenson, your speech was superfluous.”
“Thank you, madam. I’ve been thinking of having it published posthumously.”
“Oh, won’t that be nice. The sooner the better.”
ATTRIBUTION:
ADLAI E. STEVENSON, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, favorite anecdote on public occasions.—Richard J. Walton, The Remnants of Power: The Tragic Last Years of Adlai Stevenson, p. 24 (1968).
