[towlejunior]

I find it unlikely the first person to express that concept was born in the 20th century.

Some places say Henry Ward Beecher (brother of Harriet Beecher Stowe). If I had to guess, though, it's hundreds or thousands of years old.

[DanBC]

It's attributed to Hopper. If you can find it anywhere before July 1986 we can change the wikiquote page.

https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Grace_Hopper

Disney used it in a slightly modified form: "Better to beg forgiveness than to ask permission."

[bboreham]

> “It is easier to get forgiveness than permission” appears earlier in Arthur Bloch, Murphy’s Law Book Two (1980)

http://freakonomics.com/2010/06/24/quotes-uncovered-forgiven...

[towlejunior]

That's the thing. There's no particular flourish that makes her version remarkable. It's just a sentence.

[DanBC]

Except she said it first, and versions of it have appeared since she said it, but not before she said it.

Telling me that it's just a sentence isn't persuasive in any way. Showing me something mostly similar from before 1986 would do a lot more to persuade me.

[towlejunior]

Nor is telling me "it's attributed to Grace Hopper." It's a special kind of hell to google something for 20 minutes, return, and have someone throw you a Wikipedia link.

Oh, you don't know who the Beechers are. They're from the 1800s.